I really enjoyed both parts of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meeting today at UCSD.
In the first hour, Gary Hoffman made a short presentation on "Cloud Computing," describing what is "New" in the computing world, including the message of the Japan earthquake - put your valuable data in the cloud somewhere! He then took us on a tour through some of the new features of http://www.ancestry.com/ (mainly about the Ancestry Tree app for iPads, iPhones and iPods), http://www.geni.com/ (date changes, adding sources), and New.FamilySearch.org (the Family Tree becoming available to the public gradually, not all IGI information in the tree).
In the second hour, Barbara Renick gave us a 90 minutes whirlwind look at a number of free websites - both genealogy related and non-genealogy-related - in "Internet Tools for Genealogists." The links for many of Barbara's topics today are on her Links page at her ZRoots site - http://www.zroots.com/links.htm. There are 115 links there on one page, including genealogy sites, search and travel sites, tool sites, organization and index sites, and library sites!
She highlighted the FamilySearch Research Wiki over and over (https://wiki.familysearch.org/) as a place to determine useful information for research helps, genealogy subjects, localities (country, state, county), and historical record collections on FamilySearch. When Barbara finds a new website with useful genealogical information, she checks the FamilySearch Research Wiki to see if it has been included already. If not, she adds it to the appropriate wiki page on the site. This is a wonderful practice of "giving back and adding on" to grow the Research Wiki content. Many in the audience of about 100 were unaware of its' existence and surprised by the content. This was an excellent lead-in to my presentation next month at CGSSD about the updated FamilySearch website in general.
The most useful material for me was the information that can be obtained from many non-genealogy-related websites like Search Engine Colossus (http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/, for searching websites in other countries), RefDesk (http://www.refdesk.com/, for finding handy tools like Medical and Legal dictionaries, Calendars and lots more), EpoDunk (http://www.epodunk.com/, for information about localities), BabelFish (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/, which has no limits on translation text length), the www.Hamrick.com/names/ site (including surname maps for 1850, 1880 and 1990 census years), and many more.
I will try to feature some of the suggested websites in my Tuesday's Tip weekly series over the next few months.
All in all, it was an excellent genealogy day spent with friends and colleagues, and two exciting and helpful presentations.
UPDATED 20 March: Modified the Hamrick link to go to the Surname maps - thank you, Carol!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Contribute to the Genealogisms Dictionary
It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!!!
After the Friday Night Fun on Geneabloggers Radio (you have to listen to Geneabloggers Radio!), and being encouraged by the chatters with too much time on their hands (since WDYTYA? was a repeat), or too much Irish whiskey (who knew?), I have to do this topic this week.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and, really folks, turnout has been pretty light these last two weeks) - is to:
1) Recall that some genealogists love to make up new words to define what we do or where we are... we want to make a "Genealogisms Dictionary" so that we all understand what we're writing about.
2) Make up one or more words that deal with some aspect of genealogy - they could start with genea- or ancest- or end with -ology (we don't care), and then define the word for us.
3) Submit your genealogisms(s) as a Comment to this blog post, or write a blog post of your own, or in a Facebook status or comment (please let me know if you do this in a comment here).
Here are some of my genea-logisms contributions to date:
* genea-logism -- "a newly invented word or phrase from the field of genealogy."
* Genea-gasm -- "the 'Magic of Genealogy' moment - a chill in my body, a tremendous feeling of thankfulness, and tears of joy. Usually occurs in a moment of genealogy discovery or extreme happiness."
* Genea-cave -- "the genealogy work area, surrounded by the ancestral collections of a lifetime of research, where you have all of your genea-stuff."
* Forrest Gump Principle of Genealogy Research -- "Genealogy research is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to find, but you have to look everywhere your 'genealogy gem' might be hiding"
* Genea-crapola -- "unsubstantiated or fabricated online family trees, published books or articles." synonym: Genea-dreck.
You get the idea! Go forth and create more genea-logisms.
After the Friday Night Fun on Geneabloggers Radio (you have to listen to Geneabloggers Radio!), and being encouraged by the chatters with too much time on their hands (since WDYTYA? was a repeat), or too much Irish whiskey (who knew?), I have to do this topic this week.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and, really folks, turnout has been pretty light these last two weeks) - is to:
1) Recall that some genealogists love to make up new words to define what we do or where we are... we want to make a "Genealogisms Dictionary" so that we all understand what we're writing about.
2) Make up one or more words that deal with some aspect of genealogy - they could start with genea- or ancest- or end with -ology (we don't care), and then define the word for us.
3) Submit your genealogisms(s) as a Comment to this blog post, or write a blog post of your own, or in a Facebook status or comment (please let me know if you do this in a comment here).
Here are some of my genea-logisms contributions to date:
* genea-logism -- "a newly invented word or phrase from the field of genealogy."
* Genea-gasm -- "the 'Magic of Genealogy' moment - a chill in my body, a tremendous feeling of thankfulness, and tears of joy. Usually occurs in a moment of genealogy discovery or extreme happiness."
* Genea-cave -- "the genealogy work area, surrounded by the ancestral collections of a lifetime of research, where you have all of your genea-stuff."
* Forrest Gump Principle of Genealogy Research -- "Genealogy research is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to find, but you have to look everywhere your 'genealogy gem' might be hiding"
* Genea-crapola -- "unsubstantiated or fabricated online family trees, published books or articles." synonym: Genea-dreck.
You get the idea! Go forth and create more genea-logisms.
Surname Saturday - LNU (????? > Rhode Island)
...
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 191, who is Anna LNU (about 1742- before 1831), one of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]
In reality, I don't know her surname - so I've called it "LNU" for "Last Name Unknown." Others would put "--?--" as her sutrname until it is identified, and others would just use "Unknown." I wrote everything I know about Anna LNU in The Elusive Anna Kenyon (ca 1742-????, wife of John Kenyon) and have learned nothing since.
My ancestral line back to Anna LNU (also known as Anna --?--) is:
1. Randall Jeffrey Seaver (1943-....)
2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)
4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)
10. Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
10. Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
11. Julia White (1848-1912)
22. Henry Arnold White (1824-1885)
22. Henry Arnold White (1824-1885)
23. Amy Frances Oatley (1826-before 1870)
46. Jonathan Oatley (1790-1872)
46. Jonathan Oatley (1790-1872)
47. Amy Champlin (1798-1865)
94. Joseph Champlin (1758-1850)
94. Joseph Champlin (1758-1850)
95. Nancy Kenyon (1765-????)
190. John Kenyon, son of Sylvester Kenyon and Anna Barber, was born about 1742 in Richmond, Washington, Rhode Island. He died in July 1831 in Sterling, Windham, Connecticut. He married Anna in 1764 in probably Rhode Island.
191. Anna --?-- was born about 1742 in Rhode Island. She died before 1831 in probably Windham, Connecticut.
The children of John Kenyon and Anna --?-- are:
i. Nancy Kenyon, born about 1765 in Washington County, RI. She married Joseph Champlin before 1785 in prob. South Kingstown, Washington County, RI; born about 1758 in Charlestown, Washington County, RI; died 17 June 1850 in South Kingstown, Washington County, RI.
ii. Lewis Kenyon, born about 1767 in Washington County, RI. He married Elizabeth Austin.
iii. Sylvester Kenyon, born about 1769 in Washington County, RI; died 1838. He married Polly Vaughn 08 June 1817 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
iv. Almy Kenyon, born about 1770 in Washington County, RI. She married Perkins.
v. Abigail Kenyon, born about 1772 in Washington County, RI. She married Warren.
vi. Cynthia Kenyon, born about 1773 in Washington County, RI.
vii. Mary Kenyon, born about 1774 in Voluntown, New London County, CT; died June 1810. She married William Dixon.
viii. John Kenyon, born 10 May 1776 in Richmond, Washington County, RI. He married Susanna Thurston 14 April 1799; born 12 December 1779 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
ix. George Kenyon, born about 1778 in Exeter, Washington County, RI; died 21 March 1850 in Sterling, Windham County, CT. He married Sarah; born October 1780; died 11 June 1834 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
ii. Lewis Kenyon, born about 1767 in Washington County, RI. He married Elizabeth Austin.
iii. Sylvester Kenyon, born about 1769 in Washington County, RI; died 1838. He married Polly Vaughn 08 June 1817 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
iv. Almy Kenyon, born about 1770 in Washington County, RI. She married Perkins.
v. Abigail Kenyon, born about 1772 in Washington County, RI. She married Warren.
vi. Cynthia Kenyon, born about 1773 in Washington County, RI.
vii. Mary Kenyon, born about 1774 in Voluntown, New London County, CT; died June 1810. She married William Dixon.
viii. John Kenyon, born 10 May 1776 in Richmond, Washington County, RI. He married Susanna Thurston 14 April 1799; born 12 December 1779 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
ix. George Kenyon, born about 1778 in Exeter, Washington County, RI; died 21 March 1850 in Sterling, Windham County, CT. He married Sarah; born October 1780; died 11 June 1834 in Sterling, Windham County, CT.
One idea is that the father of Anna was named Lewis or George, the other two names of their sons (since John Kenyon's father's name was Sylvester). But without a surname, it is pretty much a hopeless task to find a father using that method.
Hope does spring eternal - my hope is that the land records and probate records of Rhode Island are all digitized (hint hint, FamilySearch!) and there will be a revelation in a deed or will or distribution that will name Anna, wife of John Kenyon in the record.
Anna maiden name is particular important to me because this is my father's Mitochondrial DNA line - the matrilineal line. That may prove to be another fertile field for research, but I need to convince one of my female cousins to provide the DNA sample. There are a number of candidates!
Does anyone else have this particular Anna (LNU) Kenyon in their ancestry?
Friday, March 18, 2011
Rosie is on WDYTYA? Tonight - a Re-run
I noted that Rosie O'Donnell is the subject on Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC-TV tonight. It was shown three weeks ago. If you haven't watched this episode, I encourage you to to do so - especially if you have Irish ancestry, because it will help you understand how to access some of the records.
Why is another re-run on the air this week? My guess is that it is because the NCAA Men's Basketball games are on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV networks.
There will be NCAA games next Friday also, so I expect another re-run episode for WDYTYA? next week also.
The next Friday, April 1, doesn't have an NCAA basketball game on, so I'll bet the next new episode is then.
There are still three unseen episodes of WDYTYA? coming:
* Steve Buscemi
* Ashley Judd
* Gwyneth Paltrow
I don't know the dates or order, though. does anyone?
Why is another re-run on the air this week? My guess is that it is because the NCAA Men's Basketball games are on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV networks.
There will be NCAA games next Friday also, so I expect another re-run episode for WDYTYA? next week also.
The next Friday, April 1, doesn't have an NCAA basketball game on, so I'll bet the next new episode is then.
There are still three unseen episodes of WDYTYA? coming:
* Steve Buscemi
* Ashley Judd
* Gwyneth Paltrow
I don't know the dates or order, though. does anyone?
William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - A Jailhouse Confession
On Tuesday, I posted "A Horrid Murder" in Alexandria. The newspaper article about his murder on 6 July 1821 was lurid, but what happened after that? On Thursday, I wrote William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - a Reward Offered - by the President of the United States, and three mayors.
Was anyone ever arrested? Was the reward given?
An article in the Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser newspaper dated 4 May 1822 (found on www.GenealogyBank.com), reprinting an article from the Washington Gazette newspaper (which I cannot find on GenealogyBank) sheds some light on the issue:
This article says:
"Murder of Wm. Seaver. -- A man named Van Orden, whilst under confinement in the Baltimore penitentiary, it is reported, confessed to a fellow prisoner that he was the murderer of the late William Seaver. Orden, who, we understand, has, in consequence, been removed to the Alexandria jail for trial, was shortly after the perpetration of the horrid deed, apprehended on suspicion, examined in this city and discharged, for want of sufficient evidence. An intelligent friend, tells us Orden at that time, gave very contradictory statements, when closely questioned on the subject, seemingly incompatible with innocence; but still there was not sufficient testimony against him then to justify detention. -- Wash. Gaz."
This article also appeared in the Baltimore (MD) Patriot newspaper dated 30 April 1822 (but it was incomplete in GenealogyBank), the Providence (RI) Patriot newspaper of 11 May 1822, and the Saratoga (NY) Sentinel dated 15 May 1822.
You would think that there would be news of a confession, or of a trial, perhaps the conviction and even the execution of the murderer, and the giving of the reward. What happened to Van Orden, and wa? s that his real name. Alas, I haven't been able to find any more evidence of these potential events. Why not? Probably because of my search tactics, or, more likely, because of the fragmentary nature of online newspapers and their indexes.
I've looked for this incident in GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com), the Ancestry.com newspaper collections (mainly NewspaperARCHIVE), the Chronicling America collection at the Library of Congress, and the Early American Newspapers, Series I 1690-1876 (from Readex and Newsbank) and the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers (from the Gale Group) collections on the www.AmericanAncestors.org site.
As you can see on the District of Columbia page on Miriam Midkiff's Online Historical Newspapers website, the coverage of online newspapers for Washington D.C. is really pretty limited at this time. That pages shows the Washington Gazette is available for 1817 to 1821, which is why I couldn't find it online.
It is likely that there were additional articles about this incident, but they are not (yet!) available online with a useful index. One lesson in this series is that not every issue of every newspaper is online yet. These historical newspapers are probably available in local or state archives, but are usually not indexed, which makes perusing them very difficult.
This is not the end of the William Seaver murder story, however. There is more to come! Plus the efforts to identify William Seaver and his family members.
Was anyone ever arrested? Was the reward given?
An article in the Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser newspaper dated 4 May 1822 (found on www.GenealogyBank.com), reprinting an article from the Washington Gazette newspaper (which I cannot find on GenealogyBank) sheds some light on the issue:
This article says:
"Murder of Wm. Seaver. -- A man named Van Orden, whilst under confinement in the Baltimore penitentiary, it is reported, confessed to a fellow prisoner that he was the murderer of the late William Seaver. Orden, who, we understand, has, in consequence, been removed to the Alexandria jail for trial, was shortly after the perpetration of the horrid deed, apprehended on suspicion, examined in this city and discharged, for want of sufficient evidence. An intelligent friend, tells us Orden at that time, gave very contradictory statements, when closely questioned on the subject, seemingly incompatible with innocence; but still there was not sufficient testimony against him then to justify detention. -- Wash. Gaz."
This article also appeared in the Baltimore (MD) Patriot newspaper dated 30 April 1822 (but it was incomplete in GenealogyBank), the Providence (RI) Patriot newspaper of 11 May 1822, and the Saratoga (NY) Sentinel dated 15 May 1822.
You would think that there would be news of a confession, or of a trial, perhaps the conviction and even the execution of the murderer, and the giving of the reward. What happened to Van Orden, and wa? s that his real name. Alas, I haven't been able to find any more evidence of these potential events. Why not? Probably because of my search tactics, or, more likely, because of the fragmentary nature of online newspapers and their indexes.
I've looked for this incident in GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com), the Ancestry.com newspaper collections (mainly NewspaperARCHIVE), the Chronicling America collection at the Library of Congress, and the Early American Newspapers, Series I 1690-1876 (from Readex and Newsbank) and the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers (from the Gale Group) collections on the www.AmericanAncestors.org site.
As you can see on the District of Columbia page on Miriam Midkiff's Online Historical Newspapers website, the coverage of online newspapers for Washington D.C. is really pretty limited at this time. That pages shows the Washington Gazette is available for 1817 to 1821, which is why I couldn't find it online.
It is likely that there were additional articles about this incident, but they are not (yet!) available online with a useful index. One lesson in this series is that not every issue of every newspaper is online yet. These historical newspapers are probably available in local or state archives, but are usually not indexed, which makes perusing them very difficult.
This is not the end of the William Seaver murder story, however. There is more to come! Plus the efforts to identify William Seaver and his family members.
Exploring WikiTree - Post 6: Privacy Levels
I uploaded a GEDCOM file to WikiTree in the first post of this series. In Post 2 in this series, we explored the Family Tree and navigation within the tree on the WikiTree site. In Post 3, we saw what was included on a Person Profile previously edited, in Post 4 we went through the process to Edit a Person Profile, and in Post 5 we added a photograph to a Person's profile.
One of the major issues for any researcher or family member that contributes a family tree, or information about a person, to an online family tree system is PRIVACY.
The WikiTree system has a number of privacy levels that are tailored to the facts about each person in the tree. The Privacy Level of each person in the online tree can be changed by the Profile Manager, and Trusted List persons, of each specific person.
I'm going to quote extensively from the Help pages available on WikiTree. They define the policies and procedures that are in place to protect the privacy concerns of WikiTree registered users.
The key person for each Person Profile is the Profile Manager, whose responsibilities are:
"The Profile Manager is the person who has primary responsibility for taking care of a profile of a person, place or thing. When you create a new profile you automatically become the manager. If you create a profile for a living person and they become an active WikiTree user they become the manager of their own profile. You can add and replace managers through the Trusted List on the Privacy page. There can be more than one manager.
"Functionally, the most important roles of a manager are: They get the e-mail requests when someone wants to be added to the profile's Trusted List. They control the privacy level on a profile. They can delete the profile."
Other registered WikiTree users can be on a Trusted List. The function of those on the Trusted List are:
"WikiTree has a unique privacy balance. It's what makes WikiTree special. Our system is based on what we call Trusted Lists. Every single profile of a person, place, or thing has its own Trusted List. Similar to "Friends Lists" on social networking sites, each user on a Trusted List has to be individually approved. To view or edit a Trusted List, click the Privacy tab on a profile.
"You approve or reject users for your own profile's Trusted List. Trusted Lists for ancestors and other non-living or inactive people, places or things are controlled by the users already on the Trusted List, especially the Profile Manager.
"You can ask to be added to a Trusted List by clicking on the link on the profile. The Profile Manager will be e-mailed. If they approve you they'll be given the opportunity to add you to the Trusted Lists of related profiles at the same time. And there's a handy form for adding or removing someone from multiple Trusted Lists."
The different Privacy levels are shown on the screen below for one of my ancestors, Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874):
These Privacy levels are (from the WikiTree Privacy page - http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Privacy):
"* Unlisted: The default for new profiles of children under 13, and an option for any profile that you want to keep entirely hidden from everyone but the Trusted List. Unlisted names do not appear in search results, surname index pages, or automatic matches.
"* Private: The default for profiles of living people over 13 and those that are added as the child, spouse, sibling, or parent of a living person. The public can still see certain limited information on a Private profile. Like being listed in a phone book, this enables others to find it. When editing a profile you can tell at a glance whether a particular piece of information is private with the following colored icons.
"* Private with Public Biography: Exactly like Private profiles, with all the protections outlined above, except that the Biography (body of the page) is public. It can still only be edited by the Trusted List.
"* Private with Public Biography and Family Tree: Exactly like the above, but the person's Family Tree page is also public. If other family members are Private their names will not appear.
"* Public: The default for profiles of non-living people under 200 years old, unless they are added as the nuclear relative of a living person. Anyone can view the information on a Public profile. However, even though anyone can view a Public profile you still need to be in the Trusted List to add or change information.
"* Open: The default for profiles of people over 200 years old. Not only can anyone view the information on an Open profile, any registered user with a confirmed e-mail address can make edits, like on Wikipedia. All edits are tracked, credited to the appropriate users, and can be reversed. Supervisors can merge Open profiles. The mission of the WikiTree community is to connect modern families with ancestors on a single worldwide family tree. Merging duplicates is an important part of this. The Profile Manager and the Trusted List still lead the collaboration. The manager is the only who can change the Privacy Level or delete the profile. The Profile Manager and the Trusted List are also the only users who can add or change family relationships, or upload or edit images. However, this may change in the future if WikiTreers prefer it to be liberalized."
There is an Extra Privacy option available for WikiTree users and Person Profiles.
The profile for my ancestor Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874) above was a "Public" profile by default when I uploaded my GEDCOM, since she is a non-living person who was born less than 200 years ago. As the Profile Manager for her, I could manually change her profile to "Open" if I chose to. Or I could select any other privacy level for her using the "Privacy" tab on her Person Profile.
This Privacy system on WikiTree is, I think, very well thought out. It protects the privacy of living persons, and permits the openness on deceased persons that is necessary to encourage collaboration of distant cousins, while providing sufficient privacy control by the Profile Managers.
For my WikiTree, I want to invite my living cousins to add content to the information about their parents, grandparents and collateral lines. I also want to encourage more distant cousins to connect with deceased persons in my tree and hope that they will be able to add more content to those mutual ancestors.
One of the major issues for any researcher or family member that contributes a family tree, or information about a person, to an online family tree system is PRIVACY.
The WikiTree system has a number of privacy levels that are tailored to the facts about each person in the tree. The Privacy Level of each person in the online tree can be changed by the Profile Manager, and Trusted List persons, of each specific person.
I'm going to quote extensively from the Help pages available on WikiTree. They define the policies and procedures that are in place to protect the privacy concerns of WikiTree registered users.
The key person for each Person Profile is the Profile Manager, whose responsibilities are:
"The Profile Manager is the person who has primary responsibility for taking care of a profile of a person, place or thing. When you create a new profile you automatically become the manager. If you create a profile for a living person and they become an active WikiTree user they become the manager of their own profile. You can add and replace managers through the Trusted List on the Privacy page. There can be more than one manager.
"Functionally, the most important roles of a manager are: They get the e-mail requests when someone wants to be added to the profile's Trusted List. They control the privacy level on a profile. They can delete the profile."
Other registered WikiTree users can be on a Trusted List. The function of those on the Trusted List are:
"WikiTree has a unique privacy balance. It's what makes WikiTree special. Our system is based on what we call Trusted Lists. Every single profile of a person, place, or thing has its own Trusted List. Similar to "Friends Lists" on social networking sites, each user on a Trusted List has to be individually approved. To view or edit a Trusted List, click the Privacy tab on a profile.
"You approve or reject users for your own profile's Trusted List. Trusted Lists for ancestors and other non-living or inactive people, places or things are controlled by the users already on the Trusted List, especially the Profile Manager.
"You can ask to be added to a Trusted List by clicking on the link on the profile. The Profile Manager will be e-mailed. If they approve you they'll be given the opportunity to add you to the Trusted Lists of related profiles at the same time. And there's a handy form for adding or removing someone from multiple Trusted Lists."
The different Privacy levels are shown on the screen below for one of my ancestors, Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874):
These Privacy levels are (from the WikiTree Privacy page - http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Privacy):
"* Unlisted: The default for new profiles of children under 13, and an option for any profile that you want to keep entirely hidden from everyone but the Trusted List. Unlisted names do not appear in search results, surname index pages, or automatic matches.
"* Private: The default for profiles of living people over 13 and those that are added as the child, spouse, sibling, or parent of a living person. The public can still see certain limited information on a Private profile. Like being listed in a phone book, this enables others to find it. When editing a profile you can tell at a glance whether a particular piece of information is private with the following colored icons.
"* Private with Public Biography: Exactly like Private profiles, with all the protections outlined above, except that the Biography (body of the page) is public. It can still only be edited by the Trusted List.
"* Private with Public Biography and Family Tree: Exactly like the above, but the person's Family Tree page is also public. If other family members are Private their names will not appear.
"* Public: The default for profiles of non-living people under 200 years old, unless they are added as the nuclear relative of a living person. Anyone can view the information on a Public profile. However, even though anyone can view a Public profile you still need to be in the Trusted List to add or change information.
"* Open: The default for profiles of people over 200 years old. Not only can anyone view the information on an Open profile, any registered user with a confirmed e-mail address can make edits, like on Wikipedia. All edits are tracked, credited to the appropriate users, and can be reversed. Supervisors can merge Open profiles. The mission of the WikiTree community is to connect modern families with ancestors on a single worldwide family tree. Merging duplicates is an important part of this. The Profile Manager and the Trusted List still lead the collaboration. The manager is the only who can change the Privacy Level or delete the profile. The Profile Manager and the Trusted List are also the only users who can add or change family relationships, or upload or edit images. However, this may change in the future if WikiTreers prefer it to be liberalized."
There is an Extra Privacy option available for WikiTree users and Person Profiles.
The profile for my ancestor Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874) above was a "Public" profile by default when I uploaded my GEDCOM, since she is a non-living person who was born less than 200 years ago. As the Profile Manager for her, I could manually change her profile to "Open" if I chose to. Or I could select any other privacy level for her using the "Privacy" tab on her Person Profile.
This Privacy system on WikiTree is, I think, very well thought out. It protects the privacy of living persons, and permits the openness on deceased persons that is necessary to encourage collaboration of distant cousins, while providing sufficient privacy control by the Profile Managers.
For my WikiTree, I want to invite my living cousins to add content to the information about their parents, grandparents and collateral lines. I also want to encourage more distant cousins to connect with deceased persons in my tree and hope that they will be able to add more content to those mutual ancestors.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Mark Tucker's Vision on What Genealogy Software Should Be
Did you read Mark Tucker (who writes the Think Genealogy blog) has written GenPerfect - My Ideal Genealogy software. His critical paragraph:
"What do I think it should look like? What implications does that have on a data model? As a user, what is my vision of the perfect genealogy software?"
I love "out-of-the-box" thinking, which is probably normal for Mark, but unusual in myself and most everybody else. Genea-smacked is my reaction. Excellent suggestions, and a vision of the genealogy software of the future.
Genealogy software developers need to take Mark's suggestions and examples to heart - the developer that makes something like this work will sweep the genealogy field, in my humble opinion.
Website developers that enable the interactions with software that Mark suggests will also gain a step on their competition.
Mark's suggestions go much further than the Better GEDCOM efforts currently being developed, and much further than the Internet Search features currently available in the software packages. Rather than tacking on patches and fixes, Mark's vision is a whole new ball game.
You need to read this blog post if you read nothing else today!
"What do I think it should look like? What implications does that have on a data model? As a user, what is my vision of the perfect genealogy software?"
I love "out-of-the-box" thinking, which is probably normal for Mark, but unusual in myself and most everybody else. Genea-smacked is my reaction. Excellent suggestions, and a vision of the genealogy software of the future.
Genealogy software developers need to take Mark's suggestions and examples to heart - the developer that makes something like this work will sweep the genealogy field, in my humble opinion.
Website developers that enable the interactions with software that Mark suggests will also gain a step on their competition.
Mark's suggestions go much further than the Better GEDCOM efforts currently being developed, and much further than the Internet Search features currently available in the software packages. Rather than tacking on patches and fixes, Mark's vision is a whole new ball game.
You need to read this blog post if you read nothing else today!
William Seaver's Murder in 1821 - a Reward Offered
On Tuesday, I posted "A Horrid Murder" in Alexandria. The newspaper article about his murder on 6 July 1821 was lurid, but what happened after that?
Would you believe that the President of the United States, James Monroe, offered a reward? Here's the screen from the American Presidency Project website with the Proclamation:
The transcription of this proclamation is:
"Proclamation 27 - Offering Reward for the Apprehension of the Murderer of William Seaver
July 10, 1821
"By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
"Whereas information has been received that an atrocious murder, aggravated by the additional crime of robbery, was on the 6th or 7th dau of this present month, committed in the county of Alexandria and District of Columbia on William Seaver, late of this city, and
"Whereas the apprehension and punishment of the murderer or murderers and his or their or accessary or accessaries will be an example due to justice and humanity and every way salutary in its operation:
"I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, hereby exhorting the citizens of the United States, and particularly those of this District, and requiring all officers, according to their respective stations, to use their utmost endeavors to apprehend and bring the principal or principals, accessary or accessaries, to the said murder to justice.
"And I do moreover offer a reward for $300 for each principal, if there be more than one, and $150 for each accessary before the fact, if there be more than one, who shall be apprehended after the day of the date hereof and brought to justice, to be paid upon his conviction of the crime or crimes aforesaid.
"In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
"Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of July, A.D. 1821, and of the independence of the United States the forty-sixth.
"JAMES MONROE.
By the President:
"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
Secretary of State."
The Washington area newspapers carried articles about this proclamation for several mnths, often daily.
In addition, the Mayors of Washington D.C., Georgetown and Alexandria offered a reward, as seen in this newspaper announcement from the Washington Gazette newspaper, dated 16 July 1821 (obtained at GenealogyBank):
Would you believe that the President of the United States, James Monroe, offered a reward? Here's the screen from the American Presidency Project website with the Proclamation:
The transcription of this proclamation is:
"Proclamation 27 - Offering Reward for the Apprehension of the Murderer of William Seaver
July 10, 1821
"By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
"Whereas information has been received that an atrocious murder, aggravated by the additional crime of robbery, was on the 6th or 7th dau of this present month, committed in the county of Alexandria and District of Columbia on William Seaver, late of this city, and
"Whereas the apprehension and punishment of the murderer or murderers and his or their or accessary or accessaries will be an example due to justice and humanity and every way salutary in its operation:
"I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, hereby exhorting the citizens of the United States, and particularly those of this District, and requiring all officers, according to their respective stations, to use their utmost endeavors to apprehend and bring the principal or principals, accessary or accessaries, to the said murder to justice.
"And I do moreover offer a reward for $300 for each principal, if there be more than one, and $150 for each accessary before the fact, if there be more than one, who shall be apprehended after the day of the date hereof and brought to justice, to be paid upon his conviction of the crime or crimes aforesaid.
"In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
"Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of July, A.D. 1821, and of the independence of the United States the forty-sixth.
"JAMES MONROE.
By the President:
"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
Secretary of State."
The Washington area newspapers carried articles about this proclamation for several mnths, often daily.
In addition, the Mayors of Washington D.C., Georgetown and Alexandria offered a reward, as seen in this newspaper announcement from the Washington Gazette newspaper, dated 16 July 1821 (obtained at GenealogyBank):
This article transcribed is:
"Five Hundred Dollars
"WILL be given to any person who shall afford, Information whereby the murderer of William Seaver can be brought to punishment. The subscribers, in their individual as well as their official capacities, feeling solicitous that the dreadful villain should receive the punishment due to an offence of such enormity, and also an anxiety for the preservation of the peace and the good government of the District, will pay the above reward to any person by whose agency the murderer shall be convicted.
"SAML. N. SMALLWOOD,
Mayor of Washington City.
CHRISTOPHER NEAL,
Mayor of Alexandria.
JOHN PETER,
Mayor of Georgetown."
This article ran in the Washington area newspapers for several months also.
I'm amazed that the President of the United States would offer a reward. Was this a common occurrence? I got 65 matches on Google when I searched for the words murder proclamation and 77 matches when I searched for the words murder reward on the American Presidency Project website. So it was done occasionally, but it wasn't common. Some of the matches overlap, and some are for a general discussion on the pages.
What happened in this case? Was the murderer ever found and convicted? Were the rewards ever awarded? I'm still looking for more information.
The bigger questions for me are "Who is this William Seaver?" "Who were his parents, and where was he born?" "Who were his wife and children?" I have clues, but I don't have confirmation of the details.
If you have or find information about this case, I would love to know about them, and will credit you for the finds in my posts. Email me at rjseaver@cox.net.
Stay tuned.
Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Compendium of Posts
...
It's Treasure Chest Thursday, time to share one of the documents or artifacts in my family history collection. In many previous posts, I have displayed documents from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Seaver, my second great-grandfather.
I received the complete Civil War Pension File for Isaac Seaver on 3 January - see my post My Christmas Present Came Today - Oh Boy! - and it has 81 pages in the file. Some of them have little or no information on them.
This week, I'm making a Compendium of my Isaac Seaver Civil War posts, since I'm having difficulty determining what I've posted and what I haven't posted.
I need to make a list of the pages in the Civil War Pension File as provided by NARA, put them in a date order, and then correlate the pages in the file with the posts in this compendium. I should have done this when I first received the file, but I didn't - I was too anxious to jump into the details of the pages and discover nuggets of information.
So here are my Treasure Chest Thursday posts to date, with post dates and page numbers from the Pension File:
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Pension Declaration (18 November 2010, page 58)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Widow's First Declaration (25 November 2010, page 69)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #1 (2 December 2010, page 34)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #2 (9 December 2010, page 46)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: 1900 Status Report (16 December 2010, page 60)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Dropped from the Rolls (23 December 2010, page 57)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - 1888 New York Marriage Record of Isaac Seaver and Alvina Lewis (6 January 2011, page 27)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Physical Examination for Civil War Pension (13 January 2011, pages 39 and 38)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Affidavit Supporting the Widow (20 January 2011, page 34)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 1) of the Widow (27 January 2011, pages 19, 20 and 21)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 2) of the Widow (3 February 2011, pages 16, 17 and 18)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 3) of the Widow (10 February 2011, pages 14 and 15)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Second Application (17 February 2011, page 78)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's 1908 Affidavit (24 February 2011, page 74)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Pension Awarded (3 March 2011, page 8)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Drop Report (10 March 2011, pages 54 and 55)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Isaac's Death Record (24 March 2011, pages 65 and 66)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Surgeon's Report in 1900 (7 April 2011, page 30)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension: War Department Folders (14 April 2011, pages 42 and 43)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Claim for Increase in Pension (21 April 2011, pages 44 and 45)
I will add to this post as I add more content from the Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File.
Last updated: 21 April 2011
It's Treasure Chest Thursday, time to share one of the documents or artifacts in my family history collection. In many previous posts, I have displayed documents from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Seaver, my second great-grandfather.
I received the complete Civil War Pension File for Isaac Seaver on 3 January - see my post My Christmas Present Came Today - Oh Boy! - and it has 81 pages in the file. Some of them have little or no information on them.
This week, I'm making a Compendium of my Isaac Seaver Civil War posts, since I'm having difficulty determining what I've posted and what I haven't posted.
I need to make a list of the pages in the Civil War Pension File as provided by NARA, put them in a date order, and then correlate the pages in the file with the posts in this compendium. I should have done this when I first received the file, but I didn't - I was too anxious to jump into the details of the pages and discover nuggets of information.
So here are my Treasure Chest Thursday posts to date, with post dates and page numbers from the Pension File:
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Pension Declaration (18 November 2010, page 58)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Widow's First Declaration (25 November 2010, page 69)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #1 (2 December 2010, page 34)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #2 (9 December 2010, page 46)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: 1900 Status Report (16 December 2010, page 60)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Dropped from the Rolls (23 December 2010, page 57)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - 1888 New York Marriage Record of Isaac Seaver and Alvina Lewis (6 January 2011, page 27)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Physical Examination for Civil War Pension (13 January 2011, pages 39 and 38)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Affidavit Supporting the Widow (20 January 2011, page 34)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 1) of the Widow (27 January 2011, pages 19, 20 and 21)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 2) of the Widow (3 February 2011, pages 16, 17 and 18)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Deposition (Part 3) of the Widow (10 February 2011, pages 14 and 15)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Second Application (17 February 2011, page 78)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's 1908 Affidavit (24 February 2011, page 74)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Pension Awarded (3 March 2011, page 8)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension Papers: Widow's Drop Report (10 March 2011, pages 54 and 55)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Isaac's Death Record (24 March 2011, pages 65 and 66)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Surgeon's Report in 1900 (7 April 2011, page 30)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension: War Department Folders (14 April 2011, pages 42 and 43)
* Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Claim for Increase in Pension (21 April 2011, pages 44 and 45)
I will add to this post as I add more content from the Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File.
Last updated: 21 April 2011
Censuswhacking on St. Patrick's Day
Here's an oldie but a goodie from 17 March 2007 on Genea-Musings (with 2011 additions):
I browsed through the 1920 census on www.Ancestry.com looking for funny or strange names to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Irish names.There is a rich selection:
* Patrick Ireland resided in Matagorda County TX (born in Texas - who knew?)
* St. Lester Patrick resided in Hillsborough county NH (born in Canada)
* Patrick Patrick resided in Macon County AL (born AL)
* Patrick Fitz Patrick resided in Queens County NY (born in Ireland)
* Paddy Green resided in Lucas County OH (born Ireland)
* Green Kelley resided in Hudson County NJ (born Ireland)
* There are 64 males named Patrick Green born in Ireland.
* Daniel Boy resided in Cuyahoga County OH (born in Russia)
* Daniel Erin Ireland resided in Wyandotte County KS (born in KS)
* Patrick Luck resided in Kings County NY (born in Ireland)
* Erin Ireland resided in Logan County, CO (born in Nebraska)
* There are 87 females named Rose Ireland - but only one was born in Ireland.
* There are 1,889 persons with the surname Clover, but only 6 were born in Ireland.
* There are 222 persons with the surname Shamrock, and 6 with the first name of Shamrock, but none were born in Ireland.
* There are 9 Kate Irelands in the census, but none were born in Ireland
* There are 91 persons with surname Ireland that were born in Ireland.
* There are 606 persons with the surname Limerick, but only 5 were born in Ireland.
* There are 5,372 with the surname Cork, but only 39 were born in Irreland.
* There are 102 persons with the surname Fairy, but only 2 were born in Ireland.
* There are 3,861 persons with surname Irish, but only 22 were born in Ireland.
* There are 26,144 persons with the first name starting with "Kat" and 41,434 with starting with "Cat" born in Ireland
* There are 22,043 persons with the surname Shannon, but only 880 were born in Ireland.
* There are 52,560 persons with the first name starting with "Pat" and 49 starting with "Pad" born in Ireland
* There are 1,060,061 persons in the 1920 census that were born in Ireland.
* There are 3,888,662 persons whose father was born in Ireland.
There were no people in the census with the surname of Leprechaun or Banshee. Not being Irish, or having known Irish ancestry, or much experience researching in Ireland - I don't know all of the legends and songs that might provide more names to search. What other names should I look for next year?
I browsed through the 1920 census on www.Ancestry.com looking for funny or strange names to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Irish names.There is a rich selection:
* Patrick Ireland resided in Matagorda County TX (born in Texas - who knew?)
* St. Lester Patrick resided in Hillsborough county NH (born in Canada)
* Patrick Patrick resided in Macon County AL (born AL)
* Patrick Fitz Patrick resided in Queens County NY (born in Ireland)
* Paddy Green resided in Lucas County OH (born Ireland)
* Green Kelley resided in Hudson County NJ (born Ireland)
* There are 64 males named Patrick Green born in Ireland.
* Daniel Boy resided in Cuyahoga County OH (born in Russia)
* Daniel Erin Ireland resided in Wyandotte County KS (born in KS)
* Patrick Luck resided in Kings County NY (born in Ireland)
* Erin Ireland resided in Logan County, CO (born in Nebraska)
* There are 87 females named Rose Ireland - but only one was born in Ireland.
* There are 1,889 persons with the surname Clover, but only 6 were born in Ireland.
* There are 222 persons with the surname Shamrock, and 6 with the first name of Shamrock, but none were born in Ireland.
* There are 9 Kate Irelands in the census, but none were born in Ireland
* There are 91 persons with surname Ireland that were born in Ireland.
* There are 606 persons with the surname Limerick, but only 5 were born in Ireland.
* There are 5,372 with the surname Cork, but only 39 were born in Irreland.
* There are 102 persons with the surname Fairy, but only 2 were born in Ireland.
* There are 3,861 persons with surname Irish, but only 22 were born in Ireland.
* There are 26,144 persons with the first name starting with "Kat" and 41,434 with starting with "Cat" born in Ireland
* There are 22,043 persons with the surname Shannon, but only 880 were born in Ireland.
* There are 52,560 persons with the first name starting with "Pat" and 49 starting with "Pad" born in Ireland
* There are 1,060,061 persons in the 1920 census that were born in Ireland.
* There are 3,888,662 persons whose father was born in Ireland.
There were no people in the census with the surname of Leprechaun or Banshee. Not being Irish, or having known Irish ancestry, or much experience researching in Ireland - I don't know all of the legends and songs that might provide more names to search. What other names should I look for next year?
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