GenSoftReviews Announces the Top Genealogy Software Awards for 2013

Louis Kessler sent this notice yesterday via email: =================================== GenSoftReviews.com, is where users go to rate and review their genealogy software. The site lists more than the 700 programs, and users have contributed over 1,900 ratings and reviews.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 1, 2014 The 5th annual Users Choice Awards have been determined at the GenSoftReviews website. 29 programs were eligible having a minimum of 10 reviews and at least one review in 2013. Of those, 17 programs achieved a user-assigned average score of at least 4.00 out of 5, and were awarded a GenSoftReview Top Genealogy Software award for 2013. The Winners include: 9 Windows programs: Ancestral Quest, Ahnenblatt, Personal Ancestral File, Brother's Keeper, Clooz, Family Historian, Family Tree Builder, RootsMagic, and Genbox Family History, 3 Mac programs: iFamily for Leopard, Heredis for Mac, and Reunion 1 Unix program: Gramps 3 Online programs: Famberry, The Next Generation, and Family Echo 1 Handheld program: Heredis for iOS The top program for 2013 was Ancestral Quest with an almost perfect user rating of 4.98 out of 5 based on 18 reviews. A new online program, Famberry, received many positive reviews late in the year to finish second with a 4.94 rating. Ahnenblatt, a program from Germany, continued receiving excellent ratings during 2013 and was 3rd with 4.91. New to the list of winners for 2013 were Family Tree Builder who received much better ratings from their users during 2013, and the Unix version of Gramps, which was rated much higher once it was separated on GenSoftReviews from its Mac and Windows versions. Programs that dropped off the list from 2012 include Legacy Family Tree and Family Tree Maker (Up to Version 18) who had poorer reviews that averaged less than 4.00 in 2013, and also XY Family Tree, My Great Big Family, and GenSmarts, who did not have a single review in 2013 and therefore did not qualify. GenSoftReviews uses a time-weighted average score. The weight of every user rating goes down 50% every year, so newer opinions will be better reflected in the average score. Congratulations go to all the 2013 winners. Their users speak highly of their programs.  GenSoftReviews hopes all genealogy software developers will use the feedback they receive from these reviews to improve their programs for their users. For more information and a complete listing of current and past winners, see the Users Choice Awards page. ### About Louis Kessler Louis Kessler has been a genealogist and a programmer for over 35 years. He developed and maintains the GenSoftReviews site. He is also the author of his own genealogy program known as Behold that can be found at www.beholdgenealogy.com ========================== Like all such compilations, the results can be skewed by individuals with an agenda.  In a perfect world, each program would have dozens of reviews by unbiased evaluators and users.  It's not a perfect world.  That said, the ratings that Louis provides can be very helpful to researchers looking for their first genealogy software program or looking to change their program. I appreciate Louis's website and his efforts to provide information about genealogy software programs to users all over the world. The URL for this post is: Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Top Ten Genealogy News Items for 2013 - My Take

There were hundreds of genealogy news announcements in 2013.  Some of them were outstanding - advanced technology, advanced genealogy research, added new record collections, etc.

The ones that I think are the most significant for my own research are:

1)  FamilySearch Family Tree Open for Everyone (5 March 2013)

2)  NGS Announces Release of Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones (24 April 2013)

3)  AncestryDNA™ Now a More Comprehensive DNA Test for Exploring Ethnic Origins (17 October 2013)

4)  Search Gets Major Feature Enhancements (22 July 2013)

5)  RootsMagic 6 Certified to Work with FamilySearch Family Tree (22 March 2013)

6)  New Partnership with FamilySearch Adds Billions of Records to MyHeritage! (14 October 2013)

7)  Family Tree Maker 2014 Software Announced - 30% Discount (or more) (26 August 2013).  

8)  Millennia Corporation Releases New Genealogy Software - Legacy Family Tree 8.0 (26 November 2013).

9)  Mocavo Introduces Free Forever – Join us in the revolution! (10 October 2013).

10)  Ancestry.com LLC Acquires Find A Grave, Inc. (30 September 2013).

What other product or resource announcements were significant for you during 2013?  Tell me in Comments to this post.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/01/top-ten-genealogy-news-items-for-2013.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 195: Death Certificate for Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944)

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to showcase some of the collected documents and other treasures of my ancestors.  

Here is the Death Certificate for my great-grandmother, Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944), obtained from the San Diego County Department of Public Health Office:

Here is the transcription of the information in the death certificate (typed portions underlined, handwritten portions in italics):

District No.  3701    Registrar's No.     50    
1.  FULL NAME:   DELLA A. CARRINGER  
2.  Place of Death: (A) County:  San Diego   
(B) City or town:   San Diego    
(C) Name of Hospital or Institution:   2115 30th St.  
(D)  Length of Stay:  In Hospital or Institution:   -----  In This Community:  55 yrs   In California:  55  yrs.  
(E) If foreign born, how long in the U.S.A.:   Life   years
3.  Usual Residence of Deceased:  (A)  State:  California  
(B) County:  San Diego   
(C)  City or Town:  San Diego   
(D) Street No.:  2115 30th Street  
(E) If Veteran, Name of War:  No  
(F)  Social Security No.:  None
4.  Sex:  Female   
5.  Color or Race:  White   
6.  (A) Single, Married, widowed or Divorced:   Married   
(B)  Name of Husband or Wife:  Henry Austin Carringer   
(C)  Age of Husband or Wife if Alive:  90   
7.  Birthdate of Deceased:  April 11, 1862   
8.  Age:   81  Yrs  8  Mos  21  Days
9.  Birthplace:  Rolling Prairie, Dodge Co., Wis.
10.  Usual Occupation:  Housewife   
11.  Industry or Business:  At home    
12.  Father's Name:   Devier I. Smith  
13.  Father's Birthplace:  U.S.A.
14.  Mother's Maiden Name:  Abbey A. Vaux  
15.  Mother's Birthplace:  Unknown
16.  (A) Informant:   Henry A. Carringer   
(B) Address:  2115 30th St., San Diego, Calif.
17.  (A) Cremation  
(B)  Date:  1/8/44  
(C) Place:  Cypress View Crematory  
18.  (A)  Embalmer's signature:  Geo. W. Loveall  License No.  447  
(B)  Funeral Director:  Benbough Funeral Parlor  Address:  711 Date St., San Diego, Calif.   By:  Kenneth J. Conrad  
19.  (A) Date Filed: 1/7/44  
(B) Registrar's Signature:  Alex M. Lesem, M.D.

20.  Date of Death:   Month:  January   Day  1  Year  1944  Hour  5  Minute  10 p.m.

21.  MEDICAL CERTIFICATE:  I hereby Certify that I attended the Deceased from  12/21/43  to  1/1/44   That I has saw h er  alive on 1/1/44  and that death occurred on the date and hour stated above.
Immediate cause of death:  Chr. Myocarditis Occlusion   
Due to:  [blank]   
Other Conditions:  None    
Major Findings: of operations:  None performed   Of Autopsy  -----   

22  CORONER'S CERTIFICATE   [blank]
23.  If Death was due to external causes, fill in the following:  [blank]   
24.  Coroner's or Physician's Signature:  Julio Paex, M.D.   
Address:  922 Bank of America   Date:  1/4/44  

STATE OF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
CERTIFICATE OF DEATH
U.S. DEPT. OF COMMERCE  BUREAU OF THE CENSUS

The source citation for this death certificate is (using the Evidence Explained template for a Death Certificate, local level):

Della A. Carringer Certificate of Death, Local Registration District 3701 (San Diego), Registrar's No. 50 (1944), State of California Department of Public Health, San Diego, California.

The only errors I see on this form are the birthplaces of Della's parents - Devier was born in New York and Abbey was born in New York.  

As a result of this death certificate, I now know her birth and death dates and places, her parents names, her husband's name and age, their address, the cause of death, the place and time of death, the physician's name, and the disposition of her body.

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Genealogy Industry Benchmark Numbers for 1 January 2014

I'm still a "numbers guy" and like to try to keep track of various numbers in the genealogy world. So this is a list of genealogy numbers as of 1 January 2014 (see last year's numbers at 1 January 2013 Benchmark Numbers and two years ago at 1 January 2012 Benchmark Numbers):

1) http://www.Ancestry.com (various, $$)

*  about 2.175 million paying subscribers (2013: about 2.0 million; 2012: about 1.7 million)
* 31,477 Databases in the Card Catalog (2013: 31,322; 2012: 30,482; 2011: 30,006)
*  55 million family trees with over 5 billion profiles (2013: 29 million trees, over 3 billion profiles)
* 2,147,483,647 persons in Public Member Trees (2013: 2,147,483,647; 2012: 1,838,295,985; 2011: 1,263,587,509)
* 824,470,052 persons in Private Member Trees (2013: 619,560,089; 2012: 448,817,254; 2011: 308,674,051)

Note:  The Public Member Trees number has not been updated since 2013.

2) www.FamilySearch.org (various, free)

* 1,699 Historical Record Collections online (2013: 1,413; 2012: 1,000; 2011: 519)
* 75,809 Research Wiki articles (2013: 70,171; 2012: 65,815; 2011: 46,002)
* 459 Research Courses (by skill level) (2013: 432; 2012: 252; 2011: 109)
* 97 Community Trees (2013: 91; 2012: 67; 2011: 64)
*  960,171,033 FamilySearch Indexing records completed
*  476 million indexed records added in 2013
*  170 million digital images of records added in 2013
*  about 240 million names in FamilySearch Genealogies
*  about 1.0 billion profiles in FamilySearch Family Tree.
*  12 million profiles added in 2013 to FamilySearch Family Tree
*  1.8 million family photos added in 2013 to FamilySearch Family Tree

Note:  FamilySearch does not provide public information about some numbers.

3) http://www.Fold3.com (records, $$)

*   434 titles of original documents (counted)
*   426,351,717 total records
*   NN.NN million images online (2013: 101,795,063; 2012: 85,413,046; 2011: 71,731,610)
*   NN.NN million Honor Wall pages

Note: Fold3 has changed their pages so that no numbers for images, Honor Wall or Memorial Pages are provided.

4) www.WorldVitalRecords.com (records, $$)

*  about 23,210 collections (2013: 22,336; 2012: 28,700)
*  more than 4.2 billion names (2013: over 4.2 billion; 2012: 4.2 billion)
* over 158 million record images (2013: over 158 million; 2012: 158 million)
*  over 100 million newspaper pages (2013: over 100 million; 2012: 100 million)

5) http://www.Archives.com/ (records, $$)

* 456  databases (2013: 321; 2012: 268; 2011: 140)
* over 2.6 billion  records (2013: over 2.5 billion; 2012: over 1.5 billion; 2011: 1,158,738,805)

6) http://www.AmericanAncestors.org (records, $$)

* almost 3,000 online collections
*  more than 300 million persons

7) www.Rootsweb.Ancestry.com (free)

* 723,773,068 persons in WorldConnect family trees (2013: 698,798,164; 2012: 667,438,708; 2011: 630,984,813 )
* 440,417 WorldConnect databases (2013: 437,989; 2012: 434,729; 2011: 430,030)
* 297,879,501 records in FreeBMD database (2013: 282,193,587; 2012: 266,785,174; 2011: 195,536,463)

8) www.FindMyPast.com (records, $$)

* about 1.6 billion family history records (2013: about 750 million; 2012: about 750 million)
*  about 450 UK/Ireland databases
*  276 Australasia database
*  45 U.S.A. databases

9)  www.Mocavo.com (records, $$)

*  Over 175,000 Databases

10) www.CyndisList.com (links, free)

* 329,378 genealogy links (2013: 325,819; 2012: 309,467; 2011: 291,330)

11) www.Linkpendium.com (links, free)

*  10,212,253 genealogy links (2013: 10,049,723; 2012: 9,948,990; 2011: 9,239,987)

12)  www.FindAGrave.com (records, free):

*  over 110 million grave records (2013:  over 91 million; 2012: over 73 million)

13)  www.BillionGraves.com (records, free):

*  over 5.3 million grave records

14) www.GenealogyBank.com (records, $$)

* over 6,500 newspapers (2013:  over 6,400; 2012: 5,800; 2011: 4,600)
* over 1.528 billion records (2013: over 1.365 billion; 2012: over 1 billion; 2011: 700 million)
*  215 million obituaries

15)  http://ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov/ (records, free):

*  6,673,511 newspaper pages available (2013: 5,206,652; 2012: 4,540,417)

16)  http://www.Newspapers.com (records, $$)

*  Over 2,000 US newspapers
*  56,873,402 pages

17)  www.NewspaperARCHIVE.com (records, $$):

*  Over 5,000 newspapers
*  Over 120 million newspaper pages

18) www.MyHeritage.com (separate trees, $$)

*   over 75 million registered Members (2013: 72 million; 2012: 61,626,012)
*  NN million Family Trees (2013: 27 million; 2012: 20,920,031; 2011: 16,306,687)
*   over 1.5 billion individuals in family trees (2013: 1.5 billion; 2012: 906,702,547; 2011: 645,780,280)

Note:  Some numbers have not been updated since early 2013.

19) www.Geni.com (shared tree, $$)

*  almost 7 million users (2013: almost 7 million; 2012: almost 6 million)
* over NNN million profiles in family trees (2013: over 100 million; 2012: over 100 million)
*  over 70 million profiles in Geni's World Family Tree (2013: over 65 million; 2012: 60,629,166)

20) www.WeRelate.org wiki (shared tree, free)

* over 2.3 million persons in family tree (2013: over 2.3 million; 2012: over 2 million)

21)  www.WikiTree.com wiki (shared tree, free)

*  over 80,000 WikiTreers (2013: 57,000; 2012: 43,000)
*  over 5.3 million profiles (2013: 4.2 million; 2012: 2.9 million)

22)  www.GeneaNet.com (separate trees, $$)

*  2 million members

*  Over 650 million entries in online family trees

23)  www.OneGreatFamily.com (shared tree, $$)

*  Over 190 million entries

24)  www.FamilyTreeDNA.com (DNA, $$):

*  663,523 DNA test results (2013: 401,057)

25)  www.23andme.com (DNA, $$):

*   about 500,000 genotyped customers

I obtained those numbers from publicly available information on the websites.  Several sites have not updated their numbers, or have hidden the numbers.

There are many free and subscription websites that do not publish easily findable numbers.

What other websites and what other numbers should I be benchmarking? Are some of the numbers wrong? Please tell me in Comments and I will edit the list above!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/01/genealogy-industry-benchmark-numbers.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver 

Updated:  4 January 2013, added some FamilySearch items

My Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2014

I last updated my Genea-Musings readers on the "numbers" in my genealogy database in Genealogy Database Statistics Update - 1 January 2013. I was curious to see how much progress I had made in the last 12 months.

Here are the "numbers" from 1 January 2013 in my RootsMagic database:

* 41,498 persons 
* 16,539 families  
* 117,599 events  
* 6,030 places  
* 832 sources
* 35,222 citations 
*  371 Multi-media Items 
*  1,199 Multimedia links

Here are the "numbers" as of 1 January 2014 in my RootsMagic database (with increases from 1 January 2013):

* 42,575 persons (+ 1,077)
* 17,013 families  (+ 474)
* 127,391 events  (+ 9,792)
* 6,886 places  (+ 856)
* 985 sources (+ 153)
* 48,126 citations (+ 12,904)
*  617 Multi-media Items (+ 246)
*  1,822 Multimedia links (+ 623)

In the past 12 months, I've averaged adding 27 events and 35 source citations a day.  I've been trying to work at least an hour in the evening (since baseball season ended) adding sources to the database.  Consequently, I've  managed to improve my citations/person from 84.87% to 113.04%, and my Citations/Events from 29.95% to 37.78%.  Obviously, I don't have a citation for every event, and in some cases I have more than one citation for an event.  At that rate, to reach 100% in citations/events will take about eight more years!  

I added over 1,000 persons to my database in 2013, mainly in my son-in-law's Lincoln and Lowell lines, and also from further research on my ancestral families.  Some additions are the result of systematically "mining" online databases (notably Find-a-Grave, the Social Security Death Index, census records, etc.) using MyHeritage Record Matches.  I also mine new Ancestry and FamilySearch databases for my one-name study surnames.  I am intentionally finding additional information (dates, places) for persons in the database in the U.S. census records and American Ancestors databases.  I have deleted many persons in peripheral lines for whom I have no data - most of them living persons gleaned from GEDCOMs received from distant cousins long ago. I have also corrected some relationship errors found while working on the database. 

I still have my pile of "information to be entered" for entry to the database, and have made little progress on reducing that pile in the past 12 months, but there is lots more there to add in terms of events and source citations. 

I last updated my ancestral Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) on Ancestry.com in August 2012 with the latest tree information, and will update it again in the near future.  I do not attach "shaky leaf Hints" to that Ancestry Member Tree because I know that it will be replaced eventually.  I do attach selected records to my RootsMagic database manually and those will upload to a new Ancestry Member Tree (after I GEDCOM it into Family Tree Maker and sync that to a new AMT).  

There are only so many hours in my genealogy day - usually 10 to 12 hours, but often only 6 to 8 hours.  I spend one to two hours each day reading blog posts and answering emails, one to three hours writing blog posts, an hour or two doing online research, one to three hours adding content/sources to the database, and the balance doing society support tasks, creating presentations, watching Hangouts and webinars, or working on other projects.  My genealogy life is varied, and definitely not boring (I gave up doing boring genealogy things like extended client research, or going  often to libraries and archives - with some exceptions, etc.). 

My conclusion is:  I'm still actively improving my database in both quantity and quality, but still have a long way to go to have a "fully sourced and accurate" family tree.  It's better than it was, and can still be improved.  It is a lifelong task, I think!  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/01/genealogy-database-statistics-update-1.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Top 30 Most Popular Posts on Genea-Musings in 2013

Like many other genea-bloggers, I'm curious about which posts on Genea-Musings are "popular" - and why they might be.

Here are the Top 30 Genea-Musings blog posts from 2013 that had the most page views in 2013 (from View Count statistics on Google Blogger Posts page). 

1) Family Tree Maker 2014 Software Announced - 30% Discount (or more) (7083 views, posted 26 August 2013).  This post probably was highlighted by a large website or newsletter.

2) My 23andMe DNA Test Results - Post 1 (6722 views, posted 5 March 2013).  DNA posts are popular!

3) Dear Randy - Why Does LDS Church Exert So Much Control over Genealogy? (5467 views, posted 29 March 2013).  This post must have gotten some LDS publicity.

4) Search Records From Within the FamilySearch Family Tree (4553 views, posted 23 July 2013).  A major breakthrough for the FSFT.

5) MyHeritage Record Matches Keep Delivering News! (3943 views, posted 4 April 2013).  MyHeritage promoted this post.

6) Surname Saturday - LNU (? Dolbear ?) (England to colonial New England) (3498 views, posted 28 September 2013).  I guess lots of folks have the LNU family...

7) First Look at Family Tree Maker 2014 - Post 1: Family View (2728 views, posted 10 September 2013).  New software releases usually get a lot of views.

8) Ancestry.com Raises US Subscription Price to $99 for 6-months (2252 views, posted 27 August 2013).  Probably resulted from a search for "Ancestry subscription."

9) Making a Descendants Chart Using Family Tree Maker 2014 (2138 views, posted 18 September 2013).

10) My 23andMe Test Results - Post 2: Chromosome Views UPDATED! (2128 views, posted 12 March 2013).  Another DNA post.

11) Received my Mitochondrial DNA Test Results from Family Tree DNA (2128 views, posted 14 June 2013).  Another DNA post.

12) Top Ten Genealogy Software Reviews for 2013 (1925 views, posted 5 August 2013).  Software reviews get a lot of hits.

13) UPDATED: Genealogist Beware - Checking Out Genealogy.us.org (1798 views, posted 14 January 2013).  A problem site for unaware genealogists.

14) RootsMagic Treasure Hunt Clue #11 (1636 views, posted 18 March 2013).  The RootsMagic treasure hunt clue was a popular post.

15) Blog Post Compendium from the NGS 2013 Conference (1534 views, posted 9 May 2013).  29 geneabloggers wrote posts about this conference.

16) RootsTech 2013 Geneabloggers Review (Updated) (1461 views, posted 24 March 2013).  46 geneabloggers wrote posts about this conference.

17) Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 179: 1872 Sale of Land in Washington County, Iowa (1389 views, posted 29 August 2013).  I think that folks searched for "public land sale" here.

18) First Look at Ancestry.com's Story View (1316 views, posted 31 May 2013).  This new feature on Ancestry.com was popular.

19) Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Mary (Thurston) Slocum (1657-1732) (1278 views, posted 8 April 2013).  Why was this so popluar?

20) FamilySearch Family Tree Open for Everyone (1250 views, posted 5 March 2013).  Another major milestone for FamilySearch.

21) Is FamilySearch De-emphasizing Genealogical Research? (1235 views, posted 16 April 2013).  Lots of genealogy keywords in this post!

22) The "Rivers of America" Map (1217 views, posted 19 July 2013).  This was of interest outside of genealogy.

23) Great Charts at TreeSeek - UPDATED (oops, still uses new.FamilySearch data) (1216 views, posted 23 April 2013).  Everybody likes charts!

24) My Autosomal DNA Quandary (1209 views, posted 22 August 2013).  DNA posts are popular.

25) Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Abraham Tucker (1653-1725) of Dartmouth, Mass. (1204 views, posted 18 March 2013). 

26)  Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2013 (1161 views, posted 16 April 2013).  Another post for a "best of" about genealogy.

27)  RootsTech 2013 - Live-Streamed Sessions (Updated) (1089 views, posted 4 March 2013).  Many folks tuned in to these sessions.

28) First Look at my AncestryDNA Ethnicity Update - Post 2: More DNA Results (1087 views, pasted 13 September 2013).  Another DNA post.

29) First Look at Legacy Mobile App for iOS - FamilySearch Family Tree (1074 views, posted 26 March 2013).  A new app.

30) Making a Photo Tree in Family Tree Maker 2012 (1063 views, posted 14 February 2013).  Charts in genealogy software are popular posts.

The five most popular Genea-Musings posts for all-time (at least since 2007) are:

1)  1940 Census Enumeration District Maps Online at NARA Website (23,600 views, posted 18 July 2011).

2)  Merry Christmas to All! (14,917 views, posted 25 December 2011). 

3)  Genealogy Presentations on Slideshare.net (14,376 views, posted 28 January 2010).

4)  World records for number of children (9921 views, posted 21 July 2006).

5)  Randy's NGS 2010 Photos - Post 1 (6169 views, posted 4 May 2010).

I don't know why my top two for 2013 aren't on the list above!  Something is wrong with Google Stats, perhaps?

Of course, all of my blog posts are viewed by many more readers than those that go to the web page for the post - those who read them on the Genea-Musings home page, those that read them in an RSS reader, or on a mobile device, and those that receive them via email.

Another measure of popularity or readership might be in the number of comments generated by each post.  I don't think that is a reliable measure of popularity because of the proliferation of RSS reader usage, email usage, and mobile device usage, each of which require one or more click throughs to get to the comment box.

It certainly seems like readers search for pop culture topics, DNA topics, and for genealogy software topics and find my blog posts.

Previous "most popular" posts on Genea-Musings are:

*  2012:  Top 25 Most Popular Posts on Genea-Musings in 2012

*  2011: Top 25 Posts in 2011 on Genea-Musings

*  2010:  Genea-Musings Top 20 Hits for 2010

*  2009: Genea-Musings Statistics for 2009 - Post 2

*  2008: Genea-Musings top posts - by page views

I wonder what the least popular Genea-Musings post was?  i'll go look sometime soon!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/01/top-30-most-popular-posts-on-genea.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Happy New Year - 2014 is Here!

I want to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year for 2014. 

May 2014 bring you happiness, good health, many friends, lots of love and more time to pursue your genealogy addiction passion.

May you complete all of your genealogy and family history goals and objectives (you do have them, don't you?) and may extra genea-blessings be provided to you! Have fun!!!

Stay tuned to Genea-Musings for more genealogy fireworks in 2014!!!

I see I have a new reader:

Hey, I'm his cousin!

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

"Best of Genea-Musings" Posts of 2013

I wrote about 915 posts during 2013, and it is a challenge to pick out the ten or twenty "best" from the list.  I'm going to ignore the daily meme posts of Amanuensis Monday, Tuesday's Tip, Wordless Wednesday, Treasure Chest Thursday, Follow Up Friday, Surname Saturday, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, and Best of the Genea-Blogs, and try to pick them based on my subjective criteria of relevance to my research, and relevance and interest to the genealogy industry.

My selections for the Best Genea-Musings Posts of 2013 are (in posting date order):

*  "What Do You Do With a Document for a Potential Ancestor?" (posted 15 January 2013)

*  Dear Randy: What Record Collection Would You Like To Have Indexed? (posted 1 February 2013)

*  Top Ten Characteristics of a Good Genealogist (posted 26 February 2013)

*  Education, Collaboration, Crowd-sourcing and Cat-herding at CVGS Today (posted 13 March 2013)

*  Dear Randy - Why Does LDS Church Exert So Much Control over Genealogy? (posted 29 March 2013)

*  Breaking Down the Mary Smith Brickwall (or is she a Bell?) (posted 1 April 2013)

*  Dear Randy - Why Do You Post Your Own Genealogy Stuff? (posted 12 April 2013)

*  Is FamilySearch De-emphasizing Genealogical Research? (posted 18 April 2013)

*  Dear Randy - How Do You Handle False or Wrong Information?  (posted 30 May 2013)

*  Beginners, Professionals, Sources, Citations, EE, and More (posted 24 June 2013)

*  Have You Posted Your Genealogy Research on the Internet? I Practice PMGDOE! (posted 19 July 2013)

*  How Much Online Information Should I Use In My Family Tree? (posted 23 July 2013)

*  My Top Ten Most Useful Online Genealogy Databases to Research My Family Tree (posted 29 July 2013)

*  Standards, GEDCOM, FHISO, and my Genea-Fantasy (posted 1 August 2013)

*  Dear Randy - Where Did You Get All of Those Probate Records? (posted 14 August 2013)

*  It's Really Not That Easy! (posted 28 August 2013)

*  The Problem with FamilySearch Family Tree - For Example: Thomas Dudley (1576-1653) (posted 2 September 2013)

*  Gleaning Information From a Record or Article (posted 14 October 2013)

*  What Should Genealogical Societies Offer? My 11 Suggestions (posted 13 November 2013)

*  Dear Randy - How Do You Do Your Record Transcriptions? (posted 27 November 2013).

*  Dear Randy: "What Is Your Naming Convention for Downloaded Documents?" (posted 17 December 2013)

That's the list!  Did you miss any of them?  If so, please go read them and make a comment if you wish.

Which one is your absolute favorite?

If you have a genea-blog, what were your best genealogy blog posts for 2013? 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/12/best-of-genea-musings-posts-of-2013.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Book Review: "Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact From Fiction in Family Legends"

Do you have family legends and lore?  How do you separate fact from fiction.  This book discusses these issues:

Richard Hite, Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2013), 126 pages, $18.95 (soft cover). ISBN:  9780806319827, Item #: GPC2752

The publicity for this book says:

There are a lot of textbooks that describe how to find your ancestors; this new one by Richard Hite clarifies how not to. In short, Sustainable Genealogy explains how to avoid the traps many family historians can fall into. Whether it’s a proud family legend, a venerable publication, or the claims of an Internet family tree, the unsubstantiated genealogical source is like a house of sticks before the Big Bad Wolf--it won’t stand up. As Mr. Hite demonstrates in this collection of case studies, many are the "oral traditions that have fallen by the wayside under the lens of careful research in primary sources and more recently, DNA testing."

Here are just a few of the lessons from Sustainable Genealogy that can protect you along genealogy’s primrose path:

• Recognizing when identical surnames conceal different nationalities
• Understanding when and why death certificates can be “wrong”
• Knowing when ancestors’ middle names are not family names
• Respecting the role of geography in establishing ancestral ties
• Taking the genealogies in 19th-century “mug books” with a grain of salt
• Accepting that all relationships must be chronologically plausible

Many of the instructions Mr. Hite has to offer came only after he spent considerable time and effort in finding the correct trail to his own forebears; however, as esteemed genealogist Hank Jones explains in the Foreword to the book, they have value for researchers far and wide:

"Richard’s critical eagle-eye served him well in this task. He was fighting the old “Well if my last name is Boone, I must be a descendant of Daniel Boone” syndrome that pops up so often in our field. Like a skilled surgeon, he took out his genealogical scalpel and dissected some of the erroneous Hite family traditions to separate fiction from fact and thus Jost Hite (prominent early settler of the Shenandoah Valley) from some of the other completely different, later-arriving Hite lines. This book covers the methodology he used, the questions he asked, and--most important of all--how his wisdom might help YOU as you climb your own family tree.

"You’ll find lots of genealogical bases beyond Hite lore covered here: how sometimes the origins of certain families are attributed to the wrong ethnic group; how the very common two or three immigrant brothers tradition and their geographic dispersal is often attributed to the wrong side of the family tree; what to do when even the primary sources are in error; how Native American ancestry is fun to talk about, but hard to prove; and on and on in fascinating detail.

"Reading Richard’s thoughts and experiences cannot help but lead you into taking a more critical look at the accuracy and veracity of the sources you use to compile your own family’s genealogy. I guarantee you that taking heed of the cautions cited and putting into practice the lessons learned in this book will make you all much better family historians and ensure that your genealogical legacy will be one to be trusted."

I agree with Hank Jones' assessment.  Mr. Hite uses his personal research examples to illustrate how to question assumptions, develop a research plan, and then execute the plan to achieve success in finding the correct names, dates and places for his ancestors.

This book costs $18.95 plus $5.50 shipping costs from Genealogical Publishing.  You can order it here.

The URL for this post is:  

Disclosure: Genealogical.com contacted me recently and asked me to provide a review of this book. They mailed me a review copy for my personal use as remuneration for this review.