Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 240: 1782 Marriage Record of Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the marriage record of Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton on 18 May 1782 in the records of Eastham and Wellfleet, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.  There are two records:

 1)  The Eastham Town Record:

The specific record is:

The transcription of this entry is:

Thomas Dill of Wellfleete

and Hannah Horten of Eastham was published 18 May 1782

The source citation for the Eastham record is:

"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1627-2001," digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 1 November 2014), > Barnstable > Eastham, Orleans > Marriages 1763-1905 > image 9 of 105, page 12 (penned), Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton marriage entry.

2)  The Wellfleet Town Record:

The specific record is:

The transcription of this record is:

May 18^th 1782   Thomas Dill of Wellfleet and

                               Miss Hannah Horton of Eastham

The source citation for the Wellfleet record is:

"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1627-2001," digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 1 November 2014), > Barnstable > Wellfleet > Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1734-1875 > image 144 of 400, page 320 (stamped), Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton marriage entry.

It was not uncommon that a marriage was recorded in two different towns in Massachusetts if the parties were from different towns.  In this case, Thomas Dill resided in Wellfleet and Hannah Horton in Eastham.  Their nine children, born between 1784 and 1795, were recorded in Eastham - see Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 239: List of Children of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill in Eastham, Massachusetts Town Records.

I have used the FamilySearch source citation protocol of showing the "bread crumb trail" from the record collection page to the record image using the > operator to represent clicks.  I like that, and it is much easier to follow than separating the clicks by commas.  

 Thomas Dill (1757-1830?) and Hannah Horton (1761-1797?) are my 4th great-grandparents, whose daughter Elizabeth Dill (1791-1869) married Alpheus B. Smith in Medfield, Massachusetts in 1826.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/treasure-chest-thursday-post-240-1782.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Some Children of Civil War Soldiers Are Still Alive

The U.S. Civil War was from 186`1 to 1865  - about 150 years ago.  Yet, there are still surviving children of Civil War soldiers.  The National Geographic magazine online has an article on them at  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/special-features/2014/11/141111-veterans-day-150-anniversary-civil-war-memories/

This is a fascinating article!  Two degrees of separation to Abraham Lincoln!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/some-children-of-civil-war-soldiers-are.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Win a Free Registration to RootsTech 2015 (February 12-14, 2015)

Like the other Official Ambassadors for RootsTech 2015, I am able to offer one complimentary three-day registration to the RootsTech 2015 Conference in Salt Lake City, to be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center from February 12-14, 2015.  

If you want to attend RootsTech 2015 (three day pass), then you can compete for a free registration right here on Genea-Musings. Here are my rules:

1)  This contest will be by a random drawing.  I will make a numerical list of entries, and use a random number selection process to select the number.

2)  To enter the contest, please go to the official RootsTech website, and perform these tasks:

*  Go to the "Session Schedule" page (http://rootstech.org/bc/content/pdfs/Documents/Schedule2.pdf?lang=eng) and select one of the speaker presentations that you just have to attend - your research depends on it.

* There is no list of exhibitors yet, so tell me which genealogy vendor you really want to visit, and why, while you're at RootsTech 2015.

3)  Tell me about your two choices in an email to me at rjseaver@cox.net.  Title your email with "RootsTech 2015" so that I can add you to the list of entrants.

Easy, eh?  Please enter ONLY if you intend to attend RootsTech 2015.

Note that this contest is ONLY for a complimentary registration to the full three-day conference ($239 value) - you will have to pay your own travel, lodging and food costs to get there and stay there.  Sleeping over at the Family History Library is not permitted.  It does include FREE access to the Keynote talks, the Expo Hall, and the Evening social events.

This contest will end at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on Monday, 24 November 2014.  

I will select a winner by 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, 25 November, and will publicize the winner on Wednesday, 26 November.  I will notify the RootsTech Conference people of the winner's name, they will send the complimentary registration redemption code to me, and I will contact the winner by email with the redemption code so that they can register for the conference.


The winner is requested to stop by the Media Center in the FREE Expo Hall to say hello to me and have a picture taken.  

Note that this three-day pass does not include the Getting Started Pass or the Innovator Summit Pass, which are separate.  See the fee schedule at  http://www.rootstech.org/bc/content/pdfs/Documents/Schedules/pricing_FINAL.pdf?lang=eng

The Registration page for RootsTech 2015 notes that the Early-Bird 3-day full Registration fee is $159 until 23 January 2015, and is $239 after 23 January 2015.  So register early!

Disclosure:  I am an RootsTech 2015 Official Ambassador and one of the perks is this Free registration contest for my readers.  I have received a complimentary registration to RootsTech 2015 also, and look forward to seeing many friends, bloggers and readers there.  It should be fun!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/win-free-registration-to-rootstech-2015.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday , 15 November Features Gena Philibert-Ortega

The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month  (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego.  See our web page www.cgssd.org  for directions.  

The next meeting will be held on 15 November 2014.  Here are the details:

9:00: Panel discussion of the SIG/User groups with the leaders.

10:00: Break, refreshments.

10:20: Announcements followed by program:

Newspaper Research for the 21st Century
presented by
Gena Philibert-Ortega

Using newspapers? Good! They are a must for your research and now with so many options for finding newspapers it’s a great time to be doing research. Learn about the various newspapers available, how to best navigate online search engines and what to do when the newspaper isn't online. Types of articles and ethnic newspapers will also be covered.

Gena Philibert-Ortega holds a Master’s degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Religion. She is the author of hundreds of articles published in genealogy newsletters and magazines. Her writings can be found on her blogs, Gena’s Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. Her newest book is From the Family Kitchen (F + W Media 2012).

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website for directions.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/cgssd-meeting-on-saturday-15-november.html

Grandparents and Granddaughters -- Post 333 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

I am posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they aren't "Wordless" - I am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Marion (Seaver) (Braithwaite) Hemphill family collection handed down from my Aunt Marion in 2000 after her passing.

This photograph was taken in February 1982 in Carlsbad, California on the occasion of my brother's wedding.  This is the only photograph I have of my parents with all four of their grandchildren at the time.  The persons in this photograph are (I'm going to use just first names for the grandkids) from the left:

*  Lori - my daughter
*  Betty (Carringer) Seaver - my mother
*  Lisa - my brother's daughter
*  Molly - my brother's daughter
*  Frederick Walton Seaver - my father
*  Tami - my daughter

My mother adored her grandchildren, and they loved her.  Going to grandma's house was fun because she did art activities with them.  My father enjoyed the girls, but yearned for grandsons so he could teach them to play baseball.

I don't know why all the kids are laughing - perhaps the cameraman said something funny like "say pepperoni."

For some reason, I don't have this photograph in my own photo collection - I found it in Aunt Marion's album.  The photo was probably sent to her by my mother soon after the event.  This is a prime example that some of your best family photos are in the photo albums of your close faily members - siblings of your parents, for instance.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/grandparents-and-granddaughters-post.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Progress in Adding Census Records to My Ancestry Member Tree and RootsMagic Database

As noted in Demonstrating Adding Ancestry.com Hints in a Specific Database to my RootsMagic Database (posted 30 October 2014), I have been methodically adding content and source citations to my family tree database in RootsMagic 6 using Ancestry.com Hints from specific databases.

I chose this method because the Ancestry Hints are for specific persons in my Ancestry Member Tree.  Almost every Hint is correct (1 to 2% not correct), which saves me search time, and I can add the Census Fact to every person in the household by copying and pasting.  Using this process, I've also added many spouses and children to persons in my database, in addition to the source citations.  I already had Census Facts for most of my ancestral families, but I had very few for the other families in my database (which includes one-name studies for Seaver, Auble, Carringer, Vaux, Dill, Buck, etc.).

In the process, I finished the 365 Hints I had for the 1940 U.S. Census by 4 November.

Currently, i'm working through the 1930 U.S. Census.  I had 656 Hints when I started on 5 November, and am done to 428  as of today.  I'm doing 30-50 of them in one to two hours, which includes multiple family members.  Here is the current 1930 U.S. Census status:

I will continue this process over the next year or two in the following databases on Ancestry.com:

*  1920 U.S. Census (dbid = 6061) - 770 Hints
*  1910 U.S. Census (dbid = 7884) - 905 Hints
*  1900 U.S. Census (dbid = 7602) - 1050 Hints
*  1880 U.S. Census (dbid = 6742) - 1062 Hints
*  1870 U.S. Census (dbid = 7163) - 717 Hints
*  1860 U.S. Census (dbid = 7667) - 701 Hints
*  1850 U.S. Census (dbid = 8054) - 729 Hints

*  Social Security Death Index (dbid = 3693) - 298 Hints**
*  Find A Grave (dbid = 60525) - 1394 Hints**
*  World War I Draft Registration (dbid = 6482) - 164 Hints
*  Pennsylvania and New Jersey Church and Town Records (dbid = 2451) - 24 Hints
*  Massachusetts Town and Vital Records (dbid = 2495) - 2430 Hints
*  California Birth Index, 1905-1995 (dbid = 5247) - 64 Hints
*  California Death Index, 1940-1997 (dbid = 5180) - 193 Hints
*  California Marriage Index, 1960-1985 (dbid = 1144) - 15 Hints

**  I did these databases earlier using the MyHeritage Record Matches, so I probably won't do them again.  There are probably some entries that I don't have since my Ancestry tree has about 8% more persons than my MyHeritage tree has.

That should keep me busy for the next year or two.  I will probably do the California birth, marriage and deaths next because the number of Hints are small, and the records may lead to more content.

I know that I don't have ALL of the Hints that are, or will be, available for the 42,920 persons in my Ancestry Member Tree.  Ancestry seems to be adding 5-10 Hints every day (I'm tracking them).  I currently have 29,840 Record Hints and 39,552 Total Hints.  I expect those numbers to at least double over the next five years as they find more for existing persons and new persons in my tree, and as they add new databases.  I try to keep on top of these now, adding content from the most recent ones when I don't have it in the database.

 I chose to work with the Hints in this manner because I find it to be the most efficient way to add source citations to persons in my database.  I don't have to search, I just enter information and create a source citation.  This works well for me.

How are you doing with your Ancestry.com Hints?  How many do you have?  How do you "clear" them?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/progress-in-adding-census-records-to-my.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

Tombstone Tuesday - Elizabeth Spangler (1796-1863) in Crawford County, Pennsylvania

I found a Find A Grave memorial for my third great-grandmother, Elizabeth (King) Spangler (1796-1863) on Find A Grave recently, but it had the wrong birth and death dates for her.  Here is the Find A Grave memorial from Conneautville Cemetery in Conneautville, Crawford county, Pennsylvania

The memorial was posted on 22 February 2014, but it didn't have the gravestone photographs at the time.  I recently requested a gravestone photograph, and FindAGrave volunteer MissingHim kindly responded, with a picture of the entire monument and a closeup of the inscription (used here by permission given by volunteer MissingHim):

A closeup of the inscription:

The Find A Grave memorial (posted without gravestone photos by another volunteer) indicates that Elizabeth Spangler was born in 1827, and died 18 March 1883.

I tried really hard to determine the inscription, and I think it says:

Elizabeth

wife of

Daniel Spangler

died

March 18, 1863

aged

66 years

The 1863 or 1883 is very difficult to read from the photograph.  The 66 years is fairly clear to me.  If the death year is 1863, then 66 years would put the birth date in 1796-7, which was the birth year of Elizabeth King, wife of Daniel Spangler (1781-1851), my third great-grandparents.

I don't know if the records of the cemetery have the wrong (?) dates, or if the original Find A Grave contributor read the stone wrong.

One of the clues I had was the death location of Elizabeth (King) Spangler in the Spangler surname book that said she was buried in Conneautville, and it provided a death date of 18 March 1863.  Two of her daughters, Louisa (Spangler) Power (1839-1883) and Helen (Spangler) Brown (1831-1905) are also buried in this cemetery.

My thanks to MissingHim, the Find A Grave volunteer who provided the photographs, and who gave me permission to display them on my blog and in my online Ancestry Member Tree.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

My World War I Veteran - Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)

On the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month of the year 1918, the guns fell silent. It was called Armistice Day then. Now, we commemorate our veterans on Veteran's Day.

I listed the veterans (of all American wars) in my ancestry in my post Veteran's Day - My Heroes. 

The only ancestor of mine that served in World War I was my maternal grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976). I posted a biography and muse about him and his life in Today is Gramps' 116th Birthday.

Here is a photograph of Gramps in his U.S. Marines uniform taken in about 1917 in San Diego.

I honor my grandfather and appreciate his service to our country, and his devotion to our family.  I created an Honor Wall memorial for him on Fold3.com last year - you can see it at  http://www.fold3.com/page/629759983_lyle_carringer_1891/.

I have tremendous respect and appreciation for those serving in the Armed Forces today around the world. May God bless them all and bring them home safe.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/my-world-war-i-veteran-lyle-lawrence.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

New Ancestry.com Home Screen and Banner

Ancestry is still tinkering with their look and feel - here is the "new look" of the home page on my screen (I understand that not every user will have it yet):

There is a very dark brown background for the top banner line - with the Ancestry leaf logo, and links for "Home," "Trees," "Search," "DNA," "Help" and "Extras."  Over on the right are icons for Hints, Mail, and Settings.  This banner line is on every Ancestry page (except for record images).  I dislike the color, but they didn't ask me!  The dark brown matches the mobile app background.  I would prefer a lighter background (white, light yellow, peach, a light red) with dark text, but, apparently, that is not what Ancestry wants.

"Home," "Trees," "Search" and "DNA" were on the previous top menu line, and all but Home had a dropdown menu.

The "Help" dropdown menu looks like this:

The "Help" item has links for Learning Center, Support, Community, Message Boards and Hire an Expert.

The "Extras" dropdown menu item looks like this:

The "Extras" dropdown menu items are Family Tree Maker Software, iOS & Android apps, Photo Books & Posters, ProGenealogists, and Gift Subscriptions.

On the right side of the Home screen, at the top on my screen, is a new section titled "Products and Services."  The links are for:

*  Learn About AncestryDNA
*  Hire an Expert
*  Give a gift Subscription
*  Buy Family Tree Maker
*  Download Our Mobile apps
*  Order Photo Books and Posters

Below that are links to other Ancestry.com properties;

*  Archives.com
*  Fold3.com
*  Newspapers.com

There is some duplication in the dropdown menus and right-side links.  I guess they figured that some users might not be able to find the dropdown menus!

I tried to "Customize your homepage" to move the right-side links noted above down below the very useful Record Collection links, and was not able to do so.  Drat.  Now I have to scroll when I come back to the home page.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/11/new-ancestrycom-home-screen-and-banner.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

New or Updated FamilySearch Record Collections - November 2-8, 2014

I'm trying to keep up with the new and updated record collections at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list).  As of 8 November, there were 1,846 record collections on FamilySearch (up 5 from last week).

Here are the 23 new or updated collections for the week of 2 November to 8 November 2014:

*  Ohio, Licking County, Hartford Township Records, 1881-1962; Browse Images, added or updated 07 Nov 2014
*  Ohio, Crawford County Church Records, 1853-2007; Browse Images, added or updated 07 Nov 2014
*  Idaho, Lincoln County Records, 1886-1972; Browse Images, added or updated  07 Nov 2014
*  Australia, New South Wales, Census (fragment), 1841; 1,385 indexed records and images, added or updated 06 Nov 2014
*  Virginia, African-American Funeral Programs, 1920-2009; 20,444 indexed records and images, added or updated 06 Nov 2014

*  South Africa, Church of the Province of South Africa, Parish Registers, 1801-2004; 389,387 indexed records and images, added or updated 06 Nov 2014
*  New Hampshire, Cheshire County, Probate Estate Files, 1886-1900; Browse Images, added or updated 06 Nov 2014
*  Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008; 48,385 indexed records and images, added or updated 06 Nov 2014
*  Kentucky Death Records, 1911-1961; 1,558,204 indexed records, added or updated 06 Nov 2014
*  Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009; 424,389 indexed records, added or updated 05 Nov 2014

*  Ohio, Northern District, Eastern Division, Naturalization Index, 1855-1967; Browse Images, added or updated 05 Nov 2014
*  Czech Republic, Censuses, 1800-1945; Browse Images, added or updated 05 Nov 2014
*  Virginia, Isle of Wight County Records, 1634-1951; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Louisiana, Orleans Court Records, 1822-1880; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Tennessee, Cocke County Records, 1860-1930; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014

*  Louisiana, Orleans Parish Will Books, 1805-1920; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Louisiana, State Penitentiary Records, 1866-1963; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Ohio, Cuyahoga County Probate Files, 1813-1932; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Nova Scotia Probate Records, 1760-1993; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  Washington, Pierce County Marriage Returns, 1891-1950; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014

*  Ohio, Stark County Coroner's Records, 1890-2002; Browse Images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  BillionGraves Index; 9,970,115 indexed records and images, added or updated 04 Nov 2014
*  California, San Mateo County, Colma, Italian Cemetery Records, 1899-2011; Browse Images, added or updated 03 Nov 2014

Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell which collections are brand new and which ones are updated.  The asterisk they use is for "Recently added or updated."  I am particularly interested in new collections, for the obvious reasons.

In order to select a specific collection, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list and use the "Filter by collection name" feature in the upper left-hand corner.

Each one of the collections listed above has a Research Wiki page (use the "Learn more" link).  It would be very useful if the Wiki page for each collection listed the dates for when the collection was added as a new collection and the major updates also.

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver