Genea-Musings

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Findmypast Announces Four Days of Free Access to Over 1.9 Billion Records

I received this information from Findmypast today:

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FINDMYPAST ANNOUNCE FOUR DAYS OF FREE ACCESS TO OVER 1.9 BILLION RECORDS

Findmypast makes all birth, marriage, death & census records free to search and explore from Thursday 12th to Sunday 15th January 2017
Free access covers all records hinted against in Findmypast’s family tree builder
This includes 583 million UK BMDs, the largest collection available online including over 80 million exclusive parish records you won’t find anywhere else, over 10 million Irish Catholic Parish registers and over 140 million United States Marriages
Family historians will be supported with expert insights and how to guides

London, UK. 12th January, 2017

Leading family history website, Findmypast, has just announced that their entire collection of birth, marriage, death and census records will be completely free to search from 08:00 GMT Thursday 12th to 07:59 GMT Sunday 15th January 2017.

By providing four days of free access to these essential records, Findmypast hopes to encourage fledgling genealogists to start building their family tree and discover at least one new ancestor through their records. Researchers will also be provided with daily getting started guides, expert insights and useful how-to blogs over the course of the free weekend.

The free access will cover all 1.9 billion records currently matched against Findmypast’s family trees, including;

Over 583 million British BMDs
Over 338 million US & Canadian BMDS
Over 34 million Irish BMDS
Over 26 million Australian & New Zealand BMDS
Over 257 million British Census records
Over 703 million US & Canadian Census records
Over 9 million Irish Census records
Over 487,000 Australian & New Zealand Census records

Findmypast trees currently provide matches from birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial and census records across the UK, US, Ireland, and Australia. This includes Findmypast’s vast collections of more than 140 million United States marriages and over 10 million Irish Catholic baptisms, marriages and burials. Findmypast’s entire collection of 583 million UK BMDs - the largest available online - will also be free to explore, including over 80 million exclusive parish records you won’t find anywhere else. All UK and Irish parish records are hinted against.

Hinting allows you uncover records for multiple ancestors at once with virtually zero effort. The larger your tree, the more potential matches you’ll be presented with so it’s well worth your while to add as many ancestors as possible.

Visit our dedicated Free access landing page to find out more.

About Findmypast

Findmypast (previously DC Thomson Family History) is a British-owned world leader in online family history. It has an unrivalled record of online innovation in the field and 18 million registered users across its family of online brands, which includes Lives of the First World War, The British Newspaper Archive and Genes Reunited, amongst others.

Its lead brand, also called Findmypast, is a searchable online archive of over four billion family history records, ranging from parish records and Censuses to migration records, military collections, historical newspapers and lots more. For members around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family trees and conducting detailed historical research.

In April 2003, Findmypast was the first online genealogy site to provide access to the complete birth, marriage, and death indexes for England & Wales, winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation. Since that time, the company has digitised records from across the globe, including the 1911 Census which they digitised in association with The National Archives.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/findmypast-announces-four-days-of-free.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

1704 Birth Record of Melitia Hamant in Medfield, Mass.. -- Treasure Chest Thursday Post #348

This week's treasure is the 1704 birth record of Melitia Hamant in Medfield, Massachusetts:

The snippet with the Melitia Hamant birth:

The transcription of this record:

"[Hamant], Melitia, d. Timothy and Meletia, May 26, 1704"

The source citation for this record is:

Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Births, page 56, Melitia Hamant entry.

Melitia Hamant (1704-1751) was the third child of Timothy and Meletia (Clark) Hamant of Medfield, Massachusetts. She married Michael Metcalf (1706-1771) in Medfield, and they had eight children. She died in 1751 in Keene, New Hampshire.

Melitia (Hamant) Metcalf was my 6th great-grandmother. I am descended through her son Burgess Metcalf (1741-1816) and his wife (Jerusha --?--) Metcalf (1750-1817).

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/1704-birth-record-of-melitia-hamant-in.html

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Seavers in the News - Reverend Horace Seaver Dies in 1858

It's time for another episode of Seavers in the News[papers].

Here is an article from the 15 April 1858 edition of the Christian Era (Boston, Massachusetts) newspaper:

The transcription of the article is:

"REV. HORACE SEAVER

"Rev. Horace Seaver, Senior Agent of the American and Foreign Bible Society, died at his late residence in New Jersey, on Sunday week, after a short illness, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. This name is very familiar to all the Baptists of the northern portions of our country. He has long been an earnest and faithful laborer in the cause of Christ, and has, perhaps, collected more money and done more to sustain the American and foreign Bible society , than any other living man. In all the late trials of that organization, he stood a faithful friend, and scarcely will the Society be able to fill his place. He was one of the few agents who paid his own way, and made himself profitable to the Society sending him out. Having the confidence of the pastors, and a perfect knowledge of his work, with a large acquaintance with human nature, he was enabled to heal strifes, and do much to render permanent the organization of which he was the agent. So our elder brothers are passing away. Pastors and teachers are leaving the pulpit for their reward."

The source citation for this article is:

"REV. HORACE SEAVER," Christian Era [Boston, Mass.] newspaper, online index and digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 11 January 2017), Thursday, 15 April 1858, page 2, column 2.

I have this Horace Seaver (1792-1858) in my RootsMagic database with two spouses and 13 children. He apparently died 4 April 1858 at his home in New Jersey. Unfortunately, this obituary did not describe his surviving family, which would have been useful. Perhaps I can find that in other resources.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/seavers-in-news-reverend-horace-seaver.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Received my Living DNA Autosomal Test Results - Post 2

I posted Received my LivingDNA Autosomal Test Results - Post 1 yesterday, and got to the point where I was going to discuss the various links on the left-side of the screen, and to discuss my biogeographical test results.

On the left-hand side of the screen, there are links for:

* Family Ancestry
** Map
** What Makes You
** Chart
** Throughout History

* Download Results

* Share Results

* Test Details

1) I clicked on the Map link and saw the "Family Ancestry Map" showing the Regional DNA ancestry:

2) The link for "What Makes You" has a "click here" link which shows the body map and your Regional DNA ancestry:

3) The "click here" link on the screen above leads to the "Throughout History" link where there are pages for different eras in world history from about 1500 CE back to prehistoric times. These pages cover the World, Europe, and the British Isles. There is a map, and a "Read More" button on each page. Here is "The Age of Discovery" page (two screens shown for Europe):

These historical pages are very interesting and I need to go back and read them in more detail.

4) The "Chart" link on the left-side of the website pages provides a "donut chart" of my Regional or Sub-regional ancestry according to LivingDNA - I clicked on the pls ("+") next to "Regions" to see the sub-regions in the chart and on the list of sub-regions (two screens below):

My autosomal DNA test results from Living DNA indicate:

* Europe = 100%

** British Isles = 86.2%
*** South Central England = 21.0% (orange)
*** Central England = 18.6% (blue)
*** South England = 18.5% (green)
*** East Anglia = 10.1% (red)
*** Devon = 8.5% (light blue)
*** Cumbria = 2.5% (brown)
*** Northumbria = 1.7% (teal)
*** Southeast England = 1.1% (purple)
*** Unassigned England = 4.1% (gray)

** Europe (Northwest) = 7.1%
*** Finland and Western Russia = 4.3% (lavender)
*** Scandinavia = 2.8% (peach)
*** Europe (unassigned) = 6.6% (no color)

5) In my next post in this series, I will describe how my genealogical research matches up to this estimate of my biogeographical ancestry.

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Disclosure: I received a complimentary analysis of my autosomal DNA results based on my raw data from another testing service. I try to be objective in my analysis and discussion of all services, including this one. I do appreciate the Living DNA reaching out to me for the above.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/received-my-living-dna-autosomal-test.html

Visiting Old World Wisconsin - Post 3-- Post 447 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

During our 2011 vacation to Springfield, Illinois and surrounding states, we had one day in Eagle, Wisconsin and explored Old World Wisconsin, and Ranslow's Smith's Four-Mile Inn. I wrote about it in Day 13 on the Seaver Midwest Genealogy Tour (posted 18 September 2011).

I took many pictures inside the house, but some of them didn't turn out (and my camera battery died during this day). Here are more of the photos on the main floor of the house:

1) The dining room:

2) The parlor (southeast corner, I think) - where the family would gather to talk or work:

3) Another corner of the parlor (northeast corner):

The parlor above was closed off to visitors - I took these pictures from behind the barrier.

The curator at Old World Wisconsin said that they tried to gather furniture, kitchen ware and utensils, artwork, photographs and ephemera from the 1870s time period. I wondered what the books were - on the round table in the second picture; in the bookcase in the second picture; and on the small table in the bottom picture, and what the papers were on the desk in the corner. Check out the clock on the wall in the second picture - and there's a picture of a house right below it. I wonder what house that is - I'm pretty sure that it's not the Four-Mile Inn.

More inside pictures next week!

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/visiting-old-world-wisconsin-post-3.html

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Received my LivingDNA Autosomal Test Results - Post 1

I highlighted the new Living DNA autosomal DNA test service in New Living DNA Test Offers People an HD View of Their Past on 26 October 2016.

After I published the press release and made some comments, I was asked if I would submit my autosomal DNA raw data from one of the other tests rather than use the cheek swab and have to have the sample analyzed. I accepted, and submitted my raw data, and was contacted last week with the news that my results were available on the website.

The screen captures below are from my test results and show the Living DNA screens hat I saw. I will discuss my test results in a separate blog post.

1) The opening screen after I logged in:

I read the welcome message, then Xed out of it.

2) The "Your Story Begins" screen (two screens shown) has links on the left-side of the screen, text in the center of the screen, and a body map on the right-side of the screen:

At the bottom of the page are whited out body maps for the Motherline and the Fatherline - but I haven't submitted DNA for those tests.

3) The screen above provides a "Your Overview" of my DNA, with the test results showing:

* 86.2% British Isles
* 7.1% Europe (Northwest)
* 6.6% Europe (unassigned)

That's interesting. I wanted more.

4) Fortunately, there is the blue "Explore in full" button below the "Your Overview" so I eagerly clicked on that. The "Your Family Ancestry" page appeared (two screens shown below):

I have shown the "Family Ancestry Map" in a full screen below:

The map above shows the ancestral areas on a map of western Europe. I clicked again on the "Explore in full" button, and saw:

The screen above is the "Standard" view - noted in blue above the map. Apparently, The "Cautious" and "Complete" buttons are not available at this time. The screen above has another button below the blue "Standard" - it says "Regional" with a minus sign on the left and a plus sign on the right.

5) I clicked on the plus "+" button, and saw the estimates for the different sub-regions for each region (two screens shown below):

There are the different sub-regions listed to the left of the map, and the map has different colors for the sub-regions.

If I click on a sub-region, the map is expanded and I can see the selected sub-region boundaries and the other sub-regions are whited out a bit but are still discernible.

You can see my DNA estimate percentages in the screens above, and I will write another post to discuss those results.

6) This website seems to work well - the results page opens in a second browser tab and the results take some time (a minute or two?) to load, but after that it is fairly intuitive. Hitting the "back" arrow in the browser takes you back to the welcome screen and you have to go through the clicks again, but that is not onerous in my opinion.

I have not addressed the links on the left-side of the screens above. I need to do more work on that too.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/received-my-livingdna-autosomal-test.html

Treasure Chest Tuesday - 1920 U.S. Census Record for Paul Schaffner Household in San Francisco, Calif.

This week's Tuesday treasure is the 1920 United States Census record for the Paul Schaffner family enumerated in San Francisco, San Francisco County, California:

The Schaffner family snippet is:

The extracted information for the Schaffner family, residing at 46 Rivoli Street in San Francisco, is:

* Paul Schaffner - head of household, rents home, male, white, age 40, married, can read and write, born California, parents born New York/Massachusetts, speaks English, a manager, works for Oil Company
* Edna Schaffner - wife, female, white, age 38, married, can read and write, born California, parents born Maryland/Australia, speaks English
* Mueral Schaffner - daughter, female, white, age 10, single, attends school, can read and write, born California, parents born California/California, speaks English

* Edna Schaffner - daughter, female, white, age 6, single, attends school, born California, parents born California/California, speaks English

The source citation for this record is:

1920 United States Federal Census, San Francisco County, California, population schedule, 27th Assembly District, Enumeration District 338, Page 9A, Dwelling #69, Family #103, Paul Schaffner household, online database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T625, Roll 142.

Paul and Edna (McKnew) Schaffner married in 1906, and had two daughters, Muriel and Edna Schaffner. Edna Schaffner (1913-1979) is my wife's mother, and Paul and Edna (McKnew) Schaffner are my wife's maternal grandparents.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/treasure-chest-tuesday-1920-us-census.html

Monday, January 9, 2017

Excellent Video on History of the British Isles

I found this 7.33 minute video of the History of the British Isles: Every Year from Modern Humans onward.

I love stuff like this! It was fascinating to watch how England finally came together after all of the invasions.

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/excellent-video-on-history-of-british.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Contest: Free Passes to MyHeritage RootsTech 2017 Party

I have five FREE passes to award to the MyHeritageDNA RootsTech After-Party taking place on Friday, February 10 at 8 p.m., in the Grand Ballroom at the Marriott Downtown at City Creek in Salt Lake City during RootsTech 2017.

My blog readers and followers are invited to compete for one of these passes through a contest on Genea-Musings. If you win one of these passes, you can invite one more person as a guest.

This year's theme is "Amaze Yourself." In keeping with last year's legendary evening, karaoke will be back, plus light refreshments. We've also taken the entertainment up a notch and added new games and fantastic prizes. You could also be the lucky winner of a DNA test.

Please note: this event is reserved for those 21 and older.

If you want to enter my contest, then please send me an email (randy.seaver@gmail.com) with the subject "MyHeritage RootsTech Party" and provide the following information:

1) Your email address so I can send the winners a link to the guest pass.

2) What feature on MyHeritage is your favorite? How has it helped you?

4) Please submit your entry by Saturday, 14 January 2017, before 11:59 PM PST.

That's it -- easy peasy.

BUT - please don't enter the contest if you are not going to be at RootsTech on 10 February.

I will randomly select winners on Sunday, 15 January and notify the winners with a link to the passes on Sunday evening.

Thank you to MyHeritage for providing this opportunity for five of my readers a pass to the MyHeritage party.

NOTE: This party was a really fun highlight event last year, and many "karaoke stars" were found in our midst, plus the food, drink, conversation, fun and games were excellent.

Here's just one example:

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The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/contest-free-passes-to-myheritage.html

6 Things to Look for in FamilySearch in 2017

I received this information today from FamilySearch:

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6 Things to Look for in FamilySearch in 2017

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (9 January 2017)--Worldwide interest in online genealogy services and activities will continue to grow solidly in 2017. And FamilySearch plans to play a major role in creating millions of new, fun family discoveries and online connections. Here are 6 exciting developments to look forward to from FamilySearch in 2017, a global leader in free online family history services.

1. Personalized Dashboard

Now available in 2017, if you log in to your free FamilySearch account today, you will be greeted with your own, customized home page full of interesting, relevant activity feeds, notifications, and suggestions on your personal dashboard. The more you work on your personal FamilySearch family tree, the more new, applicable content the system will automatically send to you through your dashboard throughout the year. In other words, it continues to work for you even when you're not.

New features include:

* Recommended Tasks. "Next-step" suggestions for specific ancestors in FamilySearch Family Tree that can lead to new discoveries.

* Ancestor Hints. As millions of new historical records are added to FamilySearch weekly, the savvy search engine maps them against your Family Tree. High probability matches are presented for your consideration as "hints" on your dashboard. Keep checking back to see what new information it has been dug up on your ancestors. Add it to your ancestor’s source page.

* Recent Ancestors. Forgot what you did the last time you visited your tree? Your new dashboard will automatically keep track of the ancestors you are researching each time and create a list that makes it easy to pick up where you left off a few minutes ago or during a previous visit.

* To-do Lists. Make quick notes in this convenient new feature to help you remember what you want to do on your next visit to your Family Tree. Jot short reminder notes about records to search, people to contact, photos or documents to upload and add to an ancestor’s profile, or personal and family stories you want to capture for posterity in the Memories feature.

* To-do Cards. See fun new photos, stories, and relevant documents about your ancestors that have been recently added by other family members and cousins to your collective family tree. It's a fun way to identify relatives who are currently working on your family lines and make new discoveries or connections with extended family members.

2. New and improved Mobile Apps

FamilySearch's two mobile apps—FamilySearch Family Tree and FamilySearch Memories—will see cool new updates. Users will be able to search Ancestry.com from the convenience of the FamilySearch mobile app. Imagine being able to search the two largest online sources of family history records from your mobile device! A new descendancy view feature will give users the ability to create notes for specific ancestors, easily see a log of any changes made by others, and download user-contributed memories (Memories app). Multiple windows in the Family Tree app will significantly increase the speed of research from mobile devices.

3. Improved Searching

The FamilySearch.org search engine is already best-in-class, but in 2017, users will notice even faster search results from newly published historic records worldwide, and quicker hints from those new records and user-contributed trees.

4. New Indexing Tools

“We are really excited to launch the web-based version of our successful indexing software in 2017," said Craig Miller, FamilySearch's Senior Vice President of Product Development and Engineering. "It will be easy to use and will work on any digital device with a web browser (excluding cell phones), eliminating the need to download the indexing software. That means more volunteers worldwide will be able to contribute in making more of the world’s historical records searchable by name online, and more quickly.”

Indexing is the nifty, web-based tool FamilySearch volunteers use to make hundreds of millions of historic records worldwide searchable by name for free online each year. These indexes are the secret ingredient to your ability to discover ancestral connections online quickly and easily. Additional innovations to the tool in 2017 will include more rapid completion of tasks, improved help, and even automated indexing for some record sets (obituaries) which means more records searchable at your fingertips, faster.

5. New Discovery Experiences

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City is a top tourist attraction for the state of Utah. In February, 2017, FamilySearch will open a wonderful, state-of-the-art Discovery Experience attraction on the Library's main floor. The new feature will enable guests to have fun, large-as-life personal discovery experiences with their family history using the latest technologies. Similar discovery experiences will be implemented in select locations worldwide in 2017.

6. More Free Historic Records

Over 330 FamilySearch digital camera teams worldwide will digitally preserve 125–150 million historical records in 2017 for free online access. Another 200 million images will be added from FamilySearch's microfilm conversion project that uses 25 specialized machines to convert its vast microfilm collection at its Granite Mountain Records Vault for online access. Over 30 percent of the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm have already been digitized and published online. The digital collections can be located in the FamilySearch catalog online and by perusing collection lists by location.

FamilySearch's online community of volunteers will be focused on creating searchable name indexes to two major collections in the United States (marriage records and immigration records that will include passenger lists, border crossings, and naturalization petitions), and core record collections from select high priority countries.

If you are not familiar with all the wonderful free benefits of FamilySearch, create your free account at FamilySearch.org, and start your fun journey of discovery.

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The URL for this post is:

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Thursday, January 12, 2017

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Monday, January 9, 2017