Seavers in the News -- Joseph V. Seaver Dies in 1925 in Buffalo, New York

It's time for another edition of "Seavers in the News" - a weekly feature from the historical newspapers about persons with the surname Seaver that are interesting, useful, mysterious, fun, macabre, or add information to my family tree database.

This week's entry is from the The Buffalo [N.Y.] Times newspaper dated 11 February 1925:

The transcription of the article is:

"J.V. SEAVER Dies

"Commissioner of Jurors and Former County Judge Succumbs to Year's Illness

"Former County Judge Joseph V. Seaver, deputy commissioner of jurors, who had been in failing health for the last year, died last night at his home, No. 177 Tacoma Avenue.

"Born in Buffalo, April 18, 1852, Judge Seaver received his education in Buffalo and resided here all his life.  He entered the law offices of the late Judge John L. Talcott and Delavan F. Clark, when he was 17 years old, and remained there until June, 1873.  At the age of 21 years, he opened a law office at No. 2 Arcade Building, from where he practiced many years.  He had been formerly associated with Frank P. Perkins, ex-city attorney, and W.L. Marcy, former assistant district attorney.  Later he formed partnership with Daniel J. Kenefick, at that time assistant district attorney.  Judge Seaver was elected to the county clerk bench in 1889.  He held no other political office until appointed deputy commissioner of jurors, succeeding Sherrill N. Williams, who was promoted to commissioner at the time of Judge Robert C. Titus' death.

"He is survived by his wife, Julia F. Seaver.  He was the father of Mrs. George S. Staniland, Mrs. Ernest Weiss, Mrs. Francis M. Adams, Mrs. Eric J. Reeves, Mrs. Howard Rounds, and the late Thomas J. and Frederick H. Seaver.

"Funeral services will be held at the home of Mrs. Staniland, No. 790 Lafayette Avenue."

The source citation for the article is:

"J.V. Seaver Dies" The Buffalo [N.Y.] Times newspaper, obituary, Wednesday, 11 February 1925, page 15, column 8, Joseph V.  Seaver obituary;   Newspapers.com   (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 4 April 2019).

This obituary provides a birth date (18 April 1852 in Buffalo), a death date (10 February 1925 in Buffalo), his wife's married name, and the married names of his five daughters, and the names of two deceased sons.  In addition, there is biographical material about his work life and connections in Buffalo.

Joseph Vauxhall Seaver (1852-1925) was born on 18 April 1852 in Buffalo, the son of Thomas Vauxhall Seaver (1821-1904) and Elizabeth Marie Wright (1828-1927), who were natives of Ireland and married in Buffalo in about 1841.  

Joseph Vauxhall Seaver married Julia Felicia Krapp (1853-????) on 23 October 1877 in Buffalo, New York.  According to my family tree database, they had at least seven children, including:

*  Ethel Nicholena Seaver (1878-1972), who married George Samuel Staniland (1876-1962) in 1902.

*  Frederick H. Seaver (1883-????).

*  Edith May Seaver (1885-????).

*  Louisa Florence Seaver (1887-????).

*  Thomas Joseph Seaver (1890-1925), married Mildred C. Bryan (1900-????) in 1924.

*  Marguerite Julia Seaver (1892-????)

*  Josephine Amelia Seaver (1894-1995), married Howard Nelson Round (1895-1972).

I need to find which daughter married Weiss, Adams and Reeves, plus son Frederick's death date and wife Julia's death date.

I am not related to Joseph V. Seaver - he is from an Irish Seaver line that I can trace back 8 more generations.

                                  =============================================

Disclosure:  I have a paid subscription to Newspapers.com and have used it extensively to find articles about my ancestral and one-name families.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/seavers-in-news-joseph-v-seaver-dies-in.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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,  or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1751 Death of Melatiah Metcalf in Keene, New Hampshire

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a chance 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 1751 death record of Melatiah Metcalf in the New Hampshire Deaths and Disinterments database:

The extracted data from this record is:

*  Name:  Melatiah Metcalf

*  Place of Death:  Keene, N.H.

*  Date of Death:  Dec. 30, 1751

*  Age:  46 years

*  Sex:  F[emale]

*  Married, Single, Widowed, Divorced:  M[arried]

*  Cause of Death:  Wife of Capt. Michael Metcalf

The source citation for this record is:

"New Hampshire, Death and Disinterment Records, 1754-1947," indexed database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Deaths > Index to deaths, early to 1900 > Morse - Nichols, image 2529 of 4992, Melatiah Metcalf entry.

This is a Derivative Source record, with Primary Information and Direct Evidence of the name, death date, death place, and spouse's name.  The original source was probably a handwritten Keene, New Hampshire town record that is no longer available.  In the early 1900s, the vital records in the New Hampshire town records were transferred to these cards by the town clerks, and assembled in a State of New Hampshire database. 

Melatiah (Hamant) Metcalf (1704-1751) was the daughter of Timothy and Melatiah (Clark) Hamant of Medfield, Massachusetts.  She married Michael Metcalf (1706-1771) in 1728 in Medway, Massachusetts.    They are my 6th great-grandparents, through their son Burgess Metcalf (1741-1816).

                                   ===========================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/treasure-chest-thursday-1751-death.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Dear Randy: Should I Change to a Different Program, and/or Put My Tree Online?

Genea-Musings reader Win asked two questions in email, and they may be of general interest to my readers.  The two questions are:

1) I have been using Family Tree Maker  for years. Would it be better to use another program or an additional program as well? If so, would the info transfer easily to another program?

2) Should I be putting my info online?  If so, where? 

My answers:

1)  Family Tree Maker is a very mature genealogy family tree program, and has almost all of the features of other family tree programs.  Since you have a lot of experience with it, I suggest that you stay with it rather than have to learn how to use all of the features, procedures, and quirks of another program.

If you did use another program, such as RootsMagic or Legacy Family Tree, then you can export a GEDCOM file using Family Tree Maker and import the GEDCOM file to the other program without loss of information, with the exception of special formatting and custom facts.  If you have attached media (images, text, audio, video) in Family Tree Maker, then the links to those media items should transfer in a GEDCOM file.

The current Family Tree Maker 2017 program can synchronize your complete FTM file with an Ancestry Member Tree, and can interact with the FamilySearch Family Tree.  FTM 2017 enables the user to add Ancestry Member Tree information (names, dates, places, relationships, media, notes, sources, etc.) to the profiles in FTM.  Other programs can do this - for instance, RootsMagic 7 TreeShares specific profiles with an Ancestry Member Tree, can add Ancestry Member Tree information to specific profiles using WebHints, and can exchange information with profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

There are reasons to use another program other than the one you are using.  Another program may do a better job making reports or books, creating charts, interacting with a website, etc.  For instance, I use the Legacy Family Tree program to create reports and books because I prefer their formatting over RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker.  Another program may be much easier to use, or creates better sources, and that is the reason I chose to use RootsMagic in 2006 after using Family Tree Maker for about 15 years.  Any change creates a learning curve, and it took me several years to get up to speed on RootsMagic.

2)  There are several excellent reasons to put your family tree information online:

*  If you upload a GEDCOM file, or synchronize your tree, with an Ancestry, MyHeritage or Findmypast family tree, then the online tree will quickly generate Hints (on Ancestry), Record Hints (on FamilySearch), Record Matches (on MyHeritage), and Hints (on Findmypast).  These Hints are usually records that may apply to a specific person in your tree (with about an 80 to 90% accuracy rate) - they are low hanging fruit, if you will.  You should still search on the record provider sites (Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Findmypast, etc.) because the sites may not find all of the records for your person.

*  If you add your family tree information to a "unified tree" web site like WikiTree, Geni, or FamilySearch Family Tree, then you may be able to find information (dates, places, events, sources, notes, media) about your tree profiles that other people have contributed to the unified trees.  These trees, and the information in them, don't belong to "me" or "you," it belongs to all of us.  It may get changed and the profile be improved, or it may get changed and the profile be made worse.

*  With your tree online at any one (or all of them!) of the online tree providers, other researchers may find your profiles when they search the sites using person names, birth years and places, death years and places, spouses names, etc.  They may then communicate with you via the website message system, or via email, and you can share information with them.  They may have more or better information than you have, which you should critically analyze before adding their information to your tree profiles.

*  There are drawbacks to putting your family tree information online, such as:

**  If the information for a profile is wrong or incomplete, then another researcher may contact you and challenge your information or, hopefully, provide better information.  It can be embarrassing.

**  Another researcher may copy your information without checking your sources and notes, and if your information was wrong, they will have then propagated that wrong information to others.

**  Another researcher may copy your media items (e.g., family photographs, cemetery photographs, document images, etc.) and notes and put them in their own trees without advising you or asking permission to use them.

3)  The information you put into any family tree program or online tree should use standard formats for names, dates and places, and should have sources for the events that describe a person's profile.  The sources should be for records that provide evidence of the events in a person's life, or authoritative derivative material from books, periodicals, websites, etc. that are sourced by the authors.

There are many resources available in repositories or online that are not on Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, or Findmypast.  FamilySearch has billions of records in unindexed digitized record collections (like probate, land, town, tax, church, and other records).  County record offices, county and state courts, state and national archives, historical and genealogical societies, newspapers, school districts, businesses, and many more entities have many records that have not been digitized.

4)  I hope this answers Win's questions.  What would my readers add as advice to Win about his questions?

=================================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/dear-randy-should-i-change-to-different.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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,  or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

United States, United Kingdom and Canada Census Master Forms

Genea-Musings reader Richard did not ask me a question, but he suggested writing about this topic.

Helpfully, he provided this information via email:

I like to have copies of original forms, such as censuses, etc., available to help me decode online records. Many of the federal, UK, and Canadian master forms are freely available as follows: 

*  Ancestry: US, UK, and Canadian Census Masters: https://www.ancestry.com/cs/census-forms?cj=1&netid=cj&o_xid=0002530104&o_lid=0002530104&o_sch=Affiliate+External 

*  NARA: US Census, Immigration, and Draft Card Masters: https://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/charts-forms

*  There are also state census record masters and some, but not all, were once freely available. That website is no longer available, but the contents can be found via the Internet Archive (the "Wayback Machine") at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20080421035910/http://www.free-genealogy-forms.com/content/blogcategory/9/35/. 

Where the remaining state census masters, such as those for Florida where I live now, may be found has confounded me for years. If you write about the availability of those mentioned above, maybe your readers will be able to provide links to some of the remaining ones.

This is an excellent example of my mantra that "I don't know everything about genealogy, but someone in the genealogy community does, and when they share, it is awesome."  I didn't know about the links to these forms, but Richard did and cared enough to share them with us.

Thank you to Richard for his helpful information with links!

=================================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/united-states-united-kingdom-and-canada.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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,  or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

The Charles Auble Home in San Diego -- Post 559 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

An Auble cousin gifted me with a photograph album of her family several years ago which included quite a few photos of my grandmother, Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer and her parents, Charles and Georgianna (Kemp) Auble.

Included in the photo album, created by Bessie (Auble) Pentecost in about 1920, was this intriguing photo:

This house where my great-grandparents, Charles and Georgianna (Kemp) Auble, and my grandmother, Emily Kemp Auble, resided in in the 1911 to 1916 time frame was at 767 14th Street in San Diego (known from city directory listings), on the southeast corner of F Street and 14th (east side of 14th).  There are two signs visible:

*  Free-standing on the right side of the house:  "Painting, Decorating."

*  To the right of the window on the bottom floor:  "Furniture Shop;  ?????? ; Signs"

Charles Auble (1849-1916) was a painter - probably not an artist, but a painter of signs, buildings, furniture, etc.  He was a member of the local Painter's Union.  Charles died on 23 March 1916 in his home after falling down stairs and rupturing his gall bladder.  

The house is no longer there.  My grandmother, Emily, was a teenager in this house from 1911 to 1916, and attended San Diego High School just six blocks to the north. After her father died, she and her mother moved to apartments nearby and Georgianna went to work to support theirselves.

The Charles Auble family came to San Diego in about 1911.  The photograph was probably taken in the 1915-1916 time period when the Pentecosts visited the Aubles in San Diego. 

Several years ago, while doing Auble research, a descendant of Will and Bessie (Auble) Pentecost contacted me and offered the album to me, telling me that it had many photographs of the family of my grandparents (Lyle and Emily (Auble) Carringer).  I have kept the album intact in case she ever wants it back, but have digitized many of the photos of my Carringer and Auble families.  Unfortunately, there were no photographs of the parents of Charles Auble, David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble of Terre Haute, Indiana. 

                                    =============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/the-charles-auble-home-in-san-diego.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Genealogy News Bytes - 2 April 2019

Some of the genealogy news items across my desktop the last four days include:

1)  News Articles:

*  Cyndi Ingle Joins The Genealogy Guys Podcast

*  Introducing the MyHeritage LIVE 2019 Speakers

*  Pilgrim Fathers set off in the Mayflower from Cornwall not Plymouth, historian claims

*  Press Release: Forces War Records Partners with Remembered

2)  New or Updated Record Collections:

*  Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 24 to 30 March 2019

*  Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - Week of 24 to 30 March 2019

*  New Records on FamilySearch from March 2019

3)  Genealogy Education - Webinars:

*  GeneaWebinars Calendar

*  Free Family History Library Classes and Webinars for April 2019

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar -- Tuesday 2 April, 6 p.m. PDT:  One Touch Genealogy Research: How to Handle a Record Just Once, by Thomas MacEntee

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday 3 April, 11 a.m. PDT: An Introduction to DNA Painter, by Jonny Perl

4)  Genealogy Education - Podcasts:

*  Fisher’s Top Tips Podcast:  #58 -- Why Do You Need a Research Log?

*  Extreme Genes Podcast/Radio Show:  Episode 276 – Name and Family Changes With DNA Test Results / Natural Disasters & The Loss Of Family Photos

*  Research Like a Pro Podcast:  RLP 38: Three Tips for Connecting with Your DNA Cousins

*  Genealogy Connection Podcast:  #052 - Margaret Cheney, Ohio Genealogical Society President

5)  Genealogy Education - Video:

*  DearMYRTLE YouTube:  AmericaGen - Chapter 21 Abstracting Probate and Land Records

*  DearMYRTLE YouTube:  The Archive Lady - Outlaws in your family history

*  DearMYRTLE YouTube:  DearMYRTLE - Your friend in genealogy

*  DearMYRTLE YouTube:  Google Drive

*  MyHeritage YouTube:  The MyHeritage DNA Wedding

*  Family History Fanatics YouTube:  Who is the Oldest Ancestor You Have Researched? - Man on the Street at #RootsTech

6)  Genealogy Bargains:

*  Genealogy Bargains for Friday, April 2,  2019

*  Fold3 Civil War Collection – FREE ACCESS now through April 15th!

7)  DNA Success Stories

*  MyHeritage Helps Robin McGraw Discover Her Family History

*  Woman finds biological family after decades

*   Superior Man Meets Sister for First Time After Connecting on Ancestry.com

*  Their lives were turned upside down because of a DNA test. Family secrets can't stay secret forever

8)  Did you miss the last Genealogy News Bytes - 29 March 2019?

==============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/genealogy-news-bytes-2-april-2019.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Many RootsWeb Mailing Lists Are Now Inactive

I received an email from Genea-Musings reader Nancy yesterday, noting:

"My mailing list of 14 years that was still active was shut down (made inactive) I was told in automated repose that it was inactive or that my email as admin was no good. There was conversation on the list the week they marked it inactive and my email is the same as it has always been and is also my Ancestry email. (they have no trouble contacting me at renewal time ;-))  

"Look here at all the lists now marked inactive https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/details?surname=A#ADRIAN 

"This is after Ancestry took down the mailing lists and message boards for months in 2017-2018 -- see Eastman’s article here https://blog.eogn.com/2018/01/10/rootsweb-is-currently-unavailable-and-probably-will-remain-that-way-for-some-time/  

"It’s so discouraging after organizing and administering something for 14 years – guess they just want to kill it.  It was an invaluable way of organizing and communicating and it was FREE!"

Could this be true?  After decades of providing this service which many genealogists used over many years, is it all gone?  If so, that would be a real tragedy for genealogy.

The good news is that some of the mailing lists are still active, and the archives for them all are still accessible.  The bad news is that many mailing lists are now inactive and new information cannot be posted to them.  Nancy's list is inactive, but the archives for that list, and the other lists, are still available.

For those readers who have not used, or not known about, the RootsWeb Mailing Lists, they were one of the first "communities" set up in an organized manner back in the 1990s. There were mailing lists (you subscribed and received emails from each list whenever someone submitted an email) and message boards (you found them on the Internet, and created messages/posts) for surnames, localities (countries, states, counties,, etc), methodology (e.g., census, vital records, immigration, software, etc.), organizations (societies, DAR, etc.), and more.  They were logically set up and the contents were searchable and archived.

When I found a new surname in my research, I would go to the Mailing Lists and Message Boards to
search for posts about that surname and hope that some contributor had more information than I did.

It was, along with the RootsWeb Message Boards, the "Social Media for Genealogy" before Facebook.  Everyone used them.  And it was better organized and logical than Facebook pages and groups are now.

So, how does it work now?  Here is a process to search the Mailing Lists:

1)  Go to https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/ on the RootsWeb site:

On the screen above, there are links to "Search List Archives," "Popular Lists," and "Find a List."

The screen above says that there are 32,740 genealogy mailing lists.  I think, but don't know, if that number includes the inactive lists.

Further down the page are links for Surnames, States, Countries, and more:

2)  On the first screen, I entered "seaver" in the "Find A List" field, clicked "Search" and saw:

There is a Seaver surname mailing list, but it is Inactive now.  I clicked on the link for the list:

 On the screen above, there is a link to "browse or search the archives," so I clicked that:

3)  The list of archived mailing list posts are by year and month.  The screen above told me that there were no posts for April 2019.  Actually, the last posts on the Seaver mailing list were posted in 2011, and before that in 2005.

I clicked on 2011, and then November and saw the lists of posts for that month:

I can click on the title of each post to see the post and any responses to the post in a thread.

3)  Did Rootsweb/Ancestry announce to the genealogy world, or to the mailing list administrators, that they were making thousands of mailing lists inactive?   Why would they do this?  How much time and server space do they think they saved?  How much time did it take to make thousands of lists inactive?  What criteria were used to select the inactive lists?

What will happen next?  Will Inactive list archives be eliminated in the future?  What about message boards?  Will some of them be made inactive?

I may be an old geneasaurus, but these mailing lists and message boards are very valuable for many genealogists and family historians.

Thank you to Nancy for telling me, and my readers, about thousands of mailing lists becoming Inactive.

=============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/many-rootsweb-mailing-lists-are-now.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Tuesday -- 1860 United States Census Record for Ann Auble in Stillwater, New Jersey

This week's Tuesday Treasure is the 1860 United States Census record for Ann Auble in Stillwater, New Jersey:

The Ann Auble entry is in the Sophia Hults household - the fourth from the top of the image above:

The extracted information for the Sophia Hults household is:

*  Sophia Hults - age 49, female, white, 1350 in real property, 210 in personal property, born in N.J.
*  Ann S. Bail - age 5, female, white, born in N.J.
*  Ann Auble - age 73, female, white, born in N.J.

The source citation for this marriage record is:

1860 United States Federal Census, Sussex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Page 304, Dwelling #249, Family #260, Sophia Hults household; indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 709.

From previous research on the Auble family, I know that Ann (Row) Auble (1787-1860) married John Auble (1780-1831) in 1804, and had at least nine children.  Their daughter, Sophia (Auble) (Foster) Hulse (1805-1887) was the eldest child, who married (1) Alley H. Foster (1805-1833) in about 1827, and (2) Seth W. Hulse (1797-1856) before 1850.  Euphemia Foster (1828-1895) was the only child of Alley and Sophia.  Euphemia had a daughter, Samantha Ann Bale (1855-????).

In the census record above, Sophia "Hults" is Sophia (Auble) (Foster) Hulse, and Ann S. Bail is Samantha Ann Bale.  Ann Auble is the mother of Sophia Hults, and the great-grandmother of Ann S. Bail.

John and Ann (Row) Auble are my third great-grandparents.  I am descended through their son, David Auble (1817-1894), who married Sarah G. Knapp (1818-1904).  

=============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/treasure-chest-tuesday-1860-united.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Monday Genea-Pourri - 1 April 2019

Here is a summary of my family history and genealogy related activities over the past week:

1)  Attended the Chula Vista Genealogical Society general meeting on Wednesday, with 20 in attendance.  Susi Pentico spoke about "In the Beginning" about the society's initial years in the 1980s and 1990s.  She used photographs of society events, especially the Christmas parties.  Sandy Palumbo, the first president of the society, attended.  It was great to see her.

2)  Found and transcribed the 1843 deed of 3rd great-grandfather Zachariah Hildreth selling land in Townsend, Mass. to James Hildreth for Amanuensis Monday.

3)  Wrote and posted a biography of 6th great-grandfather #444 Michael Metcalf (1706-1771) of Medway, Mass. and Keene, N.H.  for my 52 Ancestors post on Friday.  

4)  Corresponded with two Seaver descendants and sent them RootsMagic ancestor reports for their Seaver ancestral families.

5)  Watched one Family Tree Webinar - A Terrible Malady: Disease and Epidemics in New England, by Lori Lyn Price.

6)  Participated in today's Mondays With Myrt.  Today's webinar discussed Debbie Wayne's new DNA book; genealogy software in Spanish; news from the last week; the Guild of One-Name Studies conference in Leicester; my post about trusting online trees; the NERGC conference this week; upcoming webinars; and FamilyTreeDNA opt-out announcement.

7) There were several sessions working in the RootsMagic software program to update FamilySearch Family Tree profiles for Seaver families and other ancestral families, with occasional additions to the RootsMagic profiles. I have matched 30,177 of my RootsMagic persons with FSFT.  Updated and cleaned up the Family Tree profiles for two ancestors, including life sketches, sources and notes.

8)  I continue to use Web Hints and Record Matches from Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast and FamilySearch to add content and sources to my RootsMagic profiles.  I now have 53,135 persons in my RootsMagic file, and 103,175 source citations.   I TreeShared one time during the last week (about 230 profiles), and resolved about 240 Ancestry Hints.  I've fallen behind on the Ancestry Record Hints with 106,818 to be resolved, but I work on them weekly.

9)  Baseball season started last Thursday, so my genealogy research time will be restricted a bit over the seven months.  We have a 20 game season ticket for the Padres, and we went to the games on Thursday and Saturday.  We watch the other games on television.  So my 8 to 11 hour genealogy days become 6 to 9 hours on game days.  The good news is that the Padres are 3-1 on the season so far.

10) Wrote 20 Genea-Musings blog posts last week, of which three were press releases.  The most popular post last week was Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - Week of 24 to 30 March 2019 with over 238 views.  

  =============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/monday-genea-pourri-1-april-2019.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Sorting Out My Thomas J. Newtons

I most recently wrote about "my" 3rd great-grandfather Thomas J. Newton in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 31: #38 Thomas J. Newton (ca 1800 - ????) (posted 1 August 2014) and in Who Really Was the Father of Sophia Newton (183?-1923)? (posted 12 May 2014).

To summarize what I think I know about "my" guy:  Thomas J. Newton (about 1795-after 1835?) married in about 1834 to Sophia (Buck) Brigham (1797-1882, widow of Lambert Brigham (1794-1834).  I have found no birth or death records that I can conclusively connect to this Thomas J. Newton.  The available records indicate that Thomas J. and Sophia (Buck) (Brigham)  Newton had two children, Sophia  Newton  (1834?-1923) and Thomas J. Newton (1835?-1915).  The marriage records for the two children say that their father was born in Maine, and that they were born in Cambridge, Vermont (presumably the Cambridge in Lamoille County).  However, there is no marriage record for Thomas and Sophia, and no birth records for the two children.  

There is another Thomas J(efferson) Newton (1808-1852) in New England in the same time frame, and I often wondered if he is the same person as "my" Thomas J. Newton.  He married Eliza Coffin in 1843 in Dedham, Massachusetts, and they had children in 1844 and 1848 (another Thomas Jefferson Newton!) who both died young.  He died in Reading, Massachusetts on 16 September 1852, and his death record identified his parents as Jacob and Fanny (Parks) Newton.  His birth record is in the Dixfield, Maine town records, and his age at death was 45.  Jacob and Fanny (Parks) Newton died and are buried in Dixfield, Maine. Was this Thomas married before he married Eliza Coffin?  Is he "my" Thomas?

After a bit of recent research, my working hypothesis is that they are two separate men.  The critical evidence is the death record of William F. Newton (1836-1903), whose parents are listed as Thomas J. Newton and Nancy Kennedy in the "Maine Death Records, 1761-1922" collection on Ancestry.com:

The death record for William F. Newton is a Derivative Source (the original is probably in a town record book), with Secondary Information about the parents of William F. Newton.  However, it is the only record I've found to date with this information.  There may be other records in Maine that are not digitized.  There is a Civil War Pension File for him that may include more information about his birth and parents.

There is also an Albert L. Newton (1834-1865) buried in Riverside Cemetery in Dixfield, a casualty at the end of the Civil War that was born in October 1834.  He was in the 1850 U.s. Census record with the Thomas J. Newton married to eliza Coffin as a 16 year old male.  His probate record names his only brother William F. Newton as administrator, but he declined the appointment.  Therefore Albert L. is the brother of William F. Newton, and therefore a son of the "other" Thomas J. and Nancy (Kennedy) Newton.

My working hypothesis is based on the information about the births of the children of "my" Thomas J. Newton - Sophia in 1834 and Thomas J. in about 1835, both in Cambridge, Vermont.  The "other" Thomas J. Newton has Albert L. in 1834, and William F. in 1836, both in Dixfield, Maine.  Unless Thomas was traveling extensively, he is probably not the father of both sets of children.

Also, I think it is unlikely that a Thomas J. Newton born in 1808 would marry Sophia (Buck) Brigham (1797-1882) in about 1834 (he would be age 26, she would be 37) - possible, but unlikely.

So, I think I have eliminated Thomas J. Newton (1808-1852) from the fatherhood sweepstakes for Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834?-1923).  

However, I am concerned by the death of Sophia (Buck) Brigham's first husband, Lambert Brigham (1794-1834) in Westborough, Massachusetts, coupled with Sophia Newton's likely birth date of 14 September 1834, ostensibly in Cambridge, Vermont.  Lambert Brigham died on 5 May 1834, and if Sophia was born in September 1834, that means that her father is probably Lambert Brigham and not Thomas J. Newton (unless Sophia was fooling around several months before Lambert's death). 

 If Sophia Newton (1834-1923) was born in 1835 or later, then she is probably "my" Thomas J. Newton's daughter.  

So there appear to be at least four Thomas J. Newton persons in this challenge, two being the fathers, and two being the sons.

I have so much uncertainty, and so few records to work with.  Does a reader have any suggestions?

                     =======================================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/04/sorting-out-my-thomas-j-newtons.html

Copyright (c) 2019, 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, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.