Genea-Musings

Friday, November 29, 2019

52 Ancestors - Week 306: #517 Mary (Bigelow) Read (1677-1708) of Massachusetts

Mary (Bigelow) Bruce (1677-1708) is number 517 on my Ahnentafel List, my 7th great-grandmother, who married #516 Thomas Read (1678-1755) in 1701, in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

I am descended through:

* their son #258. Isaac Read (1704-1780) who married #259 Experience Willis (1707-1787) in 1730.

* their daughter #129 Sarah Read (1736-1809) who married #128 Norman Seaver (1734-1787) in 1755.

* their son #64 Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816) who married #65 Martha Whitney (1764-1832) in 1783.

* their son #32 Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825) who married #33 Abigail Gates (1797-1867) in 1817.

* their son #16 Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) who married #17 Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828-1884) in 1851.

* their son #8 Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922) who married #9 Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857-1920) in 1874.

* their son #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) who married #5 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in 1900.

* their son #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) who married #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) in 1942.

* their son #1 Randall Jeffrey Seaver (1943-living)

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1) PERSON (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

* Name: Mary Bigelow[2-4]

* Alternate Name: Mary Bigulah[1]

* Alternate Name: Mary Bruce[5]

* Alternate Name: Mary Read[6]

* Sex: Female

* Father: Samuel Bigelow (1653-1732)

* Mother: Mary Flagg (1657-1720)

2) INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

* Birth: 12 September 1677, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[1-2]

* Death: 21 February 1707/8 (age 30), Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[6]

* Distribution: 21 February 1731/2 (age 54), father's will proved; Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[7]

3) SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

* Spouse 1: David Bruce (1675-1701)

* Marriage: 26 January 1699/1700 (age 22), Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[3-4]

* Child 1: David Bruce (1700-1772)

* Spouse 2: Thomas Read (1678-1755)

* Marriage 2: 3 December 1701 (age 23), Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[5]

* Child 2: Nathaniel Read (1702-1785)

* Child 3: Thomas Read (1706-1788)

* Child 4: Isaac Read (1704-1780)

* Child 5: Katherine Read (1707-????)

4) NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

Mary Bigelow was born 12 September 1677 in Watertown, Massachusetts, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Flagg) Bigelow of Watertown[1-2]. The birth record in the Watertown town record book says:

"Mary Bigulah daughter of Samuel and Mary Bigulah born ye 12th of September."

Mary married David Bruce on 26 January 1699/1700 in Watertown[3-4]. He was the son of Thomas and Magdalen (Evans) Bruce of Marlborough. The marriage record in the Watertown town record says:

"David Brouce of Molbury and Mary Begelow of of Watertown were joyned in marriage before me Samll Angier minister of Watertown January 26 1699."

David and Mary (Bigelow) Bruce had one child, born in Watertown:

* David Bruce (1700-1772), married 1727 to Mary Brigham (1701-1741).

The elder David Bruce died 22 July 1701 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, leaving Mary with a small child.

Mary (Bigelow) Bruce married Thomas Read (1678-1755) on 3 December 1701 in Watertown[5], Massachusetts as his first wife. Thomas was the son of Thomas and Mary (Goodrich) Read of Sudbury, Massachusetts. The marriage record in the Watertown town record book says:

"Thomas Read of Sudbury and Mary Bruce of Watertown were joyned in marriage by me Samuel Angier minister in Watertown the 3 of December 1701."

Thomas and Mary (Bigelow) (Bruce) Read had four children, all recorded in the Sudbury town records:

* Nathaniel Read (1702-1785), married 1729 to Phebe Lamb (1708-1788).

* Isaac Read (1704-1780), married 1730 Experience Willis (1707-1787).

* Thomas Read (1706-1788), married 1734 to Sarah Maynard (1704-1776).

* Katherine Read (1708-????), married 1725 Joseph Joslin (1699-????).

Mary Read died 21 February 1707/8 in Sudbury soon after the birth of her daughter Katherine[6]. There is no known burial record for Mary (Bigelow) (Bruce) Read.

Mary's father, Samuel Bigelow, died in 1732. He wrote his will on 20 September 1720, and bequeathed money and/or land to his son-in-law Thomas Read, and to his Bruce and Read grandchildren[7]:

"Item: I give & bequeath Unto my three sons-in-law Tho Read, Josiah How & Dan'll Warrin besides what they have formrly five shillings each.

"Item: I Give & bequeath Unto my Grandson David Bruce a Certain piece of land in Marlborough in ye County of Middsx which I bought of my son Sam'll Biglo Jnr containing six acres, three quarters & fifteen rods, bounded northerly by a Road Leading to Framingham Westerly by land of Moses Newton Easterly by land of David Bruce & Southerly by Comon Land; also all yt parcell of land of Twenty acres in Marlborough wch John Sherman Had Granted him by ye Proprietors of sd Marlborough When I Impowered him to sue for a certain piece of Land given by Tho Bruce to his Grandson David Bruce. To have & to hold to Him of sd David Bruce & to ye Heires of his body Lawfully begotten, but in failior of such ... Land to Release to ye Biglos again, I also give to ye said David Bruce one pair of Steers Coming four years old.

"Item: I give & bequeath Unto my three Grandchildren Nath- Read, Isaac Read & Thomas Read Twenty shillings Each When they Arive to ye age of One & twenty years.

"Item: I give & bequeath unto my Grandaughter Cathron Read ye sum of seventeen pounds in or of money to be paid Her when she marries or Comes of Age besides all those things Which wear her Mothers ... Now in my Keeping for Her."

5. SOURCES

1. "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), "Watertown: Births, Marriages and Death," image 161 of 3991, Mary Begulah birth entry.

2. Henry Bond, M.D., Family Memorials: Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown & Co., 1860), Mary Bigelow birth entry.

3. "Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988," indexed database and digital images, Ancestry.com, "Watertown: Birth, Marriage and Death," image 186 of 3991, David Brouce and Mary Begelow entry, 1699.

4. Henry Bond, M.D., Family Memorials: Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, David Bruce and Mary Bigelow marriage entry.

5. "Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988," indexed database and digital images, Ancestry.com, "Watertown > Births, Marriages and Death," page 16 (penned) (image 191 of 3991), Thomas Read and Mary Bruce marriage, 1701.

6. Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts to the year 1850 (Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Deaths, page 322, Mary Read entry.

7. "Middlesex County, MA: Probate Papers, 1648-1871," indexed database and digital image, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org : accessed 28 June 2015), Estate Packet #1728, Samuel Biglo estate, 8 sheets; citing original probate estate packet in Middlesex County Probate Court records.

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NOTE: In 2014, Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog. I have extended this theme in 2019 to 364 Ancestors in 364 Weeks.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/52-ancestors-week-306-517-mary-bigelow.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, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

My Mayflower 1620 Connections - Soule, White, Warren, Cooke, Brewster, Hopkins and Fuller

I've posted before about my own connections to passengers on the Mayflower that landed at Plymouth in New England in December 1620, but I want to do it again.

Here are my blog posts for each core Mayflower ancestor (with the names of my  Mayflower   passengers in parentheses):

*  My Mayflower Connections - 1. George Soule (George Soule)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 2. William White (William White, Susanna (Jackson) White, Peregrine White)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 3. Richard Warren (Richard Warren)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 4. Francis Cooke (Francis Cooke, John Cooke)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 5. Stephen Hopkins (Stephen Hopkins, Constance Hopkins)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 6. William Brewster (William Brewster, Mary (--?--) Brewster)

*  My Mayflower Connections - 7. Edward Fuller (Edward Fuller, Ann? (--?--), Samuel Fuller)

So my ancestors include 14 Mayflower 1620 passengers. Of those, I think only William White, Edward Fuller and Ann Fuller did not survive the first winter, so 11 were at the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621.

I probably have sufficient information to apply for and receive a General Society of Mayflower Descendants membership for the William White line - I just haven't started the application process. My White, Soule, Cooke and Warren lines come down to a common descendant - 3rd great-grandfather Jonathan White (1803-1850). I may be able to apply on those lines also with a bit more work. The Brewster, Hopkins and Fuller lines are through other lines, and need a lot more work on my part before I could apply for membership in GSMD.

See the 2012 post on this topic to see how I answered the reader comment:   "Why are you boasting about your Mayflower ancestors? Are you trying to show that you are a better researcher than the rest of us? Or that these passengers were somehow special?"

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/my-mayflower-1620-connections-soule.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.

Seavers in the News -- Alexander H. Seaver Dies in 1911 in Arlington, Mass.

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 Boston [Mass.] Globe newspaper dated 13 November 1911:

The transcription of the article is:

"ALEXANDER H. SEAVER DEAD

------

Had Been a Resident of Arlington

for Many Years - Formerly in Business in Boston

"ARLINGTON, Nov. 15 -- Alexander H. Seaver died at his home, 824 Massachusetts av, this morning after a long illness from cancer of the stomach.

"Mr. Seaver was born in Worcester, Nov. 16, 1841. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted with the 25th Massachusetts Regiment and served through the war, but escaped serious injury. After the close of the war he followed his trade of silversmith for a time, and later came to Boston, where he was a member of the firm of Seaver Dunbar & Whidden, furniture dealers, in Haymarket sq. When Washington st. North was constructed the building was demolished, and the firm went out of business. Mr. Seaver then came to Arlington and purchased the news stand here and built up the Arlington News Company. He held the store for four years, and then sold out. Since that time he has led a retired live.

"In town affairs he served three years on the Board of Assessors. In G.A.R. life he was always prominent, and a meeting of the comrades was never complete without him. He occupied many minor offices in Francis Gould Post 36, G.A.R., and also served as commander two terms.

"Mr. Seaver was well known all through the town. He was a man of sterling quality, and his word was as good as his bond. He is survived by his wife.

"The funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon, the day on which he would have been 7 years old. The services will be conducted by Rev Samuel C. Bushnell, pastor of the Pleasant st. Congregational Church. Interment will be in Worcester."

The source citation is:

"Alexander H. Seaver Dead," The Boston [Mass.] Globe newspaper, obituary, Monday, 13 November 1911, page 4, column 6, Alexander H. Seaver obituary; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 November 2019).

Civil War soldier, GAR member, silversmith, furniture dealer, news stand owner, retiree. There is only a passing mention of a surviving wife and no mention of children.

Alexander Harrison Seaver was born 16 November 1841 in Holden, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the 4th son and 7th and last child of Alexander H. and Nancy (Newman) Seaver. His father died before he was two years old, and his mother died before he was seven years old.

Alexander married Ellen Frances Drury (1842-1918) on 3 August 1862 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and they had two children born in Worcester:

* Frederic Seaver (1866-1866).

* Alice Seaver (1870-1870).

Both children died within five months of their births. How sad that must have been for Alexander and Ellen.

Alexander Harrison Seaver is my 3rd cousin 4 times removed, and his children are my 4th cousins 3 times removed.

There are over 8,000 Seaver "stories" in my family tree - this was one of them. Life happens, accidentally and intentionally, and sometimes the life of a person is dedicated to business and public service. I am glad I can honor Alexander Harrison Seaver today.

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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/2019/11/seavers-in-news-alexander-h-seaver-dies.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 - 1896 Masonic Lodge Application of Henry Austin Carringer

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 1896 Masonic Lodge application for membership by my great-grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946) in San Diego:

The transcription of the application is (handwritten entries in italics):

Application for Membership

--------------

To the Worshipful Master, the Wardens and Members at

San Diego Lodge No. 35, F & A. M.

The undersigned respectfully represents that he is a Master Mason in good
standing: that he was last a member of Boulder
Lodge No. 45 , in the State of Colorado
from which he has honorably withdrawn, as by the accompanying certificate will
appear; and that he now desires, if found worthy, to become a member of your
Lodge.

His place of residence is San Diego , he is 43
years of age, and he is by occupation a Door and Sash Manufacturer.

Dated at San Diego, California, May 7 189 6

(Name must be Signed in Full.) Henry A. Carringer

Recommended by Refers to
Bro. E J Louis F.S. Plimpton
Bro. E.E. Whitney E.F. Brown

The source citation for this record is:

San Diego Lodge No. 35, F & A.M., Application for Membership, 22 May 1896, San Diego, Calif, Henry A. Carringer. Obtained via email from San Diego Lodge No. 35, 25 November 2019.

After finding the withdrawal certificate in my digital files last week, I looked up the San Diego Lodge 35 and sent an email to the Lodge secretary. He quickly found the file for Henry A. Carringer, copied it, and sent it to me in email as a PDF attachment. There are 5 sheets of paper in the file.

The file includes a letter from the Boulder, Colorado Lodge noting that he was a member in good standing there. I could determine if that Lodge is still in existence, and if they have a similar file for Henry A. Carringer to see if there is more information from his application there.

Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946) lived with his parents as residents of Boulder, Colorado from about 1873 to 1887. Henry Austin married Abbie Ardell "Della" Smith (1862-1944) in Wano, Kansas on 11 September 1887, and they came to San Diego by train on their honeymoon and never left. So from 1887 to 1896, Henry A. Carringer was in San Diego and not in Boulder, Colorado.

My great-grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer was the son of David Jackson and Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer. Austin and Della had two sons born in San Diego; the youngest son died in infancy, and the second son who survived to adulthood was my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/treasure-chest-thursday-1896-masonic.html

Happy Thanksgiving 2019!!

Thanksgiving

Gettin' together to smile an' rejoice,

An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;

An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they

Are growin' more beautiful day after day;

Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,

Buildin' the old family circle again;

Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,

Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door

And under the old roof we gather once more

Just as we did when the youngsters were small;

Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.

Father's a little bit older, but still

Ready to romp an' to laugh with a will.

Here we are back at the table again

Tellin' our stories as women an' men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;

Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.

Home from the east land an' home from the west,

Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.

Out of the sham of the cities afar

We've come for a time to be just what we are.

Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,

Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.

Give me the end of the year an' its fun

When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;

Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,

Let me sit down with the ones I love best,

Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,

See the old faces unblemished by wrong,

See the old table with all of its chairs

An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/happy-thanksgiving-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, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

RootsMagic 8 News - To Be Released in 2020?

Bruce Buzbee had a RootsMagic blog post on 13 November - The Road to RootsMagic 8:- An Important Update that all RootsMagic current and future users should read. The important features of the news were:

* RootsMagic 8 will not be released by the end of 2019. Bruce explains why, but does not provide a release date.

* A 33 minute video of a test drive of RootsMagic 8 - on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=7IpxVnaIo8A and embedded below:

The video covers all of the main features in RootsMagic 8 except for the Publish features (I think they forgot to click it).

According to the comments on the blog post and on Facebook, Mac users running RootsMagic 7 should not switch to the new Catalina operating system until the necessary changes to enable RM7 are made, and that RootsMagic 8 will be compatible with Catalina OS when it is released.

The look and feel are significantly different from RootsMagic 7, but the blog post and video assures everyone that all of the latest features in RootsMagic 7 (including the Ancestry TreeShare, FamilySearch Family Tree matching, and WebHints) will work in RootsMagic 8.

I think that there will be a significant learning curve for RM8 users because of the changes, but it should be faster and more intuitive than RM7. After 13 years with essentially the same screens and navigation tools, this old dog will have to re-train his fingers to do many of the functions that are now "automagic."

My thanks to Bruce and the team for working through all the issues to provide a quality product when RootsMagic 8 is released.

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Disclosure: I have been a happy RootsMagic user since 2006, and have purchased every new version. I have not received material considerations from RootsMagic.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/rootsmagic-8-news-to-be-released-in-2020.html

Our Family in Summer 1995 -- Post 593 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

I can't help it, I can't do a wordless post! I found some more family photos hiding in my voluminous My Pictures file folder - This is one of my favorite photographs:

This photograph of our family was taken in our backyard on Via Trieste in Chula Vista looking west in the summer of 1995. From the left are:

* Daughter Lori Lee (age 21) home from her third year of college at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

* Randy Seaver (age 51)wearing his "Bank of Dad" shirt and beaming with pride.

* Daughter Tami Joy (age 18) home from her first year of college at Azusa Pacific.

* Linda Seaver (age 52) looking colorful and happy to have her girls home for a week or so

The school year before this summer was our first "empty nest" year with both girls away at college and we were enjoying our work and interests.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/our-family-in-summer-1995-post-593-of.html

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Genealogy News Bytes - Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Some of the genealogy news and education items across my monitor the last four days include:

1) News Articles:

* Nominations to the 2020 National Genealogy Hall of Fame

* We’re Losing Generations of Family History Because We Don’t Share Our Stories

* Construction Workers Find “Incredibly Rare” Remains of 8,000-Year-Old Village in Massachusetts

2) New or Updated Record Collections:

* Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - Week of 17 to 23 November 2019

* New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of 25 November 2019

* Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 17 to 23 November 2019

3) Genealogy Education - Webinars (times are US Pacific):

* GeneaWebinars Calendar

* Free Family History Library Classes and Webinars for November 2019

* Upcoming Family Tree Webinar - Tuesday, 26 November, 5 p.m.: Buried Treasures: What's in the English Parish Chest, by Paul Milner

* Archived Family Tree Webinar: I Received DNA Matches, Now What? by Daniel Horowitz

4) Genealogy Education - Podcasts:

* Family Tree Magazine: Picture-Perfect Photo Books: Episode 131

* Research Like a Pro: RLP 72: Getting Things Done Part 2 – Clarify

* Extreme Genes: Episode 307 – From Spit to Screen: Woodbury on DNA Analysis

* Fisher's Top Tips: #131r - Slave Research

* Ancestral Findings: The Origin and Meaning of Your Greek Surname | AF-296

5) Genealogy Videos (YouTube):

* Amie Bowser Tennant: Genealogy Tip Tuesday: 3 Underutilized Tools at FamilySearch.org

* DNA Family Trees: Black Friday DNA Kits Compared

* Family History Fanatics: Have Fun Exploring The Past Through Ancestry's US Yearbook Collection

* Family History Fanatics: Visual Phasing Part 4: Reconciling Matches - A Segment of DNA

* Genealogy Adventures Live: S03 E09 GA Live: Researching Children with Parents who had Multiple Marriages

* Lisa Louise Cooke: Genealogy Roots Event Day 1 in Sandy Utah 2019 Recap

* Lisa Lisson: The Best 42 Genealogy Gifts for the Family Historian On Your List

6) Genealogy Bargains:

* Genealogy Bargains Tuesday, November 26, 2019

* The RootsMagic Holiday Offer is Back!

* Evidentia Offers Great Holiday Sale!

* Legacy Family Tree Black Friday Legacy and Webinar sale – 50% off

7) DNA Stories:

* Thanksgiving Reunion: DNA testing brings family together after 64 years apart

* After Four Decades, a Vietnamese Woman Reunites With the Daughter Airlifted to America

8) Did you miss the last Genealogy News Bytes - 22 November 2019?

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/genealogy-news-bytes-tuesday-26.html

Tuesday's Tip: Use the "Find A Grave" Web Site to Find Burial Records

The record collection for the "Find A Grave" is one of my favorite collections. This collection is available on:

* Find A Grave (Free) - there is no count available on the web site. Has memorial information with photos, relatives, notes.

* Ancestry.com ($$) - Find A Grave Index, 1300 to Current - 148,768,351 indexed memorials with links to Find A Grave pages.

* FamilySearch (Free) - Find A Grave Index - 180,099,516 entries, with links to Find A Grave pages.

The description of the collection on the Find A Grave About page says:

Find A Grave is the best place on the internet to look for burial and other final disposition information for your family, friends and famous people. The site provides tools that let people from all over the world work together, share information and build an online, virtual cemetery experience.

At Find A Grave you’ll find details about cemeteries and individual memorials for many people buried in those cemeteries. Memorials generally include birth, death and burial information and may include pictures, biographies, family information and more. Members can contribute what they know and can leave remembrances via 'virtual flowers' on the memorials they visit, completing the virtual cemetery experience.

It is important to understand what this collection at Find A Grave represents and includes. It is memorials - not just gravestones - and some information may be obtained from vital records, books, newspapers, and other records. The site has a search engine that recently was improved but still requires a last name (can be a partial name). Each memorial has a link for a source citation at the bottom of the memorial page.

The indexes at Find A Grave on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch have more search options, and are more tolerant of different name spellings, year ranges, places, etc.
Find A Grave does not have memorials or photographs for every person who ever lived. Almot all of these memorials were created by volunteers, and a very small percentage are wrong in some way - the stones are not always easy to read, the records may be for the wrong person, or the links to family members may be wrong.

I don't know why Find A Grave doesn't provide the number of memorials on their site - there are memorials with an ID number over 205 million, but, apparently, some memorials have been deleted due to duplication or removal requests.

I entered several exact surnames in the "Last Name" search field in Ancestry, FamilySearch and Find A Grave (20 per page) and found:

* 3,659 for "Seaver" (on Ancestry) 4,546 (on FamilySearch) over 3,900 (on Find A Grave)
* 675 for "Seavers" 855 over 740
* 449 for "Seever" 562 over 460
* 1,265 for "Seevers" 1,597 over 1,320
* 1,230 for "Sever" 1,590 over 1,380
* 1,232 for "Severs" 1,781 over 1,500

* 493 for "Carringer" 607 over 500
* 59 for "Caringer" 77 over 60

* 490 for "Vaux" 879 over 800

* 706 for "Auble" 869 over 720

* 1,562,916 for "Smith" 2,131,491 over 10,000 (limit)

I don't know why the numbers are so different between the three sites. Perhaps the Ancestry numbers do not include non-USA memorials? Perhaps Ancestry has not updated the number of records in their Card Catalog.

Here is an example of a record summary from this collection on Find A Grave (two screens, no overlap):

The user can Save the images to his computer. Clicking on the image provides a larger image.

On Find A Grave, a researcher can request a photograph be taken in a specific cemetery for a specific person if the person is buried there.

These records are all Derivative Sources, with Secondary Information and Direct Evidence.

I use these databases extensively to find my ancestors, my relatives, and other persons in my family tree. The RootsMagic program I use accesses Ancestry WebHints that include the Find A Grave database, but I still have to click on the Find A Grave link on Ancestry to see the photos, notes, and links to family members.

For those interested in mining this record collection for Hints of persons in their Ancestry Member Tree, the Ancestry.com database number is 60525.  Currently, I have over 7,400 Hints for persons in my Ancestry Member Tree who are indexed in this record collection. I work on them occasionally, adding content and source citations to profiles in my RootsMagic family tree. Of course, I have many more accepted Hints from this collection already in my RootsMagic family tree and my Ancestry Member Tree.

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NOTE: Tuesday's Tips is a genealogy blog meme intended to provide information about a resource helpful to genealogists and family historians, especially in the online genea-world.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/tuesdays-tip-use-find-grave-web-site-to.html

Pages

Friday, November 29, 2019

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Tuesday, November 26, 2019