The Chula Vista Genealogical Society recently completed the publication of the "Burial Records of Glen Abbey Memorial Park," which is located in Bonita CA, just east of Chula Vista and south of San Diego. It is the largest cemetery south of San Diego in the County. Over 35,000 people were buried here between 1924 and 1999 (deaths since 2000 are not included). The complete work is arranged in alphabetical order by SURNAME and is searchable and printable. This volunteer project took over ten years to complete by our members working with the cemetery people. In paper form, the work is 1,562 pages.
The Society has put these records on a CD-ROM and is selling the CDs in order to recoup our costs. This CVGS web page provides more details.
There is an Early Bird Special for orders before October 1, 2006: the price before October 1 is $14.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling (a total of $19.90), plus $1.15 sales tax if you are a California resident (for a total of $21.05). For orders after October 1, the cost is $19.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling (a total of $24.90) plus $1.55 sales tax if you are a California resident (for a total of $26.40).
You can order the CD by sending a check or money order in the appropriate amount to Chula Vista Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 3024, Chula Vista CA 91909-3024. Please state how many CD's you wish to buy and provide your name and address. For more information, please call the CVGS President, John Finch, at 619-990-0127. A one page flyer is available from Randy Seaver via email at rjseaver(at)cox.net.
CVGS is not done...we have started the Burial Records of La Vista Cemetery in National City, the next largest cemetery south of San Diego.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
If Genealogy interest is so high, why are the numbers down?
Back in early July, Dick Eastman on his blog asked this question, and received quite a few comments, including two from me. Dick made the observations that:
You can read the rest of his article and the comments at the link above. It was a good discussion, with a number of views represented.
In my opinion, the two big factors that caused the decline include:
While Dick and others are concerned about conferences, since that is a big part of their genealogy work, many of us are more concerned about our local societies.
My view is that in almost every situation, the 80-20 rule of societal interaction applies:
1) In our society of 300 million people, about 20% express an "interest" in genealogy - say 60 million people.
2) Of those with an "interest," 20% have done some real research, the others are just theoretically interested - so say 12 million have done some research.
3) Of those who have done research, about 20% have actively pursued genealogy research (have a colelction of records, software, databases, etc) - say 2.4 million people.
4) About 20% of those folks are fairly active now in pursuing their ancestry, the rest have let it lapse or can't pursue it now due to any number of reasons - so we're down to about 500,000 people who are currently "fairly active".
5) About 20% of those "fairly active" research folks are in local, regional or national societies, the other 80% either can't afford it, do their research independent of any group, etc - say about 100,000 people.
6) About 20% of those folks in the local societies are "real active" - they are officers, volunteers, speakers, attendees at nearly every meeting, etc. The other 80% attend once in awhile or don't count society activities as a high priority, but as a "nice to do once in awhile." So we're down to maybe 20,000 real active people.
7) About 20% of those folks who are real active on the local level become speakers, attend conferences occasionally, and consider becoming a professional - that's maybe 4,000 people.
8) About 20% of those folks are actively engaged in the genealogy profession - they write books, magazine articles and research articles, they attend and speak at conferences, they work for clients, they are accredited, etc. That adds up to about 1,000 people.
So why are only 1,000 (more or less) regularly attending the major conferences? It comes down to those 4,000 people in 7) above - their health, travel costs, schedule conflicts, and other factors, I think. About 20% attend, of whom some are the item 8) professionals!
The above is just my own theory, but in my local area it sort of pans out. My small Chula Vista (city has 200,000 population)society has 80 members - we have about 20 who attend just about every meeting, 4 are regular speakers, none is a professional. The larger San Diego (city has population of 1.2 million) society has about 400 members, has an average meeting attendance of 80 or so, has 15 to 20 who are speakers, and several who are professionals. The percentages don't add up exactly, but you get the idea.
So how can we increase the membership in societies and increase attendance at confderences? We need to attract more people in groups 3) and 4) above by communicating better and by offering new and different programs at times convenient to these people. Many of them work, and cannot attend a weekday society meeting. We also need to get these people back to the library to pursue research in original sources - records not found on the internet (yet! See yesterdays post on Arlene Eakle's article).
I'll close this long-winded analysis here, but I welcome your thoughts and comments! Did anyone read the whole thing? You get a gold genealogy star today!
Fact #1: Genealogy is more popular today than ever before. It is the second or third or fourth most popular topic on the Web, depending upon whose sources you care to cite.
Fact #2: Attendance at all genealogy venues is down. The average attendance at genealogy conferences is declining. (Note that I wrote "average." There are some notable exceptions.) Membership in genealogy societies is also declining. Finally, the number of visitors to most major genealogy libraries reportedly is declining.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a contradiction in these two "facts?" If interest in genealogy is growing, why aren't we seeing more and more people at conferences, libraries, and society meetings?
You can read the rest of his article and the comments at the link above. It was a good discussion, with a number of views represented.
In my opinion, the two big factors that caused the decline include:
1) The proliferation of genealogy resources on the Internet.
2) The aging of our genealogy population.
The Internet is very seductive - you can spend months collecting new data for your family, without knowing a whole lot about doing real genealogy research in original sources. This type of "pajamas research" appeals to the generation of boomers (still working) who want everything "now." Unfortunately, many don't want, or don't realize the need, to take the next step and go to a library, join a society or attend a conference.
The aging of those who have done "real research" and don't do much Internet research precludes them, physically and financially, from going to conferences or attending society meetings. It's unfortunate, but true.
That's why societies have to change their programs to incorporate a blend of traditional and Internet topics, help their members get to libraries, publicize the conferences, etc.
While Dick and others are concerned about conferences, since that is a big part of their genealogy work, many of us are more concerned about our local societies.
My view is that in almost every situation, the 80-20 rule of societal interaction applies:
1) In our society of 300 million people, about 20% express an "interest" in genealogy - say 60 million people.
2) Of those with an "interest," 20% have done some real research, the others are just theoretically interested - so say 12 million have done some research.
3) Of those who have done research, about 20% have actively pursued genealogy research (have a colelction of records, software, databases, etc) - say 2.4 million people.
4) About 20% of those folks are fairly active now in pursuing their ancestry, the rest have let it lapse or can't pursue it now due to any number of reasons - so we're down to about 500,000 people who are currently "fairly active".
5) About 20% of those "fairly active" research folks are in local, regional or national societies, the other 80% either can't afford it, do their research independent of any group, etc - say about 100,000 people.
6) About 20% of those folks in the local societies are "real active" - they are officers, volunteers, speakers, attendees at nearly every meeting, etc. The other 80% attend once in awhile or don't count society activities as a high priority, but as a "nice to do once in awhile." So we're down to maybe 20,000 real active people.
7) About 20% of those folks who are real active on the local level become speakers, attend conferences occasionally, and consider becoming a professional - that's maybe 4,000 people.
8) About 20% of those folks are actively engaged in the genealogy profession - they write books, magazine articles and research articles, they attend and speak at conferences, they work for clients, they are accredited, etc. That adds up to about 1,000 people.
So why are only 1,000 (more or less) regularly attending the major conferences? It comes down to those 4,000 people in 7) above - their health, travel costs, schedule conflicts, and other factors, I think. About 20% attend, of whom some are the item 8) professionals!
The above is just my own theory, but in my local area it sort of pans out. My small Chula Vista (city has 200,000 population)society has 80 members - we have about 20 who attend just about every meeting, 4 are regular speakers, none is a professional. The larger San Diego (city has population of 1.2 million) society has about 400 members, has an average meeting attendance of 80 or so, has 15 to 20 who are speakers, and several who are professionals. The percentages don't add up exactly, but you get the idea.
So how can we increase the membership in societies and increase attendance at confderences? We need to attract more people in groups 3) and 4) above by communicating better and by offering new and different programs at times convenient to these people. Many of them work, and cannot attend a weekday society meeting. We also need to get these people back to the library to pursue research in original sources - records not found on the internet (yet! See yesterdays post on Arlene Eakle's article).
I'll close this long-winded analysis here, but I welcome your thoughts and comments! Did anyone read the whole thing? You get a gold genealogy star today!
Early California vital records article
An interesting article about Early California vital records was published in the Los Angeles Times on 8 August, titled "Huntington Library Database Tells the Stories of 100,000 Mission Indians," by Larry Gordon, Times Staff Writer.
The article was posted to the CASANDIE-L message board at Rootsweb. Unfortunately, access at the LATimes is behind their firewall - you have to be a registered user to see it.
The article reads:
Reclaiming a neglected part of California's past, historians Monday unveiled an immense data bank that for the first time chronicles the lives and deaths of more than 100,000 Indians in the Spanish missions of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In an eight-year effort, researchers at the Huntington Library in San Marino used handwritten records of baptisms, marriages and deaths at 21 Catholic missions and two other sites from between 1769 and 1850 and created a cross-referenced computerized repository that is now open to public access.
The Early California Population Project, its creators hope, will help bring the state's Spanish colonial and Mexican eras from out of the long shadows cast by the 13 English colonies on the East Coast.
"What we are trying to do here is to say these people have a history, and it's not a history that can be caricatured," said the project's general editor, historian Steven W. Hackel. "It's a history that emerges from a deep native past and a deep Spanish past and shows how the two came together for better or worse."
Huntington officials say scholars and amateur genealogists will be able to track, among other things, how many descendants of a Miwok Indian survived into the era of U.S. statehood, how many people died in an earthquake or a measles epidemic, how frequent intermarriage was between Spanish soldiers and Indian women, or how many Indians worked in farming or became skilled artisans.
The database does not offer judgments on the long debates about whether the Franciscans forced Indians into the missions and treated them brutally or whether Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California mission system, deserves to be, as he is now, just one step from sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
However, it does document the Franciscans' obsessions with converting Indians to Catholicism and its bans on polygamy and illegitimacy. And, death by death, it shows an extraordinarily high mortality rate as Indians became exposed to European diseases such as measles, influenza and smallpox.
"People who think the missions were places of cultural genocide and terrible population decline can look at this database, and they'll see that people came into the missions and died soon after," said Hackel, a history professor at Oregon State University. "People who want to see something else in the missions can look here too. It also shows tremendous Indian persistence and attempts to maintain their own communities within the missions."
The public can gain access to the database through an Internet link at http://www.huntington.org . Conducting searches on the site can be complicated at first because of the many choices involved.
The project, which cost $650,000, used records mainly taken from microfilm of the originals. They overwhelmingly concern Indians in the coastal regions from the San Diego to Marin County areas, perhaps as many as half of the Indians within the current state borders. Some Spanish soldiers and Mexican settlers are included through the turbulent times of Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 and California U.S. statehood in 1850.
There are some gaps in the documents as the missions declined, the Franciscans were stripped of their authority and Indians revolted. After the San Diego mission was burned down in an insurrection in 1775, the priests re-created the logs from memory, Hackel said.
Still, the Franciscans remained good record-keepers. They assigned numbers to each baptism and carefully noted parents and godparents, village of origin, ethnic background and trades. As a result, many people can be traced with astonishing specifics through life and, with computer links, their progeny.
For example, a 2-day-old Indian boy, given the name Francisco, was baptized Aug. 11, 1786, at Mission San Diego, the project shows. The information links to his marriage at 18 to a woman named Maria Loreta, also 18 (a spinster by that era's customs) and her death five years later with no children.
Francisco married again the next year to Antonina, who died childless 10 months later. He married a third time, to Thomasa (she was 13 and he was 26) and had a baby girl, Ynes, who died at 6 months. Francisco died April 4, 1817, apparently held in high regard by the Franciscans because he was given a deathbed communion, not just an anointing.
Thomasa married twice more and had 10 more children, two of whom are recorded as dying in infancy.
The causes of deaths in that clan were not given, but other records reveal risks of Western life beyond disease. Some people died from bear and snake attacks and others drowned in wells. The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake killed 39, all buried in the ruins of the mission church.
"It tells us one heck of a lot about the people of California before 1850," said Robert C. Ritchie, the Huntington's director of research. "It has an enormous amount of detail that sits below the big story we know: the dying of so many native people along the coast."
Although surveys of smaller groups of missions were done in the past, none pulled together populations from across what was known as Alta California, scholars say. Plus, no other project on this topic was designed for the average person, not just experts, to navigate.
"The goal is democratic and open access to records that previously were, if not inaccessible, very, very hard to get," said Hackel, whose 2005 book, "Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis," examined Indian-Spanish relations in that period.
The raw records can be difficult to read, interpret and put into context, he added.
The project involved eye-straining work that took the equivalent of between two and four full-time employees since 1999. Their job was to take hundreds of thousands of bits of information from the microfilm of sometimes damaged and illegible mission books and put them into easy-to-read computer formats.
Anne Marie Reid, the inputting team leader, recalled feeling ill sometimes after long days staring at dark microfilm in Spanish and Latin and entering names and dates into computer logs.
But she said she also gained a feeling of fellowship with the Indians and priests as she recognized their names in various references. "You come to know these people," she said recently in her small workroom with consoles and screens.
In all, statistics were gleaned on an estimated 120,000 people, including some with incomplete records and some mentioned just once as a parent. Included are about 101,000 baptisms, 28,000 marriages and 71,000 burials at all 21 missions and from the Los Angeles Plaza Church and the Santa Barbara Presidio.
Partly because of the size, the project experienced some delays this summer because of software glitches.
The Huntington has a few original and very valuable mission records, including a page in Serra's very legible hand about three baptisms on Dec. 1, 1783, at Mission San Luis Obispo. Missions and other Catholic archives hold most of the surviving books but usually allow scholars to see only microfilm copies, some made 50 years ago.
Among the institutions lending microfilm for the project were the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, the archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Santa Clara University. John R. Johnson, curator of anthropology for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and Randall Milliken, a Davis-based anthropologist and mission expert, helped with planning.
The largest financial support for the project came from the National Endowment for the Humanities ($294,000), the California State Library ($163,000) and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation ($110,000).
The Dan Murphy Foundation and the Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation were among other donors.
Anthony Morales, tribal chair and chief of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Band of Mission Indians of San Gabriel, said he thought the project would "really catch the interest of all kinds of people like educators and researchers and just average folks who are interested in their families."
Some people, he said, will search for evidence of brutality in the mission system such as forced conversions and labor, while others will look for a more positive picture, such as "what did happen after my great-great-grandmother got converted and baptized."
Robert Senkewicz, a Santa Clara University historian who is an expert on early California, said the accessibility of the database is its "great virtue."
"It will make genealogists feel like they died and went to heaven," he said.
===============================================
I'm not sure I believe the last quote - I think that only the genealogists who need these records will feel great about it - the rest of us will say "that's nice," and forget about it.
The article was posted to the CASANDIE-L message board at Rootsweb. Unfortunately, access at the LATimes is behind their firewall - you have to be a registered user to see it.
The article reads:
Reclaiming a neglected part of California's past, historians Monday unveiled an immense data bank that for the first time chronicles the lives and deaths of more than 100,000 Indians in the Spanish missions of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In an eight-year effort, researchers at the Huntington Library in San Marino used handwritten records of baptisms, marriages and deaths at 21 Catholic missions and two other sites from between 1769 and 1850 and created a cross-referenced computerized repository that is now open to public access.
The Early California Population Project, its creators hope, will help bring the state's Spanish colonial and Mexican eras from out of the long shadows cast by the 13 English colonies on the East Coast.
"What we are trying to do here is to say these people have a history, and it's not a history that can be caricatured," said the project's general editor, historian Steven W. Hackel. "It's a history that emerges from a deep native past and a deep Spanish past and shows how the two came together for better or worse."
Huntington officials say scholars and amateur genealogists will be able to track, among other things, how many descendants of a Miwok Indian survived into the era of U.S. statehood, how many people died in an earthquake or a measles epidemic, how frequent intermarriage was between Spanish soldiers and Indian women, or how many Indians worked in farming or became skilled artisans.
The database does not offer judgments on the long debates about whether the Franciscans forced Indians into the missions and treated them brutally or whether Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California mission system, deserves to be, as he is now, just one step from sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
However, it does document the Franciscans' obsessions with converting Indians to Catholicism and its bans on polygamy and illegitimacy. And, death by death, it shows an extraordinarily high mortality rate as Indians became exposed to European diseases such as measles, influenza and smallpox.
"People who think the missions were places of cultural genocide and terrible population decline can look at this database, and they'll see that people came into the missions and died soon after," said Hackel, a history professor at Oregon State University. "People who want to see something else in the missions can look here too. It also shows tremendous Indian persistence and attempts to maintain their own communities within the missions."
The public can gain access to the database through an Internet link at http://www.huntington.org . Conducting searches on the site can be complicated at first because of the many choices involved.
The project, which cost $650,000, used records mainly taken from microfilm of the originals. They overwhelmingly concern Indians in the coastal regions from the San Diego to Marin County areas, perhaps as many as half of the Indians within the current state borders. Some Spanish soldiers and Mexican settlers are included through the turbulent times of Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 and California U.S. statehood in 1850.
There are some gaps in the documents as the missions declined, the Franciscans were stripped of their authority and Indians revolted. After the San Diego mission was burned down in an insurrection in 1775, the priests re-created the logs from memory, Hackel said.
Still, the Franciscans remained good record-keepers. They assigned numbers to each baptism and carefully noted parents and godparents, village of origin, ethnic background and trades. As a result, many people can be traced with astonishing specifics through life and, with computer links, their progeny.
For example, a 2-day-old Indian boy, given the name Francisco, was baptized Aug. 11, 1786, at Mission San Diego, the project shows. The information links to his marriage at 18 to a woman named Maria Loreta, also 18 (a spinster by that era's customs) and her death five years later with no children.
Francisco married again the next year to Antonina, who died childless 10 months later. He married a third time, to Thomasa (she was 13 and he was 26) and had a baby girl, Ynes, who died at 6 months. Francisco died April 4, 1817, apparently held in high regard by the Franciscans because he was given a deathbed communion, not just an anointing.
Thomasa married twice more and had 10 more children, two of whom are recorded as dying in infancy.
The causes of deaths in that clan were not given, but other records reveal risks of Western life beyond disease. Some people died from bear and snake attacks and others drowned in wells. The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake killed 39, all buried in the ruins of the mission church.
"It tells us one heck of a lot about the people of California before 1850," said Robert C. Ritchie, the Huntington's director of research. "It has an enormous amount of detail that sits below the big story we know: the dying of so many native people along the coast."
Although surveys of smaller groups of missions were done in the past, none pulled together populations from across what was known as Alta California, scholars say. Plus, no other project on this topic was designed for the average person, not just experts, to navigate.
"The goal is democratic and open access to records that previously were, if not inaccessible, very, very hard to get," said Hackel, whose 2005 book, "Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis," examined Indian-Spanish relations in that period.
The raw records can be difficult to read, interpret and put into context, he added.
The project involved eye-straining work that took the equivalent of between two and four full-time employees since 1999. Their job was to take hundreds of thousands of bits of information from the microfilm of sometimes damaged and illegible mission books and put them into easy-to-read computer formats.
Anne Marie Reid, the inputting team leader, recalled feeling ill sometimes after long days staring at dark microfilm in Spanish and Latin and entering names and dates into computer logs.
But she said she also gained a feeling of fellowship with the Indians and priests as she recognized their names in various references. "You come to know these people," she said recently in her small workroom with consoles and screens.
In all, statistics were gleaned on an estimated 120,000 people, including some with incomplete records and some mentioned just once as a parent. Included are about 101,000 baptisms, 28,000 marriages and 71,000 burials at all 21 missions and from the Los Angeles Plaza Church and the Santa Barbara Presidio.
Partly because of the size, the project experienced some delays this summer because of software glitches.
The Huntington has a few original and very valuable mission records, including a page in Serra's very legible hand about three baptisms on Dec. 1, 1783, at Mission San Luis Obispo. Missions and other Catholic archives hold most of the surviving books but usually allow scholars to see only microfilm copies, some made 50 years ago.
Among the institutions lending microfilm for the project were the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, the archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Santa Clara University. John R. Johnson, curator of anthropology for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and Randall Milliken, a Davis-based anthropologist and mission expert, helped with planning.
The largest financial support for the project came from the National Endowment for the Humanities ($294,000), the California State Library ($163,000) and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation ($110,000).
The Dan Murphy Foundation and the Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation were among other donors.
Anthony Morales, tribal chair and chief of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Band of Mission Indians of San Gabriel, said he thought the project would "really catch the interest of all kinds of people like educators and researchers and just average folks who are interested in their families."
Some people, he said, will search for evidence of brutality in the mission system such as forced conversions and labor, while others will look for a more positive picture, such as "what did happen after my great-great-grandmother got converted and baptized."
Robert Senkewicz, a Santa Clara University historian who is an expert on early California, said the accessibility of the database is its "great virtue."
"It will make genealogists feel like they died and went to heaven," he said.
===============================================
I'm not sure I believe the last quote - I think that only the genealogists who need these records will feel great about it - the rest of us will say "that's nice," and forget about it.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Indexing the World?
Well-known genealogist Arlene Eakle has started a weekly blog, and her two articles so far are very interesting.
This week, Arlene passed word on the new LDS FamilySearch (R) Retooled in her article here. The money quote from her article:
And what will be the impact on researchers? Arlene thinks:
I can hardly wait, but will have to temper my enthusiasm for at least a while.
Go read the whole article. And put Arlene's blog in your Favorites or Bookmarks for weekly reference.
We are seeing more professionals blogging and sharing their news, experience and research. That is a really good thing.
This week, Arlene passed word on the new LDS FamilySearch (R) Retooled in her article here. The money quote from her article:
The records and Information Division estimates that it will take 6-7 years to scan all 2.5 million microfilm rolls stored in the Granite Mountain Vaults. In the meantime, technology development continues so that every word in those frames can be digitally indexed and electronically stored for retrieval.
And what will be the impact on researchers? Arlene thinks:
With electronic help, each and every name, each and every word in each and every record can be indexed! So that all of us can find particular ancestors quickly. Names become the primary focus of the databases; localities and jurisdictions become identifiers.
We need a whole News Sheet to discuss the dramatic impact of an every name and every word index to the original genealogical documents of the world. And we need some time to let the above news sink in! Let me mention just one exciting option: surname intersections. This search feature will identify where 2 surnames intersect in marriage records so you can find the place of the marriage and print the marriage document itself.
I can hardly wait, but will have to temper my enthusiasm for at least a while.
Go read the whole article. And put Arlene's blog in your Favorites or Bookmarks for weekly reference.
We are seeing more professionals blogging and sharing their news, experience and research. That is a really good thing.
I Love "Cow Hampshire"
New Hampshire is one of my favorite states, and the one I've been to most after Massachusetts and Nevada. I have a number of cousins there that we visit occasionally. We're going again in two weeks.
Cow Hampshire is a blog written by Janice Brown, which covers New Hampshire history, genealogy, photography and humor, plus a lot of Cow material. I visit the site regularly to read the material and view the beautiful pictures, and I love the humor - all about cows or New Hampshire. I asked Janice for sightseeing recommendations for our vacation, and she came up with a nice list for our visiting pleasure.
Visit Cow Hampshire and enjoy the material - I love it!
Cow Hampshire is a blog written by Janice Brown, which covers New Hampshire history, genealogy, photography and humor, plus a lot of Cow material. I visit the site regularly to read the material and view the beautiful pictures, and I love the humor - all about cows or New Hampshire. I asked Janice for sightseeing recommendations for our vacation, and she came up with a nice list for our visiting pleasure.
Visit Cow Hampshire and enjoy the material - I love it!
New Everton's Genie Helper issue
The first issue of the Everton's Genealogical Helper magazine with Leland Meitzler as Managing Editor has hit the library shelves, so I went browsing through it.
The feature articles are by Richard Hooverson ("Musings and Glranings from the World of History and Genealogy"), George G. Morgan ("Cracking the Cousin Code"), Aaron L. Day ("DNA to Africa"), Loni Gardner ("The Magic of Mindmapping"), and Bill Dollarhide ("State Censuses and Substitutes: A Selected List for all 50 States"). The Dollarhide article is excellent - a keeper for serious researchers. The other articles were mildly interesting, but not real helpful to me
The regular features are still there through the editing change - with at least one major exception (detailed below). The "Bureau of Missing Ancestors" has queries from readers, while the calendar of upcoming events, the CDROM and book reviews are all useful. The Computer Helper section had two articles - one by Leland about "Your Fake Genealogy" - huh? The other by a Ph.D about using automatic word-linkage techniques to find elusive ancestors in the census records. The results of the technique are explained, but I couldn't figure out if he was using an available program (and if so, where to obtain it) or if this was a super-secret tool that only Ph.D.s can effectively have and use. Even Google turns up zero hits for the term.
The major disappointment for me in the editorship change is the loss of the column that listed the brickwall problems of readers along with answers by professional researchers suggesting avenues for further research. I found that feature very informative and useful, and was my major reason to read the magazine.
It's probably too late now to join one of the genealogy cruises advertised in the magazine - there is one from BC to Alaska, two to the Mexican Riviera, and one to the Eastern Caribbean. They are all in October or November and our calendar is already full this year. They sound like fun - I wonder if my wife would enjoy one of these?
The feature articles are by Richard Hooverson ("Musings and Glranings from the World of History and Genealogy"), George G. Morgan ("Cracking the Cousin Code"), Aaron L. Day ("DNA to Africa"), Loni Gardner ("The Magic of Mindmapping"), and Bill Dollarhide ("State Censuses and Substitutes: A Selected List for all 50 States"). The Dollarhide article is excellent - a keeper for serious researchers. The other articles were mildly interesting, but not real helpful to me
The regular features are still there through the editing change - with at least one major exception (detailed below). The "Bureau of Missing Ancestors" has queries from readers, while the calendar of upcoming events, the CDROM and book reviews are all useful. The Computer Helper section had two articles - one by Leland about "Your Fake Genealogy" - huh? The other by a Ph.D about using automatic word-linkage techniques to find elusive ancestors in the census records. The results of the technique are explained, but I couldn't figure out if he was using an available program (and if so, where to obtain it) or if this was a super-secret tool that only Ph.D.s can effectively have and use. Even Google turns up zero hits for the term.
The major disappointment for me in the editorship change is the loss of the column that listed the brickwall problems of readers along with answers by professional researchers suggesting avenues for further research. I found that feature very informative and useful, and was my major reason to read the magazine.
It's probably too late now to join one of the genealogy cruises advertised in the magazine - there is one from BC to Alaska, two to the Mexican Riviera, and one to the Eastern Caribbean. They are all in October or November and our calendar is already full this year. They sound like fun - I wonder if my wife would enjoy one of these?
Monday, August 7, 2006
Grill your Granny?
While browsing through the new Everton's Genealogical Helper issue today, I ran across an advertisement for www.GrillYourGranny.com.
Aside from the obvious concern that this was a bad joke about barbecuing your beloved ancestor #5 or #7, I figured I'd take a look. In that respect, the ad worked great! In a saner moment, I guessed that the title really was aimed at questioning your grandmother about her ancestry.
The web site sells ornate family trees (pedigree charts or fan charts up to 8 generations) that you can fill in with your ancestors. They sell the paper copy individually in up to 22 x 17 size, or CDs with 10 images on each CD.
To each his own, I guess. I'm not sure I would have named my web site Grill Your Granny, though.
Aside from the obvious concern that this was a bad joke about barbecuing your beloved ancestor #5 or #7, I figured I'd take a look. In that respect, the ad worked great! In a saner moment, I guessed that the title really was aimed at questioning your grandmother about her ancestry.
The web site sells ornate family trees (pedigree charts or fan charts up to 8 generations) that you can fill in with your ancestors. They sell the paper copy individually in up to 22 x 17 size, or CDs with 10 images on each CD.
To each his own, I guess. I'm not sure I would have named my web site Grill Your Granny, though.
Book Review - "The Sleuth Book for Genealogists"
I bought four genealogy books several weeks ago in order to upgrade my personal library.
The first one I read was "The Sleuth Book for Genealogists" by Emily Anne Croom, published by Betterway Books, Cincinnati OH, 2000, list price $18.99.
The book concentrated on providing information for the "detective" part of the search - when you're stuck and against a brick wall and need help. The chapters included:
* Developing a Research Plan
* Broadening the Scope: Cluster Genealogy
* Documenting Research
* Gathering Information
* Examining Evidence
* Arranging Ideas
* Reporting
Each chapter provides a wealth of information and lists of research ideas to try and execute. There are many nuggets here, for the beginning to advanced researcher, to mine and use in the search for elusive ancestors.
However, the "cute" idea of using quotes of famous historical or fictional sleuths (Sherlock Holmes, etc) to enliven the narrative became a distraction to me.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was the three case studies in the last 62 pages:
* Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Isaac Heldreth's Parents (10 pages)
* Finding Slave ancestors: The Search for the Family of Isaac Davis Sr. (12 pages)
* Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Ann (Robertson) Croom's Parents (40 pages).
These three chapters were excellent examples of putting to use the principles and ideas described in the content part of the book. Each case study described the research steps taken to solve a difficult research problem. Cluster genealogy research concepts were used in all three case studies.
The book includes an overview of basic research resources and techniques, and a guide to documenting research.
All in all, it was a useful and helpful book for me, and I recommend it highly.
The first one I read was "The Sleuth Book for Genealogists" by Emily Anne Croom, published by Betterway Books, Cincinnati OH, 2000, list price $18.99.
The book concentrated on providing information for the "detective" part of the search - when you're stuck and against a brick wall and need help. The chapters included:
* Developing a Research Plan
* Broadening the Scope: Cluster Genealogy
* Documenting Research
* Gathering Information
* Examining Evidence
* Arranging Ideas
* Reporting
Each chapter provides a wealth of information and lists of research ideas to try and execute. There are many nuggets here, for the beginning to advanced researcher, to mine and use in the search for elusive ancestors.
However, the "cute" idea of using quotes of famous historical or fictional sleuths (Sherlock Holmes, etc) to enliven the narrative became a distraction to me.
For me, the most interesting part of the book was the three case studies in the last 62 pages:
* Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Isaac Heldreth's Parents (10 pages)
* Finding Slave ancestors: The Search for the Family of Isaac Davis Sr. (12 pages)
* Finding the Parent Generation: The Search for Ann (Robertson) Croom's Parents (40 pages).
These three chapters were excellent examples of putting to use the principles and ideas described in the content part of the book. Each case study described the research steps taken to solve a difficult research problem. Cluster genealogy research concepts were used in all three case studies.
The book includes an overview of basic research resources and techniques, and a guide to documenting research.
All in all, it was a useful and helpful book for me, and I recommend it highly.
Genetic genealogy article - myths or mistakes?
A positive genealogy article was published today in the San Gabriel (CA) Valley Tribune newspaper here. Several local genealogists are quoted about research in general and DNA testing in particular in "Family History Research Gets a Boost" by Pam Wight (published 8/7/06?).
However, there are two particular statements about DNA research made in the article that I disagree with:
That is pretty far-fetched - if there is a match on a Y-DNA test, then you can identify a common male ancestor sometime back in the patrilineal line. It doesn't define the exact patrilineal line, only an unknown starting point and at least two guys have the same Y-DNA, even though they may be down different lines from the common ancestor. It's only one "line" out of 16, and it doesn't define anything in the other 15 great-great-grandparent lines. There is still lots of research to do!
So did Mr. Yung use his own Y-DNA for this test? If he did, then it would help define a patrilineal ancestor, but not a maternal great-grandfather's line. He would have had to use a brother of his mother or a nephew of his mother (through a brother) to get the right Y-DNA. The other issue with Mr. Yung is he hasn't defined his lineage, only a common male ancestor at least 500 years ago.
Perhaps Mr. Yung told the story right but the reporter got it wrong. Or perhaps all of these folks have it wrong and need a DNA lecture from an expert. Megan? Colleen? How will Megan Smolenyak rate this article?
Speaking of Megan, she has a great story about how DNA proved a relationship here.
However, there are two particular statements about DNA research made in the article that I disagree with:
Miller predicts that within 10 years, DNA technology will be able to tell people what family line they are related to - before they do any other research.
That is pretty far-fetched - if there is a match on a Y-DNA test, then you can identify a common male ancestor sometime back in the patrilineal line. It doesn't define the exact patrilineal line, only an unknown starting point and at least two guys have the same Y-DNA, even though they may be down different lines from the common ancestor. It's only one "line" out of 16, and it doesn't define anything in the other 15 great-great-grandparent lines. There is still lots of research to do!
DNA helped WAGS member Stephen Yung find new relatives in England while searching for the birthplace of his maternal great-grandfather, Richard Chamberlain. "I wanted to know where in England the family was from; it was a stumbling block," said Yung, 66. Through Civil War military records, Yung narrowed his search to North Cadbury, England.
"There were hundreds of Chamberlains over 500 years," said Yung, who spent two weeks poring over birth, death and marriage certificates in North Cadbury in 2004. "I wrote letters to 20 of them and visited some of them. One agreed to do a DNA test."
"He turned out to be a perfect match, so now I can trace my lineage all the way back to 1535 in North Cadbury, where there are still relatives," he added.
So did Mr. Yung use his own Y-DNA for this test? If he did, then it would help define a patrilineal ancestor, but not a maternal great-grandfather's line. He would have had to use a brother of his mother or a nephew of his mother (through a brother) to get the right Y-DNA. The other issue with Mr. Yung is he hasn't defined his lineage, only a common male ancestor at least 500 years ago.
Perhaps Mr. Yung told the story right but the reporter got it wrong. Or perhaps all of these folks have it wrong and need a DNA lecture from an expert. Megan? Colleen? How will Megan Smolenyak rate this article?
Speaking of Megan, she has a great story about how DNA proved a relationship here.
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Carnival of Genealogy #5 is posted
Jasia at the Creative Gene blog has posted the latest Carnival of Genealogy, #5, with the topic being Historical Fiction books.
What is a Carnival of Genealogy you ask? It's a collection of blog posts by various bloggers that have been collected by the carnival master or mistress (Jasia in this case). The carnival usually has a specific topic to focus on an issue. Go read the Carnival #5 - you'll understand it after you've read it.
The next Carnival will focus on Historical and Genealogical Societies. The deadline is 15 August. You can submit articles for the Carnival using this Carnival of Genealogy submission form.
Please go read the latest Carnival - perhaps you can find some good books to read. And blog about historical and genealogical societies - answer Jasia's questions on your blog, then submit your blogpost to the Carnival. Eventually, the genea-blogging community will see your ideas and opinions. After all, that's why we do this, isn't it?
Thank you Jasia for your hard work on this.
What is a Carnival of Genealogy you ask? It's a collection of blog posts by various bloggers that have been collected by the carnival master or mistress (Jasia in this case). The carnival usually has a specific topic to focus on an issue. Go read the Carnival #5 - you'll understand it after you've read it.
The next Carnival will focus on Historical and Genealogical Societies. The deadline is 15 August. You can submit articles for the Carnival using this Carnival of Genealogy submission form.
Please go read the latest Carnival - perhaps you can find some good books to read. And blog about historical and genealogical societies - answer Jasia's questions on your blog, then submit your blogpost to the Carnival. Eventually, the genea-blogging community will see your ideas and opinions. After all, that's why we do this, isn't it?
Thank you Jasia for your hard work on this.
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