Sometimes things happen serendipitously, and sometimes they get screwed up. I love when the first part happens, but I get really upset when I or someone messes up and I don't catch it. There's a lesson here!
CVGS received a query several weeks ago from a fellow wondering if we could find the burial place of his grandfather and grandmother, who died in the 1930's in Chula Vista. The California Death Index for 1930-1939 at http://www.vitalsearch-ca.com/ had both persons listed, so I now had a death date. A check of the Glen Abbey Memorial Park CDROM produced by CVGS last year yielded the burial locations at the cemetery. Then he asked for death certificates for both of them, so I happily offered to obtain them. Finally, he had the thought that maybe the grandmother's father was buried there too - I checked, he was, and he wanted a death certificate for him too. No problem.
I went down to the County Clerk's office in Chula Vista last Friday to get the death certificates. The clerk found one of them on the computer system and quickly printed it off. The other two were not on the system, so she called the main office in San Diego and the copies from the microfilm were printed and then was faxed to Chula Vista. But the faxed copies were very difficult to read. The CV clerk recommended going to the downtown San Diego office and getting them there. No problem.
Now the serendipity - over the weekend, one of my CVGS colleagues got a request from a correspondent in Ohio asking about a death date, burial location and death certificate for her great-grandmother. I found the death date in 1900 on the San Diego County USGenWeb site (Pre-1905 Deaths), and told her that I was going downtown to the Clerk's office and would pick up the Death Certificate. No problem. Two birds with one rock, so to speak!
I went downtown to the County Clerk office today. The clerk was helpful and efficient. She quixkly found the three death certificates on the microfilms, and made the certified copies for me. I paid my money ($12 each), declined a receipt, said thank you and left the office happy as a pig in s**t. I was there less than 40 minutes.
Tonight I took the certificates out of my case and wrote emails to my two correspondents telling them I had their death certificates and please send me their mail address. I'm glad I looked at each of them before I put them in the envelopes to mail. The one for the grandmother's father wasn't there - I got another death certificate by mistake. Oops. Big problem.
Now what? Another trip to the County Clerk downtown tomorrow, I think. Hopefully, they'll accept my story and produce the correct death certificate for me. My guess is that someone else wanted the one I got and received the one I didn't get. It may be lying around at the office waiting for me to claim it. I thought I did so well at this. Just d**n.
Lesson learned: Check the certificate before you leave the County Clerk's office. I'm sure I won't do that again! Humph. Serendipity breeds complacency, I fear.
UPDATED 11/15 - I went back to the County Clerk's office today and finally got the right death certificate. On the first try, the clerk handed me a birth certificate of someone I didn't want or need - he had used the record number from births instead of deaths. I guess he was embarrassed, because his supervisor finally gave me the right death certificate. I checked it over this time! No charge. I appreciated that.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Ancestry Magazine, November/December 2007 Issue TOC
The November/December 2007 issue of Ancestry magazine came in my email today. Ancestry.com subscribers now receive a digital version of the magazine just by having an annual subscription to Ancestry.com. The email has a link to the online magazine. There is a FAQ about this digital version here.
The Table of Contents for the November/December issue (Volume 25, number 6) of Ancestry magazine includes
* "Ride of Their Lives" - page 19. Years later, stories of orphan train riders are once again being told.
* "Easter Eggs and Tobacco" by Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD. - page 21. They did have a sense of humor way back when.
* "What's Cooking America?" by Kelly Burgess - page 22. Burgers, fries, pizza, and tacos. American food had to come from somewhere - and mostly it came from our earliest immigrant ancestors.
* "Big Bird, Dig Dilemma" by Dean Harding McGarity - page 30. With no family, and no cash, a young couple still finds happiness.
* "Finding a Holiday Treasure" by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG - page 32. How my relatives spent his Christmas - 175 years ago.
* "Turkey and Trimmings" - page 34. Where did we get cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie?
* "My Navy Blue Hawaii" by Ellen Notbohm - page 37. A free trip to Hawaii has a deeper meaning.
* "Big Skies and White Houses" by Janet Bernice - page 39. America's 2nd lady, Lynne Cheney, takes a shot at her past.
* "A Place in the Country" by Amy Johnson Crow, CG, CGI - page 40. Life wasn't always great but it did leave some wonderful records.
* "Confection Connection" by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG - page 41. Those cookies are brimming with history.
* "Dark Days" by Deidre Burridge Dagner - page 42. Selective breeding isn't a foreign concept. But for one researcher who stumbled upon the American eugenics movement, it felt a bit too much like unnatural selection.
* "A Travelin' Man" by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - page 48. No heir apparent? Look for the next best thing.
* "Fame in Your Family" by Esther Yu Sumner - page 53. Using tall tales to prove you're related to your favorite star.
* "Nothing Like Homemade - an Ancestry Digital exclusive" by Juliana Szucs Smith - page 54. Looking for the best holiday gift ever? Find out how to turn your favorite family recipes into a treasured heirloom.
* "Black Holes" by Ian Pope - page 60. When the pull of history is more than anyone can explain.
* "Actor Kills Wife" by Marjorie Waterfield - page 62. With no one left to tell the story, the newspaper steps in.
There is a special offer at the Ancestry Store for a print version of this magazine for $14.95.
It is difficult to read the digital version of the magazine online. You read one page at a time and use the Page Up/Down keys and arrow keys to move from page to page. You can print the pages one at a time. There is a pop-up ad for the print version every four pages that you have to disable one at a time. The whole exercise seems to be to induce you to pay for the printed version of the magazine.
The magazine is visually beautiful - layout, colors, pictures, drawings, themes. The articles are, in the main, not about genealogy research but about social history and cultural topics. I appreciate them, but I don't get much "help" from them to do my research.
The Table of Contents for the November/December issue (Volume 25, number 6) of Ancestry magazine includes
* "Ride of Their Lives" - page 19. Years later, stories of orphan train riders are once again being told.
* "Easter Eggs and Tobacco" by Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD. - page 21. They did have a sense of humor way back when.
* "What's Cooking America?" by Kelly Burgess - page 22. Burgers, fries, pizza, and tacos. American food had to come from somewhere - and mostly it came from our earliest immigrant ancestors.
* "Big Bird, Dig Dilemma" by Dean Harding McGarity - page 30. With no family, and no cash, a young couple still finds happiness.
* "Finding a Holiday Treasure" by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG - page 32. How my relatives spent his Christmas - 175 years ago.
* "Turkey and Trimmings" - page 34. Where did we get cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie?
* "My Navy Blue Hawaii" by Ellen Notbohm - page 37. A free trip to Hawaii has a deeper meaning.
* "Big Skies and White Houses" by Janet Bernice - page 39. America's 2nd lady, Lynne Cheney, takes a shot at her past.
* "A Place in the Country" by Amy Johnson Crow, CG, CGI - page 40. Life wasn't always great but it did leave some wonderful records.
* "Confection Connection" by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG - page 41. Those cookies are brimming with history.
* "Dark Days" by Deidre Burridge Dagner - page 42. Selective breeding isn't a foreign concept. But for one researcher who stumbled upon the American eugenics movement, it felt a bit too much like unnatural selection.
* "A Travelin' Man" by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - page 48. No heir apparent? Look for the next best thing.
* "Fame in Your Family" by Esther Yu Sumner - page 53. Using tall tales to prove you're related to your favorite star.
* "Nothing Like Homemade - an Ancestry Digital exclusive" by Juliana Szucs Smith - page 54. Looking for the best holiday gift ever? Find out how to turn your favorite family recipes into a treasured heirloom.
* "Black Holes" by Ian Pope - page 60. When the pull of history is more than anyone can explain.
* "Actor Kills Wife" by Marjorie Waterfield - page 62. With no one left to tell the story, the newspaper steps in.
There is a special offer at the Ancestry Store for a print version of this magazine for $14.95.
It is difficult to read the digital version of the magazine online. You read one page at a time and use the Page Up/Down keys and arrow keys to move from page to page. You can print the pages one at a time. There is a pop-up ad for the print version every four pages that you have to disable one at a time. The whole exercise seems to be to induce you to pay for the printed version of the magazine.
The magazine is visually beautiful - layout, colors, pictures, drawings, themes. The articles are, in the main, not about genealogy research but about social history and cultural topics. I appreciate them, but I don't get much "help" from them to do my research.
What is your genetic identity?
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has an interesting post on the 24/7 Family History Circle blog titled "Honoring Our Ancestors: Haley Family of Roots Fame Joins the DNA Game" about the Y-DNA tests that Chris Haley (nephew of Roots author Alex Haley) took at the recent FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The article describes the results of Chris Haley's Y-DNA test and what options are available for finding relationships to other men from his patrilineal line. The results indicated that the patrilineal line haplogroup is R1b - which is common in Western Europe.
But what is a person's true genetic identity? To me, it is ALL of the genetic material that goes into creating a person. In each person, the biological ancestors are 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, and so on. Each person is descended from many ancestors (1,024 in the 10th generation) and each contributes to the genetic makeup of a person.
Are researchers concentrating too much on just the patrilineal line, especially for persons with Native American, African American and other "racial" ancestry? Of course, the reason they have concentrated on the patrilineal line is that it is the only one that currently provides real evidence of haplogroup and relationships to others with the same Y-DNA "signature."
Shouldn't we be trying to determine the whole genetic and cultural ancestry of ourselves? To me, that means trying to find the Y-DNA signature of each of my 8 great-great-grandfathers, if possible. And finding the mitochondrial DNA signature of my 8 great-great-grandmothers, if possible.
I'm attempting to identify living male descendants with a patrilineal line to each of my great-great-grandfathers. Likewise, I'm trying to find living female descendants with a matrilineal line to each of my great-great-grandmothers. If I can do that, then I may be able to determine my "genetic identity" to supplement my "cultural identity."
In my case, my great-great-grandparents were born between 1817 and 1844, and died between 1867 and 1931. And their children (the candidates for further research) were born later and usually died later. Fortunately, I know quite a bit about these 16 individuals - when and where they were born, lived and died, and what their cultural heritage was. There are usually records for people with deaths in the above time frame. Unfortunately, some states have restricted access to vital records in the 20th century, and that may hamper the search for living descendants. Traditional genealogy research can find many of these persons in vital records, city directories, cemeteries, obituaries, etc.
It is evident from Chris Haley's known ancestry that he has a significant African ancestry. I believe that he should be concentrating on finding out about each of the branches in his family tree rather than stopping with finding relationships with others who have the same patrilineal line. Of course, he should do the latter, because it extends his knowledge in that ancestral line.
I'm not criticizing Chris Haley and others trying to find their genetic heritage - I'm just suggesting that each of us could do a lot more in this area as DNA analysis techniques improve. The possibilities need to be discussed, described and pursued. Hopefully, the price will come down too!
I hope that each of us pursue the opportunities we have to discover our genetic heritage. We may find interesting and useful, and perhaps mysterious and intriguing, information and connections.
But what is a person's true genetic identity? To me, it is ALL of the genetic material that goes into creating a person. In each person, the biological ancestors are 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, and so on. Each person is descended from many ancestors (1,024 in the 10th generation) and each contributes to the genetic makeup of a person.
Are researchers concentrating too much on just the patrilineal line, especially for persons with Native American, African American and other "racial" ancestry? Of course, the reason they have concentrated on the patrilineal line is that it is the only one that currently provides real evidence of haplogroup and relationships to others with the same Y-DNA "signature."
Shouldn't we be trying to determine the whole genetic and cultural ancestry of ourselves? To me, that means trying to find the Y-DNA signature of each of my 8 great-great-grandfathers, if possible. And finding the mitochondrial DNA signature of my 8 great-great-grandmothers, if possible.
I'm attempting to identify living male descendants with a patrilineal line to each of my great-great-grandfathers. Likewise, I'm trying to find living female descendants with a matrilineal line to each of my great-great-grandmothers. If I can do that, then I may be able to determine my "genetic identity" to supplement my "cultural identity."
In my case, my great-great-grandparents were born between 1817 and 1844, and died between 1867 and 1931. And their children (the candidates for further research) were born later and usually died later. Fortunately, I know quite a bit about these 16 individuals - when and where they were born, lived and died, and what their cultural heritage was. There are usually records for people with deaths in the above time frame. Unfortunately, some states have restricted access to vital records in the 20th century, and that may hamper the search for living descendants. Traditional genealogy research can find many of these persons in vital records, city directories, cemeteries, obituaries, etc.
It is evident from Chris Haley's known ancestry that he has a significant African ancestry. I believe that he should be concentrating on finding out about each of the branches in his family tree rather than stopping with finding relationships with others who have the same patrilineal line. Of course, he should do the latter, because it extends his knowledge in that ancestral line.
I'm not criticizing Chris Haley and others trying to find their genetic heritage - I'm just suggesting that each of us could do a lot more in this area as DNA analysis techniques improve. The possibilities need to be discussed, described and pursued. Hopefully, the price will come down too!
I hope that each of us pursue the opportunities we have to discover our genetic heritage. We may find interesting and useful, and perhaps mysterious and intriguing, information and connections.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Della's Journal - Week 46 (November 12-18, 1929)
This is Installment 46 of the Journal of Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944), my great-grandmother, who resided at 2115 30th Street in San Diego in 1929.
The "players" and "setting" are described here. Pictures of some of the players are here. Last week's Journal entry is here.
Here is Week 46 -
====================================
Tuesday, November 12 (windy): A[ustin]'s mouth is so sore he has to leave teeth out. I fixed one of my hats and Ma mended. Lyle's went down to the school this evening, from there to a dance & cards given to the Marston's employes.
Wednesday, November 13 (windy): We washed. Ma sewed a little. Mrs. Wilson came to sew velvet dress on machine. Mate Dinmock called, took supper with us. Brush fire N & E of City.
Thursday, November 14: Did not work much. Washed kitchen windows & front ones. Miss Thoren pd rent. Ma worked outside watered & burnt trash.
Friday, November 15: We worked outside & in. A[ustin] got pay.
Saturday, November 16 (warm): Ed over but lawns did not need cutting so he worked on parking. Cut off Chrysanthemums. Lyle's went to back country. I went to town. Pd on Paving (Dep $110) Pd out $110, Ed $58.76, $52.06, Bridg (?) lamp $2.90, cup 14c Listerine.
Sunday, November 17 (warm): I went out to Ma's, gave Mrs. Schmidt $1.00 for Water. Ma took sponge bath, I cut A[ustin] hair.
Monday, November 18 (foggy on bay): Helped Ma make spout to carry water from cistern to fig tree. Mrs. Wilson moved part of her things put our refridgerator back in place.
==========================
I'm terribly confused by the financial transactions on 16 November. She put a $110 deposit down for paving, and then the two numbers following may be what it cost to do the paving at Ed's (in Pacific Beach) and perhaps on 30th Street.
In 2007, we forget or don't understand that the roads needed to be paved, that rain water was collected in cisterns (it's free that way), that they went shopping almost daily for fresh meat and vegetables, thet they grew fruit and vegetables in home gardens, that they burned trash rather than having a collector come or take it to a dump themselves.
I'm not sure what the "parking" is. I've always thought that it was the three foot wide strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street curb - that's what it was when I was a boy. My picture from 1929 shows a paved street and sidewalk with a strip between them, perhaps it's not grass but ground cover or just dirt with weeds - see this post.
Mate Dinmock is a new name for me - probably a friend or neighbor.
The "players" and "setting" are described here. Pictures of some of the players are here. Last week's Journal entry is here.
Here is Week 46 -
====================================
Tuesday, November 12 (windy): A[ustin]'s mouth is so sore he has to leave teeth out. I fixed one of my hats and Ma mended. Lyle's went down to the school this evening, from there to a dance & cards given to the Marston's employes.
Wednesday, November 13 (windy): We washed. Ma sewed a little. Mrs. Wilson came to sew velvet dress on machine. Mate Dinmock called, took supper with us. Brush fire N & E of City.
Thursday, November 14: Did not work much. Washed kitchen windows & front ones. Miss Thoren pd rent. Ma worked outside watered & burnt trash.
Friday, November 15: We worked outside & in. A[ustin] got pay.
Saturday, November 16 (warm): Ed over but lawns did not need cutting so he worked on parking. Cut off Chrysanthemums. Lyle's went to back country. I went to town. Pd on Paving (Dep $110) Pd out $110, Ed $58.76, $52.06, Bridg (?) lamp $2.90, cup 14c Listerine.
Sunday, November 17 (warm): I went out to Ma's, gave Mrs. Schmidt $1.00 for Water. Ma took sponge bath, I cut A[ustin] hair.
Monday, November 18 (foggy on bay): Helped Ma make spout to carry water from cistern to fig tree. Mrs. Wilson moved part of her things put our refridgerator back in place.
==========================
I'm terribly confused by the financial transactions on 16 November. She put a $110 deposit down for paving, and then the two numbers following may be what it cost to do the paving at Ed's (in Pacific Beach) and perhaps on 30th Street.
In 2007, we forget or don't understand that the roads needed to be paved, that rain water was collected in cisterns (it's free that way), that they went shopping almost daily for fresh meat and vegetables, thet they grew fruit and vegetables in home gardens, that they burned trash rather than having a collector come or take it to a dump themselves.
I'm not sure what the "parking" is. I've always thought that it was the three foot wide strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street curb - that's what it was when I was a boy. My picture from 1929 shows a paved street and sidewalk with a strip between them, perhaps it's not grass but ground cover or just dirt with weeds - see this post.
Mate Dinmock is a new name for me - probably a friend or neighbor.
Saturday at the FHC
Before the SDGS meeting on Saturday, I spent an hour and a half at the San Diego Family History Center in Mission Valley. My goal was to explore WorldVitalRecords and Footnote databases on the FHC computers a bit more and actually start to collect information about my ancestors and Seaver people.
Attentive readers will recall that I explained how to access the Premium Databases at the FHC in my recent post "Hey San Diegans - Go to the FHC!" These databases are free to access at the Family History Centers and include WorldVitalRecords, Footnote, Godfrey Library, etc.
I also noticed on the computer screen an icon for "New FamilySearch." I clicked on this and got a sign-in box for LDS members. It looks like New FS is rolled out to this FHC but it is still reserved for LDS church members.
I input the surname "Seaver" in the WorldVitalRecords search box and got a long list of WVR databases that contained the term. I looked at the Everton's Pedigree Chart collection and the Leland Meitzler Ahnentafel collection first. They had a few, but none of them had a Seaver in a #1 position.
I wanted to check the Revolutionary War Pension Files for soldiers named Seaver. I read and downloaded the full set for Ichabod Seaver and Robert Seaver (neither of which are my ancestor). Each was about 20 pages long. In the Footnote viewer, you see a film strip of about 15 pages below the image of the page you are looking at. You can choose any image from the film strip. It takes a while for the image to appear - often up to a minute (at least on this FHC computer). I copied the page images as JPG files to my flash drive directly - they were in the 200 kb to 600 kb size range. The connection to Footnote got hung up at least three times in an hour - I had to start over from the Windows screen each time. I don't know if that is a Footnote problem or an FHC computer problem - I suspect the latter.
One of the real benefits of the Footnote store of Revolutionary War Pension Files is the indexing of them. While you can't search for a "firstname lastname" combination, you can search for any number of names or key words. I put "Norman Seaver" in the search box (with and without the quotes - it didn't change the results). Norman is my 5th great-grandfather and was an officer in the RevWar. He doesn't have a pension file. But he was mentioned in several depositions by other soldiers in the same unit. Those pension files also describe the actions taken by the unit and may be the only information available about the unit's actions in more detail than the soldier's service record.
Consequently, researchers should collect not only the full pension file for their ancestor, they should also search for their soldiers who did not have a pension file. They may have been mentioned by another soldier or they may have written an affidavit themselves.
It appears that these records are all transcriptions by a clerk when the pensions were applied for. I didn't see any original documents here - letters, Bible pages, etc. There may be some, especially Bible pages, in some files. The images of the pages are remarkably "clean." It appears that the Archives or Footnote have used some sort of photo enhancement program to remove blotches, tears, dirt, etc. from the papers in the files. They are all gray-scale pages - dark gray writing on a light-gray background. There is some light writing - but these areas probably could be enhanced by a photo enhancement program.
I can see that I have lots more of this type of information to collect from Footnote and other Premium Databases at the FHC. CVGS will start running research trips again to get more of our members back in the FHC to search these new resources.
Attentive readers will recall that I explained how to access the Premium Databases at the FHC in my recent post "Hey San Diegans - Go to the FHC!" These databases are free to access at the Family History Centers and include WorldVitalRecords, Footnote, Godfrey Library, etc.
I also noticed on the computer screen an icon for "New FamilySearch." I clicked on this and got a sign-in box for LDS members. It looks like New FS is rolled out to this FHC but it is still reserved for LDS church members.
I input the surname "Seaver" in the WorldVitalRecords search box and got a long list of WVR databases that contained the term. I looked at the Everton's Pedigree Chart collection and the Leland Meitzler Ahnentafel collection first. They had a few, but none of them had a Seaver in a #1 position.
I wanted to check the Revolutionary War Pension Files for soldiers named Seaver. I read and downloaded the full set for Ichabod Seaver and Robert Seaver (neither of which are my ancestor). Each was about 20 pages long. In the Footnote viewer, you see a film strip of about 15 pages below the image of the page you are looking at. You can choose any image from the film strip. It takes a while for the image to appear - often up to a minute (at least on this FHC computer). I copied the page images as JPG files to my flash drive directly - they were in the 200 kb to 600 kb size range. The connection to Footnote got hung up at least three times in an hour - I had to start over from the Windows screen each time. I don't know if that is a Footnote problem or an FHC computer problem - I suspect the latter.
One of the real benefits of the Footnote store of Revolutionary War Pension Files is the indexing of them. While you can't search for a "firstname lastname" combination, you can search for any number of names or key words. I put "Norman Seaver" in the search box (with and without the quotes - it didn't change the results). Norman is my 5th great-grandfather and was an officer in the RevWar. He doesn't have a pension file. But he was mentioned in several depositions by other soldiers in the same unit. Those pension files also describe the actions taken by the unit and may be the only information available about the unit's actions in more detail than the soldier's service record.
Consequently, researchers should collect not only the full pension file for their ancestor, they should also search for their soldiers who did not have a pension file. They may have been mentioned by another soldier or they may have written an affidavit themselves.
It appears that these records are all transcriptions by a clerk when the pensions were applied for. I didn't see any original documents here - letters, Bible pages, etc. There may be some, especially Bible pages, in some files. The images of the pages are remarkably "clean." It appears that the Archives or Footnote have used some sort of photo enhancement program to remove blotches, tears, dirt, etc. from the papers in the files. They are all gray-scale pages - dark gray writing on a light-gray background. There is some light writing - but these areas probably could be enhanced by a photo enhancement program.
I can see that I have lots more of this type of information to collect from Footnote and other Premium Databases at the FHC. CVGS will start running research trips again to get more of our members back in the FHC to search these new resources.
The Genea-Musings histogram
Hugh Watkins at his Exploring Rootsweb blog found an intriguing web site that creates a Histogram of a web site. You input the URL of the web site and it draws a histogram showing what type of HTML tags are used on the web site. Hugh's post is here. The Websites as Graphs web site is at http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/
Here is the Genea-Musings histogram:
What does the histogram mean? The page that displays the histogram explains the colors:
* blue: for links (the A tag)
* red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
* green: for the DIV tag
* violet: for images (the IMG tag)
* yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
* orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
* black: the HTML tag, the root node
* gray: all other tags
My histogram has lots of blue (links), gray (other) and orange (linebreaks), and few red (tables), violet (images) and yellow (forms).
I set this off at about 10 AM this morning and then noticed that my computer had been running continuously for awhile. I ended it after 30 minutes (it was still working), but not before taking a screenshot and saving it. Now I'm worried that perhaps this site is really a worm or something, but my McAfee didn't catch it or stop it.
It looks like there are 20 main spokes off the center wheel (I show 20 posts on this blog) and then analyzes each post for the different types of HTML tags.
In the end, it's interesting but fairly useless. I was hoping that it would show how the site links to other sites. Is there something like that out there?
Here is the Genea-Musings histogram:
What does the histogram mean? The page that displays the histogram explains the colors:
* blue: for links (the A tag)
* red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
* green: for the DIV tag
* violet: for images (the IMG tag)
* yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
* orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
* black: the HTML tag, the root node
* gray: all other tags
My histogram has lots of blue (links), gray (other) and orange (linebreaks), and few red (tables), violet (images) and yellow (forms).
I set this off at about 10 AM this morning and then noticed that my computer had been running continuously for awhile. I ended it after 30 minutes (it was still working), but not before taking a screenshot and saving it. Now I'm worried that perhaps this site is really a worm or something, but my McAfee didn't catch it or stop it.
It looks like there are 20 main spokes off the center wheel (I show 20 posts on this blog) and then analyzes each post for the different types of HTML tags.
In the end, it's interesting but fairly useless. I was hoping that it would show how the site links to other sites. Is there something like that out there?
SDGS Program on 11/10 - John Carpenter on DNA Research
The San Diego Genealogical Society program on Saturday, 10 November, featured John R. Carpenter who gave two presentations on DNA Research. The program description and John's CV were posted here.
John's first talk, on "DNA Research: Haplogroups, Y-DNA and mtDNA" covered the past history of DNA research for genealogy purposes. He showed how the number of haplogroups have increased as more people are analyzed and how the different haplogroups relate to each other. He discussed how the Y-DNA analysis can tell you how other people may be related to a person. He also discussed mitochondrial DNA tests and that they only define a haplogroup, not relationships to a particular person. Unfortunately, he didn't make the necessary point that if you can find living male descendants of all of your great-great-grandparents that you can obtain the Y-DNA haplogroup of the great-great-grandfathers, and mtDNA haplogroups of the great-great-grandmothers. John showed several slides from the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG). This is an excellent resource for learning about DNA Research. The 2007 Y-DNA Haplogroup tree is shown on http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_YDNATreeTrunk07.html.
In his second talk, John discussed "Famous and Other DNA." Most of this information can be found on the ISOGG pages at the "Famous DNA" link on the http://www.isogg.org/ page. He covered Neanderthal DNA, Ancient Human DNA, Founding Father DNA, and Famous People DNA.
All in all, it was an interesting presentation, but I really didn't learn anything new to apply to my research. I could have learned all of it on the ISOGG web site or from books about Genealogy and DNA. I'm sure that many of the attendees learned quite a bit. John is knowledgeable about this subject, and answered most of the technical questions with good scientific information.
SDGS held elections at this meeting. Marna Clemons was elected President, succeeding Peter Steelquist who has held the position for several years. I congratulate Marna on her election and wish her great success as she leads SDGS. The society is in good hands.
John's first talk, on "DNA Research: Haplogroups, Y-DNA and mtDNA" covered the past history of DNA research for genealogy purposes. He showed how the number of haplogroups have increased as more people are analyzed and how the different haplogroups relate to each other. He discussed how the Y-DNA analysis can tell you how other people may be related to a person. He also discussed mitochondrial DNA tests and that they only define a haplogroup, not relationships to a particular person. Unfortunately, he didn't make the necessary point that if you can find living male descendants of all of your great-great-grandparents that you can obtain the Y-DNA haplogroup of the great-great-grandfathers, and mtDNA haplogroups of the great-great-grandmothers. John showed several slides from the International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG). This is an excellent resource for learning about DNA Research. The 2007 Y-DNA Haplogroup tree is shown on http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_YDNATreeTrunk07.html.
In his second talk, John discussed "Famous and Other DNA." Most of this information can be found on the ISOGG pages at the "Famous DNA" link on the http://www.isogg.org/ page. He covered Neanderthal DNA, Ancient Human DNA, Founding Father DNA, and Famous People DNA.
All in all, it was an interesting presentation, but I really didn't learn anything new to apply to my research. I could have learned all of it on the ISOGG web site or from books about Genealogy and DNA. I'm sure that many of the attendees learned quite a bit. John is knowledgeable about this subject, and answered most of the technical questions with good scientific information.
SDGS held elections at this meeting. Marna Clemons was elected President, succeeding Peter Steelquist who has held the position for several years. I congratulate Marna on her election and wish her great success as she leads SDGS. The society is in good hands.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of November 4-10, 2007
Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week. My criteria are pretty simple - I like posts that advance knowledge about genealogy, or are funny and/or poignant. I don't list posts destined for the Carnival of Genealogy, or my own posts (hopefully, others will do that!).
* "New Blog Carnival: Cabinet of Curiosities" by GreenmanTim at Walking the Berkshires. Tim is starting this new carnival and has some funny things in his own collection.
* "Mola and Voodoo and My Cat Hattie: Curiosities" by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Terry tells about his own curiosities for submission to Tim's new carnival. I didn't know what a mola was, of course.
* "WorldVitalRecords Introduces Valuable Scanning Services (Photos, Documents, Videos and Slides)" by Whitney Ransom on the WorldVitalRecords Blog. This is a great opportunity for those without scanners or technical ability to have their collections digitized. The idea came out of one of the customer surveys that WVR conducts regularly (another good idea).
* "232nd Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps" by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig tells the early history of the USMC and how he was honored two years ago. As a father-in-law of a Marine currently serving in Ramadi, I appreciate the post and have spent some time today thinking about him and all that have gone before. Thanks, Craig!
* "Association of Professional Genealogists Speech" by Paul Allen on his Paul Allen, Internet Entrepreneur blog. Paul talks about his early years at Ancestry/MyFamily and what the future holds for WorldVitalRecords. This is a must read for anyone interested in the future of genealogy.
* "I Am My Own - Well, Not Quite..." by Jessica Oswalt on her Jessica's Genejournal blog. Jessica shares her story about an ancestor who married a much younger woman and relates it to the song "I Am My Own Grandpaw."
* "British Soldiers Weren't Called Lobsterbacks" by J.L. Bell on the Boston 1775 blog. He quota Christopher Lenney's findings about how the term came about. Apparently Nathaniel Hawthorne put the term into the popular speech, but it was used before him.
* "Genealogy Support Group" by Denise Olson on the Family Matters blog. Denise has created a group on Diigo to collect useful links, articles, reviews, resources, discussions, etc.
* "Conspiracy Theories" by John Newmark on his Transylvania Dutch blog. Trekkie John shows some funny pictures of himself in costumes and tells the stories. Good stuff.
That's it - if I missed a really good post, please let me know.
* "New Blog Carnival: Cabinet of Curiosities" by GreenmanTim at Walking the Berkshires. Tim is starting this new carnival and has some funny things in his own collection.
* "Mola and Voodoo and My Cat Hattie: Curiosities" by Terry Thornton on the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog. Terry tells about his own curiosities for submission to Tim's new carnival. I didn't know what a mola was, of course.
* "WorldVitalRecords Introduces Valuable Scanning Services (Photos, Documents, Videos and Slides)" by Whitney Ransom on the WorldVitalRecords Blog. This is a great opportunity for those without scanners or technical ability to have their collections digitized. The idea came out of one of the customer surveys that WVR conducts regularly (another good idea).
* "232nd Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps" by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig tells the early history of the USMC and how he was honored two years ago. As a father-in-law of a Marine currently serving in Ramadi, I appreciate the post and have spent some time today thinking about him and all that have gone before. Thanks, Craig!
* "Association of Professional Genealogists Speech" by Paul Allen on his Paul Allen, Internet Entrepreneur blog. Paul talks about his early years at Ancestry/MyFamily and what the future holds for WorldVitalRecords. This is a must read for anyone interested in the future of genealogy.
* "I Am My Own - Well, Not Quite..." by Jessica Oswalt on her Jessica's Genejournal blog. Jessica shares her story about an ancestor who married a much younger woman and relates it to the song "I Am My Own Grandpaw."
* "British Soldiers Weren't Called Lobsterbacks" by J.L. Bell on the Boston 1775 blog. He quota Christopher Lenney's findings about how the term came about. Apparently Nathaniel Hawthorne put the term into the popular speech, but it was used before him.
* "Genealogy Support Group" by Denise Olson on the Family Matters blog. Denise has created a group on Diigo to collect useful links, articles, reviews, resources, discussions, etc.
* "Conspiracy Theories" by John Newmark on his Transylvania Dutch blog. Trekkie John shows some funny pictures of himself in costumes and tells the stories. Good stuff.
That's it - if I missed a really good post, please let me know.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
What records should be added to WorldVitalRecords?
Paul Allen gave a talk in Salt Lake City to the local Association of Professional Genealogists chapter and then blogged about it - his post is here. He took a survey at the start of the talk - did they want to hear about the early history of Ancestry.com or did they want to hear about the future of genealogy? Everyone voted for the latter, but he talked a bit about Ancestry/MyFamily anyway. Then he talked about the future, especially of www.WorldVitalRecords.com. He covered some of his thoughts in his blog post.
The most interesting part of his post is:
"We [WorldVitalRecords] will do some digitizing and indexing but it will be small in relation to these other organizations who make this their primary business. Our fundamental approach is to partner with content providers worldwide and to enable our customers to find records in their databases, whether we host them or not. ... Our business model is built on paying substantial royalties to content owners."
He also said that there is one seat on their Board of Directors reserved for an "industry expert." He suggested that there could be a "Genealogy Idol" series on Roots Television to select that person - one candidate gets voted off every week.
He ended with this:
"Anyway, in the coming weeks it will become more clear what place World Vital Records hopes to fill in the family/genealogy community, and how we will differentiate our products and services from those that are currently offered by the leading online genealogy companies.
"If you are into genealogy, I invite you to give me a list of the top 5 things you would do if you were running World Vital Records. I’m very interested in hearing from you. (But be careful–if your suggestions are too good, you might get recruited by the genealogy community to fill an open board seat!)"
Well now, that certainly is blog fodder for some of us, isn't it? I'll jump in:
1) STATE VITAL RECORDS. As many as possible. Ancestry.com doesn't have them all. Nobody has them all in one place online. The LDS has the best "collection" available to researchers but they're on microfilm. Births, marriages and deaths from as many states as possible over as wide a range as possible. Consider partnering with state vital records offices to digitize them, provide searchable databases and host the databases.
2) VITAL RECORDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES: Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Australia, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, etc. Partner with governments, genealogy and historical societies, churches, etc.
3) BIBLE RECORDS and OTHER FAMILY PAPERS: The DAR, NGS and other genealogical/historical societies have collections of these either online, on microfilm, in publications or moldering away in society file cabinets and garages. There are some online on web sites and blogs. Many local societies have "vertical files" of papers submitted by members or their estates. Organize local genealogy societies to find, collect, digitize and publish them.
4) COLLECTIONS OF PEDIGREE CHARTS: Many local genealogy societies have books chock full of pedigree charts submitted by members. My small society (80 members) has four books of them - maybe 200 charts. It's another project that could be organized for local genealogy societies to digitize and publish them. WVR did this with the large Everton collection - a good job!
5) CLEARING HOUSE FOR VITAL RECORDS: A one-stop shop for every country, every state, every county. Provide a list of what records are available on any media - paper, microfilm, online database, etc. Provide links to available online records (even to LDS and other commercial companies). Tell what is available on microfilm. Provide links to vital records offices for those unavailable on media.
There's my fave five. I'm pretty sure that WVR is considering things like these already. I hope so - they have smart leadership.
Read Paul's entire post - it touches on a lot of interesting topics. I can hardly wait to hear what the 12 mistakes that Ancestry made after he left them. Likewise, I'm interested in his vision for WorldVitalRecords and for the future of genealogy.
Shoot - never mind - I'm embarrassed by my lack of real vision - I make that list above and find out, by reading Paul's blog over the last year, that WVR is doing most of those things. Here are Paul's goals for 2007 - revealing. Oh well, a small mind on a small blog. That's why he's rich and famous and I'm stuck on 200 readers a day.
What do you think? Tell Paul - he wants to know! But read his blog first. Post your comments on his post here.
The most interesting part of his post is:
"We [WorldVitalRecords] will do some digitizing and indexing but it will be small in relation to these other organizations who make this their primary business. Our fundamental approach is to partner with content providers worldwide and to enable our customers to find records in their databases, whether we host them or not. ... Our business model is built on paying substantial royalties to content owners."
He also said that there is one seat on their Board of Directors reserved for an "industry expert." He suggested that there could be a "Genealogy Idol" series on Roots Television to select that person - one candidate gets voted off every week.
He ended with this:
"Anyway, in the coming weeks it will become more clear what place World Vital Records hopes to fill in the family/genealogy community, and how we will differentiate our products and services from those that are currently offered by the leading online genealogy companies.
"If you are into genealogy, I invite you to give me a list of the top 5 things you would do if you were running World Vital Records. I’m very interested in hearing from you. (But be careful–if your suggestions are too good, you might get recruited by the genealogy community to fill an open board seat!)"
Well now, that certainly is blog fodder for some of us, isn't it? I'll jump in:
1) STATE VITAL RECORDS. As many as possible. Ancestry.com doesn't have them all. Nobody has them all in one place online. The LDS has the best "collection" available to researchers but they're on microfilm. Births, marriages and deaths from as many states as possible over as wide a range as possible. Consider partnering with state vital records offices to digitize them, provide searchable databases and host the databases.
2) VITAL RECORDS IN OTHER COUNTRIES: Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Australia, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, etc. Partner with governments, genealogy and historical societies, churches, etc.
3) BIBLE RECORDS and OTHER FAMILY PAPERS: The DAR, NGS and other genealogical/historical societies have collections of these either online, on microfilm, in publications or moldering away in society file cabinets and garages. There are some online on web sites and blogs. Many local societies have "vertical files" of papers submitted by members or their estates. Organize local genealogy societies to find, collect, digitize and publish them.
4) COLLECTIONS OF PEDIGREE CHARTS: Many local genealogy societies have books chock full of pedigree charts submitted by members. My small society (80 members) has four books of them - maybe 200 charts. It's another project that could be organized for local genealogy societies to digitize and publish them. WVR did this with the large Everton collection - a good job!
5) CLEARING HOUSE FOR VITAL RECORDS: A one-stop shop for every country, every state, every county. Provide a list of what records are available on any media - paper, microfilm, online database, etc. Provide links to available online records (even to LDS and other commercial companies). Tell what is available on microfilm. Provide links to vital records offices for those unavailable on media.
There's my fave five. I'm pretty sure that WVR is considering things like these already. I hope so - they have smart leadership.
Read Paul's entire post - it touches on a lot of interesting topics. I can hardly wait to hear what the 12 mistakes that Ancestry made after he left them. Likewise, I'm interested in his vision for WorldVitalRecords and for the future of genealogy.
Shoot - never mind - I'm embarrassed by my lack of real vision - I make that list above and find out, by reading Paul's blog over the last year, that WVR is doing most of those things. Here are Paul's goals for 2007 - revealing. Oh well, a small mind on a small blog. That's why he's rich and famous and I'm stuck on 200 readers a day.
What do you think? Tell Paul - he wants to know! But read his blog first. Post your comments on his post here.
Nobody went to the Party?
They held a blog party, er, an exposition, called BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas this week. Thousands of bloggers showed up - I guess no genealogy blogger attended. Too bad. It would have been fun. Rubbing elbows with the "big boys and girls." Seminars, forums, talks, parties, dinners, arguments, sharing, etc.
I guess it would have been even funnier if only one Genea-blogger had attended - a party of one. Were any genea-bloggers invited or even aware of BlogWorldExpo? I knew about it because of who I mindlessly listen to on the radio while concentrating on genealogy in the Genea-Cave.
A smart NGS or FGS conference planner might want to organize a "meet-and-greet" or even have a conference track (well, maybe one talk?) about genealogy blogging in 2008. While our numbers are small, our influence is migh..., um, pretty small too. Well, except for the "corporate" genea-bloggers who actually do it while making a living doing genealogy.
But we have a lot of fun in our little blog world, don't we? "Talking" and sharing with our audience of 100 or so visitors each day (some may even return, some are on the MTA ( another song to write lyrics too perhaps? down Randy)).
See y'all next year at the BlogWorldExpo!! Our little group can sit at a corner table, share some drinks, food and family stories and watch the arguments between the prog/con, Win/Mac, and God/athe bloggers. Maybe they'll even have "ultimate fighting" battles next year!
I guess it would have been even funnier if only one Genea-blogger had attended - a party of one. Were any genea-bloggers invited or even aware of BlogWorldExpo? I knew about it because of who I mindlessly listen to on the radio while concentrating on genealogy in the Genea-Cave.
A smart NGS or FGS conference planner might want to organize a "meet-and-greet" or even have a conference track (well, maybe one talk?) about genealogy blogging in 2008. While our numbers are small, our influence is migh..., um, pretty small too. Well, except for the "corporate" genea-bloggers who actually do it while making a living doing genealogy.
But we have a lot of fun in our little blog world, don't we? "Talking" and sharing with our audience of 100 or so visitors each day (some may even return, some are on the MTA ( another song to write lyrics too perhaps? down Randy)).
See y'all next year at the BlogWorldExpo!! Our little group can sit at a corner table, share some drinks, food and family stories and watch the arguments between the prog/con, Win/Mac, and God/athe bloggers. Maybe they'll even have "ultimate fighting" battles next year!
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