LDS Record Search is adding content

On the way home from the FHC today, I thought to myself "I really need to check and see what the LDS FamilySearch Record Search has added recently." So - here are the databases that I found at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/ :

1) Census Records

* 1850 US Census Population Schedules - partial set of images for 33 states/territories, no index yet.
* 1850 US Census Mortality Schedules - partial set of images for 16 states/territories, no index yet.
* 1850 US Census Slave Schedules - partial set of images for 18 states/territories, no index yet.
* 1880 US Population Schedules - every-name index, but no images available, no family groups either.
* 1895 Argentina Census - every-name index, with images
* 1930 Mexico Census - partial set of images from 31 states, no index yet.

2) Migration

* New York Passenger Arrival Lists (New York), 1892-1924 -- every-name index, links to www.EllisIsland.org images.

3) Military

* World War II Draft Registration Cards (fourth draft, men born 1877-1897) -- partial set of images from 6 states, no index yet.

4) Land and Property

* Vermont Land Records, Early to 1900 -- partial set of images, by county and town, no index yet.

5) Court and Legal Records

* England, Cheshire, Register of Electors (1842-1900) -- every-name index and images complete.
* Freedman's Bank Records, 1866-1874 -- every-name index and images complete.
* Maryland, Cecil County Probate Estate Files, 1851-1940 -- every-name index and images complete.

6) Vital Records

* England, Diocese of Durham Bishops Transcripts, ca 1700-1900 -- images only, no index yet.
* Freedman's Bureau, Virginia Marriages, ca 1815-1866 -- images and index for 5 Virginia counties
* Georgia Deaths, 1914-1927 -- images and every-name index complete
* Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953 -- images and every-name index complete
* Ontario Deaths, 1869-1947 -- every-name index and database, no images.
* Texas Death Index, 1964-1998 -- every-name index and database, no images
* US Social Security Death Index -- every-name index and database, no images
* Utah Death Certificates, 1904-1956 -- every name index and images complete.

You will have to register, for free, to use the FamilySearch Record Search site, but it is well worth the effort.

The image viewer (when there are images) takes a little time to figure out - there is a "Zoom Bar" in the upper right hand corner, and you move around the image by using the "Magic Hand" to move the image up, down, right, left.

There are several new databases on that list that I haven't looked at yet -how about you?

Day 12 - Christmas and the Arts

On the 12th Day of Christmas,
my true love accompanied me
to witness a Living Christmas Tree!

1) Did your family attend any special events or performances during the holidays?

As a child, the only special performances we attended were the school plays and sing-alongs with myself or my brother trying to remember the words and not sing too badly off key.

As a parent, we attended quite a few of the school plays and other events that our daughters were involved in - they at least could sing pretty much on key.

Our church had a "Living Christmas Tree" program for about 15 years (performed two or three times each year) - with tableaux, actors and narration telling the Christmas story, and the choir singing Christmas songs. Because of my beard (probably the only real criteria), I always got to be a "wise man" - one of the Three Kings who brought gifts to the Christ child. We walked down the aisle, presented the gifts, and looked adoringly at the plastic Jesus in the small wooden manger. We even got to sing a bit in the final act - always "Adeste Fidelis" or "Angels We Have Heard on High." However, if I got too exuberant, they always told me to try to sing in some key other than my normal J-sharp.

When she was a young teenager, my daughter Tami was the "Angel" in these productions, and got to "fly" over the congregation once, I think.

Linda and I have attended several Lamb's Players Theatre (a local theatre group) Christmas productions at their theatre in Coronado and the dinner production of "An American Christmas" at the Hotel del Coronado. Both are excellent, and we try to do this every so often.

Participating in the Living Christmas Tree always gave me a calm and reverent attitude during the Christmas season - I felt good doing it and it created in me a spirit of thankfulness, and of giving and receiving gifts.

This post will be part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" carnival - organized by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. Please go to Thomas' blog and read the submissions for each day.

NEHGS Online Seminars

The New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston has a number of relatively short online seminars for members to benefit at a distance from the expertise of the NEHGS staff. The seminars currently offered at http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/main/online_lectures.asp include:

* Finding Your Ancestors Online by D. Joshua Taylor

* Methods of Finding a Wife's Maiden Name by David Curtis Dearborn, FASG

* NEHGS Resources OnLine by Marie E. Daly

* Civil War Pension Research: Union Soldiers by David Allen Lambert

* Who Was Your Mother's Mother's Mother's Mother? by Julie Helen Otto

* Getting Started in Irish Genealogy Part 1 by Marie E. Daly

* Applying to Lineage Societies by Christopher Challender Child

* Genealogical Tips: Transcribing Gravestones by David Allen Lambert

* Getting Started in Genealogy - Part 1 by Marie E. Daly

* Getting Started in Genealogy - Part 2 by Marie E. Daly

* Getting Started in Genealogy - Part 3 by Marie E. Daly.

The presentations are done in FlashPlayer - you see the slide and hear the speaker - you can click on the next slide any time you want, or go back a slide or two to hear something again.

These presentations are excellent, and are a great opportunity to learn about the topics presented by expert genealogists.

I believe that access to these presentations is FREE to everyone. I logged out of my subscription account and was able to access the presentations. If that is not the case, would someone please let me know? Thanks.

"New England Ancestors" Magazine TOC - Holiday 2007 Issue

The Holiday 2007 issue of the New England Ancestors magazine, Volume 8, Numbers 5-6, came last week, and I really enjoyed reading it. This magazine is published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and is included in a society membership (which is $75 a year).

The Table of Contents lists the following Features:

* "New England Moves West: Connecticut's Pennsylvania 'Colony' " by Donna Bingham Munger -- page 21.
* "Finding the Whole Truth: The Terry Family of the Wyoming Valley" by Stephen C. Young -- page 26.
* "Salem witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall" by Eve LaPlante -- page 30
* "Friendship Books: An Overlooked Source for Genealogists" by Marjorie Hubbell Gibson -- page 33
* "Bring Your Ancestors to Life" by James and Marianna Carbine -- page 36
* "Ten Further Notable American Cousins of Diana, Princess of Wales" by Gary Boyd Roberts -- page 38
* "Ebenezer Knight Dexter's Enduring Gift to Providence" by Edwin M. Knights, Jr -- page 41.

The Columns Include:

* Computer Genealogist - "Computer Security by Rhonda R. McClure -- page 45
* Computer Genealogist Spotlight - "British History Online" by Connie Reik
* Genetics & Genealogy - "The Coddington DNA Study Project" by Jonathan Coddington -- page 48
* Manuscripts at NEHGS - "Update on the John Insley Coddington Papers" by Timothy G.X. Salls -- page 51
* Bible Records at NEHGS - "The Bush and Loomis Bible, Part Two" by Robert Shaw -- page 53
* Tales from the Courthouse - "The Case of the Stone-Throwing Devil" by Diane Rapaport.

In addition, there are the UpFront department articles with Greetings, In This Issue, Letters and Feedback, Announcements, Education Programs and Tours, and New England Online.

I really learned a lot from the article about Connecticut's Pennsylvania Colony and the history of this area. I don't think I have any of my ancestors in this settlement, but I need to consider it when helping others. The Samuel Sewall, and Ebenezer Dexter articles were fascinating for different reasons - Sewall was involved in the Salem Witch Trials and I have a Rebecca Nurse connection, and the Dexter article is about the "asylum" he built in Providence in the 1800's - I am always searching for Seaver people in obscure records for my one-name study. The Coddington DNA Project results are intriguing too.

In the Letters and Feedback department, there are three entries to the "My Most Challenging Brick Wall" stories - they are typical of New England elusive ancestors. The New England Online "From the Desk of the Online Genealogist" article by Michael J. Leclerc had answers to five queries submitted by readers was very interesting. Lastly, the 2007 index was included in this issue.

Occasionally, when I'm bored with routine genealogy work, I re-read these magazines and see what I have missed or forgotten, and especially note earlier articles that may help solve a recently surfaced problem.

This magazine provides a nice balance between traditional repository research and online database research - and reinforces the thought that you cannot do everything in genealogy research online, and probably never will be able to do it all online.

Day 13 - Charitable/Volunteer Work

On the 13th Day of Christmas,
My true love gives to the community
Her time, prayers and compassion.

1) Did your family ever volunteer with a charity such as a soup kitchen, homeless or battered women's shelter during the holidays?

These are difficult questions for the Genea-Scrooge...

I don't think my parents ever did this in the 1940-1980 time frame. Charity was not on the radar, other than dropping coins in the Salvation Army kettles.

Our church has hosted a homeless shelter for two weeks twice a year, and the shelter is there this week and next. We donate food items to this, but haven't been physically present at the shelter. Linda went down on Saturday to help set up the shelter cots and bedding.

Linda has been part of the Forest Home Women's Auxiliary for many years - Forest Home is a Christian camp in the San Bernardino mountains that our family attended for many years when the kids were kids. The Auxiliary has run a thrift shop in La Mesa for many years until just recently. We donated many clothing and household items over the years, and Linda worked one day a month at the shop.

Randy has essentially sat on his butt and not done anything of charitable value...sad to say.

2) Were you able to make the holidays special for someone less fortunate?

The people that I can think of are Linda's great-aunts who lived alone in San Francisco during the 1970's. We would go pick them up and bring them to Linda's parents house for Christmas dinner and gift exchange.

Over the years, we have occasionally invited some of the elderly church members with no local family to Christmas dinner with us, and they really appreciate the invitation and invariably are enthusiastic, friendly and fun.

Linda is a Deacon at church this year, and the Deacons usually "adopt" one or more church families, or friends of church families, who won't have Christmas gifts for their children or need help with meals. She is one of two persons who go with the pastor to serve communion to the shut-in church members.

Needless to say, I almost didn't respond to this prompt, but what the heck - my readers need to know that I'm a Genea-Scrooge sometimes, at least when it concerns the community. Maybe it's genetic, or a learned behavior?

This post will be part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" carnival - organized by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. Please go to Thomas' blog and read the submissions for each day.

Wikipedia article on Genealogy improved

The Wikipedia article on "Genealogy" was not "wonderful" until recently. The first paragraph read (as of 29 October):

"Genealogy (from Greek: γενεα, genea, "family"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. This involves the collection of the names of relatives, both living and deceased, and establishing the relationships among them based on primary, secondary and/or circumstantial evidence or documentation, thus building up a cohesive family tree. Genealogy (often misspelled "geneology"[1]) is often also referred to as family history, although these terms may be used distinctly: the former being the basic study of who is related to whom; the latter involving more "fleshing out" of the lives and personal histories of the individuals involved."

Today, the opening paragraph reads:

"Genealogy (from Greek: γενεα, genea, "family"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study and tracing of families. Because many unrelated individuals can share a common name, modern genealogical research is more than a collection of names affixed to pedigree charts. Rather, genealogy involves identifying living and deceased individuals, differentiating between individuals who bear the same name in the same place and time, establishing biological or genetic kinships, and reassembling families. By modern standards, reliable conclusions are based on the quality of sources (ideally original records, rather than derivatives), the information within those sources (ideally primary or firsthand information, rather than secondary or secondhand information), and the evidence that can be drawn (directly or indirectly) from that information. In many instances, genealogists must skillfully assemble circumstantial evidence to build a case for identity and kinship. All evidence and conclusions, together with the documentation that supports them, is then assembled to create a cohesive "genealogy" or "family history".[1] Traditionalists may differentiate between these last two terms, using the former to describe skeletal accounts of kinship (aka family trees) and the latter as a "fleshing out" of lives and personal histories. However, historical, social, and family context is still essential to achieving correct identification of individuals and relationships."

John Newmark and Elizabeth Shown Mills have taken the lead in sprucing the article up - there is a lot more than just the opening paragraph. At least the opening paragraph is accurate, is written by a renowned genealogist, and is a significant upgrade over the previous version.

It is interesting to see the History of the Genealogy entry - you can see all of the changes, with comparisons to the previous entry and to the current entry, here.

This "problem" has been a discussion item on the APG mailing list for the past few days - the first entry was here. The discussion quickly turned from "politically correct" to "let's fix the genealogy entry" to the latest fix. Undoubtedly there will be more additions and corrections. It's fascinating to watch (at least to me!) the editing process at work!

My compliments to John and Elizabeth for doing a professional job of improving the entry.

Della's Journal - Week 50 (December 10-16, 1929)

This is Installment 50 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 50 -

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

Tuesday, December 10: I went to town, pd last Paving & Ed's sewer. Put $17 of Ma's in bank of Italy.

Wednesday, December 11 (warm): Peck came to fix leaky faucets and toilets in both upper flats. Mr. Puterman called. Augie came over for a while. We sewed a little, fixed Ma's waist.

Thursday, December 12 (pleasant): I made on my pajamas & Ma's.

Friday, December 13 (warm): Ma wrote Aunt Libbie. We cleaned dining room. I cut out Ma's under skirt drab satune [???? what does that mean?].

Saturday, December 14 (foggy nights): Ed did not come over. We worked on sewing & Miss Thoren pd rent.

Sunday, December 15 (pleasant): Mrs. Chapman over a while in afternoon. I went with Lyle's out to Spring Valley, got oranges & eggs. Took washboard out to Mrs. Tompson in Ma's house.

Monday, December 16 (warm): I went out to Mrs. Schmidt's, took my lunch & ate with Mrs. Snyder. Visited a while then went downtown, did a little shopping for Xmas. A[ustin] got pay.

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

This was a really boring week from my point of view! She seems to be writing just one thing on many days - perhaps she's not writing every day and "catching up."

Day 14 - Holiday Travel

On the 14th day of Christmas,
we packed up the car to go
All the way to San Francisco.

1) Did you travel anywhere for Christmas?

As a kid, we never traveled anywhere for Christmas, other than to Cousin Dorothy's, my grandparents and the Christmas tree lot.

After we were married, we would alternate Christmas between San Diego and San Francisco, because Linda's parents and brother were there. They would come to San Diego one year, and we would go to San Francisco the next year. Until the kids were older, we usually flew to San Francisco on Christmas Day and returned before New Years Day. As the kids grew older, we would drive to San Francisco, usually leaving on the 23rd and arriving on the 24th. This let us do some winter vacationing in Yosemite and other places.

Our daughters started their own families, and so now, in alternate years, we drive to Tami's in Victorville several days ahead of Christmas, then go on to Lori's in Santa Cruz on the 23rd, then go on to Monte Rio to visit Linda's brother after Christmas. We usually stop back at Lori's on the way home.

2) How did you travel and who traveled with you?

We either flew to San Francisco and were picked up by Linda's father or brother, or we drove the 550 miles, usually up Highway 101 because it wasn't as subject to snow, ice and fog like Interstate 5 was.

Now, we almost always drive alone, as described above.

3) Do you remember any special trips?

The trip to Yosemite after Christmas in about 1987 was the best! The girls were young teenagers and loved to travel. We stayed in a motel, but were able to wander around the lodge, see the waterfalls, bike around the valley, and go to the ski resort. There, we did some sliding on mats (I think), had snowball fights, watched the skiers, and enjoyed hot drinks in the lodge. That night, we visited Linda's cousin in Fresno and stayed the night, and headed home the next day.

This post will be part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" carnival - organized by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. Please go to Thomas' blog and read the submissions for each day.

Best of the Genea-blogs - December 2-8, 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!).

* "The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" hosted by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. This is a daily Carnival of Christmas memories by genealogy bloggers. Click on a date and see the list of posts.

* "Could Dick Eastman be Misleading Us?" by John D. Reid at the Anglo-Celtic connections blog. John discusses statements made by noted blogger Dick Eastman about DNA tests and results, and asks some hard questions.

* "Mont Blanc at Christmas" by G. at the how to survive suburban life blog. This is really about how to roast chestnuts, and it is a long process. G. gives us stories about re-creating a Hungarian tradition in Canada.

* "Where DOES One Put Those Research Reports?" by Pat Richley on the DearMYRTLE blog. Pat has some good ideas about making and filing notes, genealogy reports and other information.

* "Libel and Fair Use and Defamation, Oh My!" by fM at the footnoteMaven blog. fM provides a funny and telling video about libel, fair use and defamation and warns bloggers to consider the implications of what they use.

* "Genealogy, Life is Good!" by Jimmy Kavanagh at the Genealogy Gifts blog. This is my favorite genealogy design so far for T-shirts, bags, and other stuff. Jimmy has other good ones too - check them out.

That's all I wrote down this week - I'm sure I missed many excellent posts, but I can't go back and look at over 200 blogs on my Bloglines list.

Day 15 -- Christmas Gifts

On the 15th day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me
The greatest gift of all - her love.

1) What were your favorite gifts, both to give and to receive?

I'm guessing at the date, but on about this date in 1969 I realized just how much Linda loved me and that I really loved her also. We had known each other for almost two years, but had been seriously dating only four months. As we made plans for Christmas with our respective families (mine in San Diego, hers in San Francisco), we talked openly about how much we meant to each other. I don't remember the physical gift we gave to each other at Christmas 1969, but I do know we gave each other a gift of commitment and happiness. The proposal was yet to come on Valentine's Day in 1970 (see, I was Mr. Romantic before I started doing genealogy), but this was the happiest Christmas of my life even though we were apart on December 25.

As a child, the best Christmas of all was 1954, when my brother Stan and I got our Davy Crockett coonskin caps and our Daisy BB guns for Christmas. Next best was 1955, when we got our Flexible Flyers, and the next best was 1956 when we got new bicycles. With the Flexies and bikes, we could roam all over San Diego and deliver our paper route on wheels - they meant freedom. We had had older bikes before this, but these were new with balloon tires and better brakes (still braking with the pedals, though).

Nowadays, I can count on receiving something electronic (I'm hoping for a photo keychain fob) and photographs of the grandchildren from my daughters and their families, some Hawaiian shirts and HP ink cartridges from Linda, and I usually treat myself to some genealogy books after the holiday. I usually get Linda some clothing - usually colorful (aqua, green, blue, red, purple) tops, gift certificates and perhaps a promise of a cruise or vacation.

This post will be part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" carnival - organized by Thomas MacEntee at the Destination: Austin Family blog. Please go to Thomas' blog and read the submissions for each day.