Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Dear Genea-Santa

It's Saturday Night - take some time from the Christmas shopping and wrapping frenzy - and have a little Genealogy Fun!!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.  Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented dreams:

1)  Write your Genea-Santa letter.  Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy?  What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list?  They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue your ancestral quest.

2)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook status or comment to this post.

I will post mine in a separate blog post later this evening.  I have to go shopping today!

Surname Saturday - PRESCOTT (England to Massachusetts)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 141, who is the unknown mother of Thomas Dill, father of Elizabeth Horton Dill (1794-1869).  #143 is the unknown mother of Mary Horton, mother of Elizabeth Horton Dill. I am unsure who their parents are, so I will skip them.  Next in line is #145, Elizabeth Prescott (1734-1812), one of my 5th-great-grandmothers. [Note: The 5th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]


My ancestral line back through five generations of PRESCOTT families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

18.  Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19.  Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

36.  Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857)
37.  Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857)

72.  Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828)
73.  Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793)

144.  Zachariah Hildreth, born 28 Dec 1728 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 18 Apr 1784 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. He was the son of 288. James Hildreth and 289. Dorothy Prescott. He married  12 Apr 1753 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA.

145. Elizabeth Prescott, born 15 Sep 1734 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA; died 01 May 1812 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA.

Children of Zachariah Hildreth and Elizabeth Prescott are:  Zachariah Hildreth (1754-1828); Elizabeth Hildreth (1755-1803); Hannah Hildreth (1758-1836); Esther Hildreth (1760-????); Timothy Hildreth (1760-????); James Hildreth (1762-1789); Lucy Hildreth (1764-1845); Jonas Hildreth (1766-1808); Ruth Hildreth (1768-1829); Edy Hildreth (1771-1819); Jesse Hildreth (1773-1840); Mehitable Hildreth (1775-1819).

290. Jonas Prescott, born 26 Jan 1702/03 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA; died 09 Sep 1784 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. He married  07 Mar 1730/31 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA.
291. Elizabeth Harwood, born 28 Jan 1700/01 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 27 Dec 1739 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 582. Nathaniel Harwood and 583. Mary Barron.

Children of Jonas Prescott and Elizabeth Harwood are: Elijah Prescott (1732-????); Elizabeth Prescott (1734-1812); Isaac Prescott (1737-????); Benjamin Prescott (1739-????);

580. Jonas Prescott, born 26 Oct 1678 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA; died 12 Sep 1750 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA. He married  05 Oct 1699 in Concord, Middlesex County, MA.
581. Thankful Wheeler, born 03 Jun 1682 in Concord, Middlesex County, MA; died 06 Nov 1716 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 1162. John Wheeler and 1163. Sarah Larkin.

Children of Jonas Prescott and Thankful Wheeler are: Ebenezer Prescott (1700-1771); Jonas Prescott (1703-1784); Thankful Prescott (1705-????); Mary Prescott (1711-1793); Sarah Prescott (1712-1737); Dorcas Prescott (1714-1803).

1160. Jonas Prescott, born Jun 1648 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA; died 31 Dec 1723 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA.  He married  14 Dec 1672 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA.
1161. Mary Loker, born 28 Sep 1653 in Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA; died 28 Oct 1735 in Groton, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 2322. John Loker and 2323. Mary Draper.

Children of Jonas Prescott and Mary Loker are:  Mary Prescott (1674-1735); Elizabeth Prescott (1676-1744); Jonas Prescott (1678-1750); Nathaniel Prescott (1680-1681); Dorothy Prescott (1682-1722); James Prescott (1684-1704); Sarah Prescott (1686-1716); Abigail Prescott (1688-????); Martha Prescott (1690-1774);  Susannah Prescott (1691-1771); Deborah Prescott (1694-????); Benjamin Prescott (1696-1738).

2320. John Prescott, born about 1604 in probably Lancashire, ENGLAND; died Dec 1681 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA. He married  11 Apr 1629 in Halifax, Yorkshire, ENGLAND.
2321. Mary Gawkroger, born before 07 Feb 1612/13 in Sowerby, Yorkshire, ENGLAND; died 1674 in Lancaster, Worcester County, MA. She was the daughter of 4642. Abram Gawkroger and 4643. Martha Riley.

Children of John Prescott and Mary Gawkroger are:  Mary Prescott (1630-1716); child Prescott (1631-1631); Martha Prescott (1632-1656); child Prescott (1634-1634); John Prescott (1635-????); Sarah Prescott (1637-1727); Hannah Prescott (1639-1697); Lydia Prescott (1641-1712); John Prescott (1643-1718); Jonathan Prescott (1645-1721); Jonas Prescott (1648-1723).

There are many sources of information about the English ancestry and New England life of John Prescott.  In my opinion, the most authoritative work is from the book:

MaryLovering Holman, The Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller, Concord NH : Rumford Press, 1948. 

One line of the John Prescott family was treated in the book:

Joan S. Guilford, The Ancestry of Dr. J.P. Guilford, Sheridan Psychological Services, Inc., 1990, Volume 1.

I suspect that there will be many readers that are descended from John Prescott, but not too many that are descended from any of the three Jonas Prescotts.

Advent Calendar - 18 December: Christmas Stockings

This is the 18th of 24 posts for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, a Geneablogger tradition.

On the 7th Day of Christmas,
my true love said to me
"You'd better fill that up, honey!"

1) Did you have a stocking?

Every year ... from childhood to now. Not the same one, of course.

2) Where did you hang it?

When I was a kid, my parents hung it by my grandparents chimney - probably on the firescreen.

Since we've had our own home, the stocking is hung from a nail in the beam over the fireplace.

3) What did you get in it?

When I was a kid, I received little toys, fruit, gum, candy, etc.

As a married adult, the stocking has candy (lots of candy!), socks, small gifts, and sometimes a charcoal briquette (the proverbial lump of coal in San Diego). My favorite candies are See's Peppermints, orange slices, Hershey kisses, gum drops, M&Ms, etc. All of this makes me a really "sweet-lovin'" guy. And adds several pounds each year, but hey, I'm in shape (pear is a shape, right?).

Linda sometimes gets jewelry, lipstick, nail clippers, and candy in her stocking. She used to get panty-hose (hey, a stocking in a stocking, right?) and sexy panties, but she won't let me shop for those any more.

15 December FamilySearch Bloginar is Available to Watch/Listen

FamilySearch conducted an online presentation and discussion for genealogy bloggers and other communicators on 15 December.  The remote audience dialed in on the telephone to hear the presenters, and connected via Adobe Connect to see the presentation slides and screen.  The agenda was:

12:00 Welcome. FamilySearch Bloginar Overview

12:05 New Online Collections
Indexing Update
RootsTech 2011 Update

12:15 Next Generation FamilySearch.org (Beta.FamilySearch.org): Latest Tips and Tricks
November Upgrade(s)
- Catalog place search
December Upgrades
- New search forms
- Date context fixes
- Other search results improvements
Upcoming Changes (January/February)
- Filters
- Collection specific search
- Exact/close/partial controls

13:00 Questions and Answers

The presentation slides and the audio/video of the online demonstration of the improved FamilySearch website are available at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/FamilySearch_Bloginar_Presentation_-_December_2010.  Here is a screen view of that page:

The presentation slides were presented by Paul Nauta of FamilySearch, but the audio was not recorded.  You can see the slides here.  The first slide looks like this:

The demonstration of the content and search capabilities of the improved FamilySearch site was presented by Robert Kehrer, with Jim Ericson moderating the chat area that had participants asking questions and making comments.  The link for this presentation, including audio, is here.  




I found the interactive presentation by Robert Kehrer to be very helpful in understanding the different methods to search and find historical records, Ancestral File entries and FHL library catalog items. 
 
Mote that this bloginar did not include any information on New FamilySearch.  Hopefully, when it goes live to the world they will do something similar to inform users of the Family Tree capabilities and usage.
 
If you have a spare hour to watch this, it should be worth your time.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" Returns on 4 February to NBC-TV

NBC-TV announced the return of the hit series, Who Do You Think You Are?, on Friday, 4 February 2011 at 8-9 PM ET and PT, with shows featuring the family history of these celebrities:

• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Tim McGraw
• Rosie O’Donnell
• Steve Buscemi
• Kim Cattrall
• Lionel Richie
• Vanessa Williams
• Ashley Judd.

The Ancestry.com press release can be read here.  It is not yet on Ancestry.com's Press site for some reason (as of 9 a.m. on 17 December).

You can see more information on the NBC-TV show website at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/. 

On the site, there are photo albums for the eight celebrities featured in 2010, and video of each show can be seen at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/video/.

Many genealogical societies saw an upsurge in interest in genealogy and family history research from the general public, and adjusted their programs and classes to accommodate the upsurge.  Will this same phenomena happen again?  I hope so, and will highlight the program when I teach my Beginning Computer Genealogy classes in February and my local Chula Vista Genealogical Society is planning a Beginners Class in March.

I'm really looking forward to this season, even though I know little about any of the celebrities.  We don't watch movies or much network TV these days.  I've heard the names, but don't know much about them.  Now I'm wondering if any of them are my cousins.

Will there be a WDYTYA? viewing party at RootsTech on Friday, 11 February?

Don't forget to Vote for your Favorite Genea-blogs

Voting for your favorite genealogy blogs, sponsored by Family Tree Magazine, is still open - and will be until Monday, 20 December.  The poll is at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ft40-2011voting.

Who are the nominees?  You can see the list of 117 in eight different categories, along with the blog author and a link to each nominated blog, in the post FT40 Listing – With Blog Authors at Geneabloggers blog, written by Thomas MacEntee.

Please review the list in Thomas's post, and click on the blog links of those that you're not familiar with, and then vote for your favorites.

Advent Calendar - 17 December: The Family Journal

This is the 17th of 24 posts for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, a Geneablogger tradition.

On the 8th day of Christmas,
I sent to all my relatives
this year's Family Journal.

1) What helps you remember Christmases past?

My Christmas gift to my cousins, brothers and children is a 16 page (usually) family journal, called the "Seaver-Richmond Family Journal." This is my 23rd year of doing this family journal. I end up sending about 20 copies out every year to the extended family. This is my way of "connecting" to my extended family and sharing some of my family history research.

Fred Seaver and Bessie Richmond married in 1900 in Leominster MA and had seven children, 6 of whom lived to adulthood and married, five of whom had a total of 11 children. This family line is 3/4 New England colonial immigrant (Seaver, Hildreth and White), and 1/4 English immigrant (Richman/Richmond, immigrated in 1855).

The content of my family journal has changed over time. I used to print more lines of descent from famous or notable people, and more lines from immigrant ancestors to my grandparents generation. However, I ran out of these types of articles several years ago - I had covered all of the family lines with 5-generations or more.

In recent years, I've added more family photos - both of the older generations and the new generations - young families with babies and the like. I've also written more memorials as the aunts and uncles have died.

This year, the Table of Contents looks like:

* 2010 Family Search - page 1
* What's Inside? - page 1
* Seaver/Richmond Ancestry on the Internet - page 2
* Online Genealogy Record Collections
* Seaver Family Photographs from Aunt Gerry's Collection - pages 3 and 4
* Geraldine (Seaver) Remley's Autobiography - Part 3 - pages 5-7
* Juliet (White) Richmond's Death Certificate - page 8
*  Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825) of Westminster, Massachusetts - pages 9-10
* Immigrant Ancestors - Edward Gray (1623-1681) of Plymouth -  pages 11-13
* Where Did the White and Oatley Families Live in Killingly? - page 13
* All Our Cousins - Descendants of Fred and Bessie - pages 14-16
* Finis - page 16

The production process is pretty simple. I use last year's MSWord document as a template - but delete the content and save it as a new document. Then I add content over a 7 to 10 day period, based on family papers and photographs, material from my blog, the Internet or my genealogy databases. When the content is completed, then I print off 25 copies (16 pages, in color, two-sided). I save it also as a PDF file to put on CDROMs to give to family members who want one.

It's funny - even though I ask the family for pictures and stories, either by snail mail, email or in person, I never receive anything from them. Maybe they are bored by it all; maybe it slips their mind or they think they don't have anything to contribute. I do get compliments in the Christmas cards I receive, so I think they appreciate the effort.

I sent the Family Journal, along with our family Christmas letter, off to the cousins last Monday. I have copies at home for my brother, my niece and my daughters and will gift them with it when we see them to celebrate Christmas. Hopefully, we will share stories and memories of our parents and grandparents.

Adventures in FTM 2011 - Creating a Source Citation

I've had Family Tree Maker 2011 for a few weeks now and have it installed on my new desktop computer running Windows 7 and on the laptop running Windows XP. 

Over the past two weeks, I've been happily standardizing my place names and am almost finished with that task.  The next task is to "fix" more of my sources before I create many more of them. 

I wanted to practice creating a new Source, and a newly-found distant cousin (yep, he found me through my Genea-Musings blog posts!) sent me pages from a family history book for one of his surnames.  So I wanted to enter the new information from the book for his family line.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to Add a Source to my database using the much-heralded Source citation templates that follow Evidence! Explained standards. 

From the Person workspace, I wanted to add a Source citation to the marriage Fact, so with the Fact highlighted I clicked on "New" on the Sources tab in the right-hand panel.  The "Add Source Citation" box came up, and I clicked on the "New" button in that window to get to the Source Template shown below:

I had to select a Source Template, so I chose the "Publications - Books, CDs, DVDs, Maps, Leaflets and videos" from the "Source Group" dropdown list, then selected "Print Publications" from the "Category" dropdown list, and then "Book - Basic format" from the "Template" dropdown list.  After clicking "OK, I  entered all of the information in the template fields:

After clicking "OK" I then entered the page number in the "Citation Data" field:

So what does my source citation look like for this Fact?  Here is the Person screen with the Marriage Fact highlighted and the citation in the Source area of the right-hand panel:

The source citation reads:

"Marjorie E. Doctor, Descendants of Alexander Doctor & Catherine Powrie Doctor: Scotland & Scotch Plains, Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas, USA: M.E. Doctor, 1987), page 479."

Now I wanted to see if it shows up in the list of Sources, so I clicked on the "Sources" workspace tab in the top menu, and scrolled down the "Source Groups" list on the left and highlighted this source:

The middle panel shows the Facts attributed to this source, and the source information is in the right hand panel.  It says:

"Marjorie E. Doctor, Descendants of Alexander Doctor & Catherine Powrie Doctor: Scotland & Scotch Plains, Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas, USA: M.E. Doctor, 1987), page 479."

However, in the list of "Sources Groups" it is listed as:

"Doctor, Marjorie E., Descendants of Alexander Doctor & Catherine Powrie Doctor." 

If I want to seek it out in the Source Group list again, I need to remember that it is listed with the author's last name first.  I did that for the other Facts that I added or revised in my database.

Why does it list the Source with the author's last name first? All of the other Source Groups that imported from my Family Tree Maker 16 file are in the "Source Group" listing by the title, not the author's name.  So to be consistent, I have to go back and change the other 640 Source Groups to use the template forms to standardize my source citations.  Or I could just leave them alone, since they print out perfectly well right now. 

But what will happen if I export the file and import it to another software program or to Ancestry.com?  I'm going to experiment a bit with this before I take the time to convert the Source Groups to the Source Templates.  I'll probably convert a number of them - different Source Group types, and see how they translate through the export/import process.  

The devil is in the details, isn't it?

That was really pretty easy.  And it didn't take very long, as long as I had the pages from the source document on my desk. 

UPDATED 7 p.m.:  One paragraph was out of place, and one figure (the third one) was wrong - corrected and now it makes much more sense, even to me!  sorry for the confusion.  Did anybody really see the problems?

I'm an Official RootsTech 2011 Blogger, but can't attend

My thanks to FamilySearch for naming me as an Official RootsTech 2011 Blogger. 

You can see all of the details at http://rootstech.familysearch.org/.

What is RootsTech?

The first annual RootsTech Conference will be a gathering of both family history enthusiasts and technologists from around the world. Genealogy hobbyists and professionals alike will discover new and emerging technologies that will improve and simplify their activities. At the same time, technology providers will enjoy a rare, face‐to‐face opportunity to interact with family history enthusiasts to better understand their needs.

Combining the Conference on Computerized Family History, the Technology Workshop, and the FamilySearch Developers Conference, RootsTech will foster innovation for years to come as genealogists looking for solutions share their challenges with high‐tech innovators eager to develop new applications for their technologies.

What will you learn?

Dozens of classes, workshops, lectures and discussion will be held over the three days of RootsTech. A selection of the topics covered:

• Applying social networking techniques and technologies to collaborate as families and societies
• Cameras, scanners, and preservation devices
• How to use cloud computing to deploy highly reliable, scalable systems
• Using standards and authorities to enhance applications and search techniques
• Handwriting recognition and automated transcription
• Search engines and finding tools
• GPS mapping
• Tricks and travails in embedding external components
• Leveraging records digitization and preservation
• Media capture and conversion
• Available APIs and Web services
• Understanding new markets
• Mobile devices and smartphone applications
• Much, much more!

The scheduled sessions for each day are listed for each day at the bottom of this page.  click on a specific day and see the list.  wow!

Who Should Attend?  Is that you?  It certainly is me.

See the Accommodations page for information about hotel space.

BUT, I cannot attend due to a schedule conflict.  I committed several months ago to do a presentation on Saturday morning, 12 February to my local San Diego Genealogical Society and don't want to break that commitment.  I considered going for the Thursday and Friday sessions and flying home on Friday night, but I'll miss half the conference, and if the weather is bad in SLC and my flight is cancelled, then I would miss the SDGS meeting.  So, I decided to not attend RootsTech.

Apparently, There are some sessions for remote access, and I will try to attend some of them. 

I will have more information on RootsTech in the two months until the event.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: 1900 Status Report

For Treasure Chest Thursday, I am presenting and transcribing papers from the Civil War Pension File of my Second Great-Grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901). In previous posts, I've presented:

*   Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Pension Declaration,
*  Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: Widow's First Declaration,
*  Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #1
*  Treasure Chest Thursday - Isaac Seaver's Civil War Pension File: General Affidavit #2

 I'm going to back up here, and show the first item in the packet, which is a status report of the soldier's status:
 
 

The transcription of this form follows (was this a folded piece of paper?):

[left-hand side]

East Div., N.L.R., Ex'r

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions,
Washington, D.C.  Sept 28, 1900

Respectfully referred to the Chief of the
Record and Pension Office, War Department,
requesting a full military and medical his-
tory of the soldier at this date
also his age and
personal description
at date of enlistment

(2 inclosures)

No other report on file.
Cert. No. 850,736
Name, Isaac Seaver 3rd
Co. H 4" Reg't Mass. H. Art.

[signed] N. Olney Evans, S.S.
Commissioner

[Right hand side]

Record and Pension Office
War Department

Respectfully returned to the
Commissioner of Pensions

Isaac Seaver
Co. ___, ____ Reg't Mass H.A.
was enrolled Aug 10, 186_
and M.O. June 17, 186 5
with Co. H 4 Mass
H A to which Chgd
about Nov 18.64 as
Isaac Seaver 3d

From Enr, 186 _ , to MO., 186_
he held the rank of, Pvt

and during that period the rolls show him present
except as follows ________________
______________________________
Pers desc. Age 40 yr
Blacksmith, Eyes blue
comp light, hair sandy
5 ft, 10 1/2 in.
______________________________

This was dated 28 September 1900, and the Pension Office apparently wanted to make sure that Isaac was still alive. 

The personal description at the bottom of the right-hand panel is the most useful part of this document - Isaac's physical description at enlistment would be my own physical description at age 40.