"Census, census, get'cher 1940 census here..."

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I mentioned in Comments on the 1940 U.S. Census RFQ and SOW that the 1940 United States Census would be available to purchase from the National Archives on 2 April 2012.

The NARA E-Store has it for sale (see https://estore.archives.gov/SAMPLE_STATE.pdf) (two screens):

Yes, you too can have all 3.8 million digital images (almost 20 terabytes, that's 20,000 gigabytes) for the bargain price of 5.2 cents per image, or a grand total of $200,000.  Or you can order specific states for prices ranging from $3,000 to $9,000.  You do need to send a pre-payment of only $10,000 for the full 1940 census before 1 October 2011 if you want to guarantee. delivery on 2 April 2012.

It appears that whoever wins the NARA contract to host and provide access to the 1940 census images, for up to five years, will save $200,000.  However, that company has to follow all of the contract requirements, make reports and presentations to NARA, and manage the actual work of creating index links between the Enumeration District maps and the images, plus permit panning, zooming, printing and saving (up to whole ED sets).  For up to five years. 

Granted, a company that purchases the census images from NARA will have to create the index links to the images and then create the name indexes, but they don't have to manage and execute the contract requirements for up to five years.

So now we have an answer to one of my questions in my earlier post - how much will the 1940 census cost?  The NARA e-Store page doesn't differentiate between digital images and microfilm. 

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 167: Betty and her "Baby"

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I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the
1988-2002 time period:

This photograph is of my mother, Betty Carringer (1919-2002), taken in about 1922, and is in the Pentecost album.  She is cradling a doll, standing in the middle of a red berry bush patch (I think - I remember these bushes, they usually had small red mushy berries and grew prolifically).   The picture was probably taken on the Carringer property between Fern Street and 30th Street on the block north of Hawthorn Street in San Diego. 

Betty is wearing an apron over her dress.  The apron has a pocket, and an image of a girl in a bonnet running with a net.  I wonder if the apron was hand-made by one of her grandmothers.

Trying to be a Good Geni.com Citizen

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I decided to work in the Geni.com online family tree system to see how easy it was to edit a profile, add a discussion item, add a source and several other features.

One of the more egregious errors that I found in the Geni.com world tree was the information about William White (ca 1708 - ca 1780), the son of William and Elizabeth (Cadman) White, and the husband of Abigail Thurston.  I had not added him to the Geni.com tree, but I had added his son Jonathan White (ca 1732-1804) in my tree, and then had merged my tree with another tree with Jonathan White that linked to his parents.  

The data for William White (ca 1632-ca 1777) had two sets of parents for him, two spouses (one had the same name as the spurious mother), 14 siblings and five children.  His birth was listed as 1632 in Boston Mass. and the death date was listed as the date he wrote his will in 1777.

I decided to add a Discussion item, which said:

The sketch for this William White, in the book "Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume Thirteen: William White" published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in 1997, provides the best information about this person and his family.

This William White is #201 in the book (page 129). Here are the assertions from the book:

* William White was the son of William White and Elizabeth Cadman (page 46). He was NOT the son of "William Fuller White" and "Phillipa Wood." That link should be eliminated.

* William White was born around 1708, probably in Dartmouth MA, not in 1632 in Boston MA. His father, William White was born in 1683 to Sylvanus and Deborah (--?--) White. This birth year of 1632 for this William is a major error in this database and should be corrected.

* His siblings were George, Sarah, Hannah, Roger, Christopher, Susanna, Elizabeth, Oliver, Abner and Thomas. He was not a brother of Ursula, Isaac, Cornelius, and Margaret - these links should be eliminated.

* William White married Abigail Thurston on 2 Oct 1729 in Little Compton RI. He was not the husband of Phillipa Wood - that connection should be eliminated.

* William and Abigail (Thurston) White had children: Sarah, Hannah, Jonathan, Elizabeth and Abigail. Those appear correct.

* William White did not die on 17 Feb 1777. He wrote his will on 17 Feb 1777, and it was proved on 3 Oct 1780 in Bristol County MA Probate Court. It would be more accurate to say that he died before 3 Oct 1780.

The book mentioned above is on bookshelves all over the country. Geni.com users should be using authoritative books written by respected and credentialed researchers when they are available, rather than picking likely parents, siblings and children off online family trees.

I then clicked on the "Edit Profile" link and added the more correct birth date (ca 1708) and birth place (Dartmouth, Bristol, MA) and the death date (ca 3 Oct 1780) and death place (Dartmouth, Bristol, MA).

Then I added the source citation to the Sources list as:

Ruth Wilder Sherman, FASG and Robert Moody Sherman, CG, FASG, edited by Robert S. Wakefield, FASG, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume 13: Family of William White (Plymouth, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997).

I then linked the Facts I had corrected to the source citation.

After doing this, the Profile for William White (ca 1708 - ca 1780) looked like this:

Note that it still has the spurious parents and siblings because I haven't split the wrong ones off from this William White. 

There are six tabs at the bottom of the screen above - for Overview, Media, Timeline, Discussions, sources and Revisions.  The Revisions screen looks like this:

At the bottom of the page, all of the revisions (additions, corrections, deletions) are shown by Geni member, date and fact type.

The Sources page looks like this:

The only other source, before I added the Mayflower Families book, was a Family Tree Maker database.  Not a source citation, just a computer file that no one else can access.

Here is the Discussions page after I typed in it:

I completed the above by 10:12 AM today, and by 11:06 AM the Curator had disconnected the spurious set of parents, the spurious wife, and the spurious children (I figured this out from the Revisions page), as shown below:

In this case, someone was very responsive and made a judgment that my information was correct.  Did the Curator refer to the source I quoted?  I don't know.  I hope so!  If she did, then why hadn't she done it before and corrected these Profiles?  I think it's probably because no one else had added a Discussion item or an authoritative source.

So now I think that the sketch for William White (ca 1708-ca 1780) is now fairly accurate and reflects the information in the Mayflower Families book. 

What about the other sketches for William's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents?  They still need some work - there are spurious names, dates and places for them also in the Geni.com tree.

I think that I will occasionally hunt for obviously wrong sketches to which I can contribute sourced information, and go through the same process.  This won't be my sole genealogy activity, however.  I have plenty more to do than to fix everybody else's research errors.

My tree on Geni.com is somewhat out of date now - I have only 1,000 persons in it.  My RootsMagic tree has over 41,000 persons, with standardized place names, and many more source citations.  Currently, there is no way to easily add information on a large scale to Geni.com.  A user can only add data by going one generation and one person at a time entering names, relationships, dates and places.  That is not a useful way for me to spend my limited time, so I'm going to wait to see what AncestorSync comes up with. 

The problem described and corrected above is pretty typical of the problems on all online family trees - not just the one on Geni.com.  Interlinked family trees like Geni.com, WeRelate.org, WikiTree.com, FamilySearch Tree, Ancestry's One World Tree and One GreatFamily are the ones with the biggest problems, because they are interlinked, and many erroneous relationships have been created through merges spurred by wishfulness or ignorance.    The stand-alone "owned" online trees on many sites have similar problems but they don't have the collaboration tools that the interlinked trees have, and don't claim a goal of being a world tree.

The key to getting accurate and sourced information into interlinked family trees like Geni.com may be very simple:  Genealogists need to take the time to add information from authoritative sources to Profiles and to initiate a Discussion to give reasons for the additions/corrections/deletions.

I think that interlinked trees are here to stay, and we all should do the best we can to ensure that the information that we contribute to them is accurate and adequately sourced.  We should participate in the necessary Discussions to drive tree profiles to accurate information and sources.  We also need to understand that we don't "own" the data in the interlinked trees that we contribute to.

Now I need to work on my Source Reference Lists again.    I got them edited last night, and added some content to them using my Ancestor List data.  Now I need to work through my paper piles to add more content.

My Geni.com Experiences

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After last week's major brouhaha about the "rules change" at Geni.com (see The Geni.com Changes Genea-Blog Compendium for blog responses), I listened to the Blog Talk Radio show last night with Thomas MacEntee interviewing Noah Tutak, the CEO of Geni.com.  You can hear this episode of Geneabloggers Radio here. 

You can read the Geni.com announcements about the changes at Geni Pro Just Got a Whole Lot Better and A Message From Geni’s CEO

Noah described the changes made at Geni.com, and answered many of the chat board questions filtered through Thomas.  George of Geni.com was on the chat board and answered some chatter questions.  They invited people to make comments on the Geni.com Blog post about the show.  Only one chat participant has done that so far.

I hope that someone will summarize the questions and answers from the radio program interview.

I started on Geni.com back in 2008 with a Free account, and uploaded a GEDCOM at that time with about 1,000 ancestral family members.  However, I didn't use the service very much, and did not invite any family members to join me on Geni.com.  The website was "nice looking" but it wasn't a vehicle for me to use for genealogy research, but it was useful as "cousin bait."  It also had the potential to find relationships to celebrities and historical persons, which I have an interest in, mainly for use as blog fodder and my family newsletter.  The problem there is that the persons that I submitted to Geni.com didn't go back far enough to connect through the early American colonial ancestors.

At the 2011 SCGS Jamboree, Geni.com gifted me and other geneabloggers with a Pro account, which I appreciate.  I still have not added a lot of content yet, and I will not unless or until there is a functional GEDCOM capability or a true person-by-person synchronization capability.  AncestorSync appears to be able to transfer a Geni.com file to a GEDCOM or software, or vice versa.  However, I don't think that it will do a person-by-person synchronization.

As a Pro account holder, the changes on Geni.com enhanced my capabilities - I can now edit Profiles of historical persons without contacting the Profile Manager or other persons who have merged their profile for a person into the Profile.  That has advantages and disadvantages - it may enable better scholarship to be added to the tree, and it may cause Edit Wars if people disagree.  There are tabs on each Profile for the Overview, Media, Timeline, Discussions, sources and Revisions.  Users are encouraged to add content to those tabs.

In another post, I will show some of the changes I made for one of my ancestors that had erroneous data in it, due to the merging of the person by two or more Geni.com users.  It will be interesting to see the feedback, if any!

Tuesday's Tip - Check out the BYU Family History Archives

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This week's Tuesday's Tip is to:  Check for FREE family history books at the BYU Family History Archive site (http://lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php).

This site has 17,777 family history books (and there are probably many more - they haven't updated the number for awhile) available for free access - to read, print or save to your computer.  The collection description is:

"The Family History Archive is a collection of published genealogy and family history books. The archive includes histories of families, county and local histories, how-to books on genealogy, genealogy magazines and periodicals (including some international), medieval books (including histories and pedigrees), and gazetteers. It also includes some specialized collections such as the Filipino card collection and the “Liahona Elders Journal.” The books come from the collections of the FamilySearch Family History Library, the Allen County Public Library, the Houston Public Library – Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, the Mid-Continent Public Library – Midwest Genealogy Center, the BYU Harold B. Lee Library, the BYU Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library."

The user can search by Surname, Author or Title keywords.  Alternatively, there is a "Search all" field that will return matches from all of the keyword fields.  There is also an Advanced Search capability that permits a user to search "all of the words," "exact phrase," "any of the words" and "none of the words," and to select specific collections to search.

When you are on the www.FamilySearch.org site and click on the "Books" tab, you are taken to the BYU Family History Archive site.  There are links to these books from within the FamilySearch Library Catalog on the FamilySearch site.

The neat thing is that these are not all "out-of-copyright" books.  They are books that patrons donated to the FamilySearch library, or other participating libraries.  For instance, this collection has the book:

Frederick G. Rolfe, The Early Rolfe Settlers of New England ( Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 1995). 

This book unlocked several mysteries for me on my Rolfe and Martin ancestry.

How do I catch up to 13 years of genealogy sloth?

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Thirteen years ago I created a spreadsheet of all of the reference sources I had collected in my genealogy research.  I only had Microsoft Works then, so I used that.  To fill in the columns for each surname, I went through my surname notebooks.  I updated these files occasionally as I gathered more information, which were sometimes put into the notebooks, or put into the "to be filed" pile. 

I'm going to the Allen County Public Library in three weeks on our Midwest trip to the FGS Conference and other destinations.  I recalled where the printout of my spreadsheet was, so I got that out.  I have added information since 1998 in handwritten notes. 

Then I went looking for the computer file of the spreadsheet.  Hmmm, it's not in my files for some reason.  Aha, that was two computers ago!  I must have not copied it to the latest computer for some reason. 

Maybe it's on my external hard drive hiding in the 1998 PC directories.  Yep, there it is...dated 1998.  Well, that's OK, I have my handwritten additions on the printout, I can just use the 1998 list with all of the names, and add the handwritten stuff. 

I opened the 1998 MSWorks file in Open Office 3.3, and saved it as an OO file.  Then I edited it a bit, and added the information entered by hand since 1998.  That took about four hours today for just the Seaver ancestry files (but not all of them!). 

Here is a screen shot of the first page of my 17 page Seaver Source listing:

The column headings are:

*  Surname
*  Earliest person's first name (or immigrant ancestor)
*  Origin of earliest person
*  USA towns where family resided
*  Surname books (shorthand)
*  Anthology books (shorthand)
*  County/town books (shorthand)
*  Periodicals (shorthand)

The shorthand for books usually includes a short title, the author and perhaps the repository (including the Carlsbad collection number of the University Microfilms books).

But I have 13 years of research (more or less) to add to the list.  The tasks still left to do include:

*  Update the Seaver Source list (have one major line to add)
*  Update the Carringer Source list. (have two major lines to add).
*  Create a Leland Source list (start from scratch).
*  Go through the "to be filed" pile and "to be entered" pile to add to the lists.
*  Go through my computer files to find content for the lists.
*  Go through my genealogy database notes for ancestors and find content for the lists.

That covers the resource material that I have in my possession -- somewhere.  What about the material I want to find?  That's the next task, including:

*  Update my Book and Periodical lists of "To be found" items.
*  Go systematically through Martin Hollick's book New Englanders in the 1600s to find items I need to find for my New England families (probably 90% of my surnames) and add items to the "To be found" list. 

That's a pretty big job to do in two weeks...but I'm going to tackle it. If I'm able to finish it, then I'll have a clean list of surnames and resource material already found. 

It's funny - I stopped adding paper to my notebooks and stopped keeping this list updated about the same time online resources started popping up all over.  And then genea-blogging began...I've been such a bad genealogy boy for a long time now.  Yea, verily, I have sinned and fallen short of my expectations.

The short answer to my blog title is:  Figure out what information I already have!  Then figure out what I need to find.

I guess the message here is -- I'm going to try to get better organized. Blogging may be light the next two weeks.  And the two weeks following while we're on the vacation.  Or not - we'll see if I can break away from my three-a-day habit here. 

Comments on the 1940 U.S. Census RFQ and SOW

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Links to the 1940 U.S. Census Request for Quote and Statement of Work to host and provide access to it, and selected highlights from the RFQ and SOW, were provided last night.  I have commentary and  questions about this information:

1)  NARA could contract with more than one contractor.  That  might be smart - one contractor might create a significantly better website to provide access than another; and a contractor might fail at completing the job; having more than one contractor provides some insurance.  Free hosting and indexing the images by the contractor costs NARA very little if they have more than one contractor.  Competition creates quality products. 

2)  The FREE access requirement is for searching for, browsing, downloading and sharing the images only - not for the indexing. 

 3) The contract is for one year, with four one-year options for renewal. What happens if NARA decides to not renew the contract? After the contract termination, NARA could host and provide access, using the image search index developed by the contractor, on their own site.

4)  I do not see a contract requirement to CREATE a name index.  A name index is mentioned only in Section 3 in the context that the Contractor can create a name index starting on 2 April 2012, but not before. 

5)  The Contractor can also host the census images on their own web site, and create other products, on its own web site.  Apparently, the Contractor(s) won't have to purchase the images from NARA.  That provides a financial incentive to win the contract.

6)  NARA will offer the 1940 US Census images in digital or microfilm format for sale, after 2 April 2012.  Who would want a microfilm set?  How much will they cost?  Will the cost of the digital set be different from the microfilm set? 

7)  Purchasing the census images will provide an opportunity for all potential name indexers, and will probably spur a competition to complete the name index and to index many fields.  However, the Contract winner(s) will have an advantage early on.

8)  Potential name indexers might be able to use the census images on the Contractor developed site for free, but that may be difficult to accomplish.

9)  Who are the candidates for submitting a proposal for the NARA Contract?  The obvious answers (to me) are FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, Archives.com, FamilyLink.com, or some other non-profit or commercial website with the required physical, technical and management resources. 

10)  How long will it take to index the 1940 U.S. Census?  There are 130 million names in the census, with 40 or 50 indexable fields on the sheets - that's a lot of indexing.  That's 498 person-years indexing at one name every two minutes (I don't know how long it will take).  Who has the resources to do this indexing?  My guess is that only Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org have the financial and/or volunteer resources to do this - who else has indexed large databases from scratch recently?

11)  Ancestry.com said in 1940 Census To Be Free on Ancestry.com that "...more than 3.8 million original document images containing 130 million plus records will be available to search by more than 45 fields, including name, gender, race, street address, county and state, and parents’ places of birth. It will be Ancestry.com’s most comprehensively indexed set of historical records to date."  Will Ancestry.com be able to index the complete census by the end of 2013, when access to the index (and perhaps the images on Ancestry) will go behind their subscriber wall?  I think that Ancestry used paid indexers for the 1930 census, and many other large databases.  Do they have enough volunteer indexers to do this task in 21 months or less?

12)  Has FamilySearch made any statements about the 1940 U.S. census hosting, access and indexing?  I don't think I've seen a report about it, but I've heard some rumors.  The United States Census Population Schedules, 1940 (Family Search Historical Records) Research Wiki page says:  "This article describes a collection of historical records that is scheduled to become available for free online at FamilySearch" but doesn't provide any more details at this time.

What questions do you have about this 1940 U.S. Census contract to be awarded by NARA?  List them here in Comments, or write your own blog post, and I'll create a compendium of questions that need answers from NARA and/or the Contractor(s).

Denise asked (in Comments):  "It appears that NARA wants to keep access at no cost forever, but Ancestry is only offering it for free for a limited time."

My opinion:  I think that NARA will eventually host the census on its own site, with one of the name indexes available from some provider for use in a NARA facility.  That's the type of agreement they made with Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, FamilySearch.org, etc. to permit indexing of other NARA databases they are free to access in a NARA facility.  Ancestry is offering free access through 2013 for the census images, not necessarily the complete index.  It's logical to assume they will index this collection as quickly as possible, state-by-state, but it may not be complete by the end of 2013.

Amanuensis Monday - the Will of Josiah Wood (1629-1691) of Charlestown, Mass.

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Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is the will of Josiah Wood (1629-1691) of Charlestown in Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Josiah was the son of Edward Wood and Ruth Lee.  He married Lydia Bacon (1637-1712) in 1657 in Charlestown, and they had six children:  Josiah Wood (1658-1741); Lydia Wood (1659-1659); Lydia Wood (1662-1681); Samuel Wood (1671-1711); Joseph Wood (1674-1725); Ruth Wood (1676-1676).  Only the three sons survived Josiah Wood.

Josiah Wood died testate, and his probate papers are in Middlesex County [Massachusetts] Probate Records, Packet #25,488 (accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,432,088). His will was dated 19 May 1691 and was proved in Middlesex County on 29 December 1691. The will reads:

"In the Name of God Amen, I Josiah Wood of Charlestowne being weak & infirm in body, but, of good understanding and memorie, It being my Duty to sett my house in order, Do first of all, Declaring this to be my last will & Testament, Committ my Soul to God and leave it in ye armes and Everlasting mercies of my Redeemer and my body to a Decent buriall at ye Discretion of my Executors and Christian friends. And as for my outward Estate that my God hath graciously lent me I do Dispose of it in manner following:

"Imprimis In Case my Son Josiah Wood never dissect (?) my two Sones Sam-ll and Joseph Seeing to that Cow Common that was Bought of Thomas Allen I do then order and appoint my Executors hereafter named to well and truly pay to him Ten pounds in good Current pay, and In Consideration of what I have done for him already, together wth ye Sad Circumstances of my Condition wth my wife at thy day, Do give unto him my son Josiah Twenty Shillings to be paid by my said Executors aforementioned.

"Item my Just Debts and Duty being handyly (?) paid I do give and bequeath unto my Two Sonnes Samuel Wood & Joseph Wood, all my Estate of housing and Lands, Stock, Goods, Chattels, moveables & what ever I Shall die Seized of, to them to be equally Divided between them to them and their heires for Ever, they equally and jointly maintain their mother Comfortably so long as She shall live, the sume to be equally divided between them within one year after my wife's decease. And my Will is if It please God to take away either of my said sones Samuel or Joseph by Death without Lawfull Issue that ye Survivor Shall have and Enjoy the Deceaseds part to him ye Survivor and his heires for Ever.

"Item my will is that my said Sons shall nowher alienate or Embezill any of my houseing or Lands bequeathed to them in this my Will, one from ye other, but shall if they see Cause to alienate ye Same or any parts thereof, the one shall hand the other upon a good and valueable price.

"Item I do Confirm and ordain my Two sones Sam-ll & Joseph sole Executors of this my Will, and my loving friends Capt John Call, Sam-ll Phipps & Ensign Sam-ll Kettle & Josiah Wood my son overseers of ye same. In wittness whereof I have hereunto Sett my hand & Seal this 19th of May 1691 ... Regina Gulielm & Maria Anglia ...

Signed Sealed & Declared by Josiah Wood to be
his last will & Testament in prsence of us .............................. Josiah Wood Senr
John Sweetser
Susanna Blaney
Sam-ll Phipps"

A postscript to the will said that some time before Josiah Wood died, he gave his wife a free choice to live with the two sons Samuel Wood and Joseph Wood or to live in half the house with half of the household stuff and be provided with six pounds annually by Samuel and Joseph Wood. The undated postscript was signed by Josiah Wood, Samuel Wood and Joseph Wood.

There are two interesting parts in this will - the "Imprimus" paragraph that son Josiah shall "...never dissect my two sons, Sam-ll and Joseph seeing to that Cow Common..." and the fourth paragraph that includes "...shall nowher alienate or Embezill any of my houseing or Lands bequeathed to them in this my Will, one from ye other, but shall if they see Cause to alienate ye Same or any parts thereof, the one shall hand the other upon a good and valueable price."

I sense that there was conflict between the three sons and their father was trying to avoid more conflict. 

The really interesting part of this probate record is what happened after the will was proved.  Here are my summaries from the probate packet:

The first inventory, was taken by John Call Senior and Joseph Phipps on 8 December 1691 and was filed on 29 December 1691. The real property totalled 260 pounds, and the personal estate totalled 118 pounds, 1 shilling. The real estate included:

* Ten acres of land in the first division of Charlestown Common (60 pounds)
* 6 Cow Commons (30 pounds)
* Land and marsh bought of Chalkly (30 pounds)
* House and barn and an acre of land they stand upon and orchard (130 pounds)
* 21 acres of wood lots upon the Rocks (10 pounds)

Another inventory of the estate of Josiah Wood late of CharlestownWhittemore, Joseph Phipps, John Rand, Nathaniel Frothingham and Samuel Frothingham, which listed the following real estate:

* The house and barn with one acre of land, orchard where the house stands, with fencing (93 pounds)
* One and one half acres of marsh and meadow land formerly called Chalklies, with fencing (34 pounds, 2 shillings, 9 pence)
* Four acres of pasture land bordering on the road to Cambridge, with fences (28 pounds, 8 shillings)
* Six acres of orchard and meadow land in the first division, with fences (58 pounds)
* 21 acres of pasture land in the second division, with fences (63 pounds, 9 shillings)
* Eight acres of wood lott on Mystic Side (5 pounds)

The household stuff totalled 10 pounds, 19 shillings and 6 pence. Joseph Wood presented this inventory to the Court at Cambridge on 24 April 1712.

Articles of Agreement were made on 12 March 1712/13 between Joseph Wood, yeoman of Charlestown, of the first part, and Hannah Wood, relict and widow of Samuel Wood, late of Charlestown deceased, together with Jason Russell and Edward Winship, both of Cambridge, Guardians of the three children of Samuel Wood deceased, namely Samuel, Hannah and Abiell Wood, minors on the second part. The agreement defines the distribution of the estate of Josiah Wood after the decease of his wife.

The homestead with an old small house and one acre of land and orchard was set off to Joseph Wood, with two and a quarter acres across the way set off to the minor children of Samuel Wood. The remaining land was to be divided into two equal parts, one part for Joseph Wood and the other part for the minor children of Samuel Wood. Further, Hannah Wood, Jason Russell and Edward Winship agreed that Joseph Wood, as the surviving Executor of the estate of Josiah Wood, had accumulated costs, charges and disbursements of the estate, including the funeral charges of the widow of Josiah Wood, and also sundry legacies paid and discharged, amounting to 62 pounds, 8 shillings and 11 pence. One half of this amount (31 pounds, 4 shillings, 6 pence) was owed by the minor children of Samuel Wood to Joseph Wood. Joseph Wood agreed to a discounted value of 35 pounds for the Samuel Wood share of the homestead, house and land, and agreed to pay the minor children of Samuel Wood a sum of 3 pounds, 14 shillings and 6 pence. Joseph Wood, Hannah Wood, Jason Russell and Edward Winship signed the agreement, with witnesses Joseph Whittemore, Thomas Whittemore and Benjamin Whittemore, and it was accepted by the Court on 23 March 1712/13.

The estate was not settled until after the widow of Josiah Wood died on 25 November 1712.  In the mean time, son Samuel Wood had died (on 14 November 1711) and the guardians of his minor children were involved in dividing the estate and settling the accounts.  The second inventory was taken after the death of Samuel Wood but before the death of the widow, Lydia Wood.

1940 U.S. Census Request for Quote and Statement of Work is out

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has published a Request for Quotation (RFQ) and a Statement of Work (SOW) - along with several other documents - on the Federal Business Opportunities website for "Hosting and Providing Access to the 1940 Census."  It was released on 18 August 2011.

1)  The Request For Quotation (4 pages) has these salient points of interest to genealogists:

*  NARA is seeking a no-cost solution. 

*  NARA anticipates entering into a single no cost contract, but reserves the right to make multiple awards if in the best interest of the Government.

*  Proposals are due on 2 September 2011 in PDF or Microsoft Word format.

2)  The Statement of Work (14 pages) has these highlights:

*  The National Archives is preparing for the release of the records of the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012.

*  NARA has created digital images of the 1940 Census schedules and maps, to make the 1940 Census available in a more modern and efficient format for researcher access.  

*  NARA has completed the digitization effort and has produced 3.8 million JPEG images, comprised of 20 Terabytes of data, from 4,745 rolls of the 1940 Census microfilm. In addition NARA has created metadata for these images to allow searching at the Enumeration District level. NARA will provide the descriptive image metadata to the chosen Contractor within five days after the contract is awarded and the images no later than November 1, 2011...

Objectives:  (Section 2)

*  The objective of this Statement of Work (SOW) is to acquire, through a no-cost contract, managed hosting and free online access to the 1940 Census digital images when it is released to the public for the first time.

*  Managed hosting and online access includes providing the public with the ability to search and browse the descriptions and digital images of the 1940 Census, zoom and pan the images, download single or multiple images associated with each enumeration district, and share the images through social media tools, at no cost to the user. 

*  The contract period of performance is one year, with four one-year options for renewal.

Scope of Work (Section 3)

*  The Contractor shall provide online access to the 1940 Census (schedules and maps) and metadata to enable the public to search the approximately 325,000 enumeration district descriptions and browse the 3.8 million Census Population Schedule and Census map images that are associated with the descriptions at no cost to either the public or the Government.

*  Prior to April 2, 2012, the Contractor may only use the digital images of the 1940 Census schedules for work required as part of this project.

*  The Contractor may take no action to develop or create a name index or any other product prior to April 2, 2012. Starting on April 2, 2012 the Contractor may use the Census schedule images to create a name index, to host on its own web site, or to create other products.

*  The Census images (schedules and maps) are plain JPEG files. They are 8 bit/pixel gray scale images (256 shades of gray) and are approximately 7200 pixels x 5300 pixels +/- 200 pixels (there may be slight variations in size due to the cropping of each image). The file size is about 40 MB open and 4MB compressed.

Web Site Development (Section 4)

*  The 1940 Census web site shall be consistent with the branding on NARA’s web site, www.archives.gov.  The web site shall incorporate NARA and Census Bureau logos. (4.2.2)

*  The search interface and search result displays may not include advertising but may include a link to the Contractor’s web site. Neither the Contractor's logo nor tagline may appear on the web site. (4.2.4)

*  Design the web site so it can be indexed by external search engines. (4.2.7)

*  Design the web site so it is browser independent. (4.2.8)

*  Provide a means for users to bookmark images and share Census images using social media widgets. (4.2.9)

*  The Contractor shall make the site available for public use on April 2, 2011 at 9:00 am (Eastern time). The Contractor shall coordinate the launch of the site with NARA. (4.2.18)

*  Enable users to download each 1940 Census image to their computing device (e.g. laptop, tablet or workstation). (4.3.10)

*  Provide an option for users to download Census images by Enumeration District. The average number of schedule images per description is 23 and the maximum number of schedule images per description is 437. NARA anticipates that users will want the ability to download the images associated with a particular enumeration district. (4.3.11)

*  Support up to 10 million hits per day, while providing response times of less than three seconds for keyword searches of the descriptive metadata. A hit is defined as a request for a file from the web server.   (4.4.1)

*  Support up to 25,000 concurrent users.   (4.4.2)

*  Scale on demand in the event that 10 million hits and/or 25,000 concurrent users are exceeded to ensure that the performance requirements are still achieved. (4.4.3)

*  NARA anticipates that demand for access to the 1940 Census images will decrease over time. If demand decreases to a level which NARA can support on its own web site, the Contractor shall assist NARA in transitioning from the 1940 Census web site to NARA Online Public Access system. (4.5.1)

NARA Sales to the Public (Section 9)

*  Beginning April 2, 2012, the National Archives Trust Fund will offer the complete Census (schedules, maps, ED descriptions and associated metadata) and individual states for sale in digital format and on microfilm.

3)  Summary

There is, of course, much more information in the RFQ, SOW and other documents.  Please read all of the documents because I may have missed important items in my summary above. 

I will have commentary on this in a later post.  I hope that readers will provide their commentary as well.  We might want to create a list of questions and answers for the genealogical community. 

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 14 to 20 August 2011

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Hundreds of genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

*  Fun Day at the Omaha Public Library by Susan Petersen on the Long Lost Relatives.net blog.  I love it when geneabloggers have a good day - Susan got to present and research, and hatched some new geneabloggers in the process.  Well done!

*  Observations on Technology and Genealogy by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  I understand where James is coming from, I see it at my local society too.  It's frustrating, but reality.

*  Password Security by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog.  It's a challenging issue, and John has some excellent suggestions.

*  Living In The "DASH" and Living In The "DASH", part 2 by Don Johnson on the Digging Our Roots! blog.  Don reminds us to write down our own life stories.  Excellent post.

*  Who Do I Think You Are, Aaron Knepper?  and What I Learned from My Aaron B. Knepper "Feeding Frenzy"   by Genea-Pop-Pop on the Stardust 'n' Roots blog.  A researcher can learn a lot in two weeks - Bart shows us how much.  Great lessons and application of the GPS.

*  The FHLC is No More by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI continues his rundown of sessions at the BYU Conference in July.  Its been renamed as the FamilySearch Catalog.

*  Gallery Now Open for The Past is Present Photo Challenge by Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog.  Denise captures links to the entries submitted by geneabloggers to this interesting photo challenge.

*  The 5 Most Misused Words and Phrases in Genealogy by Mivhael Hait on the Planting the Seeds blog.  Michael clearly defines the five words that should be standard terminology for every genealogist from amateur to professional.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

*  Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Monday's Link Roundup by Dan Curtis on the Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian blog.

*  Links, 8.15.11 by Liz Haigney Lynch on The Ancestral Archeaologist blog. 

*  Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog. 

*  Genealogy Round Up, August 18 by Megan Smolenyak on the Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.

*  Follow Friday Gems - 08-19-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

*  Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, August 15-19 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  Best Bytes for the week of August 19, 2011 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

*  Week in Review by John Newmark on the TransylvanianDutch blog.

I encourage readers to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 1030 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.