(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 168: Bess and Gerry at the Train Station

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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.
Before I started this (Not So) Wordless Wednesday series, I posted The best picture from Gerry's collection that showed my grandmother (Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver) and my Aunt Geraldine Seaver posing with my father (Frederick W. Seaver) and mother, and my maternal grandparents, at the San Diego train station in July 1942, just before my parents wedding.

Here is a photograph from the Geraldine (Seaver) Remley albums that I received after her death in 2007:

This picture is of my grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) and her daughter, Geraldine Seaver (1917-2007), arriving at the San Diego train station in July 1942.  My understanding is that they came all the way from Leominster, Massachusetts on the train, no doubt changing trains at several stops along the way. 

My first reaction to this picture was "I'll bet they 'freshened up' and 'changed clothes' after they got off the train and before they took this picture."  Nobody could look that good after three days (?) on the train - wearing dresses, jackets, hats, gloves, pearls and heels (and who knows what else?) in July.

I wish that I could ask Aunt Gerry about this - I'm sure that there's a story here for a 25-year-old young lady traveling with her mother to see her brother get married.

Dear Randy: Tell me about Syncing FTM 2012 and Ancestry

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My colleague DearMYRTLE asked a question in a comment on my post "Thinking About Software, Online Trees and Syncing":

Randy, when Syncing FTM2012 to Ancestry Trees and back, does it upload and download the attached document files? THAT would really be wonderful, even if you had to take a break from the computer for the task to be accomplished.

DearMYRT:  YES, it does, flawlessly.  And fairly quickly, if you've added only a few media items since the last synchronization.

As long as you understand these four things:

1)  The sync occurs from within Family Tree Maker 2012.  You have to upload your tree to a new Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) from the 'Plan" workspace in FTM 2012.  That tree in FTM 2012 can have the media files (documents, photos, audio, video) attached to Persons or Facts in your FTM database, and they will appear in the new Ancestry Member Tree "synced" to FTM 2012.  We had this feature in FTM 2011 - the media went from FTM 2012 to a new Ancestry Member Tree when we pushed the Upload button in FTM 2011.

Depending on the selected setting when you set up the FTM 2012 to AMT syncing, the syncing occurs either manually (you press a "Sync Now" button in FTM 2012) or automatically (when you save, as long as you have the Internet active, are logged into Ancestry, and have FTM 2012 open).

2)  Once the Ancestry Member Tree has been created, then the user can go into their AMT, edit persons, facts, notes, sources, and attach even more media to persons in the tree by uploading files from their computer into the AMT.  The information and media changed in the AMT will be downloaded to the FTM 2012 when synchronized.

3)  But, and it's a big but, if you have "Saved" an Ancestry.com record to a Fact in your Ancestry Member Tree, then the image of that document is not in the Media tab in your AMT or your FTM 2012 file.  The source citation created by Ancestry for the document is in both the AMT and FTM 2012 files, but the image is not.  From within the AMT, you can "View Image and "View Record" when in the "Facts and Sources" tab for a specific person.  From within the AMT, you can attach a media file, but only from your own computer file folders, not from the Ancestry collection.

UPDATE:  Duff Wilson, a Family Tree Maker developer, wrote in Comments to this post:

"Related to point number three above, an update for the Family Tree Maker 2012 Beta was just released today which addresses this. With this update, Ancestry record images that are attached to your online tree are downloaded to Family Tree Maker automatically subsequent to the next sync."

That is good news!  Back to the original post:

4)  The FTM 2012 user can use the "Web Search" workspace to find online images on Ancestry.com and attach them to persons in the FTM 2012 database.  When you do this, the Ancestry document image is added to the Person and the Facts, and the user can attach these Facts to other family persons.  When you sync the FTM 2012 tree to Ancestry, these media items and sources are uploaded.

So far in my three days of working with the latest FTM 2012 beta program version, this has worked perfectly.  I've done all of those functions, both ways. 

As long as the user keeps their specific Ancestry Member Tree linked to an FTM 2012 file, the user has a true synchronization between the two systems.  If the user unlinks their Ancestry Member Tree from the FTM 2012 file (while in the AMT Tree Settings), then the sync doesn't work any longer.  Likewise, if the user deletes or renames his FTM 2012 file, the AMT tree is unlinked.  In either case, the user can download the current AMT from Ancestry, or upload to a new AMT from FTM 2012.

I hope that explains it clearly.  Why are my posts always so prolix?  Is that a new word for you?  If so, go look it up!

Merge Decisions in Geni.com - Got a Match!

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Yesterday in Merge Decisions in Geni.com - No Match!, I showed the process when there is not a match between your person and the person(s) that Geni.com thinks might be a match to your person.

Today, we'll look at the process when there is a match to your person.  From the "Randall Jeffrey Seaver's Merge Center," I clicked on one of my ancestors, Mary Hazard (1764-1857).  The "Tee Matches" page for her is:

There was one match for her, so I clicked on the check box and then the blue "Compare Profiles" button  to compare the two profiles for Mary Hazard - mine and the other person's.  [Note, I could have clicked on the "Compare profiles" to the right of the screen also] 

When I clicked on "Compare Profiles" I saw:

Here are the two profiles side-by-side.  I decided, based on the information provided (same parents, same spouse, same child) that this was a match, so I clicked on the blue "Yes, merge these profiles" at the bottom of the screen, and saw:

The "Conflicting Data" screen above shows the items that are in conflict between the two person profiles about to be merged.  In this case, it was only the last name - I had "Hazard" (Mary's maiden name) and the other profile had "Oatley" (Mary's husband's surname).  I chose Mary's maiden name (shown in green above) because that is the standard most of us use for female names - we use the name she was born with.

clicking on "Save," I saw:

This screen told me that Mary Hazard was now merged.  I clicked on Mary's name, and saw her profile:

This shows that Mary's profile was added by the other person, and I am listed as a manager along with the other person.

This worked pretty well.  Geni.com makes the decision process pretty easy - you just have to make a judgment.  If I have any doubt, I do not merge the two person profiles. 

One thing that happens when you merge profiles like this is that sometimes the spouses or children or siblings are listed two or more times (depending on how many profiles were merged).  I think that if the names are different (for Mary Hazard Oatley above, there are now sons "Rev. Jonathon Oatley" and "Jonathan Oatley" who are the same person), a separate child is listed.  Now those duplicates need to be merged too. 

I worked my way through all of the "Tree Matches" on my home page yesterday, and today there are 40 more.  This looks like a never ending task. 

Tuesday's Tip - Use Ancestry.com's Free Offerings

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This week's Tuesday Tip is to:  Take advantage of Ancestry.com's FREE offers to use their collections.

This week, Ancestry.com is permitting FREE use of their Immigration collection, in honor of Labor Day (you do have to register for a free account, but not provide a credit card).  There are 331 collections in the Immigration and Travel category in the Card Catalog.  The collection is available for free until 5 September.

At other times, Ancestry has opened specific collections for limited periods of time, usually for a one week period.

Ancestry.com also offers a 14-day free trial to their entire collection for non-subscribers.  You do have to enter a credit card number and cancel before the end of the 14 days if you don't want to subscribe to Ancestry.com. 

The Immigration and Travel collection includes records from the United States and other countries, including England, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, etc.  The collection includes Naturalization records also.  If you don't have an Ancestry subscription, you can use this free week to find records of interest to you from all countries.

Here is a screen shot from my search for surname = Seaver (exact match) in the Immigration collection (from my non-subscriber account):

That list includes record collections for the USA and other countries.

I have a paid U.S. Deluxe subscription to Ancestry.com, so I don't have access to the other record collections.  This week, I'm going to "mine" the Immigration collection for Seaver, Carringer, Whittle, Vaux and several other surnames in some of the non-USA collections.  My target collections include:

*  UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
*  Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935
*  Border Crossings: From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935
*  England, Alien Arrivals, 1810-1811, 1826-1869
*  Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934

*  England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892
*  Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924
*  New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849
*  New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896
*  New South Wales, Australia, Settler and Convict Lists, 1787-1834
*  New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843-1981

I had a fun moment last night - my 88-year old neighbor came down to visit on his evening walk.  He escaped from Austria in 1939 and came to America.  I asked him what year he came, and he said 1939.  I quickly found him in the New York Passenger Lists arriving on the ship Comte de Savoia.  I printed out the record summary, the passenger list page, and the picture of the ship and gave it to him.  He had tears in his eyes and thanked me profusely.  He said he had always wondered if there was a record of his immigration.  Then he said that he and his wife went to Europe to visit family in 1949, and returned.  I went and found them on the ship Vulcania and printed that for him too.

New Features in Family Tree Maker 2012

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Tamura Jones alerted me to the message board post titled "What is new in 2012" by suecucch on the FTM Sync Beta board:

"So far in looking at 2012, I don't see anything different from 2011. Can someone tell me what the difference is between the two? The only thing I noticed is that when importing my data, it needed to convert my file to a new designator. So far my data seems to have converted without problems but my file is quite large so I can easily miss something."

Duff Wilson, the leader of the Family Tree Maker 2012 development team, responded with:

"The main new feature is the ability to synchronize your tree between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com and we're especially focused on making sure that works well.

"Here is a list of new features:
1. TreeSync - Ability to synchronize your tree between FTM and Ancestry.
2. Blended family view - Easily show all of the children for two spouses whether they are children of one or both of them.
3. Index of Individuals Report
4. Chart improvements
- Show generation labels
- Add text anywhere on a chart
- Option to limit descendant chart to the direct line between two people
5. Report improvements
- Custom fact sentences (used in genealogy reports & Smart Stories
- Automatic Smart Story generation includes primary individual, spouse, and children
- Research notes report changed to "Notes Report" with options to include other types of notes"

Further down the message board thread, is this comment by Marshall Sinback:

"There appears to be a new option of exporting a 5.5 GEDCOM file that will include media. Is this correct?"

Duff responded with:

"Yes. You can now include media links in the GEDCOM export."

All of those sound like useful upgrade features, but it's the TreeSync feature, to synchronize (either way) your Ancestry Member Tree with your Family Tree Maker 2012 database, that will be the big selling point for the software.  Assuming it works well, of course. 

I have been working with the latest version of FTM 2012 and have found no problems using TreeSync so far adding/deleting persons, adding/deleting facts, adding media, adding/changing sources, etc. in FTM 2012 or the linked Ancestry Member Tree. 

There are some "fine points" about sources that need to be understood, however.  I haven't had any problems with "free-form" sources, but "template" sources can not be edited in the Ancestry Member Tree.  The Tree page for a source created in Family Tree Maker 2012 with a source template has a message "This source uses a Family Tree Maker template that can only be edited in Family Tree Maker." 

Thinking About Software, Online Trees and Syncing

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There were several comments and blog posts referencing my GEDCOM, Software, Online Trees and Syncing post last week, including:

*  Tamura Jones commented:

"What you want is AncestorSync Ultimate :-).  They have no plans to produce that yet, but if more genealogists tell them they want it, who knows..."

I had forgotten that Tamura wrote this back in May 2011.

*  Louis Kessler commented:

"Sounds like what you really want is to do all your adding and editing of your familytree data in one program (in your case, RootsMagic).

"Then in an ideal world, you’d like that one program to do all the functionality needed so that you do not have to load it into other programs. (In your case, you are helping others, but if one program did everything - remember this is an “ideal” world, then you’d simply recommend to others to use this ideal program.)

"Finally, the ideal program would have one button syncing to the one ideal all-inclusive online database that (and this is important) keeps everybody’s data separate - no one but the author can update the author’s data!!! What this ideal online system has is another database of linkages, which allows people to “conclude” that a person in their tree is the same as a person in another tree. Then this online database will “virtually merge” the data for the same people together when displaying it for you (maybe showing your data in one color and other people’s data in another).

"Sadly, I don’t see the industry going this way … yet."

Louis wrote The Ideal Genealogy System on the Louis Kessler Behold Blog shortly after my post, including: 

"First, I’ve written before about my strong feelings against merging data. No matter how well it is sourced, you’ll still lose the context of the original researcher and the work they did. You’ll dilute the work. You’ll incorporate errors made by others (and others may incorporate errors made by you) that may never get detected but get supported by the fact that multiple works of research support them."

*  DearMYRTLE wrote Syncing and GEDCOMing - can someone press the fast forward button? and noted:

"I have no interest in syncing my data in a "borg tree" as Tamura Jones calls them, where another researcher can independently modify my previously uploaded data without my knowledge or permission. (This model is currently expressed by Geni.com and FamilySearch.com among others.) Such a sync would effectively wipe away the integrity of my personal database.

"Ancestry.com trees currently supports a better model for syncing - sorta. There I can accept or ignore suggestions from the trees of other researchers, yet my tree is out there for collaborative purposes. I would like to sync my tree and attached image files with my pc-based data. I do not however, want to be forced to use Family Tree Maker. In fact I use several genealogy management programs for the variety of views, report layouts, etc."
As a result of these shared thoughts, I think I've crystallized my thinking a bit as to what it is I want, informed by the wisdom of my colleagues noted above.  Here are my ideals:

1) The "I-Own-My-Tree" program: 

In my ideal world (I know, we've wandered through this before!), I want to have one master database, with one set of names, relationships, places, sources, facts, media, notes, etc. that I control. But then I want to share that master database with any number of online unconnected family trees and with other software programs.  I want to be able to press one "synchronize" button and everything gets updated.

This ideal synchronization program can read my "master" database, whether in native software format (e.g., RootsMagic, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Reunion, etc.) or in an online family tree database with unconnected, contributed family trees (e.g., Ancestry.com, Rootsweb WorldConnect, MyHeritage.com, GeneaNet, FindMyPast, etc.). 

I can tell the program where the "master" database is, and the software file types and names I want to sync to, and the online tree file names I want to sync to, and it will synchronize the file in the different software programs and the online trees so that they are all the same.

For example, if my "master" database is in RootsMagic, and I want to sync with my tree on Ancestry Member Trees or MyHeritage, it would do that.  And vice versa.  At present, we only have the FTM 2012 Beta/Ancestry Member Trees sync that works both ways.  Family Tree Builder will sync "up" to MyHeritage, but not down from MyHeritage.

2)  The "Our Shared Tree" program:

This is a program that will synchronize data from my "master" database with one online inter-connected (shared) family tree (e.g., Geni.com, WeRelate.org, WikiTree.com, new FamilySearch Family Tree).

The program could be a stand-alone program (that reads the online tree or software database), or be embedded in genealogy software, like the RootsMagic (and other programs) interface with new FamilySearch Family Tree (that works really well, except for the limitations on sources in nFSFT). Using this feature, the user would select what information to add or change on the Shared Tree, or to download from the Shared Tree to the "master" database, wherever it is. 

Ancestor Sync promises to do this one "source" and one "target" at a time, with a user's choice of each.  But my understanding is that they will do it by creating a whole file in native format (or GEDCOM), not synchronizing person-by-person or fact-by-fact. 

Ancestor Sync also promises to sync with shared trees like Geni.com and new FamilySearch Family Tree, possibly using techniques developed to interface FamilyInsight software with new FamilySearch one person at a time. 

I look forward to seeing how all of this works out!

What say you?  How would you make these ideas work?  Are these ideals even possible? 

Merge Decisions in Geni.com - No Match!

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My dilemma with Geni.com  has been that I uploaded a GEDCOM with over 1,000 persons in my ancestral families back in 2008, but they went back only eight generations.  Therefore, there is the probability that others have added some of my ancestors in their profiles, and may have data that I don't have.

My choices to add data at this time seem to be:

1)  Add data one person at a time.  I refuse to do this, pending some sort of synchronization program.

2)  Search for and find my "end-of-the-line" people in Geni.com and Merge them one at a time.

I checked into the second option, and found that Geni.com has found quite a few possible merges for me.  Here is a screen shot of my home page on Geni.com:

Over on the right-hand side of the screen above is the area for "Tree Matches," with green buttons to tell me how many other trees they are in.

I clicked the "View All Tree Matches" link (beside the "Tree Matches" title) and saw "Randall Jeffrey Seaver's Merge Center:"

At this time, I had 93 potential "Tree Matches." The words below that says "We've found your relatives in other trees. Review these matches to discover new branches of your tree."

I clicked on the link for "View 2 other trees" under the "Acton" column for William Knapp (the first entry on the screen above): 

This screen told me that I had these two possible matches for my William Knapp.  I clicked the check box for both of them and clicked on the blue "Compare Profiles" button and saw:

I reviewed the information comparing my data (on the left side) with the profile on the right.  I decided that this was not a match (it was easy - different parents, different spouse, different children, different siblings, etc., but I had a birth year and the other profile did not.  Ergo, the possible match, I think).  I clicked the blue "No, not a match" button.

After I clicked the blue button, the second possible match came up, and it was not a match either.

OK, that one is crossed off my list of "Tree Matches." 

Frankly, that label "Tree Matches" should be labelled "Possible Matches."  How many people click on each one and accept the match without checking the details for the potential identical person?  I don't know, but I'll bet that is pretty frequent.

I've found that most of the "Tree Matches" in "Randall Jeffrey Seaver's Merge Center" are not matches, but result from the Geni.com algorithm that tries to identify possible matches due to similar name and similar parents and/or birth date.  When there is no birth date, Geni.com seems to find persons with non-similar parents names. 

I'll look at the sequence when there is an actual "Tree Match" in a later post.

Amanuensis Monday - the will of George Reed (1627-1706) of Woburn, 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 George Reed (1627-1706) of Woburn in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.  He was the son of William Reed and Mabel Kendall.  George married (1) Elizabeth Jennison (1637-1665) in 1652, and they had eight children:  Elizabeth Reed (1653-1718); twins Reed (1654-1654); Samuel Reed (1656-1709); Abigail Reed (1658-????); George Reed (1660-1756); William Reed (1662-1718) and Sarah Reed (1665-1703).  George married (2) Hannah Rockwell (1642-1724) in 1665, and they had five children:  Hannah Reed (1670-1727); John Reed (1672-1733); Mary Reed (1674-1703); Timothy Reed (1678-1736); Thomas Reed (1682-1736).

George Reed of Woburn died testate in 1706. His will is in Middlesex County Probate Records, Packet #18,494 (original papers filed in packet, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,421,499). It was written on 21 January 1697/8, and proved on 8 April 1706.  The transcribed will reads:

"In the name of god, Amen. I George Read Senr of Woobourne in the County of Middl-x in his Maj-s province of the Massatusets Bay in New-England yeoman, am at this time by the providence of god Weak of body, but through gods Goodness I am of sound understanding and perfect memory, and knowing it to be a Christian duty for a man to sett his hous in order, I do therfore make and publish this instrument my last will and testament, and first I give my soule to god that gave it to me, and my body to the Earth to be decently buryed, in hopes of A Glorious Resurection to life again, thro ye Death and Merits of Christ Jesus my lord and only Saviour, and as to that question of temporall Estate, that god of his bounty hath bestowed upon me I do give and bequeath as followeth,

"Impr-s my Will is that first all my just debts be fully pay-d and my funeral charges defray-d out of my personall Estate, before any devision be made.

"2:ly my Will is and I do hereby give and bequeath unto my loveing and beloved wife Hannah ye one halfe of my dwelling hous namely ye East Enfdfrom botom to top, and the one halfe of my barne - namely ye East End thereof, and halfe my out housing, with ye one halfe of ye lands belonging to my homested, both orchards fields hopyards pasters and mowing land, as also halfe my Woodlands, and halfe my medows at great Rock medow, namely which End she pleaseth ye halfe of all my housing and lands are to be set out to her my sd wife quantity for quallety, and she shall enjoy it to Improve for her own use benefitt and behoofe, so long as she Remains my Widow, also my will is and I do hereby give unto my said wife he sole use and improvement of the one halfe of my personall Estate, both within doors and without, all for and dureing her Naturall life, only I do give unto my said wife the sume of fifteene pounds to her and her heirs for ever, and I do give my sd wife the use of the more of my estate because of her great Care she hath of me in my sickness and lamness yt god is pleased to exercze me with, and also I do Injoyne her to take care and bring up my Grandchild Hannah elson, until she be of years to take care of her selfe.

"3:ly my Will is and I do hereby give unto my loveing and dutifull son John Read the other halfe of my homested both dwellinghous barne and out housing, halfe ye medows, hopground plowland pasterland and orchard in present possession, halfe my medow at great Rock medow and halfe my Woodland all in present possession, acording as I have given it to him in a deed of gift, and all the other halfe of my housing and lands left in my wives possession as abovsd, I do hereby give the same unto my sd son John Read, after his mother leavs them, they to remaine to him his heirs and assignes for ever, he the said John Read paying out such legasies as I shall herein after appoint him to pay, also I do give him my lott at Hodges hole five acres and on quarter more or less to him his heires and assignes for ever.

"4:ly my Will is and I do hereby give unto my son Timothy Read my great lott in both parts thereof, it being layd out in two parts by ye Records and plott thereof my appear also I give him my lott near ye Wymans asjoyning to Shawshin path five acres and a quarter more or less, all this to be preserved for him without stripp or wast and delivered to him by my Exec-r when he coms of age to be to him his heirs and assignespayd him within four years after his his mothers decease.

"5:ly my will is and I do hereby give unto my son Thomas Read all my land in Hungrey-plaine field, be it Eighteene acres more or less, and one lott at Maple medow plaine five acres and a quarter more or less, to be kept for him while he is of age without stripp or wast, and then delivered to him by my Ecec-r herein after Named, also I do give him four pounds more to be payd him by my Exec-rs within five years after his Mothers decease.

"6:ly my will is and I do hereby give unto my daughter Mary Johnson, the sume of fifteene pounds, most part of which is payd her alredy upon Marriage, and fetherbed and furniture and a cow and som other things to ye values of twelve pounds the Rest of the fifteene pounds being three pounds I do hereby order my Exec-r to pay her within two years after her mothers decease.

"7:ly I do hereby give unto my daughter Hannah Elson four pounds to be payd her within one yeare after her Mothers decease, she haveing had about ten pounds alredy.

"8:ly my Will is and I do hereby give unto my daughter Elizabeth Fisk five pounds to be paid her within one yeare after my decease I haveing given her about ten pounds alredy.

"9:ly my will is and I do hereby give unto my daughter Sarah Robason five pounds to be payd her within two years after my decease, I haveing given her about ten pounds alredy, so that I do intend in this my will to make all my daughters Equall giveing them fifteene pounds appeice.

"10:ly with Reference to my three Eldest sons, they have been gon from me a long time, and I have done for them Considerabley alredy, and particularly Samuell Read my Eldest son he was put out to a trade when he was young and that I do account one suffissient portion, beside which I formerly gave him in shop, in tools cattel and work, above twenty pounds more and as a further testimoney that I take notice of him as my eldest son, I do give him ten pounds more, all to him and his heirs for ever.

"11:ly to George Read my second son I have given him in land cattel and other things, above thirty pounds alredy, which is more than I can give to the Rest proportionablye, and as a Remembrance of my love I do give him five shillings more.

"12:ly to William Read my third son I have given him about twenty pounds alredy of land cattel and other things, in which there is about nine acres of land that I gave him at boggimedow field that he is to Enjoye without molestation to him and his heirs for ever, also I do give him ten pounds more to be payd him by my Exec-r within three years after my wives decease, all the legasies afore mentioned in this my Will I do apoint my Exec-r faithfuly to pay both for time and to the same persons to whome I have bequeathed them Either in money or in other Specie aprized as money yt is in land or cattels at money price, and lastly I do nominate and appoint and hereby constitute my loveing wife Hannah Read to be Executrix, and my son John Read Executer of this my Will, both of them joynt in the power of Executership (while they both live) and after the decease of either of them, ye surviver of them shall have the whole power of Executership, and if there be any lands or other Estate of mine that I have not herein disposed of, my will is and I do hereby give it unto my aforenamed son John Read one of my Executers. Dated January ye twenty-one Anno Domini 1697/8, annoqe Br. Rr: Guillem 3d Anglice &:c nono. Signed sealed and published by George Read Sen-r to be his last will and testament In the presence of us: with one word Raced out in the Eighth article before the Signing and Sealing (ye word (him) and ye word (lott) enterlined before sealing). In the presence of us,
Samuel blogget
Timothy Walker
James Converse ........................................................ George Read Senr"

John Read and Thomas Read, husbandmen of Woburn, posted a bond of 200 pounds to the Court on 1 April 1706. Son and executor, John Read, and the widow, Hannah Read, agreed to take upon themselves the burden and charge of the last will and testament of George Read Senr late of Woburn. The will was accepted by the Court at Cambridge on 8 April 1706.

The probate packet does not include an inventory, account or distribution of the estate.

George Reed had children by two wives, and he mentioned all ten of his living children in this will.  Researchers will appreciate the married surnames of the daughters - often this is the only indication of the correct married surname for daughters with relatively common maiden names.  Have I mentioned that I love probate records?

My own ancestry is through his son, George Reed (1660-1756) from his first marriage.

Serendipity strikes again...and genealogy fun ensues

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One of the little pleasures in my genealogy life, when I'm tired of blogging and organizing papers and want some genealogy fun, is I go to Find-a-Grave, search for a surname in my database, and see what there is available.  I think that Find-a-Grave is a site that will never stop giving me information about my ancestral families.  Of course, I then add the information to my genealogy database for a birth date, death date, burial location, relationships, etc., including the source and some source detail.  These searches are often pretty random, I go off on tangents and find all kinds of good stuff.  From small bits of information are sourced databases made!

I finished my two Source Lists (see How do I catch up to 13 years of genealogy sloth?) on Saturday afternoon, and after dinner and watching the baseball game (I completely forgot about the Chargers game!), I came back to the computer and wanted some genea-fun, so I went to Find-a-Grave and entered "Seaver" in the search field. 

Whoa, 1,321 matches.  Okay, that will take more than one hour to do.  At the top of the list are two entries without given names, but they do have birth and death dates, and are in Colusa County, California.  Okay...I recalled that I have a Seaver family in Colusa County back in the 1800s, but I need their given names.  I couldn't find a way to do that in RootsMagic, although I tried.  I could go to Ancestry.com and search the 1880 census for Seavers in Colusa County but I'll just skip it for now. 

I moved on to the next entries on the Find-a-Grave list, and happily entered data from many towns in Worcester County, Massachusetts (only 59 matches).  I was having fun!

After an hour or so, I checked Facebook and saw I had a message from genea-blogger Craig Manson (who write the excellent Geneablogie blog).  Craig's message said:

"Randy, I spent today roaming around Sutter and Colusa Counties north of Sacramento. Came across the name "Seaver" in two cemeteries in Colusa. Are these some of your people?

"In the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery:
Josephine T. Seaver 30 May 1918-19 July 1996
Emma Ruth Seaver 7 June 1981-24 November 1989
"Mother" Seaver 4 June 1834-10 June 1903
"Father" Seaver 30 July 1826-7 October 1887

"In the publicly owned Colusa Cemetery:
William Seaver 22 October 1884-25 November 1884
George Seavers (with "s" on end--in same plot as William above)
Also in same plot:
Eliza J. Sorrels 20 January 1862-25 January 1948
Newton G. Sorrels 8 September 1869-30 November 1932 [with inscription "Camp #136 WOW" beneath dates]"

Lookee there - Craig found "Mother" and "Father": Seaver too, along with several other Seaver folks.  That gave me several good leads - I quickly looked in my database for Eliza J. Seaver born in 1862 and found her, the daughter of Charles and Annie (--?--) Seaver.  The birth date I had for Charles Seaver matched exactly the Find-a-Grave date, so he is "Father" Seaver and Annie, his wife, must be "Mother" Seaver.  Cool - now I have death dates and burial places for them.  Plus I now know Eliza's death date, burial place and her husband's name and dates and burial location.  What a gold mine!  Looking on the California Death Index, 1940-1997, on Rootsweb, I found several death records also for this family, and one of them indicates that "Timothy" was Annie's maiden surname, a second says "Timoney" and a third says "Timony."  I checked Ancestry.com in the 1860 census and didn't see a likely candidate for Annie in California (Charles was born  in MA, but is a single man in Colusa County, California. in the 1860 census, and their first child was born in January 1862). 

However, I still don't know who the parents or spouses of Josephine T. Seaver (1918-1996) and Emma Ruth Seaver (1981-1989), or William Seaver (1884-1884) are.  I don't know George Seavers death date, only his burial place (he is alive in the 1880 census). 

That was so much fun, I decided to mine the California Death Indexes for Seaver deaths (and birth dates, and perhaps mother's maiden names) on the Rootsweb database (only 166 of them).  I went county by county and found quite a few that I didn't have in my database, or that I had not sourced previously.

It was a very productive three hours, and I had a lot of genealogy fun thanks to Craig Manson and Ancestry and Find-a-Grave.   Now, if I could only remember where I left off in Find-a-Grave...oh well, I'll just go search a random name and go from there!  I'm sure to find something.

I think this fits into my Forrest Gump Principle of Genealogy Research, don't you?  Even my genea-blogging colleagues are giving me "boxes of chocolates."  It wasn't quite genea-gasmic, though.

Best of the Genealogy Blogs - Week of 21-27 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:

* Google News Archive and Footnote.com: A Strange Week or Sign of Things to Come? by Megan Smolenyak on her Huffington Post blog. Megan comments on Geni.com, the Footnote name change, and the Google News Archive access change.

*  Genealogy Highlight of the Week by Susan LeBlanc on the Gopher Genealogy blog.  Susan meets a cousin and shares her family history with her. 

*  My Genealogy "Job Description" by the writer of the Nuts from the Family Tree blog.  Since her mom has done the genealogy, she is checking it for accuracy and completeness.  Good job description.  We all should have one.

*  My Thoughts after Teaching at BYU Education Week by the writer of the Memoir Mentor blog.  Here is a teacher's perspective on writing life histories.

*  Tracking the Tract by Michael John Neill on the Rootdig.com blog.  Michael describes how he follows land transactions in the records. 

*  Insider Ketchup for 23 August 2011 by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI summarizes the recent news as it pertains to Ancestry and FamilySearch in his own inimitable way.

*  In Which We Debate The Value of Great Big Trees Online by guest author Chris Whitten on Kerry Scott's Clue Wagon blog.  Chris makes the case well, and sells WikiTree as a collaborative interlinked online tree site in the process.

*  Sears Catalogue of Genealogists  by Genea Pop-Pop on the Stardust 'n' Roots blog.  Bart classifies genealogists into nine categories.  A brilliant and witty post.  Hmm, what am I?

*  Free Databases Found at fold3.com by Leland Meitzler on the Genealogy Blog.  Leland helpfully created a list of the free databases at fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com). 

*  A New FamilySearch Database Causes Me Genealogical Grief and Questioning by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog.  Chris has mixed emotions about looking at an online database.  Understandable.

*  IntelliShare: An Alternative to Great Big Trees Online by JL on the JLog blog.  JL describes a feature in Legacy Family Tree that can synchronize shared Legacy trees.

*  Land Terms Greek No More and Looking at a Deed by Susan Farrell Bankhead on Susan's Genealogy Blog.  Here is an excellent, concise list of terms used in land records. 

*  Analyzing Brick Walls -- a genealogical myth or reality?  by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  James discusses terminology here - are brick walls something you can overcome?  What are the ones you cannot overcome called?

*  Q&A Recap with Geni CEO Noah Tutak by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog.  Thomas provides Noah's answers to Thomas's questions during the radio show.

*  When Did They Die? by Valerie Craft on the Begin with Craft blog.  Valerie provides a great list of resources to find a death date when there is no vital record.

*  Evidence by Judy Wilkenfeld on the Provenance blog.  Wow.  Powerful.  Now they know.

*  These Ancestors Cannot Be Displayed  by Michael John Neill on the Rootdig.com blog.  This is the funniest genea-blog post of the week, I think.

*  The New England Geneablogger Bash by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on the Nutfield Genealogy blog.  Heather hosted this even on the eve of Hurricane Irene and shares some pictures of geneabloggers.

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.

*  Links, 8.22.11 by Liz Haigney Lynch on The Ancestral Archaeologist blog.

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

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

*  Genealogy Round Up, August 25 by Megan Smolenyak on the Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak Roots World blog.

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

*  Follow Friday Gems - 08-26-11 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, August 22-26 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog
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*  Best Bytes for week of August 26, 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.