...
Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own 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 Robert Gifford (1660-1730) of Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He married (1) Sarah Wing (1659-1720) in 1680, and they had children: Jeremiah Gifford (1681-1771); Marcy Gifford (1683-1772); Benjamin Gifford (1685-1754); Stephen Gifford (1687-1748); Rebecca Gifford (1689-1747); Timothy Gifford (1691-1780); Ann Gifford (1693-????); Lydia Gifford (1695-????); Simeon Gifford (1697-1749). Robert Gifford married (2) Elizabeth Cornell (????-????) after 1720; no children.
Robert Gifford of Dartmouth died testate before 30 April 1730, after writing a will dated 25 March 1724. The will reads (transcribed from the Bristol County (Massachusetts) Probate Records, Volume 7, Page 28, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,461,883):
"In the Name of God, Amen: This Twenty fifth day of March in the year of our Lord 1724 and in the Tenth year of the Reign of our soverigne Lord George by the Grace of God of Grait Brittain &c. I Robert Gifford of Dartmouth in the County of Bristoll in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Yeoman, being Desirous to settle my house in order and being of a Disposing mind and memory, Do make and ordaine this my Last will and Testament: I Commit my Soul into the hands of God that Gave it and my body to the Earth After my decease to be buried at the Discrestion of my Executor: and as to.... my worldly Estate I Dispose of the same in the following manner and form.
"Imp. I Give and Bequeath to Elizabeth my well beloved Wife fourty shillings a year yearly to be paid by my Executor During her Continuing my widdow.
"Item - My will is that my Executor pay all my just debts & funerall charges out of my moveable Estate.
"Item - I give my son Jeremiah one Sedge flatt (?) lying in Dartmouth ... called and known by the Name of the Dye Lott to him & his heirs & assignes forever, and fourty Pounds in such money as shall Pay from man to man at the time of Payment or yt shall hereafter in this Instruments order.
"Item - I Give to my son Benjamin besides what I have already given him the sum of Ten Pounds in the like manner as my son Jeremiah.
"Item - I give to my son Stephen the forth part of my Cedar Swamp in sd Dartmouth to be to him his heires and assignes forever: and Twenty pounds in money in the like manner as Jeremiah.
"Item - I give to my son Timothy one flatt (?) called one acre of Sedge flatt (?) laid out for me by Draught of Lands dated the first day of June 1714 signed by Benjamin Hammond & Benjamin Crane Sur..... on the same said acre as thene bounded be it more or less lying in said Dartmouth the same to him his heires and assignes forever: and fourty pounds money in the like manner as my son Jeremiah.
"Item - I give to my son Simeon whome I do constitute Sole Executor of this my Last will and Testament all my homestead and housing upon the same and all my Land and meadow in a Place called the high Neck in said Dartmouth to him his heires and assignes forever: Upon condition of his Paying those sums of money above Expressed in manner following that is to say: To my wife Elezebeth the yearly sum of fourty shillings and the other sums at Ten Pounds a year and that to be divided among the said Children abovesaid in Proportion to the sums each one is to have till all ye above said hundred and ten pounds be paid, and to begin his payment of one year after my Decease; also I give to my said son Simeon that Parcel of Land that I have not Disposed of Adjoyning to my son Benjamin homestead he paying one shilling a piece to my Grandchildren & Twenty shillings to my Grandaughter Experience (?) daughter to Benjamin also he to have two good feather beds & furniture and all the iron and brass utensils in the house.
"Finally, my will is that all other Estate that I shall dye ceased of & .... belongs to me which I have not before disposed of wether of Lands or moveables my will is that it be equally divided between my five sons and I do hereby Confirm this my Last will and Testament and hearby make void and any other will by me heretofore made.
"Signed Sealed Published & Declared by Robert Gifford .......................... Robert Gifford
as his Last will and Testament in Presence of us
Elisha Wing
Icabod Nye
Jabez Heller
Timothy Ruggles"
The witnesses made an oath on 30 April 1730 in the Probate Court at Bristol that they had witnessed the signing of the will of Robert Gifford of Dartmouth, deceased, and that he was of a sound and disposing mind.
The probate records include an incomplete inventory that totals over 257 pounds. The inventory was presented to the Court by executor, Simeon Gifford, on 30 April 1730.
There are extensive records in Bristol County, Massachusetts for land transactions between Robert Gifford and his brother Christopher, with his sons, and with other persons.
All five sons are named in the will above receiving more from the estate. The widow, Elizabeth, is also mentioned and receives monetary support from the estate. No daughters are mentioned. Marcy (Gifford) Soule, RebeccaSoule, Ann (Gifford) Swan and Lydia (Gifford) Soule were all alive when their father wrote his will, but they are not mentioned in the will. Perhaps they received a portion of their father's property when they married.
My ancestry is through daughter Rebecca, wife of Jacob Soule (1687-1747) of Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/amanuensis-mo-nday-will-of-robert.html
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Best of the Genea-Blogs - 1 January to 7 January 2012
...
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:
* Ancestry.com 2012 Plans by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI adds much more context to the Ancestry.com year-end announcement.
* Finding Births, Marriages, and Deaths for New York Ancestors: a 2012 Research Challenge and beyond… by Arlene Eakle on Arlene Eakle's New York Genealogy Blog. Arlene highlights vital records sources, and laments the passing of cursive writing.
* Creating a custom chart by Kim Ostermyer on the Late Night Genealogies blog. Kim figures out a way to make the chart he needs, not the chart software wanted to provide. Good job!
* Carnival of Genealogy, 113th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There are 10 entries to this carnival on the topic of "A Dickens Christmas" - a look at Christmases past, present, and future.
* My last word on GeneaBlogging and the Paradigm Shift by Michael Hait on the Planting the Seeds blog. Michael summarizes the debate about source citation on blogs. It's a good compendium.
* Professional Genealogist and Geneabloggers, Friends or Foes? by Valerie Elkins on the Family Cherished blog. Valerie has comments on Michael's post, and makes some recommendations. Good list!
* How I Can Live With Myself, Being Both a GeneaBlogger and Board-Certified Genealogist by Polly Kimmitt on the PollyBlog. Polly comments on Michael's post with good points.
* You’re Not the Boss of Me! by Christy Fillerup on the Living Ancestors blog. Christy comments on Michael's post with more good points.
* Eliminating the Hobby from Genealogy by the writer of The Genebrarian Reference Desk blog. Is genealogy just a hobby? Or is it a research methodology? Is there a brand for it? Good questions, good comments.
* Why Bother With Genealogy?by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse discusses why she does genealogy, and searches for the right word to describe her feelings.
* Privacy and the Social Security Number by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James tries to provide Facts about Identity Theft of SSNs, but the data is hard to come by.
Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:
* Monday Morning Mentions: Resolutions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.
* Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.
* Genealogy News Corral Catch-up by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.
* Genealogy Round Up, January 5 by Megan Smolenyak on the Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.
* Friday Finds - 01/06/12 by Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog blog.
* Follow Friday – January 6, 2012 by Wendy Littrell on the All My Branches Genealogy blog.
* Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.
* Follow Friday Gems - 01-06-12 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.
* Follow Friday - Jan 6 2012 by Ginger Smith on the Genealogy by Ginger's Blog.
* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree 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 1110 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/best-of-genea-blogs-1-to-7.html
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
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:
* Ancestry.com 2012 Plans by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog. Mr. AI adds much more context to the Ancestry.com year-end announcement.
* Finding Births, Marriages, and Deaths for New York Ancestors: a 2012 Research Challenge and beyond… by Arlene Eakle on Arlene Eakle's New York Genealogy Blog. Arlene highlights vital records sources, and laments the passing of cursive writing.
* Creating a custom chart by Kim Ostermyer on the Late Night Genealogies blog. Kim figures out a way to make the chart he needs, not the chart software wanted to provide. Good job!
* Carnival of Genealogy, 113th Edition by Jasia on the Creative Gene blog. There are 10 entries to this carnival on the topic of "A Dickens Christmas" - a look at Christmases past, present, and future.
* My last word on GeneaBlogging and the Paradigm Shift by Michael Hait on the Planting the Seeds blog. Michael summarizes the debate about source citation on blogs. It's a good compendium.
* Professional Genealogist and Geneabloggers, Friends or Foes? by Valerie Elkins on the Family Cherished blog. Valerie has comments on Michael's post, and makes some recommendations. Good list!
* How I Can Live With Myself, Being Both a GeneaBlogger and Board-Certified Genealogist by Polly Kimmitt on the PollyBlog. Polly comments on Michael's post with good points.
* You’re Not the Boss of Me! by Christy Fillerup on the Living Ancestors blog. Christy comments on Michael's post with more good points.
* Eliminating the Hobby from Genealogy by the writer of The Genebrarian Reference Desk blog. Is genealogy just a hobby? Or is it a research methodology? Is there a brand for it? Good questions, good comments.
* Why Bother With Genealogy?by Elyse Doerflinger on Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse discusses why she does genealogy, and searches for the right word to describe her feelings.
* Privacy and the Social Security Number by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog. James tries to provide Facts about Identity Theft of SSNs, but the data is hard to come by.
Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:
* Monday Morning Mentions: Resolutions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.
* Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.
* Genealogy News Corral Catch-up by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.
* Genealogy Round Up, January 5 by Megan Smolenyak on the Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.
* Friday Finds - 01/06/12 by Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog blog.
* Follow Friday – January 6, 2012 by Wendy Littrell on the All My Branches Genealogy blog.
* Follow Friday: This Week’s Favorite Finds by Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.
* Follow Friday Gems - 01-06-12 by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.
* Follow Friday - Jan 6 2012 by Ginger Smith on the Genealogy by Ginger's Blog.
* Weekly Rewind by Apple on the Apple's Tree 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 1110 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.
Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/best-of-genea-blogs-1-to-7.html
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Very Best 2011 Research Adventure
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It's Saturday Night again -- time for some Genealogy Fun (what else is there to do on Saturday Night?)!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures in 2011 was your "very best" (your definition).
2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a Status report or comment on Facebook, or in a Stream note on Google Plus.
Here's mine:
I'm going to mention two, because they are so different.
1) The "Research Adventure" that will really advance my family tree research was finding the link between Elizabeth Horton (Dill) Smith (1794?-1869) and a (probable?) brother James H. Dill (1792-1862 ). For background, see:
* Amanuensis Monday - Insolvency Sale of Land of Alpheus B. Smith (17 January 2011)
* James H. Dill in the Vital and Census Records (17 January 2011)
* James H. Dill in Newspaper, Cemetery and Book Records (18 January 2011)
* Amanuensis Monday - Alpheus B. Smith Probate Papers - Post 2 (24 January 2011)
* Amanuensis Monday - James H. Dill's Inquiry in Thomas Dill's Revolutionary War Pension File (4 July 2011)
Reviewing these posts, I can state that I have significant circumstantial evidence that James H. Dill was the brother of Elizabeth Horton Dill, and that they were children of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill of Eastham, Massachusetts. However, I don't have direct evidence yet of these relationships - there is no document found to date that says "James H. Dill, brother of Elizabeth (Dill) Smith" or "Elizabeth (Dill) Smith was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill." I do have a death record that says she is the daughter of Thomas Dill and Mary Horton (see Elizabeth Horton Dill: A Very Elusive Ancestor).
I will be finding and copying the rest of the Alpheus Smith probate papers, and any land deeds in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, for Alpheus and/or Elizabeth (Dill) Smith, and any other Dill in Norfolk County, on my visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in early February.
If, as I am fairly certain, that Elizabeth (Dill) Smith was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill of Eastham, then this opens up a significant branch of my family tree for further research. I've already done quite a bit of research on these families, but I need to do more.
2) The true "genealogy adventure" was the two week trip to the Midwest in September, which I compiled in The Seaver Family History Mystery Tour Compendium. Attending the FGS Conference, visiting the Allen County Public Library, meeting Jasia and her husband, visiting Dodge County and Dane County, Wisconsin, and seeing the Ranslow Smith "Four-Mile Inn" at Old World Wisconsin was a definite adventure that will always be remembered.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-very.html
copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver 2012.
It's Saturday Night again -- time for some Genealogy Fun (what else is there to do on Saturday Night?)!!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures in 2011 was your "very best" (your definition).
2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a Status report or comment on Facebook, or in a Stream note on Google Plus.
Here's mine:
I'm going to mention two, because they are so different.
1) The "Research Adventure" that will really advance my family tree research was finding the link between Elizabeth Horton (Dill) Smith (1794?-1869) and a (probable?) brother James H. Dill (1792-1862 ). For background, see:
* Amanuensis Monday - Insolvency Sale of Land of Alpheus B. Smith (17 January 2011)
* James H. Dill in the Vital and Census Records (17 January 2011)
* James H. Dill in Newspaper, Cemetery and Book Records (18 January 2011)
* Amanuensis Monday - Alpheus B. Smith Probate Papers - Post 2 (24 January 2011)
* Amanuensis Monday - James H. Dill's Inquiry in Thomas Dill's Revolutionary War Pension File (4 July 2011)
Reviewing these posts, I can state that I have significant circumstantial evidence that James H. Dill was the brother of Elizabeth Horton Dill, and that they were children of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill of Eastham, Massachusetts. However, I don't have direct evidence yet of these relationships - there is no document found to date that says "James H. Dill, brother of Elizabeth (Dill) Smith" or "Elizabeth (Dill) Smith was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill." I do have a death record that says she is the daughter of Thomas Dill and Mary Horton (see Elizabeth Horton Dill: A Very Elusive Ancestor).
I will be finding and copying the rest of the Alpheus Smith probate papers, and any land deeds in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, for Alpheus and/or Elizabeth (Dill) Smith, and any other Dill in Norfolk County, on my visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in early February.
If, as I am fairly certain, that Elizabeth (Dill) Smith was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill of Eastham, then this opens up a significant branch of my family tree for further research. I've already done quite a bit of research on these families, but I need to do more.
2) The true "genealogy adventure" was the two week trip to the Midwest in September, which I compiled in The Seaver Family History Mystery Tour Compendium. Attending the FGS Conference, visiting the Allen County Public Library, meeting Jasia and her husband, visiting Dodge County and Dane County, Wisconsin, and seeing the Ranslow Smith "Four-Mile Inn" at Old World Wisconsin was a definite adventure that will always be remembered.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-very.html
copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver 2012.
Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites - Genea-Musings is #90!
...
GenealogyInTime Magazine has published a listing of the Top 100 Genealogy Websites as of January 2012 (based on the www.Alexa.com website traffic rankings).
There are some genealogy blogs on the list:
19. Dick Eeastman's Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
57. John D. Reid's Anglo-Celtic Connections
81. Leland Meitzler's Genealogy Blog
83. Thomas MacEntee's Geneabloggers
87. Chris Paton's British GENES
90. Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings
Here is a screen capture of the bottom of the list:
My understanding of these website traffic statistics is that they are based on visits and page views to the website. I am unclear if RSS feeds "count" toward the statistics. If not, then blogs are penalized, and have higher traffic/readers than this list indicates.
GenealogyInTime has categorized Family Tree sites (e.g., Geni, Mundia, WikiTree, WeRelate) as "genealogy forum" sites, lumped in with true forums or message boards (like Genealogy Wise).
I'm confused by the relatively high ranking of #11 FamilyLink, and its category of "search engine." Who visits the site, and why? A search engine for what?
A typo at #39 - it's "Interment" not "Internment." Many writers do this and spell check doesn't catch it.
At #40, Genealogy Today is mainly an "ancestral records" site rather than a "genealogy magazine."
At #78, Distant Cousins is listed as a "search engine" but I think it is really an "ancestral records" site.
The only websites that I had never heard of were the sysoon and Locate Grave sites.
I'm happy to see that Genea-Musings cracked the Top 100!
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/top-100-most-popular-genealogy-websites.html
copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
GenealogyInTime Magazine has published a listing of the Top 100 Genealogy Websites as of January 2012 (based on the www.Alexa.com website traffic rankings).
There are some genealogy blogs on the list:
19. Dick Eeastman's Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
57. John D. Reid's Anglo-Celtic Connections
81. Leland Meitzler's Genealogy Blog
83. Thomas MacEntee's Geneabloggers
87. Chris Paton's British GENES
90. Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings
Here is a screen capture of the bottom of the list:
My understanding of these website traffic statistics is that they are based on visits and page views to the website. I am unclear if RSS feeds "count" toward the statistics. If not, then blogs are penalized, and have higher traffic/readers than this list indicates.
GenealogyInTime has categorized Family Tree sites (e.g., Geni, Mundia, WikiTree, WeRelate) as "genealogy forum" sites, lumped in with true forums or message boards (like Genealogy Wise).
I'm confused by the relatively high ranking of #11 FamilyLink, and its category of "search engine." Who visits the site, and why? A search engine for what?
A typo at #39 - it's "Interment" not "Internment." Many writers do this and spell check doesn't catch it.
At #40, Genealogy Today is mainly an "ancestral records" site rather than a "genealogy magazine."
At #78, Distant Cousins is listed as a "search engine" but I think it is really an "ancestral records" site.
The only websites that I had never heard of were the sysoon and Locate Grave sites.
I'm happy to see that Genea-Musings cracked the Top 100!
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/top-100-most-popular-genealogy-websites.html
copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.
Surname Saturday - THURSTON (England > Rhode Island > Massachusetts)
...
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am skipping numbers 319 to 351 because I don't have names or information about them. I am now up to number 353, who is Abigail Thurston (1700-????), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]
My ancestral line back through three generations of THURSTON 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)
10. Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
11. Julia White (1848-1913)
22. Henry Arnold White ((1824-1885)
23. Amy Frances Oatley (1826-before 1870)
44. Jonathan White (1806-1850)
45. Miranda Wade (1806-1850)
88. Humphrey White (1758-1814)
89. Sybil Kirby (1764-1848)
176. Jonathan White (1732-1804)
177. Abigail Wing (1734-1806)
352. William White, born about 1708 in probably Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States; died before 03 October 1780 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of 470. William White and 705. Elizabeth Cadman. He married 02 October 1729 in Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
353. Abigail Thurston, born 07 May 1700 in Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
Children of William White and Abigail Thurston are: Sarah White (1730-????); Hannah White (1731-1819); Jonathan White (1732-1806); Elizabeth White (1734-????); Abigail White (1736-????).
706. Jonathan Thurston, born 04 January 1659 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 15 April 1740 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. He married before 1678 in Rhode Island, United States.
707. Sarah, born about 1659.
Children of Jonathan Thurston and Sarah are: Edward Thurston (1679-1739); Elizabeth Thurston (1682-1717); Mary Thurston (1685-????); Jonathan Thurston (1687-????); Rebecca Thurston (1689-1735); Content Thurston (1691-????); Sarah Thurston (1693-????); John Thurston (1695-1735); Eleanor Thurston (1696-????); Hope Thurston (1698-1716); Abigail Thurston (1700-????); Patience Thurston (1702-????); Amey Thurston (1705-????); Peleg Thurston (1706-????); Jeremiah Thurston (1710-????); Susannah Thurston (1712-????). Joseph Thurston (1714-????); Job Thurston (1717-1780).
1412. Edward Thurston, born about 1618 in England; died 01 March 1707 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. He married June 1647 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
1413. Elizabeth Mott, born about 1629 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England; died 02 September 1694 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. She was the daughter of 2826. Adam Mott and 2827. Elizabeth Creed.
Children of Edward Thurston and Elizabeth Mott are: Sarah Thurston (1648-????); Elizabeth Thurston (1650-????); Edward Thurston (1652-1690); Ellen Thurston (1655-????); Mary Thurston (1657-1732); Jonathan Thurston (1659-1740); Daniel Thurston (1661-????); Rebecca Thurston (1662-1737); John Thurston (1664-1690); Content Thurston (1667-????); Samuel Thurston (1669-1747); Thomas Thurston (1671-1730).
The most authoritative reference I have for the Thurston families is:
Carl Boyer 3rd, "The Biography of Edward Thurston," Ancestral Lines, Third Edition ( Santa Clarita, Calif.: the author, 1998).
It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am skipping numbers 319 to 351 because I don't have names or information about them. I am now up to number 353, who is Abigail Thurston (1700-????), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]
My ancestral line back through three generations of THURSTON 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)
10. Thomas Richmond (1848-1917)
11. Julia White (1848-1913)
22. Henry Arnold White ((1824-1885)
23. Amy Frances Oatley (1826-before 1870)
44. Jonathan White (1806-1850)
45. Miranda Wade (1806-1850)
88. Humphrey White (1758-1814)
89. Sybil Kirby (1764-1848)
176. Jonathan White (1732-1804)
177. Abigail Wing (1734-1806)
352. William White, born about 1708 in probably Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States; died before 03 October 1780 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of 470. William White and 705. Elizabeth Cadman. He married 02 October 1729 in Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
353. Abigail Thurston, born 07 May 1700 in Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
Children of William White and Abigail Thurston are: Sarah White (1730-????); Hannah White (1731-1819); Jonathan White (1732-1806); Elizabeth White (1734-????); Abigail White (1736-????).
706. Jonathan Thurston, born 04 January 1659 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States; died 15 April 1740 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. He married before 1678 in Rhode Island, United States.
707. Sarah, born about 1659.
Children of Jonathan Thurston and Sarah are: Edward Thurston (1679-1739); Elizabeth Thurston (1682-1717); Mary Thurston (1685-????); Jonathan Thurston (1687-????); Rebecca Thurston (1689-1735); Content Thurston (1691-????); Sarah Thurston (1693-????); John Thurston (1695-1735); Eleanor Thurston (1696-????); Hope Thurston (1698-1716); Abigail Thurston (1700-????); Patience Thurston (1702-????); Amey Thurston (1705-????); Peleg Thurston (1706-????); Jeremiah Thurston (1710-????); Susannah Thurston (1712-????). Joseph Thurston (1714-????); Job Thurston (1717-1780).
1412. Edward Thurston, born about 1618 in England; died 01 March 1707 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. He married June 1647 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States.
1413. Elizabeth Mott, born about 1629 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England; died 02 September 1694 in Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States. She was the daughter of 2826. Adam Mott and 2827. Elizabeth Creed.
Children of Edward Thurston and Elizabeth Mott are: Sarah Thurston (1648-????); Elizabeth Thurston (1650-????); Edward Thurston (1652-1690); Ellen Thurston (1655-????); Mary Thurston (1657-1732); Jonathan Thurston (1659-1740); Daniel Thurston (1661-????); Rebecca Thurston (1662-1737); John Thurston (1664-1690); Content Thurston (1667-????); Samuel Thurston (1669-1747); Thomas Thurston (1671-1730).
The most authoritative reference I have for the Thurston families is:
Carl Boyer 3rd, "The Biography of Edward Thurston," Ancestral Lines, Third Edition ( Santa Clarita, Calif.: the author, 1998).
Friday, January 6, 2012
Follow-Up Friday - You Comment, I Respond
...
Trying to keep up with email with comments about blog posts, and with the relatively few comments I receive on this blog, can be a challenge. Here are some of the recent comments and my responses:
1) On Finding Census Records on Archives.com - Last Name Variations (4 January 2012), reader bgwiehle asked:
"Were the index entries of the archives.com censuses different from those at ancestry or familysearch? You need quality indexing, especially when there is no flexibility in surname search. 'Creatively' entered and indexed entries require creative search processes."
My response: I am certain that Archives.com does not use Ancestry.com for their indexes or images. I believe, but am not 100% sure, that they use FamilySearch's indexes. However, the number of matches is slightly different, and the order of the matches is definitely different. for instance, a search for "Last Name" = "Seaver" (exact) in the 1930 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, there are 363 matches on Archives.com and 364 on FamilySearch.org. For comparison, there are 316 entries in Ancestry.com's indexes for this search. I wonder why that is so different? The order is alphabetical by first name on Archives.com. On FamilySearch, the order seems to be by Roll Number, then ED number, then Sheet number, then Line number (although there are some not in this order).
I'm glad that someone was reading my posts about the Archives.com collections - I was wondering!
2) Reader Cathy Champion commented on I'm Mitt Romney's (Distant) Cousin (28 December 2011):
"...I've had several people get very upset when my meandering relates me to their fairly common trees; they say I'm straying too much. What would you say to them?"
Reader Unknown suggested:
"I don't even understand the complaint! It's your genealogy, your tree, you can meander however you want!"
My response: I'm with Unknown on this one! I'm confused a bit by Cathy's comment about "meandering relates me to their fairly common trees" - does she mean that they are upset because she is related to them and to several U.S. Presidents?
3) Louis Kessler commented on GenSoftReviews 2011 User Choice Awards Announced (posted 2 January 2012):
"Other notables missing include:
Family Tree Builder, which won in 2009 and 2010 but only achieved 3.71 this year.
The Master Genealogist which only achieved 3.61.
Gramps which won in 2009 but only achieved 3.21 this year.
MacFamilyTree at 2.89.
and Geni got demolished with just a 1.71 rating.
The users spoke!"
My response: Yes, they have, and the news isn't good for some programs. Thanks, Louis!
4) Reader J. Paul Hawthorne asked on Ancestry Member Trees, Family Tree Maker 2012, and the iPhone Ancestry App - Post 2 (posted 20 December 2011):
"Why do you have both census and residence facts for David Auble? I think I know why. Because you can't use the mapping feature if you use Ward 4, etc. in the same line as the city. If that's the case I like how you get around this, But what I do is put "Ward 4" in the "description", that way it only takes up one line."
My response: Good question! Most of the "Residence" facts come directly from the Ancestry Member Tree source/image download on this particular tree (because I attached the census page image to a person in my Ancestry Member Tree). I try not to have any source/image downloads from the AMT in my master database (it's another file) because of how Ancestry.com and/or FTM 2012 have crafted these sources. My "Census" Facts are my own source citations crafted using Evidence! Explained models. I also add "Residence" Facts in my master database for street addresses and street names from sources. Note that the "Residence" Facts created by the AMT for the document source/image don't capture the actual address on the U.S. census pages.
I hadn't thought about the mapping feature issue. When I enter the "Census" Fact, I include the street address and/or the Ward number to the "Description" field also. Unfortunately, those don't always transfer into another program through a GEDCOM upload.
5) Thank you to all of my readers, and especially those who take the time to comment on my posts.
While working with my iPhone and the My Feeds (Google Reader) app, I noticed that there is no way to get to the blog post and make a comment. I'm going to start putting the blog post URL at the bottom of my post so that readers using smart phones can comment.
The URL for this blog post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/follow-up-friday-you-comment-i-respond.html. Please comment if you wish!
Copyright (c) 2012 by Randall J. Seaver.
Trying to keep up with email with comments about blog posts, and with the relatively few comments I receive on this blog, can be a challenge. Here are some of the recent comments and my responses:
1) On Finding Census Records on Archives.com - Last Name Variations (4 January 2012), reader bgwiehle asked:
"Were the index entries of the archives.com censuses different from those at ancestry or familysearch? You need quality indexing, especially when there is no flexibility in surname search. 'Creatively' entered and indexed entries require creative search processes."
My response: I am certain that Archives.com does not use Ancestry.com for their indexes or images. I believe, but am not 100% sure, that they use FamilySearch's indexes. However, the number of matches is slightly different, and the order of the matches is definitely different. for instance, a search for "Last Name" = "Seaver" (exact) in the 1930 U.S. Census for Massachusetts, there are 363 matches on Archives.com and 364 on FamilySearch.org. For comparison, there are 316 entries in Ancestry.com's indexes for this search. I wonder why that is so different? The order is alphabetical by first name on Archives.com. On FamilySearch, the order seems to be by Roll Number, then ED number, then Sheet number, then Line number (although there are some not in this order).
I'm glad that someone was reading my posts about the Archives.com collections - I was wondering!
2) Reader Cathy Champion commented on I'm Mitt Romney's (Distant) Cousin (28 December 2011):
"...I've had several people get very upset when my meandering relates me to their fairly common trees; they say I'm straying too much. What would you say to them?"
Reader Unknown suggested:
"I don't even understand the complaint! It's your genealogy, your tree, you can meander however you want!"
My response: I'm with Unknown on this one! I'm confused a bit by Cathy's comment about "meandering relates me to their fairly common trees" - does she mean that they are upset because she is related to them and to several U.S. Presidents?
3) Louis Kessler commented on GenSoftReviews 2011 User Choice Awards Announced (posted 2 January 2012):
"Other notables missing include:
Family Tree Builder, which won in 2009 and 2010 but only achieved 3.71 this year.
The Master Genealogist which only achieved 3.61.
Gramps which won in 2009 but only achieved 3.21 this year.
MacFamilyTree at 2.89.
and Geni got demolished with just a 1.71 rating.
The users spoke!"
My response: Yes, they have, and the news isn't good for some programs. Thanks, Louis!
4) Reader J. Paul Hawthorne asked on Ancestry Member Trees, Family Tree Maker 2012, and the iPhone Ancestry App - Post 2 (posted 20 December 2011):
"Why do you have both census and residence facts for David Auble? I think I know why. Because you can't use the mapping feature if you use Ward 4, etc. in the same line as the city. If that's the case I like how you get around this, But what I do is put "Ward 4" in the "description", that way it only takes up one line."
My response: Good question! Most of the "Residence" facts come directly from the Ancestry Member Tree source/image download on this particular tree (because I attached the census page image to a person in my Ancestry Member Tree). I try not to have any source/image downloads from the AMT in my master database (it's another file) because of how Ancestry.com and/or FTM 2012 have crafted these sources. My "Census" Facts are my own source citations crafted using Evidence! Explained models. I also add "Residence" Facts in my master database for street addresses and street names from sources. Note that the "Residence" Facts created by the AMT for the document source/image don't capture the actual address on the U.S. census pages.
I hadn't thought about the mapping feature issue. When I enter the "Census" Fact, I include the street address and/or the Ward number to the "Description" field also. Unfortunately, those don't always transfer into another program through a GEDCOM upload.
5) Thank you to all of my readers, and especially those who take the time to comment on my posts.
While working with my iPhone and the My Feeds (Google Reader) app, I noticed that there is no way to get to the blog post and make a comment. I'm going to start putting the blog post URL at the bottom of my post so that readers using smart phones can comment.
The URL for this blog post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/follow-up-friday-you-comment-i-respond.html. Please comment if you wish!
Copyright (c) 2012 by Randall J. Seaver.
"Beginning Genealogy" Presentations
...
Connie Sheets posted an interesting question on the Transitional Genealogists Forum mailing list yesterday, saying:
"I would like to hear from those experienced in making presentations along the lines of "introduction to genealogy" to community groups (e.g., at a local library), primarily in terms of what can reasonably be covered in one hour."
There have been a number of responses in the thread - I suggest that you read each post in the thread. Perhaps the most interesting one is this summary by Thomas W. Jones:
"If I had just "one shot" to influence beginning genealogists, I would emphasize oral history, DNA, and networking (including society membership). I also would touch on indexing activities (another very useful legacy), and all this before introducing documentary research and what it can yield."
Like many genealogists, I do some speaking to "Beginning Genealogy" audiences. I've developed three presentations for different audiences:
* A 30-minute talk for small groups (fraternal, church, civic groups) - with or without a presentation mode
* A 50-minute presentation suitable for heritage groups (e.g., DAR) and genealogy/historical societies
* A 90-minute presentation suitable for libraries or organizations with more time to use (e.g., OASIS sponsors these talks at local libraries and at their facility)
I gave the 50-minute presentation yesterday to the Linares Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in San Diego to about 40 attendees, including a number who are in San Diego area genealogical societies. I was worried that the talk was too basic for experienced genealogists, but was assured afterwards by many of the experienced attendees that they were informed by the talk and appreciated the two page handout of genealogy resources.
The 50-minute talk has these main segments:
* An introduction of "what is genealogy," "how many ancestors do we have," "who's in my tree (bragging)," and "why do I do it."
* An overview of several of my ancestors, including collected documents and family photographs. For the DAR, I added documents from a Revolutionary War Pension file and a DAR descendants list from the DAR Patriot Index.
* A 12-step program of "how to do genealogy research" that includes some collected documents and photographs as examples, but no screen shots of websites.
* A warning that "not everything is on the Internet" and a reading of "How Green Was My Valley."
For the 90-minute program, I add more document/photograph/screen shot examples to the 12-Step program.
The two-page handout provides a list of my "12 Steps," San Diego area societies and repositories, genealogy software, and a list, by subject area, of traditional repositories and online resources.
Do you have a "Beginning Genealogist" presentation? What do you include in it?
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/beginning-genealogy-presentations.html
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012
Connie Sheets posted an interesting question on the Transitional Genealogists Forum mailing list yesterday, saying:
"I would like to hear from those experienced in making presentations along the lines of "introduction to genealogy" to community groups (e.g., at a local library), primarily in terms of what can reasonably be covered in one hour."
There have been a number of responses in the thread - I suggest that you read each post in the thread. Perhaps the most interesting one is this summary by Thomas W. Jones:
"If I had just "one shot" to influence beginning genealogists, I would emphasize oral history, DNA, and networking (including society membership). I also would touch on indexing activities (another very useful legacy), and all this before introducing documentary research and what it can yield."
Like many genealogists, I do some speaking to "Beginning Genealogy" audiences. I've developed three presentations for different audiences:
* A 30-minute talk for small groups (fraternal, church, civic groups) - with or without a presentation mode
* A 50-minute presentation suitable for heritage groups (e.g., DAR) and genealogy/historical societies
* A 90-minute presentation suitable for libraries or organizations with more time to use (e.g., OASIS sponsors these talks at local libraries and at their facility)
I gave the 50-minute presentation yesterday to the Linares Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in San Diego to about 40 attendees, including a number who are in San Diego area genealogical societies. I was worried that the talk was too basic for experienced genealogists, but was assured afterwards by many of the experienced attendees that they were informed by the talk and appreciated the two page handout of genealogy resources.
The 50-minute talk has these main segments:
* An introduction of "what is genealogy," "how many ancestors do we have," "who's in my tree (bragging)," and "why do I do it."
* An overview of several of my ancestors, including collected documents and family photographs. For the DAR, I added documents from a Revolutionary War Pension file and a DAR descendants list from the DAR Patriot Index.
* A 12-step program of "how to do genealogy research" that includes some collected documents and photographs as examples, but no screen shots of websites.
* A warning that "not everything is on the Internet" and a reading of "How Green Was My Valley."
For the 90-minute program, I add more document/photograph/screen shot examples to the 12-Step program.
The two-page handout provides a list of my "12 Steps," San Diego area societies and repositories, genealogy software, and a list, by subject area, of traditional repositories and online resources.
Do you have a "Beginning Genealogist" presentation? What do you include in it?
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/beginning-genealogy-presentations.html
Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012
RootsTech 2012 Speaker Schedule is Available
...
The program speaker schedule for RootsTech 2012 is now available at http://rootstech.org/schedule/index . There are Tabs for each day - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can click on the title of each presentation and see the short description.
A quick look at it reveals four or five sessions in each time block that I want to attend. I'll post my "want to attend" sessions in future posts.
Disclosure: I am an Official blogger for RootsTech 2012, and have had my registration fee covered by RootsTech.
Update: In a comment, Geoff Rasmussen noted:
"Randy - Kathy Warburton wrote to me this morning that she will have the "final" schedule submitted and published early next week. There've been a few changes, such as my RootsTech Genealogy Idol class - it has been moved to 1:45 - immediately after lunch on Thursday."
The program speaker schedule for RootsTech 2012 is now available at http://rootstech.org/schedule/index . There are Tabs for each day - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can click on the title of each presentation and see the short description.
A quick look at it reveals four or five sessions in each time block that I want to attend. I'll post my "want to attend" sessions in future posts.
Disclosure: I am an Official blogger for RootsTech 2012, and have had my registration fee covered by RootsTech.
Update: In a comment, Geoff Rasmussen noted:
"Randy - Kathy Warburton wrote to me this morning that she will have the "final" schedule submitted and published early next week. There've been a few changes, such as my RootsTech Genealogy Idol class - it has been moved to 1:45 - immediately after lunch on Thursday."
Follow Friday - Have Genealogy Fun This Weekend
...
The weekend is here! If you have some free time for genealogy fun, I recommend:
1) Listen to the Geneabloggers Radio show tonight (Friday night, 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT and 6 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee, with co-host Lisa Alzo. This week's topic is Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions for 2012. The special guests will include:
* DearMYRTLE of DearMYRTLE.com who will have tips and handy information on how to keep your genealogy data and materials organized;
* Amy Coffin, of the We Tree genealogy blog will discuss setting genealogy goals and resolutions for 2012.
* Jan Meisels Allen, Vice President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and a member of the Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) with important information on how you can get involved with the preservation and access of vital records, especially the Social Security Death Index.
2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by D. Joshua Taylor. This week's topic will be New Year, New Board Members. The guests include:
* Polly FitzGerald Kimmitt, president of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) and editor of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Voice Newsletter.
* In addition, we’ll be highlighting FGS member society, Clallam County Genealogical Society (Washington) in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.
3) Check out the recent FREE Webinars on:
* LegacyFamilyTree:
*** Digital Books and Sites for Genealogists. by James Tanner (free until 16 January 2012)
*** "Is My Pet Frog Part of My Family?" Children and Genealogy in the Classroom, by Maureen Taylor (free until 26 December)
*** New Genealogy Technology: Flip-Pal™ Mobile Scanner, by Gordon Nuttall (free)
* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/. Recently added:
*** What's New in RootsMagic 5
* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (some are free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online
* Thomas MacEntee's Explorinars, including:
*** Easy Website Creation (free to view).
*** Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)
*** Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups (free to view)
* Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel has over 133 items on it now, including (free to view):
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Exploring the 1930 US Federal Census with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Genealogy New Years Resolutions for 2012 with Anne Mitchell
*** Common Surnames: Strategies to Finding Your Ancestor in the Crowd with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Using Online Trees to Help with Pre-1850 Relatives with Anne Mitchell.
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Reading Handwritten Historical Documents with Anne Mitchell
*** Ancestry.com Live: How to Control Your Results with Anne Mitchell
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: How to Use the World War II Draft Registration Cards with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: How do I find the maiden names of women in my family tree? by Crista Cowan
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: I believe my ancestor was Native American/Indian, How do I prove that? by Crista Cowan
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Unlock the Secrets of the 1790 - 1840 US Census Records with Anne Mitchell
4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).
5) Go to a local genealogical society program. Is one of your local societies having a program this weekend? Go, learn and share with other attendees. My local societies are not meeting this weekend, so i'm going to watch some webinars that I missed.
6) Go to a local or close repository with genealogy and family history material. Do some research in traditional resources or order FamilySearch microfilms online with original source records.
7) Do some online research in the latest record collections
* FamilySearch (free, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list),
* Ancestry ($$, http://www.ancestry.com/cs/reccol/default),
* Fold3 ($$, www.fold3.com),
* WorldVitalRecords ($$, www.WorldVitalRecords.com),
* American Ancestors ($$, www.AmericanAncestors.org),
* GenealogyBank ($$, www.GenealogyBank.com),
* Archives ($$, www.Archives.com)
8) Add content (names, dates, places, notes, images, sources, etc.) to your genealogy software program. I still have two inches of paper collected from my vacation, and more from before that, and will try to enter some of it into my database this weekend.
9) Spend time with your family doing fun things. Not this weekend...but I am going to transfer phots from Christmas into my desktop computer.
10) Go to a local cemetery and clean stones, take gravestone pictures, or transcribe epitaphs for your local society, for Find-a-Grave, or a similar online service.
Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.
The weekend is here! If you have some free time for genealogy fun, I recommend:
1) Listen to the Geneabloggers Radio show tonight (Friday night, 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT and 6 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee, with co-host Lisa Alzo. This week's topic is Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions for 2012. The special guests will include:
* DearMYRTLE of DearMYRTLE.com who will have tips and handy information on how to keep your genealogy data and materials organized;
* Amy Coffin, of the We Tree genealogy blog will discuss setting genealogy goals and resolutions for 2012.
* Jan Meisels Allen, Vice President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and a member of the Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) with important information on how you can get involved with the preservation and access of vital records, especially the Social Security Death Index.
2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by D. Joshua Taylor. This week's topic will be New Year, New Board Members. The guests include:
* Polly FitzGerald Kimmitt, president of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) and editor of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Voice Newsletter.
* In addition, we’ll be highlighting FGS member society, Clallam County Genealogical Society (Washington) in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.
3) Check out the recent FREE Webinars on:
* LegacyFamilyTree:
*** Digital Books and Sites for Genealogists. by James Tanner (free until 16 January 2012)
*** "Is My Pet Frog Part of My Family?" Children and Genealogy in the Classroom, by Maureen Taylor (free until 26 December)
*** New Genealogy Technology: Flip-Pal™ Mobile Scanner, by Gordon Nuttall (free)
* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/. Recently added:
*** What's New in RootsMagic 5
* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (some are free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online
* Thomas MacEntee's Explorinars, including:
*** Easy Website Creation (free to view).
*** Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)
*** Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups (free to view)
* Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel has over 133 items on it now, including (free to view):
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Exploring the 1930 US Federal Census with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Genealogy New Years Resolutions for 2012 with Anne Mitchell
*** Common Surnames: Strategies to Finding Your Ancestor in the Crowd with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Using Online Trees to Help with Pre-1850 Relatives with Anne Mitchell.
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Reading Handwritten Historical Documents with Anne Mitchell
*** Ancestry.com Live: How to Control Your Results with Anne Mitchell
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: How to Use the World War II Draft Registration Cards with Juliana Smith
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: How do I find the maiden names of women in my family tree? by Crista Cowan
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: I believe my ancestor was Native American/Indian, How do I prove that? by Crista Cowan
*** Ancestry.com LIVE: Unlock the Secrets of the 1790 - 1840 US Census Records with Anne Mitchell
4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).
5) Go to a local genealogical society program. Is one of your local societies having a program this weekend? Go, learn and share with other attendees. My local societies are not meeting this weekend, so i'm going to watch some webinars that I missed.
6) Go to a local or close repository with genealogy and family history material. Do some research in traditional resources or order FamilySearch microfilms online with original source records.
7) Do some online research in the latest record collections
* FamilySearch (free, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list),
* Ancestry ($$, http://www.ancestry.com/cs/reccol/default),
* Fold3 ($$, www.fold3.com),
* WorldVitalRecords ($$, www.WorldVitalRecords.com),
* American Ancestors ($$, www.AmericanAncestors.org),
* GenealogyBank ($$, www.GenealogyBank.com),
* Archives ($$, www.Archives.com)
8) Add content (names, dates, places, notes, images, sources, etc.) to your genealogy software program. I still have two inches of paper collected from my vacation, and more from before that, and will try to enter some of it into my database this weekend.
9) Spend time with your family doing fun things. Not this weekend...but I am going to transfer phots from Christmas into my desktop computer.
10) Go to a local cemetery and clean stones, take gravestone pictures, or transcribe epitaphs for your local society, for Find-a-Grave, or a similar online service.
Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Finding U.K. Census Records on Archives.com
...
Continuing my series of finding census records on the www.Archives.com subscription website, I want to look at United Kingdom census records today. I could find no information about the United Kingdom census record collections available on Archives.com - does it include every year from 1841 to 1911, and all counties, which are available on other subscription sites?
My target today was one of my ancestors - Ann Richman, born in about 1784 in Wiltshire. I know that she is in the 1841 and 1851 UK Census records in Hilperton. Here is my search process:
1) The UK Census search screen is:
I added "First Name" = "Ann" and "Last Name" = "Richman" to the Search fields, with the "Exact" boxes unchecked, and clicked on the blue "Search" button. This screen came up:
The red bar at the top says "Please double check the information of the fields marked in red." Okay...the one marked in red in the screen above is the "Birth Year" field where it says "Must be from 1841 to 1901." Huh? There are records available only for persons born between 1841 and 1901? What about all of the older people listed in the census records? That makes absolutely no sense to me - it must be an error in the search capability.
2) I put a "Birth year" = "1841" and a year range of "+/- 10 years" just to get some results.
The search told me that there were no matches, in all of England, for a person named Ann Richman (without the exact box checked). How can that be possible?
Perhaps there are not any persons named "Ann Richman" born between 1831 and 1851 in the UK census records. I checked the FamilySearch collection for the 1851 UK Census and found that there were none found in that search, but searching for "Ann Richman" without any birth years revealed 22 matches, but the search results show no birth years (were the Birth Years indexed and are they searchable on FamilySearch?). In the 1861 UK Census, FamilySearch shows 4 matches for an "exact" "Ann richman" born between 1831 and 1851.
Therefore, if the Archives.com collection includes the 1861 UK Census, then it isn't showing matches for "Ann Richman" for some reason.
3) Knowing that there must be UK Census records on the Archives.com site, I decided to search for "First Name" = "John" (not exact) and "Last Name" = "Smith" (not exact) and "Birth Year" = "1850" with a range of "+/- 5 years." That worked, and gave me 136 matches (the ones I saw were only from the 1851 census). I get a lot of "time outs" on the Archives.com site for some reason.
Here is the first page of matches:
I clicked on one of the matches (the person's name, although clicking on "View Original image" and "View Full Record" go to the same screen) and saw:
The screen above has a link for "View Digitized Record" that takes me to the specific record (it says that the image is from http://iserve2.rootsuk.com):
The image above is a PDF file for the specific image. There appear to be no navigation tools so that the user can go to the previous or next image in the collection. It appears that the user has to go back to the Search page and search for another name.
4) Lessons Learned:
* The UK Census Records on www.Archives.com are available for at least the 1851 UK Census. If this is wrong, please tell me!
* The Search field for Birth Year requires an input of 1841 to 1901. This makes it impossible to make a search for someone born before 1841 in the UK Census records.
* There appear to be no navigation tools to go from one census page to a previous page or a next page in the collection.
* Searching this collection is almost unusable in its present form.
5) Suggestions for Archives.com:
* Tell us which UK census years are available, and if they are for all counties. Making us guess causes frustration and time wasting.
* Remove the requirement for a Birth Year entry on the Search form. This is totally unreasonably IMHO.
* Add navigation tools so that the user can advance to other pages without going back to the Search screen.
Disclosure: Archives.com provided a free subscription to their collection at the SCGS 2011 Jamboree which I appreciate. This did not influence my statements in this blog post, but it did enable them to be made!
Continuing my series of finding census records on the www.Archives.com subscription website, I want to look at United Kingdom census records today. I could find no information about the United Kingdom census record collections available on Archives.com - does it include every year from 1841 to 1911, and all counties, which are available on other subscription sites?
My target today was one of my ancestors - Ann Richman, born in about 1784 in Wiltshire. I know that she is in the 1841 and 1851 UK Census records in Hilperton. Here is my search process:
1) The UK Census search screen is:
I added "First Name" = "Ann" and "Last Name" = "Richman" to the Search fields, with the "Exact" boxes unchecked, and clicked on the blue "Search" button. This screen came up:
The red bar at the top says "Please double check the information of the fields marked in red." Okay...the one marked in red in the screen above is the "Birth Year" field where it says "Must be from 1841 to 1901." Huh? There are records available only for persons born between 1841 and 1901? What about all of the older people listed in the census records? That makes absolutely no sense to me - it must be an error in the search capability.
2) I put a "Birth year" = "1841" and a year range of "+/- 10 years" just to get some results.
The search told me that there were no matches, in all of England, for a person named Ann Richman (without the exact box checked). How can that be possible?
Perhaps there are not any persons named "Ann Richman" born between 1831 and 1851 in the UK census records. I checked the FamilySearch collection for the 1851 UK Census and found that there were none found in that search, but searching for "Ann Richman" without any birth years revealed 22 matches, but the search results show no birth years (were the Birth Years indexed and are they searchable on FamilySearch?). In the 1861 UK Census, FamilySearch shows 4 matches for an "exact" "Ann richman" born between 1831 and 1851.
Therefore, if the Archives.com collection includes the 1861 UK Census, then it isn't showing matches for "Ann Richman" for some reason.
3) Knowing that there must be UK Census records on the Archives.com site, I decided to search for "First Name" = "John" (not exact) and "Last Name" = "Smith" (not exact) and "Birth Year" = "1850" with a range of "+/- 5 years." That worked, and gave me 136 matches (the ones I saw were only from the 1851 census). I get a lot of "time outs" on the Archives.com site for some reason.
Here is the first page of matches:
I clicked on one of the matches (the person's name, although clicking on "View Original image" and "View Full Record" go to the same screen) and saw:
The screen above has a link for "View Digitized Record" that takes me to the specific record (it says that the image is from http://iserve2.rootsuk.com):
The image above is a PDF file for the specific image. There appear to be no navigation tools so that the user can go to the previous or next image in the collection. It appears that the user has to go back to the Search page and search for another name.
4) Lessons Learned:
* The UK Census Records on www.Archives.com are available for at least the 1851 UK Census. If this is wrong, please tell me!
* The Search field for Birth Year requires an input of 1841 to 1901. This makes it impossible to make a search for someone born before 1841 in the UK Census records.
* There appear to be no navigation tools to go from one census page to a previous page or a next page in the collection.
* Searching this collection is almost unusable in its present form.
5) Suggestions for Archives.com:
* Tell us which UK census years are available, and if they are for all counties. Making us guess causes frustration and time wasting.
* Remove the requirement for a Birth Year entry on the Search form. This is totally unreasonably IMHO.
* Add navigation tools so that the user can advance to other pages without going back to the Search screen.
Disclosure: Archives.com provided a free subscription to their collection at the SCGS 2011 Jamboree which I appreciate. This did not influence my statements in this blog post, but it did enable them to be made!
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