Finding U.S. Vital Records on Archives.com

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Continuing my series exploring the databases available on commercial site www.Archives.com, I wanted to determine what United States Vital Records were available on the website. 

The list of Vital Record collections (I did a "Birth" search on the Collections page) showed 60 collections (including not U.S. collections);  it showed 71 "Marriage" collections; it showed 63 "Death" collections;  it showed 27 "Divorce" collections.  I'm not going to list them all - an interested reader can do these searches also.

I was most interested in the California collections, and how the results are presented.

1)  For California Births, the collection is described as:

California Birth Index, 1905 to 1995, 24,112,453 records

California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Statistics

The California Birth Index was recorded by the California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Statistics. It contains over 24 million records, including these fields (when available): name, birth date, gender, mother's maiden name, and county of birth.

The search page for the California Birth Index has these fields:

*  First Name [choice of Exact or not]
*  Last Name (required) [choice of Exact or not]
*  Middle Name
*  Maiden Name
*  Location (required)
*  Event Type:  Birth
*  Year: 
*  +/- [choices of 0, 1, 2, 5, or 10 years]

I put Last Name = "seaver," checked the "Exact" box, and saw:

After clicking on the blue "Search" button, I received 254 matches:

The matches were listed alphabetically by first name. 

Unchecking the "Exact" box showed the same 254 matches. No wild cards are permitted for the surname search (only letters, spaces and dashes).  The Birth Year range worked as expected.

I checked this same California Birth Index on Ancestry.com, using an exact search for Last Name = "seaver."  There were 490 matches.  An inspection of the list showed there were 261 results with Last Name = "seaver," and the rest had Maiden Name = "seaver."  The results order was by birth date.  I did not compare both list to see where the 2.7% difference in matches occurred. 

On the FREE Family Tree Legends site, this California Birth Index, 1905-1995 has 260 matches for a Last Name = "seaver" Exact name search in birth date order.  A "Soundex" search for "seaver" on this site resulted in 260 matches also.

I found my own birth record, and clicked on the linked name (I could have clicked on "View Full Record") and saw:

The information provided by the record includes:

*  First Name
*  Middle Name
*  Last Name
*  Gender
*  Birth Date
*  Birth Location (note that this is a County, not a City - Archives.com does not specify this)
*  Record Type
*  Mother's Maiden Name
*  Collection
*  Certificate (a link to buy a birth certificate at an exorbitant price is provided)
*  Source Information

For comparison purposes, the Name, Gender, Birth Date, Birth County and Mother's Maiden Name are provided in the Ancestry.com collection, plus Source Information. 

2)  For California Marriages, the Archives.com database description is:

California Marriage Records, 1960 to 1985, 4,680,201 records

California Department of Health

This collection of California marriage records was provided by the California Department of Health. It contains data from marriage certificates registered in California from 1960 to 1985.

A search of this database for Last Name = "seaver" with the Exact box checked provided 148 matches, listed alphabetically by first name.  A search on this same database on Ancestry.com provided 310 matches (155 with "seaver" as a last name).  The information provided on Archives.com is comparable to that provided by Ancestry.com.

3)  For California Deaths, the Archives.com database description is:

California Death Index, 1940 to 1997, 9,289,235 records

California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Statistics

The California Death Index was recorded by the California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Statistics. It contains over 9 million records, including these fields (when available): name, gender, death date, death location, birth date, birth location, mother's maiden name, and father's last name.

A search of this database for Last Name = "seaver" with the Exact box checked provided 164 matches, listed alphabetically by first name. A search on this same database on Ancestry.com provided 278 matches (162 with "seaver" as a last name, the other matches are "seaver" with a maiden name).  The same database on Family Tree Legends has 287 matches, including maiden name entries.  The same database on Rootsweb.com has 166 matches for Last Name = "seaver."  The information provided on Archives.com is comparable to that provided by the other databases

4)  For California Divorces, Archives has two databases:

*  California, San Diego Divorce Records, 1979 to 1999, 1,397,948 records

San Diego Superior Court

This collection of San Diego, California divorce records was provided by the San Diego Superior Court. It contains data from 1979-1999.

*  California, Kern County Divorce Records, 1990 to 2004, 32,066 records

Superior Court of California, County of Kern

This collection of divorce records from Kern County, California was provided by the Superior Court of California, County of Kern. It contains data from 1990 to 2004.

Ancestry.com has a California Divorce Index, 1966-1984 so it cannot be compared to the Archives.com databases.

5)  Interested readers can do the same comparisons for other states. 

For the California Birth, Marriage and Death indexes on Archives.com, the results provided are equivalent to those provided on other websites, although they are in a different order.  The Birth Year filter works well.

6)  My concerns about the Archives.com databases are:

*  There is no "non-exact" search capability (I got the same number of matches whether the Exact box was checked or not).

*  There is no "wild card" capability to catch name spelling variations

*  Archives returns a slightly lower number of matches than a similar search on other databases.

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!

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/finding-us-vital-records-on-archivescom.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 187: Annie Pickford

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 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).

This is a photograph of Anne Frances (Richmond) Pickford (1869-1939), daughter of Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond, wife of Walter Pickford (1864-1918) and mother of Earl Richmond Pickford (1890-1972) and Henry Winthrop Pickford (1895-1987).  The Pickford family resided in Clinton, Massachusetts.

The photograph was in the Seaver/Richmond family collection that I received from my mother in the late 1980s.  My guess is that it was taken in the 1910 to 1920 time period.

The Carringer Gardens in 1935

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I posted Tuesday's Tip - San Diego Newspapers on GenealogyBank this morning, and wanted to go searching for more, but I had some non-blogging and non-research tasks to work on. 

After a torturous afternoon of updating and adding slides to my Genealogy Is Fun! Seriously! presentation, I decided to go searching for more interesting family history material this afternoon. 

Lookee here!  What a wonderful family history item!  From the San Diego Union, dated 24 March 1935, on page 18 (accessed on www.GenealogyBank.com):

And a more readable snippet:

A transcription:

Carringer Gardens, Model of Beauty, Have Also Wealth of Entertainment

By Ada Perry

Mr. and Mrs. Lyle L. Carringer, 2130 Fern st., are never bored with their garden.  They have four fish pools in it filled with finny pets that are always on the move.  Sometimes they move out on the grass but the Carringers chalk this up to playfulness and continue to enjoy the aquatic aspects of their home.

The Carringer place is distinctly in the livable small garden or outdoor living room class.  The pools are strategically located to invite folks outdoors for pleasure and relaxation.  One pool, the smallest, is placed near the rear door of the house as a starting point.  From there to a sunny larger pool planted to lilies and overhung with shrubs is a natural step.

Other parts of the garden planted in flowers, cacti and succulents and several fruit trees are easily accessible from the second pool and then the Carringers and their friends naturally gravitate to a lath house furnished with chairs and tables.

There are sources of amusement in the lath house.  The remaining pools are located there.  One is a rill in the heart of a pretty rockery and the other a shadowy oval presided over by a rice plant with curving stalks topped with leaves like giant hands.  Directly above the pool a tree rests apparently on the water.  The invisible stand which holds it up represents some clever household ingenuity.  It was formerly a piano stool.

A grill is built at the end of the lath house on a rock structure.  The grill space can be filled with a decorative potted plant when not in use although the Carringers have found it a consistent entertainer.

Next the grill in a glass house annex is a surprise feature.  On shelves are aquariums filled with tropical fish, paradise, moons, guppies and other fancy swimmers weaving about in grassy water jungles; blinking, gobbling and raising families in the most distracting style.  The glass house is heated for them and each aquarium has individual radiators and thermometers for perfect comfort.

Tropical aquariums are often kept indoors but the Carringers have theirs handy to the pools where fish life from goldfish to guppies can be observed.  Certain of the tropicals are moved to the goldfish pools at favorable times for variety.

This is the best description of my grandparents gardens, fish pools and lath house that I've seen.  I played in this garden as a child, but I don't recall all of these details.  When I was 9 years old, they sold this house and the gardens to Mr. Phillips, and he put a wall around it and we never ventured into it again.  I would love to go back and see if the pools and lath house are still there.

My grandfather was a very talented man, and my grandmother was a world class flower arranger.  I'm not surprised that they did this in their backyard.  After all, what was there to do for entertainment without television during the Great Depression?  They enjoyed their backyard, read books, discussed issues, listened to the radio, and worked on their collections. 

I wonder what else I can find?  Indexed newspapers are a Godsend for genealogists - thank you, GenealogyBank?

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/carringer-gardens-in-1935.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012

My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 2

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In My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 1, I described finding my autosomal DNA results on the Family Tree DNA website, adding my GEDCOM file and what my "Population Finder" results were.

In this post, I want to describe the Matches page and some of the autosomal DNA results on my chromosomes. 

1)  From the MyFTDNA page, I clicked on the "Family Finder" button and selected the "Matches" link.  This opened my "Family Finder - Matches" page, and listed all of my "Show All Matches."  There were 82 of them, and they were ordered by the "Longest Block" of tested markers that I matched with the persons on the Match list:

There are six columns on this list for each matched person:

*  The name of the match person, the names of the tests they have on the Family Tree DNA site, and a link to their GEDCOM (if it was provided).

*  Match Date - date that the matches were listed. In my case, they were all on 28 November when my DNA data was added to the database.

*  Relationship Range - the approximate relationship indicated by the DNA matching

*  Suggested Relationship - the most likely relationship indicated by the match between myself and the matched person

*  Shared cM - the amount of shared DNA (in centiMorgans) shared between myself and the matched person.

*  Longest Block - the longest continuous block of shared DNA (in centiMorgans) shared between myself and the matched person.

*  Known Relationship - if myself and the matched person determine the relationship, we can add it here.

*  Ancestral Surnames - the surnames provided by the matched person - some did not provide any, some provided 3 to 6 generations of surnames.

The top match on my Match list shares 78.89 cM with me, with the longest block being 53.47 cM.  The suggested relationship is 3rd Cousin with a range of 2nd to 4th cousin. The matched person provided a list of surnames and locations, including: 

Leahy (Ireland), Kerslake (England), Doyle (Ireland), Flexton (England), Kelly (Ireland), Collins (Ireland), Brown (England), Harris (England), Noad (England), Allen (England), Edgerley (England), King (England), Spencer (England), Fell (England), Daniels (England), Burder (England), Flaxon (England), Hill (England), Withy (England), Hunt (England), Fox (England)

As you can see, all of the surnames are from England and Ireland.  The matched person did not provide a GEDCOM file to peruse.

2)  I wanted to see which chromosomes that this matched person and others match with my DNA.  I clicked on the "Chromosome Browser" link on the FTDNA "Family Finder" menu bar and was able to select up to five persons from the list of the matched persons to see the chromosome segments that matched.  I picked the top five on my list of "Shared cM" matches and saw:

The chart above shows that I share segments of 5 cM or more on these chromosomes:

*  Chromosome 10 - 8 segments with the first person listed

*  Chromosome 15 - 11 segments with the second person, 13 segments with the fourth person and 12 segments with the fifth person listed

*  Chromosome 17 - 16 segments with the third person listed.

It's interesting to see that the Chromosome 15 matches are in essentially the same location - are these three matched persons related?

For the chart above, the system default was to only show segments of 5 cM or more.

3)  I wondered if I shared more segments with these matched persons, so I changed the box for "Compare Genes" to "+ 1 cM" (the choices were 1, 3, 5 or 10 cM) and saw:

I match these five persons on several more chromosomes, and figured out that the "Shared Segments" shown on the person list refers to the number of shared segments over 1 cM long.  I need to look at the other matched persons also.

4)  The next step in this process is to look at the surname lists and/or GEDCOM files for these five matched persons (and others) to see if there are common surnames in common locations.  Then contact them via email to see if we can share information.

There is a FAQ page for the Family Finder autosomal DNA test at http://www.familytreedna.com/faq/answers.aspx?id=17 that explains quite a bit about the Family Tree DNA test process and test results.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/my-family-finder-autosomal-test-results_10.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012

FREE Webinar Series from APG

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I received this announcement from the Association of Professional Genealogists:

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Professional Development for APG Members and the Genealogy Community

6 January 2012 – Westminster, Colo., With the increased demand for professional development options for genealogists, the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) announces a new webinar series for 2012. APG webinars will cover topics of interest to professional genealogists with a focus on tools and best practices for running a genealogy business.

Tax Considerations for Your Genealogy Business (U.S.) Wednesday, 11 January 2012

The first offering in the APG webinar series, Tax Considerations for Your Genealogy Business, will be presented by nationally-known genealogist, educator, and writer, James M. Beidler, on Wednesday evening, 11 January 2012, at 8:30 P.M. Eastern time.

Whether you earn your income from research, teaching, writing, or another form of genealogical activity, there are many tax decisions which affect your genealogy business. Should you form a sole proprietorship or an LLC? Take a deduction for your home office? File a 1099 for subcontractors? Jim Beidler, a Senior Tax Advisor for H&R Block and owner of his own genealogy business, will share his strategies for maximizing the deductions on your 2011 tax bill while planning ahead for 2012.

To kick off our webinar series, this first APG webinar is FREE to the public as well as to members of APG. Those wanting to attend are encouraged to register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/385781994 since space is limited.

APG Professional Development

APG will be offering future professional development webinars to its members, and occasionally to the genealogy community, on a variety of topics related to genealogy as a profession.

In addition, APG members will have on-demand access to webinar recordings as well as to syllabus materials via the Members Only Section of the APG website.

About the APG

The Association of Professional Genealogists (http://www.apgen.org), established in 1979, represents more than 2,400 genealogists, librarians, writers, editors, historians, instructors, booksellers, publishers and others involved in genealogy-related businesses. APG encourages genealogical excellence, ethical practice, mentoring and education. The organization also supports the preservation and accessibility of records useful to the fields of genealogy and history. Its members represent all fifty states, Canada, and thirty other countries. APG is active on LinkedIn, Twitter (www.twitter.com/apggenealogy) and FaceBook (www.facebook.com/AssociationofProfessionalGenealogists)

Tuesday's Tip - San Diego Newspapers on GenealogyBank

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This week's Tuesday's Tip will be exciting for all San Diego area researchers - GenealogyBank has some early 20th century San Diego newspapers online!

The commercial genealogy historical newspaper website (it has more than newspapers too!), GenealogyBank, has added three San Diego area newspapers to their large collection of historical newspapers:

*  San Diego Union - 1 July 1898 to 31 October 1934

*  San Diego Evening Tribune - 4 December 1895 to 30 September 1936

*  San diego Union-Tribune -- 7 December 1983 to present

These are, I think, the first large San Diego area newspapers added to a large historical newspaper collection.  Heretofore, researchers had to go to the San Diego Public Library to read the newspapers on microfilm.  There is a limited index available on microfiche at the San Diego Public Library (and other San Diego area libraries) for the San Diego Union newspaper for the years 1868 to 1915, and 1930 to 1985. 

I entered the Last Name = "carringer" and the Keyword = "diego" into the GenealogyBank search field and found, as match #29 out of 218, an article in the 8 June 1897 San Diego Evening Tribune on page 1:

The short part of the article in the "Local notes" section is:

Now I know when my great-grandparents started building the house that I grew up in. 

There are many more articles available about my Carringer, Auble and Smith ancestors in San Diego.  Perhaps they will shed some light and provide new information about their lives.  I'm going to have a lot of fun going through this collection today!

Thank you, GenealogyBank!

Disclosure:  I received, and continue to enjoy, a free subscription to GenealogyBank in recent years.  Genealogist Tom Kemp is the Director of Genealogy Products at GenealogyBank, which is part of the NewsBank organization.  I love the site and had hoped that San Diego area newspapers would be added!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/tuesdays-tip-san-diego-newspapers-on.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.

My Family Finder Autosomal Test Results - Post 1

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One of the prizes in the AARP "Discover Your Roots" Contest I won was a Family Tree DNA test.  Since I already had done a Y-DNA test and a mitochondrial DNA test, I opted for the autosomal test, called Family Finder on the Family Tree DNA website. 

I received the test kit, did the two cheek swabs and sent it back in late October. In early December, I was notified by FTDNA that the results of my kit were posted on the FTDNA website.  With everything happening in December, I didn't really look at the results.

According to the FamilyTreeDNA website, the Family Finder test provides:

"This autosomal test, available for both men and women, examines SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) across the 22 autosomal chromosome pairs.  These chromosomes contain DNA from all sides of your family. The Family Finder test examines hundreds of thousands of SNP positions and uses the results to find recent relatives and geographic origins."

I won't go through everything on the FamilyTreeDNA website, but I do want to highlight my results and, in the next post, the shared DNA segments with several distant relatives.

On the Family Tree DNA page for myFTDNA, after I signed in, I saw the "Genealogy" page

On this page, I went through the process of adding my GEDCOM file and, after doing so, I could view my GEDCOM file results by clicking on either the "My Paternal ancestors" link or the "My Maternal ancestors" link.  Here is a view of "My Paternal Ancestors" for five generations (the site permits you to view up to 9 generations):

As you can see, when I run my mouse over one of the persons on the tree, their name, birth and death information appears.

To see my Family Finder test results, I went to the "Family Finder" button on the menu row of the "myFTDNA" page - the options are "Learn More," "Matches," "Advanced Matching," "Chromosome Browser," "Download Raw Data," "Known Matches" and "Population Finder."

I figured that I was a 100% red-blooded Western European guy in my DNA and just knew that the "Population Finder" test would come out all one color.

Surprise! (two screens here):

The Family Finder autosomal DNA test indicates that my DNA is 89.15% Western European (Orcadian) and 10.85% Middle East (Palestinian, Bedouin, Bedouin South, Druze, Jewish).

The map shows that the Western European area is the British Isles (which includes the Orkney Islands - Orcadians) and the Sudan-Egypt-Israel-Syria-Arabia area of the Middle East.  The British Isles portion doesn't surprise me in the least.  My father's ancestry was 100% British Isles in the 1600s as far as I know;  my mother's ancestry was about 50% British Isles, with maybe 25% German origin and smaller amounts of Dutch and French ancestry, in the 1600s.

Whoa!  What?  What mysteries lurk in my ancestral woodpile?  I'm thinking that the Middle East segments may come from the known German, Dutch and French segments of my ancestry.  But who knows - someone may have created a surprise paternal event that I haven't figured out yet. 

I'll look at my chromosomes, and how Family Tree DNA shows matches, in the next post.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/my-family-finder-autosomal-test-results.html

Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2012.

Finding U.K. Vital Records on Archives.com

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Continuing my series exploring the databases available on commercial site www.Archives.com, I wanted to determine what United Kingdom Vital Records were available on the website, and how to search them. 

The list of  Vital Record collections (I did an "England" search on the Collections page showed only:

*  "England and Wales Birth Index (1837 to 1983, 1983-2005),"
*  "England and Wales Marriage Index (1837 to 1983, 1983-2005),"
*  "England and Wales Death Index (1837 to 1983, 1983-2005),"

 The collection list says they are from the UK National Archives.

1)  The main Search page is at http://www.archives.com/member/Default.aspx?_act=SearchAll:

I entered the following information in the search fields:

*  Select an Archive = "All Vital Records"
*  First Name = [blank]
*  Last Name (required) = "whittle" (not exact)
*  Middle Name = [blank]
*  Maiden Name = [blank]
*  Location (required) = "United Kingdom"
*  Record Type (required) = "Marriage Records"
*  Event Type  = "Marriage"
*  Year (required) = "1840" +/- "5 years" [1837 to 2005 required]

2)  Clicking on "Search" gave me 37 records:

All of these record marches showed only an initial for the first name and a last name.  Whittles were not ranked at the top of the matches.  There were only 3 Whittle persons in the list of 37 matches.

3)  I clicked on the link for one of the Whittle persons and saw:

This page has a link to "View Original Record."

4)  I clicked on the link for "View Original Record" and a PDF file opened in a new window (I chose to "Open" the page rather than "Save" it):

The Civil Registration page for Marriages registered in the second quarter of 1838 opened and showed nine entries with the "Whittle" surname.  "J. Whittle" was on the result list, and the screen above includes "John" or "Joseph" Whittle.  Apparently, not every name in the Civil Registration is found in a Last Name search.

5)  What about an "exact" search on First Name = "Alexander" and Last Name = "Whittle" with both "Exact" boxes checked?  I kept the Marriage year range to "1840" +/- "5 years" and saw:

There were 35 matches found, but only one of them was a Last Name = "Whittle" and that was an Alfred Whittle in 1842. 

This very simple search did not find the marriage record of Alexander Whittle and Rachel Morley in the September quarter 1840, that is in the Civil Registration for Marriages which I found on the UK Free BMD website (http://freebmd.org.uk ) and posted an image of it in Whittle Marriage Record in England.  I also looked for Rachel Morley on the Archives.com website and did not find this listing.  Apparently, the search did not find this listing which I know is in the Civil registration database and images.

5)  All of the above raises these questions:

*  "Does Archives.com really have ALL of the U.K. Civil Registration pages for all years and all counties?"

*  "Does the Archives.com index not include all of the entries for a given surname?"

*  "Does the Archives.com index only the first initials of names?"

6)  The Lessons Learned from this limited investigation include:

*  The "UK Vital Records" collection on Archives.com includes the Civil Registration records but no other record collections (i.e., no Parish Registers or online indexes).

*  A search for not exact last names returns a number of similarly spelled surnames.  That's good.

*  A search for exact surnames does not limit the results to the requested surname.  This is terrible!

*  First names are not indexed.  This can be overcome as long as all matches are found.

*  Entries for every name in the U.K. Civil Registration database is not returned as search results.  This makes these databases useless!

*  A user cannot search across all of the years in the collection for a person - i.e., I should be able to search for Alexander Whittle for all years 1837 to 2005, or be able to limit the search to more than 10 years. 

7)  My suggestions for Archives.com concerning the U.K. Vital Records include:

*  Provide a list of the counties covered in the U.K. Vital Record databases collections.

*  Improve the index so that results are provided for every person on the Civil Registration pages - first name and last name.

*  Make the "Exact" search work so that exact matches are the only ones listed.

8)  Needless to say (I think), I am very frustrated by the search capabilities on Archives.com.  In every post to date, I've shown that there are critical deficiencies in the search fields, search algorithms, result lists, etc. 

Subscribers to Archives.com should expect that the collections are complete (or a summary of the limitations are provided), that the indexes used by the search algorithms are complete (or describe the limitations of the indexes), and that the search algorithms accurately provide all matches in the databases for the search entries (or describe limitations of the algorithms). 

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!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/01/finding-uk-vital-records-on-archivescom.html

Copyright (c),. Randall J. Seaver, 2012

Amanuensis Monday - the will of Robert Gifford (1660-1730) of Dartmouth, Massachusetts

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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.

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.