Mining the California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 Collection on FamilySearch

I have been mining the California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 historical record collection on FamilySearch during the last week or two.  There are 1,911,081 indexed entries, and 2,480,495 images in this collection.  The collection page says it is 99% complete, but I noted that it didn't have any marriage entries for San Diego County yet.  Significantly, it has marriage records from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange, Fresno and many other counties.

I have been mining this collection for Seaver persons.  I used the "Exact" check box and found 191 matches:

When I pick one at random, say the 4th one down the screen above, there is indexed information for the two marriage partners, including the marriage date and place, and, in this case from 1911, their ages and their parents names.

For many earlier marriages (before 1900), there are no parents listed.

For some later marriages, there are marriage record images provided, such as this one:

There is an image available in the right-hand side of the screen, so I clicked on that, and after increasing the zoom of the image, saw:

I did not have Charles Henry Seaver (born 1889 in Tennessee, son of James S. Seaver and Mary Lee) in my database.  I wanted to add the marriage, so I did, and added the parents names, but then a search on FamilySearch and Ancestry did not reveal a family with James S. Seaver/Sever and Mary Seaver/Sever as parents, although there are several Charles Henry Seaver (or Charles H. Seaver/Sever) persons born in Tennessee in the 1885-1895 time period.  So now I have another loose end in my database - but other records may surface in the future that will permit me to connect James S. Seaver/Sever to a set of parents.

I did have good luck today working through the next match on the list - a Doloris Seaver who married Elton Gray; her parents were identified as Paul E. Seaver and Barbara Maibach.  I was able to trace Paul Seaver's line back to Jacob and Esther (Croberger) Seaver/Sever.  I had not added family members for four Seaver families in that line previously.

There are still many more matches to look at just for the Seaver surname in this record collection.  I need to do the same thing with my other one-name surnames - Carringer, Vaux, Auble, and McKnew.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/09/mining-california-county-marriages-1850.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Post Number 9000 on Genea-Musings

My motto:  "Life is short - eat ice cream and do genealogy first!"

A funny thing happened nine years and five months ago on my way to the ice cream store - I said to myself:  "Randy, maybe you could blog about something once a week or so ... about genealogy, politics, sports, religion, you, know, your life."  My wife said "Honey, that would probably be pretty boring - who in the world would read what you write?"

So the experiment began, and 9,000 posts later here I am - happily stuck in a "routine" of writing two or three or more blog posts each day about genealogy resources and results on Genea-Musings, a daily journal blog post on The Geneaholic almost every day, and occasional posts on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe.  Then there's Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, including my almost weekly participation on video (available on YouTube) in Mondays With Myrt!  My wife wonders what I do in the Genealogy Cave every day for eight or ten hours!  Heh heh.

Oh, I forgot, there's my society meetings, society presentations, the senior adult and CVGS education classes, and I even find time to spend on online research (and very occasional repository research), entering data and sources into my genealogy database, entertaining the grandchildren and my wife, and watching Padres baseball games on TV or at Petco Park.  There is Life with Genealogy!  But, for me, there is no Life without Genealogy!  It's part of me, who I am, and has been for 27+ years.

In celebration of my 9,000th post (that's over 2.6 posts per day on average, and over 960 posts per year on average), I'm going to take the rest of the day off from ... blogging, not genealogy.  Or maybe not if there is something interesting to blog about. Tomorrow is another day.  

The statistics for nine years of blogging, from StatCounter and Blogger (it looks like SiteMeter has died):

*  1,983,328 unique visitors (StatCounter since 2006)
*  2,774,541 page views (StatCounter since 2006)

*  5,095,060 page views (Blogger, since 2010)*  15,525 comments (average of 1.7 per post, Blogger since 2007).

*  StatCounter says I had 25,158 unique visitors in August, an average of 812 per day, which may not include returning visitors day after day.
*  Blogger says I'm getting about 112,000 page views per month, or about 3,600 a day.

I don't know why StatCounter and Blogger have different page view numbers - it probably something to do with feed readers like Feedly.

Then there are the static Pages (see the links below the Genea-Musings header that continue to pile up visitors.  These count on the visitor and page totals, I think.

Thank you to my friends, geneablogging colleagues, and Genea-Musings readers for their patience, understanding, collaboration and support over the years - it's been a lot of fun, and I hope it continues for years to come.

I do appreciate your comments and emails, and will be happy to answer "Dear Randy" questions about genealogy, research, online resources, software, family trees, etc. on the blog.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/09/post-number-9000-on-genea-musings.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

FamilySearch Family Tree Rules for Entering Names

What "rules" or "guidelines" or "conventions" do you use to enter names into your genealogical program or your online family tree?

As many of us know, different cultures have different naming patterns - some with a family name first, or a family name last.  Here in the English speaking United States, we have a first-middle-last name system that usually takes the father's last name as ta child's last name, but not always.  Some children are being named with a mother's - father's last name system, like Smith-Jones.  In historical times, persons may have changed their names to Anglicize them, or to reflect adoption, or for other reasons.  How do we deal with this in our research?

I decided I wanted to see if my naming "rules" were as consistent as possible with the FamilySearch Family Tree.  When I looked at my RootsMagic file, I see first names like "male" or "child" or "unknown," and last names like "Unknown" or "_____" or LNU."

1)  FamilySearch has created a set of Family Tree tutorials at  http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/fhd/Community/en/FamilyTreeCurriculum/index.html that has a Level One section titled "Reading Tutorial, Rules for Entering Names."

These rules seem pretty reasonable, but I have some problems with them.

2)  I am in the process of eliminating all of the "unknown" first and last names, especially for married females, that have popped up over the years in my database.  What should I replace them with?  There are some choices:

**  The rules above say to name a married female "Mrs. Mary Last" when you know her first name but not her maiden last name,
**  The rules above say to name a married female "Mrs. First Last" when you don't know either name, and her husband's name is "First Last."
**  If the married female's given name is unknown, then name her "Mrs. Last" if her husband's last name is "Last."

**  When the parent's names are known, but a daughter's given name is not known, just use the last name.
**  When the parent's names are known, but a son's given name is not known, just use the last name.

3)  Some questions are raised by these "rules" including:

** What about if I know only the husband's first name, like a Scandinavian patronymic?  Do I just use that?
**  I guess a husband whose first name is unknown is entered just as "Last."
**  It feels funny to list a second wife as "Mrs. First Last" when I don't know her maiden name.

4)  I'm not satisfied with the Family Tree naming rules, but I don't have a clear set of rules for my own family tree.  

When I encounter a record with a different name for a person in my database, I enter that name as an "Alternate Name" and source it to the record.  That includes name vairations like Randall Jeffrey Seaver, Randall J. Seaver, R.J. Seaver, R. Jeffrey Seaver, Randy Seaver, Randy Jeff Seaver, etc.  Everything but "hey, you" it seems!  I try to make the preferred name the most complete name, or the name with the most authoritative source.

But then there are the immigrant names that have been Anglicized -- like Philip Jacob Konig (I know, I need the diacriticals too!) with the German name in some records and the surname King in other records because he was called that name. I have entered that as "Konig/King."  Then there is my Richman family in England who quickly adopted Richmond in America after immigrating in 1855.  I have ancestors in England with Latin names in the baptism records, but they were the English equivalent in other records and in common use.   I'm not consistent, it seems!

5)  What other naming conventions are there?  How do you handle these variations?  There must be reference books with recommendations for names.  I think the software programs have naming conventions also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/familysearch-family-tree-rules-for.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

New or Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - August 24 to 30, 2015

I'm trying to keep up with the new and updated record collections at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list).  

As of 30 August 2015, there were 2,025 record collections on FamilySearch (an increase of 2 from last week):

The new or updated collections are:

*  England and Wales Census, 1901; 34,138,955 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 29 Aug 2015

*  Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg and Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1794-1874; 1,675,056 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 27 Aug 2015

*  Illinois, Cook County, Birth Certificates, 1871-1940; 2,249,859 indexed records without record images, ADDED or UPDATED 27 Aug 2015

*  Argentina, National Census, 1869; 1,799,773 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 27 Aug 2015

*  Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891; 964,953 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 27 Aug 2015

*  Arizona, Douglas, Arrival Manifests, 1906-1955; 10,325 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 27 Aug 2015

*  Brazil, Pernambuco, Civil Registration, 1804-2014; 7,083 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 26 Aug 2015

*  Utah, Eureka and Payson, Births and Deaths, 1898-1903; 17 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 25 Aug 2015

*  United States Census, 1840; 2,566,893 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 25 Aug 2015

*  Texas, Naturalization Records, 1906-1989; 91,313 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 24 Aug 2015

*  Germany, Hesse, Civil Registration, 1874-1927; 77,265 indexed records with record images, ADDED or UPDATED 24 Aug 2015

Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell which collections are brand new and which ones are updated.  The asterisk they use is for "Recently added or updated."  I am particularly interested in new collections, for the obvious reasons.

In order to select a specific collection, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list and use the "Filter by collection name" feature in the upper left-hand corner.

Each one of the collections listed above has a Research Wiki page (use the "Learn more" link).  It would be very useful if the Wiki page for each collection listed the dates for when the collection was added as a new collection and the dates for major updates also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/new-or-updated-record-collections-at_31.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Amanuensis Monday - Post #283: 1785 Will of John Underhill (1721-1793) of Chester, N.H.

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent  TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday."  John offers this definition for "amanuensis:" 

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

The subject today is the 1785 Will of John Underhill (1721-1793) of Chester, rockingham County, New Hampshire:

The transcription of the will document is:

[image 26 of 1041]

In the Name of God Amen ---

I John Underhill of Chester in the County

of Rockingham & State of N Hampshire Gent.

Being though not of sound Body yet of a Sound dis-

posing mind & memory Thanks be given to God

for the same; this fifteenth day of Sept'r 1785

calling to mind the frailty & mortality of my Body

and knowing that it is appointed for all Men once

to die Do make this my last Will & Testament.

And principly & first of all I recommend my Soul

into the hands of God who gave it, and my Body

to Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of

my Executors hereafter named, and as to that world-

ly Goods which God hath graciously given me I

give, demise & bequeath in the following manner ---

Imprimis – I give and bequeath to my Daughter

Betty Buswell Six pounds lawful money within

twelve months after my decease to be paid by

my Executors hereafter named; and this ^with^ what

I have before given her I account a Sufficient

portion out of my Estate –

Item – I give and bequeath to my Daughter Molly

Pearce three pounds lawful money within twelve

months after my decease to be paid by Executors

hereafter named and this with what I have before

given her I account Sufficient portion out of

my Estate –

Item – I give & bequeath to my Daughter Sarah Under-

hill Six pounds lawful money within twelve

months after my Decease to be also as much

houshold furniture as I have given to her Sister

to be paid by Executors hereafter named & this I

account a Sufficient portion out of my Estate.

Item – I give & bequeath to my Daughter Joanna Underhill

Presson Six pounds lawful money in twelve months

after my decease to be paid my my Executors

hereafter named and this with what I have given

her I account a Sufficient portion of my

Estate –

[image 27 of 1041, left hand page]

Item – I give & bequeath to my Son Moses Underhill

being part one Acre and an half of Land, being part

of that Land that I & my Son Samuel own together

adjoining David Richardson's Land; and this with

what I have given him I account a Sufficient

portion out of my Estate –

Item – I give and bequeath to my Sons John Underhill

& Jeremiah Underhill all my wearing Cloaths;

and this with what I have given them I account a

Sufficient portion out of my Estate –

Item – I give to my Grandson Stephen Underhill

one quarter part of a hundred Acre lot known by

the Name of the Wells Lot which I & my Son

John Underhill bought of Samuel Wells, also

all the out Land that I shall die possessed of

except what shall be herein disposed of to him

his Heirs & Assigns and this I account a Sufficient

portion out of my Estate –

Item – I give and bequeath to my Son David Underhill

his Heirs and Assigns part of my homestead lying

on the north side of the Concord road, beginning at

the Southeasterly Corner near my dwelling house

thence westerly on sd highway 36 Rods to a Stake

& Stones thence northerly 180 Rods to David rich-

ardson's Land to Candia Road twenty five

Rods, thence on sd Road to the first Bound including

what I have already given him a Deed of; also all

the Land I own on the Southerly Side of sd Concord

Road except what shall be herein disposed of to my

Son Samuel Underhill together with the Buildings

on the Same; he paying & performing as I shall

herein order ---

Item – I give and bequeath to my Son Samuel

Underhill his Heirs and Assigns part of my

homestead lying in the Southerly Side of concord

Road, beginning at the S.Westerly Corner a Stake

& Stones thence northerly on the widow Presson's

[image 27 of 1041, right hand page]

Lansd so called to sd Concord Road thence easterly on sd

Road 70 ^Rods^ to a Stake & Stones, thence Southerly to Land

of Isaac Blasdel about 160 Rods to a Stake & Stones

thence by sd Blasdels Land 50 Rods to the first Bound.

Also all the Land I own on the northerly Side of

sd Concord Road which I have not herein disposed of

to my Son David Underhill including what I have

already given him a Deed of, with all the Building

thereon, He paying and performing as I shall

herein Order –

And I do appoint my two Sons /Viz/ David

Underhill & Samuel Underhill to be my Executors

to this my last Will & Testament, they to receive

and pay all just Debts due to & from my Estate

& the Legacies which I have here given & ordered to

be paid, with funeral Charges. Renouncing all

other and former Wills Bequests & Executors by

me named whatsoever. In Witness to all above

written and herein contained I do hereto Set my

hand and affix my Seal this 15^th day of Sept'r

1785 first above mentioned.

Signed Sealed published pronounced

& declared by the sd John Underhill

to be his last Will & Testament in

presence of us

Tho's Sargeant                                   John Underhill

John Manning

Josiah Flagg                                     Rockingham Ss Aug't 21'st 1793

                                                         This will was proved on Common

                                                         form by the oath of Tho's Sargent &

                                                        Josiah Flagg Esqr & Allowed by

                                                        Sam'l Tenney Ju. Prob.

The source citation for this document is:

"New Hampshire, County Probate Estate Files, 1769-1936," digital images, FamilySearch (https://FamilySearch.org : accessed 25 August 2015), Rockingham County > Case Files 5921-6015, 1793-1794 > Case File 5922, will of John Underhill of Chester, N.H., 1793 (images 26-27 of 1041); Original records in County courthouses, offices of register of probate, and historical societies, New Hampshire.

In this will, John Underhill does not name his spouse, Joanna (Healey) Underhill (1718-1809), but does name nine of his ten children and one grandchild.  Five daughters are listed by name - Betty Buswell (who married Samuel Buswell in 1764), Molly Pearce (who married James Pierce in 1765), Sarah Underhill (who married Moses Greenough in 1789), and Joanna Presson (who married Moses Preston in 1784).  He also named five sons - John, Moses, David, Samuel and Jeremiah Underhill.

I am descended from sixth great-grandparents John and Joanna (Healey) Underhill through their son John Underhill (1745-1816) and his wife, Hannah Colby.

The URL for this post is:   http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/amanuensis-monday-283-1785-will-of-john.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Added or Updated Databases at Ancestry.com - Week of August 23 to 29, 2015

The following databases were added or updated on Ancestry.com during the period from 23 August to 29 August 2015:

The databases added or updated include


*  West Yorkshire, England, Select Removal and Settlement Records, 1689-1866; indexed database with document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Slovakia, Vranov Transport List, 1942;  indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Poland, Auschwitz Work Cards, 1944-1945; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Compiled List of Jews in Concentration Camps, 1945; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Stettin, Poland, Jewish Deportation into the Lublin Area, 1940-1942; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Mszana Dolna, Poland, Census, 1942; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, Deported Jews, 1942; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Leeds, England, Beckett Street Cemetery, 1845-1987; indexed database with document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Israel, Tehran Children, 1943; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/27/2015

*  Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968; indexed database with document images, UPDATED 8/27/2015

*  1851 England Census; indexed database with document images, UPDATED 8/26/2015

*  Canada and U.S., Dutch Emigrants, 1946-1963; indexed database without document images, ADDED 8/24/2015

The recently added and updated page on Ancestry.com is at http://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections.

The complete Ancestry.com Card Catalog is at  http://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx.  

There were 10 NEW databases ADDED this past week. There are now 32,719 databases available as of 29 August, up 11 from last week. 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/added-or-updated-databases-at_30.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 23 to 29 August 2015

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 daily blog prompts or 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:

*  Principles Part 1:  What I Learned From My Family About Color by Robin Foster on the Saving Stories blog.   This is a heart-rending, honest and powerful discussion about Robin's family and racial attitudes.

*  Trust But Verify; or There Goes 1/16 of My Family Tree by Kathleen Scarlett O'Hara Naylor on the You Are Where You Came From blog.  Oh oh...Kathleen has a problem.  A lesson for all of us.

*  How Bad Photos Can Make Good Genealogy by Denise May Levenick on the  Ancestry.com blog.  Denise shows how to crowdsource faces in a photograph.

*  The Value of Transcribing by Janine Adams on the Organizing Your Family History blog.  Janine is transcribing a Civil War Pension file and discovering valuable information.

*  Comparing the Challenge by Dave McDonald on the Thinking Genealogically blog.  Who has it the hardest to research?  Dave discusses the alternatives with humor.

*  My Top Ten Most Valuable Research Documents by Linda Stufflebean on the Empty Branches on the Family Tree blog.  Linda displays the documents on her list and explains their significance.

*  The ONE Absolute BEST way to Find More Ancestor Articles in Historic Newspapers Online by Kenneth R. Marks on The Ancestor Hunt blog.  Kenneth has a surefire way to beat the OCR problems.

*  A Daring Adventure ... by Michael J. Leclerc on the Mocavo Genealogy Blog.  Michael is leaving Mocavo, which was an adventure, and is moving on to a new adventure.  I wish him well.

*  What is the Core Value of Online Genealogical Database Programs? by James Tanner on the Genealogy's Star blog.  Excellent questions, interesting discussion.

*  AncestryDNA Announces New IN COMMON WITH Tool by Blane Bettinger on The Genetic Genealogist blog.  Blaine discusses the hows and whats of the new AncestryDNA Shared Matches tool.

*  4 Fabulous Ways to Use the Library of Congress for Genealogy by Lisa Louise Cooke on the Genealogy Gems blog.  Lisa highlights four online resources hosted by the Library of congress.

Here are pick posts by other geneabloggers this week:

*  GAGs - GeniAus' Gems - 28 August 2015 by Jill Ball on the GeniAus blog.

*  Recommended Reads by Linda Stufflebean on the Empty Branches on the Family Tree blog.

*  Friday Finds and Follows 28 August 2015 by Miriam Robbins on the Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors blog.

*  Friday Finds; August 22-28 by Nichelle Barra on the Copper Leaf Genealogy blog.

*  Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for August 28, 2015 by Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog.

*  Best Bytes for the Week of 28 August  2015 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog. 

*  Friday Finds - 08/28/15 by Julie Cahill Tarr on Julie's Genealogy & History Hub blog.

*  This Week's Creme de la Creme -- August 29, 2015 by Gail Dever on the Genealogy a la Carte blog.

*  Saturday Serendipity (August 29, 2015) by John D. Tew on the Filiopietism Prism blog.

*  NoteWworthy Reads #21 by Jo Henn on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

Readers are encouraged to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Feedly, another 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 1590 genealogy bloggers using Feedly, 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/2015/08/best-of-genea-blogs-23-to-29-august-2015.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.