Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Genealogy News Bytes - Tuesday, 2 June 2020

Welcome to Genealogy News Bytes, posted on Tuesday afternoon and Friday afternoon, where we try to highlight the most important genealogy and family history news and education items that came across our desktop over the past four days.





2)  New or Updated Record Collections:





3)  Genealogy Education - Webinars (times are US Pacific):

*  GeneaWebinars Calendar

*  View RootsTech 2020 Videos for FREE!

*  FREE! Family History Library Online Classes June 2020
*  MyHeritage Online Events in May–June

*  June 2020 Virtual Genealogy and Local History Calendar
*  More FREE Genealogy Webinars for June 2020

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar - Tuesday, 2 June, 7 p.m.:  Sources for Landed and Titled People, by Paul Milner

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar - Wednesday, 3 June, 11 a.m.:  "What are the Odds?" An online tool that can help solve DNA puzzles, by Jonny Perl

4)  Genealogy Education - Podcasts:




5)  Genealogy Videos (YouTube):

*  BYU Family History Library:  Editing Photos for Genealogy - James Tanner






*  Lisa Lisson:  My Favorite Genealogy Tools




6)  Genealogy Bargains:

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Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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Tombstone Tuesday -- Patience (Hamant) Smith (1735-1780) in Plains Cemetery, Walpole, Massachusetts

I have collected a number of gravestone photographs from Find A Grave over many years, and thought I would share them one at a time for Tombstone Tuesday.

Here is the gravestone of my 5th great-grandmother, Patience (Hamant) Smith (1735-1780) in Plains Cemetery in Walpole, Massachusetts:

 The inscription says:
In Memory of
Patience, wife of
Moses Smith Who di
ed Dec'r 30, 1780 In ye
46th(?) year of her age

The source citation for this gravestone is:

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 01 June 2020), memorial page for Patience Hamant Smith (6 Apr 1735–30 Dec 1780), Find a Grave Memorial no. 74017466, citing Plains Cemetery, Walpole, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by genealogyfever (contributor 46554566) .
Thank you to genealogyfever for creating this Find A Grave memorial and to Laurie Kearney for taking the photograph.

Moses and Patience (Hamant) Smith are my 5th great-grandparents.  Patience Hamant (1735-1780) is the daughter of Timothy and Hephzibah (Clark) Hamant of Medfield, Massachusetts, and married Moses Smith (1732-1806) in 1762 in Medfield, Massachusetts.  They had four children, including Aaron Smith (1765-1841), who married Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850) in 1795.

A biographical sketch for Patience (Hamant) Smith is in 52 Ancestors - Week 114: #137 Patience (Hamant) Smith (1735-1780)

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/06/tombstone-tuesday-patience-hamant-smith.html

Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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Monday, June 1, 2020

Monday Genea-Pourri - Week Ending 1 June 2020

Here are the highlights of my family history and genealogy related activities over the past week:

1)  Moderated and presented "Using Collaborative BIG Family Trees" at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society General Meeting on Wednesday, 27 May in a Zoom meeting, with 12 in attendance.  I discussed the structure, content, navigation, benefits and drawbacks of WikiTree, Geni, Ancestry's BIG tree, and FamilySearch Family Tree to 16 attendees.  

2)  Watched the San Diego Genealogical Society special Webinar meeting on Saturday, 30 May, featuring Michael Lacopo on "Medical Genealogy."  

3)  Participated in today's Mondays With Myrt on Zoom.  We discussed Liv's church video with a descending angel, Frank's work in Centurial source citations, my 1950 Census tools post, then the power shortage here at home, and 20 minutes later my discussion of FamilySearch Family Tree, and Russ's description of using Family Tree Maker with FSFT.

4)  Watched the Family Tree Webinar "Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE—More Tech with Thomas" by Thomas MacEntee.

5)  Wrote and posted a biographical sketch of 7th great-grandmother #543 Hannah (Sanderson) Stearns (1689-1770) for my 52 Ancestors biographical sketch on Friday.  

6)  Transcribed the 1759 Administration Papers of Joseph Grout (1682-1759) of Westborough, Mass. for Amanuensis Monday.  

7)  Added Notes to about 13 more AncestryDNA matches with cM values, relationships and known common ancestors.  Ancestry added 67 DNA Matches this week.  Added one MyHeritageDNA match line to the RootsMagic family tree database.  Reviewed new DNA matches on AncestryDNA, MyHeritageDNA, FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe.  

8) There were several sessions working in the RootsMagic software program to match with and update FamilySearch Family Tree profiles for Seaver families and my ancestral families, with occasional additions to the RootsMagic profiles. I have matched 35,866 of my RootsMagic persons with FamilySearch Family Tree profiles (up 59).

9)  Used Web Hints and Record Matches from Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast and FamilySearch to add content and sources to my RootsMagic profiles.  I now have 57,715 persons in my RootsMagic file (up 59) , and 121,589 source citations (up 409).   I TreeShared with my Ancestry Member Tree two times this week updating 215 profiles, and I resolved 1129 Ancestry Hints.  I've fallen behind on the Ancestry Record Hints with 131,718 to be resolved, but I work on them almost daily.    

10)  Wrote 19 Genea-Musings blog posts last week, of which two were a press release.  The most popular post last week was Joel Weintraub Has Videos About 1950 U.S. Census Locational Tools with over 1,153 views.  

11)  We are still fine here at the Genea-cave, hunkered down and not going out much.  I went to the grocery store on Tuesday and Friday and it wasn't too busy.  I had to go to FedEx to send a package and drove by Costco and Walmart to see the line lengths.  Not bad!  I picked some weeds and cut some rose branches, and am still thinking about mowing the back yard again.  I pushed Linda in the wheelchair up and down the block twice. We watched the church choir and pastor's sermon on YouTube on Sunday.  Other than that, it was stay-at-home on the computer doing genealogy, eating and sleeping, plus reading ebooks on my laptop while watching TV.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/06/monday-genea-pourri-week-ending-1-june.html

Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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News From Genetic Affairs: Ancestry Demands They Stop Collecting DNA Match Data

Genetic Affairs is a third-party autosomal DNA analysis website that uses your DNA match data to group your DNA matches into clusters who share common ancestors.

I have been using it for about 18 months now, and it has really helped me determine how many of my AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA matches are related to me.

I received this email from Jan-Evert Blom, the creator of Genetic Affairs, today and wanted to share it with my readers (originally sent 28 May on the Genetic Affairs Facebook group):

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 I am mailing you this with respect to some recent developments regarding analyses with Ancestry. As some of you may have already heard, last Friday (just before I was packing for a family outing) I obtained a cease and desist letter from ZwillGen, the legal representatives from Ancestry. I was able to quickly post a public announcement on several groups on Facebook (for instance Genetic Genealogy Tips and techniques and our own Genetic Affairs - User Group ).

In short, Ancestry wants me to stop offering the AutoCluster analyses that employ Ancestry data.

For sake of completeness I am pasting my announcement from last Friday:

"Hi all,

"I am afraid I will have to inform you that our, sometimes rocky, journey with Ancestry has come to a sudden end. I just obtained a cease and desist letter from ZwillGen, the legal representatives from Ancestry.

"When I started Genetic Affairs in 2018 and released AutoCluster I couldn't have imagined the impact it would have on the genetic genealogy and its amazing userbase. Partly this success can be attributed to the unprecedented DNA database of Ancestry. I also realized that to keep a sustainable relationship with them I should implement rate-limiting measures to minimize the computational impact on Ancestry's servers.

"For this reason, I implemented a queue system that only allowed for a limited number of parallel analyses. Moreover, instead of downloading all (shared) matches Genetic Affairs only focuses on the top fraction of matches, which have the highest probability of generating relevant hypotheses. We also motivate our user base to employ our targeted clustering approaches, thereby focusing only on a subset of matches.

"Despite our best efforts to be a good neighbor, Ancestry requested that we stop providing our services to you, their customers, to cluster your matches.

"It is therefore with great sadness and disappointment that I must withdraw support for Ancestry from our site at this moment. Please remember that it is still possible to utilize the AutoCluster analysis if you transfer your DNA results to MyHeritage and FTDNA.

"I would like to thank our Ancestry users for their continued support and wish you all good luck with the remainder of your genetic genealogy journey.

"Evert-Jan Blom - Genetic Affairs - info@geneticaffairs.com https://www.geneticaffairs.com/ "

"If you want to try to start an AutoCluster analysis I would strongly recommend trying this as soon as possible. I will remove the Ancestry option around 11PM CET. .

"Yesterday, I have reached out to the legal representatives from Ancestry and asked for a line of communication. In the upcoming days/weeks I will try to resolve the issue with Ancestry and try to come up with a workable solution. Please subscribe to our Facebook user-group to obtain the latest developments regarding this matter.

"I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I can assure you I am doing my utmost best to resolve the issue. Yet, we will have to prepare for the worst, i.e., the removal of clustering support for Ancestry from our website.

"Best regards,
Evert-Jan Blom"

                                     =========================================

NOTES:  You can read more information on the Genetic Affairs Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/GeneticAffairs.  A letter from Ancestry to users was posted at https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2327159604245017&set=gm.621304038472682.

The link to Ancestry apparently will end at 11 p.m. CET, which I think is 5 p.m. EDT and 2 p.m. PDT today, Monday, 1 June.

I sent another Genetic Affairs analysis for Ancestry request this morning - I don't know if it will be fulfilled or not.  

Needless to say, I am very disappointed that Ancestry has done this to the genetic genealogy community.  Ancestry has provided some DNA matching tools, but they have resisted chromosome browsers and now this clustering tool.  Of course, it is possible that Ancestry has or will develop their own clustering tool.  Time will tell.

Genetic Affairs partnered with MyHeritage to provide this clustering tool to MyHeritageDNA users.  It can also be used on Genetic Affairs to define clusters for FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe autosomal DNA matches.

Disclosure:  I have been a paid subscriber to Genetic Affairs for several months, and really appreciate Jan-Evert's program capabilities and the overall service he provides.  Thank you, Jan-Evert.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/06/news-from-genetic-affairs-ancestry.html

Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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Amanuensis Monday - 1759 Administration Papers of Joseph Grout (1682-1758) of Westborough, Mass.

This week's documents for transcription is the 1759 administration papers of Joseph Grout (1682-1758) of Westborough, Massachusetts, in Probate Packet 26,009 in the Worcester County, Massachusetts probate court records.  

[page 1, image 5 of 9]
[page 2, image 9 of 9]

[paper 3, image 9 of 9]

The transcription of these three administration papers is:

[paper 1, image 5 of 9, all handwritten]To the Hon'ra John Chandler Esq'r Judge of
probate &c for the County of Worcester --
These are to Inform your Hon'r That I Together
with my Children the Heirs of my Late Husband
Joseph Grout Late of Westborough Dece'd Have
agreed Respecting s'd Dece'd Estate which Remained
Intestate which was onely some Small Mater of
personall Estate which agreement who shall ????
present to Your Honour if that will do But if
after all administration must be Taken
I Decline Takeing of it my Self and Desire
that my son Jon'a Grout may Take it as
Wittness my Hand this 11'th day of January 1759.

 Test:                                                  Mary  Grout

 [paper 2, image 9 of 9, handwritten portion in italics]

 Know all Men by these presents , That we
Jonathan Grout of Westboro'h husbandman, Joseph Grout
& Daniel Grout of s'd Westborough, Husbandmen, all of y'e County of
Worcester
within his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, are
holden and stand firmly bound and obliged unto  John Chandler  Esq'r
Judge of Probate of Wills, and Granting Administrations within the
County of Worcester in the full and just Sum of   Two hundred  Pounds,
Lawful Money of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay; to be paid unto
the said  John Chandler  or his Successors in the said Office,
or Assigns: To the true Payment whereof, we bind our selves and each
of us, our, and each of our Heirs, Executors and Administrators, jointly
and severally for the whole and in the whole firmly by these Presents.
Sealed with our Seals.  Dated the   12'th   Day of  January  
Anno Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred and  fifty nine.

 The Condition of this present Obligation is such,
That if the above-bounden  Jon'a Grout who is admitted
admr on the Estate of his late Father Joseph Grout Late of
Westborough Husbandman Deceased
do make or cause to be made a true and perfect Inventory of all and singular the
Goods, chattels, rights and Credits of the said Deceased, which have or shall
come to the Hands, Possession or Knowledge of  him  the said  Jonathan
Grout  or into the Hands and Possession of any other Person or Persons for  him.
And the same to make, do exhibit, or cause to be exhibited into the Registry of the
Court of Probate for the said County of  Worcester  at or before the 12'th
Day of  April  next ensuing; and the same Goods, Chattels, Rights and
Credits, and all other the Goods, Chattels, rights and Credits of the said deceased
at the time of  his  Death which at any time after shall come to the Hands and
Possession of the said  Jonathan   or into the Hands and Possession of
any other Person or Persons for  him  do well and truly Administer according to
Law: And further do make or cause to be made a just and true Accompt of  his
said Administration upon Oath, at or before the   12'th  Day of  January
which will be in the Year of our Lord, One thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty.
And all the rest and residue of the said Goods, Chattels, Rights and Credits which
shall be found remaining upon the said Administrator's Accompt (the same being
first examined and allowed of by the Judge or Judges for the time being, of Probate
of Wills and granting Administrations within the County of  Worcester  aforesaid)
and shall deliver and pay unto such Person or Persons respectively as the said Judge
or Judges by his or their Decree or Sentence pursuant to Law shall limit and appoint;
And if it shall hereafter appear, That any last Will and Testament was made by the
said Deceased, and the Executor or Executors therein named do exhibit the same
into the Court of Probate for the said County of  Worcester  making request to have
it allowed and approved accordingly:  If the said  Jonathan Grout
within bounden being thereunto required, do render and deliver the said Letter of
Administration (Approbation of such Testament being first had and made) into the
said court:  Then the before written Obligation to be Void and of none Effect,
or else to abide and remain in full Force and Virtue.

 Sealed and Delivered                                      Jonathan Grout
in Presence of                                                 Joseph Grout
Jacob Foster                                                    Daniel Grout

 [paper 3, image 7 of 9, all handwritten]

 Worcester SS  To Simon Tainter, Samuel Harrington & Nathael Whitney
                         all of Westborough in the County of Worcester and Sufficient
                        Freeholders within the same Greeting

 You are hereby desired and impowered to take an Inventory off and justly
& truly to apprize all the Estate whereof Joseph Grout Late of Westboro'h
aforesaid Husbandman Dec'd Intestate died Seized & possessed off as the
same will be shown unto you by Jon'a Grout admr on s'd Estate to
which you must be duely sworn and make Return hereof with your
doing thereon into the probate office for s'd County as soon as you can
     Dated at Worcester the 5'th Day of February AD1759 in y'e 3rd
year his majestys Reign.                         Timo Paine  Just. Pce

 Worcester ss March 22 1759

 Personally appeared Simon Tainter Samuel
Herrington and Nathaniel ^Whitney^ the Three above
named Apprizers and Made solmn Oath that in
apprizing the above Estate they would therein act
faithfully and Impartially according to their best skill
and judgment and the Rules above presired.
Before Me                      Edw'd Baker  Justice of Peace

The source citation for this probate case file is:

Worcester County, Massachusetts, Probate case files, Packet #26,009, Joseph Grout of Westborough, 1759 (9 images); "Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1732-1881," indexed database and digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors  (https://www.AmericanAncestors.org : accessed 30 May 2020); Original records in Worcester County, Massachusetts Probate Court Records, Worcester, Massachusetts.

This probate packet contains 9 separate papers, but five of them are the "wrappers" that introduced each document.  The three papers transcribed above are the preliminaries to taking and reporting the Inventory of the estate, which I will transcribe next week.  There are no papers in this packet for the distribution of the estate or for the account of the administrator.

Joseph Grout died on 13 October 1758 in Westborough, Massachusetts.  His widow, Mary (Harrington) Grout, wrote a letter to the Judge of Probate for Worcester County dated 11 January 1759 and declined being administratrix to her husband's intestate estate, and suggested their son, Jonathan Grout.  Jonathan Grout posted a 200 pounds bond with Joseph and Daniel Grout (brothers or uncles) on 12 January 1759 and was appointed administrator on that date.  The committee was appointed to take an inventory of the estate on 5 February 1759, and the inventory was provided to the Court on 22 March 1759.

Joseph Grout (1682-1758) married Mary Harrington (1692-1774) on 3 January 1717 in Watertown, Massachusetts.  They had seven children, all born in Watertown, except for one born in Sudbury and one born in Westborough.  The children were:

*  Mindwell Grout (1717-1741), married 1735 Silas Brigham (1710-1791).
*  Susannah Grout (1720-1816), married 1745 Levi Brigham (1716-1787).
*  Mehitable Grout (1726-1795), married 1749 Moses Brigham (1725-1769).
*  Joseph Grout (1727-1798), married 1755 Sarah Rice (1734-1808).
*  Jonathan Grout (1730-1801), married 1761 Hannah Merriam (1738-1811)
*  Sarah Grout (1732-????), married 1754 Jason Parmenter (1726-????).
*  Daniel Grout (1736-1809), married 1762 Elizabeth Adams (1743-1822).

Joseph and Mary (Harrington Grout are my probable 6th great-grandparents.  I descend through their daughter, Mehitable Grout (1726-1795) who married  Moses Brigham (1723-1769), in 1749 in Westborough, Massachusetts.

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NOTE:  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."
Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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Sunday, May 31, 2020

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 24 to 30 May 2020

Dozens 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:

 *  How Much DNA Did I Inherit From Grandpa? by Paul Woodbury on Genealogenes.

 *  Genetic Affairs: AutoPedigree Combines AutoTree with WATO to Identify Your Potential Tree Locations by Roberta Estes on DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy.

 *  Episode 329 – CeCe Moore Talks About Her Upcoming ABC-TV Series / Dr. Eurie Hong Of Ancestry DNA Chats About New Covid-19 Study by Ryan B. on Extreme Genes.

 *  Bloggers' Genealogy Tool Boxes 2020 by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree.

 *  From Beaver Pelts to Totem Poles: Key Canadian Genealogy Resources East to West  by a writer on Legacy Tree Genealogists.

 *  What Is Proof? by Phil Isherwood on Seeing the Wood For the Trees.

 *  How to handle unsubstantiated family lines in the FamilySearch Family Tree by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star.

 *  The Archive Lady:  Vertical Files - What Are They? by Melissa Barker on Abundant Genealogy.

 *  The Power of a Mark by Michael Grow on Vita Brevis.

 *  Endogamy and DNA Testing by Diahan Southard on Your DNA Guide.

 *  Affidavits for Genealogy by Amie Bowser Tennant on The Genealogy Reporter.

 *  A Possible Silver Lining to the COVID Pandemic: Can a 20th Century Cultural Phenomenon Make a Comeback for Us and Our Descendants? by John D. Tew on Filiopietism Prism.

 Here are pick posts by other geneabloggers this week:

* Friday's Family History Finds  by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree.

*  Friday Fossicking, 29th May 2020 by Crissouli on That Moment in Time.

* This Week's Creme de la Creme -- May 30, 2020  by Gail Dever on Genealogy a la Carte,

*  Saturday Serendipity (May 30, 2020) by John D. Tew on Filiopietism Prism.

Readers are encouraged to go to the blogs listed above and  read their articles, and add the 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 currently am reading posts from over 900 genealogy bloggers using Feedly, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/05/best-of-genea-blogs-week-of-24-to-30.html

Copyright (c) 2020, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
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MyHeritage offering free access to different record collections every day in June

I received this from MyHeritage today:

===================================================

Starting tomorrow, June 1, each day of the month a different and significant historical record collection will be available for free!

The collections we have chosen for this offer were handpicked for their value for family historians and include collections that are exclusive to MyHeritage. Among them are the Sweden Household Examination Books, 1840–1947, 1940 Denmark Census, and U.S. City Directories. Altogether, we’ll be providing free access to more than 2 billion historical records throughout June!

All the collections are available on www.myheritage.com/research, and you can find the full schedule for the free collections, including direct links, on our blog.

This just might be the chance your readers and followers have been waiting for, and we are pleased to offer this as part of our effort to provide people with more opportunities and resources to further their genealogy research while at home.

NOTE:  A free registration for non-subscribers of MyHeritage will be required.

=============================================

Disclosure: I receive a complimentary subscription to MyHeritage, and gave received other material consideration in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/05/myheritage-offering-free-access-to.html

Copyright (c) 2020, 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. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

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