The Ancestry.com blog has the results of a survey of 10,000 subscribers about new content on Ancestry.com. The results are shown in a bar chart here.
I am glad that Ancestry has been taking surveys to sense customers desires. That is always the first step to improve customer relations.
If they had asked me, I would have said my desires for new content would be, in priority order (with my own perceptions as comments):
* Vital Records information - Ancestry has births, marriages and deaths from some states available in online databases, but not all states. Many of these records have been microfilmed but not digitized. They are, by far, the best authoritative resource for direct evidence if they exist.
* Military Records -- complete Rev War pension records, complete Civil War pension records, other pension records from War of 1812 to whenever.
* City Directories -- Ancestry has 1 or 2 directories from many cities, but the real need is for every year available in every city. A big job.
* Court, Land, Probate and Financial Records -- there are very few of these available anywhere online. Ancestry has some indexes but few wills, inventories, deeds, guardianships, court records, etc. A really big job, since the records themselves are mostly handwritten records.
* Newspapers and Periodicals -- Ancestry has a fine collection so far. But there are many newspapers from cities large and small that are not available yet. San Diego, for instance. Los Angeles is another. I'll bet there are others!
* Census Records -- Ancestry has done a great job for US Federal census and the UK census records. State census data, US mortality, agricultural and manufacturing census data, and records from other countries are needed.
* Families and Local Histories -- Ancestry has been adding these quickly, and now has the premier collection with the best search engine. They need to keep adding them!
* Directories and Member Lists -- Ancestry has a pretty good selection here, but the last year for the phone book material is 2002.
* Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers -- Ancestry has added quite a few of these recently. Keep adding them, please!
* Immigration, Emigration and Citizenship Records -- US Naturalization records and Passport applications would be wonderful helps.
* School Yearbooks -- there aren't many on Ancestry, and they are hard to come by. But they give us pictures of young people.
* Family Trees -- There are too many of these out there - somehow they need to be blended into one giant family tree with correct information. Probably impossible. I do like the Public/Private Member Tree concept.
* Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Reference -- images of the actual pages for Who's Who and the others would be nice ... but there may be copyright problems.
Not on Ancestry's list but very high on my list is data in Periodicals and Journals. PERSI is great, as far as it goes. Again, there are copyright problems. Perhaps some deal with publishers to at least index names and places, a definition of the source, and a place to order an article could be made. These are probably the most underutilized source of information because they are not available online.
Likewise, Family Bibles and Family Papers are an area that are not even on the Ancestry list. The DAR has a lot of these (and the FHL has them on microfilm), as does NGS and other sites.
How about a collection of web site data (personal pages, blogs, etc.) that have genealogy data posted? Oops, been there, done that I guess. It was a good idea badly implemented and should be considered with more sensitivity to the web site owners. Not everybody Googles.
The key to Ancestry's popularity and future growth is the sheer volume of records, the indexing and the searching capabilities. They are outstanding now and may improve even more.
What else would YOU like to see Ancestry digitize and index? What is most important to you? Tell them.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Hey San Diegans - go to the FHC!
Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Just go to the San Diego Family History Center and use the computers to access FamilyLink, Godfrey Memorial Library, Footnote, HeritageQuestOnline and WorldVitalRecords for free.
Yep - these links to the subscription web sites are installed and running well. I was there today to copy more Rhode Island Probate records, and checked the computer as I was about to leave. I stayed for another 30 minutes checking things on WorldVitalRecords.
To access these services, you have to start Internet Explorer, then go to Favorites and click on the "Premium Databases" folder, and then on the "Family History Center Services Online Portal" and that will take you to the FHC-only web site. That site looks like this:
This site indicates that still not available are Genline.com, Genline.se and Kindred Konnections.
I did not ask about the status of this at the FHC today because I figured it was still months down the road here. Wrong! I like being wrong sometimes. I'm guessing that there has been no publicity at the FHC about it because they don't want a deluge of users and they want the staff to get familiar with using it. So I'm using my little bloghorn (hey, a new word! Mine!) here to shout out to my San Diego area colleagues. Anybody reading?
Yep - these links to the subscription web sites are installed and running well. I was there today to copy more Rhode Island Probate records, and checked the computer as I was about to leave. I stayed for another 30 minutes checking things on WorldVitalRecords.
To access these services, you have to start Internet Explorer, then go to Favorites and click on the "Premium Databases" folder, and then on the "Family History Center Services Online Portal" and that will take you to the FHC-only web site. That site looks like this:
This site indicates that still not available are Genline.com, Genline.se and Kindred Konnections.
I did not ask about the status of this at the FHC today because I figured it was still months down the road here. Wrong! I like being wrong sometimes. I'm guessing that there has been no publicity at the FHC about it because they don't want a deluge of users and they want the staff to get familiar with using it. So I'm using my little bloghorn (hey, a new word! Mine!) here to shout out to my San Diego area colleagues. Anybody reading?
Ancestral clues from DNA studies
I still have not had my DNA tests done to determine my Y-DNA and mtDNA markers. Nor have I asked my wife, my brother-in-law, my female Seaver cousins, or more distant cousins to be tested. I should ...
I wrote a post about what I might determine from my own mitochondrial DNA in the post My mtDNA matrilineal lines. I also wrote a post about my Y-DNA patrilineal line in My Lonely Y-DNA strand.
I discussed my moral dilemma about a possible step-sibling in my post A Challenging Moral Dilemma. If the step-sibling was male, then a Y-DNA test would prove our common paternity.
Here is what I think could be done if all those other people were tested:
1) If my wife, daughters, or brother-in-law was tested, their mitochondrial DNA might be matched with other tested persons in the line of:
* Edna May (Schaffner) Leland (1913 CA - 1979 CA, married Leo Leland)
* Edna Catherine (McKnew) Schaffner (1884 CA - 1974 CA, married Paul Schaffner)
* Jane (Whittle) McKnew (1847 Australia - 1921 CA, married Elijah McKnew)
* Rachel (Moore) Whittle (wife of Joseph Whittle, probably born in England, resided in Australia in the 1840's, emigrated to San Francisco in late 1840's(?))
2) If my brother-in-law was tested, his Y-DNA might be matched to other Leland descendants from Norway. The line from his father is:
* Leo Severt Leland (1911 MT -2002 CA, married Edna Schaffner)
* Severt Oliver Leland (1878 WI - 1940 CA, married Amelia Brocke)
* Torger Sjursen Leland (1850 Norway - 1933 CA, married Anna Ellingsdtr Natvig)
* Sjur Torgersen (1804 Norway - 1889 WI, married Brita Olsdtr)
* Torgeir Olsen (1753 Norway - 1827 Norway, married Anna Sjursdtr)
* Ole Torgeirsen (1700 Norway - 1772 Norway, married Barbra Magnesdtr)
* Torgeir Pedersen (1648 Norway - 1730 Norway, married Agate Olsdtr)
As an aside, look at the years between births in that line in Norway. These guys married relatively late in life!
3) If one of my wife's female cousins was tested, her mtDNA results might lead to further identification down this line:
* Amelia Anna (Brocke) Leland (1884 ID - 1975 CA, wife of Severt Oliver Leland)
* Anna (Grieser) Brocke (1859 MO - 1936 ID, wife of Nicholas Brocke)
* Katherine (Guddy) Grieser (1840 Bavaria - 1920 ID, wife of Ignatius Grieser).
4) There may be living male and female cousins of the Brocke family living in Idaho who could be tested for the Brocke line, which leads back to Germany.
5) On my mother's Kemp line, I have male third cousins living in the Los Angeles area who might provide some clues for my Kemp line. My cousin's Kemp line goes like this:
* Leroy James Kemp
* Leroy Gordon Kemp (1896 - 1933 CA, married Laura Ehlers)
* James Alexander Kemp (1872 Ontario - 1934 CA, married Bertha Fuller)
* James Abram Kemp (1831 Ontario - 1902 Ontario, married Mary Jane Sovereen)
* Abraham James Kemp (1795 Ontario - 1881 Ontario, married Sarah Sephrona Fletcher)
* John Kemp (1768 NY - 1861 Ontario, married Mary Dafoe)
* John Kemp (1723 ?? - 1793 Ontario, married Anna Van Vorst).
This last John Kemp is a brick wall ancestor. He may have been an English soldier in the French and Indian War in NY. A Y-DNA test might connect him to another Kemp family line in North America or England.
6) On my mother's Carringer line, I would need to find a living male Carringer descended from Henry Carringer (1800 PA - 1881 IA, married Sarah Feather). The male line from his son David Jackson Carringer has petered out (literally).
7) My mother's Smith line has also petered out, I fear. Devier J. Smith (1839 NY - 1894 NE) had a son, David, but he had two daughters. Devier's father, Ranslow Smith had only one son.
8) My mother's Vaux line may have some potential, but I would need to find some living female third cousins.
9) On my father's side, there are living male third cousins with the Richmond surname. They could provide some link to other Richman/Richmond males in England and the USA. The Richman/Richmond line is:
* Thomas Richmond (1848 Wiltshire - 1917 MA, married Julia White)
* James Richman (1821 Wiltshire - 1912 CT, married Hannah Rich)
* John Richman (ca 1788 Wiltshire - 1867 Wiltshire, married Ann Marshman).
Both John Richman and Ann Marshman are brick wall ancestors for me.
10) There may be female living distant cousins in England who were descended from John Richman and Ann Marshman and might lead to mtDNA connections to a Marshman line.
11) Likewise, there may be distant female living cousins for the Rich surname line in England.
12) There are probably some male Hildreth distant cousins that could be tested to get the Y-DNA markers for that line on my father's side.
13) I'm sure there are a lot more possibilities!!
Unfortunately, many of the above possible DNA connections would require extensive 20th century genealogy research, contacts with the cousins, their agreement to be tested, and somebody to pay for it.
My purpose in writing all of the above down was to try to figure out if DNA test could help define more than my own patrilineal and matrilineal markers. Once you start thinking about the possibilities, and actually identifying potential cousins that could be tested, there are many more than just two lines.
It seems to me that there is the probability that most people could define a line for all four grandparents and perhaps most of the 8 great-grandparents, but you need to know the family structure, identifying all-male lines and all-female lines. The reduction in size of 20th century families due to birth control and family planning makes the probability of big families, and therefore more candidates, lower.
It makes a great case for identifying cousins from common ancestors, doesn't it? The easiest way to identify possible DNA matches would be on a descendants chart for each potential family line. I'm going to work on that! The challenge is to populate it with all family members that lead to living 21st century persons.
The application of the Y-DNA tests to genealogy is pretty straightforward and understandable. The application of the mtDNA tests to genealogy is not as straightforward - I really don't understand just how exact the results are and how they can be effectively used.
That was fun! I wonder what Blaine Bettinger will do with it? We'll see!
I wrote a post about what I might determine from my own mitochondrial DNA in the post My mtDNA matrilineal lines. I also wrote a post about my Y-DNA patrilineal line in My Lonely Y-DNA strand.
I discussed my moral dilemma about a possible step-sibling in my post A Challenging Moral Dilemma. If the step-sibling was male, then a Y-DNA test would prove our common paternity.
Here is what I think could be done if all those other people were tested:
1) If my wife, daughters, or brother-in-law was tested, their mitochondrial DNA might be matched with other tested persons in the line of:
* Edna May (Schaffner) Leland (1913 CA - 1979 CA, married Leo Leland)
* Edna Catherine (McKnew) Schaffner (1884 CA - 1974 CA, married Paul Schaffner)
* Jane (Whittle) McKnew (1847 Australia - 1921 CA, married Elijah McKnew)
* Rachel (Moore) Whittle (wife of Joseph Whittle, probably born in England, resided in Australia in the 1840's, emigrated to San Francisco in late 1840's(?))
2) If my brother-in-law was tested, his Y-DNA might be matched to other Leland descendants from Norway. The line from his father is:
* Leo Severt Leland (1911 MT -2002 CA, married Edna Schaffner)
* Severt Oliver Leland (1878 WI - 1940 CA, married Amelia Brocke)
* Torger Sjursen Leland (1850 Norway - 1933 CA, married Anna Ellingsdtr Natvig)
* Sjur Torgersen (1804 Norway - 1889 WI, married Brita Olsdtr)
* Torgeir Olsen (1753 Norway - 1827 Norway, married Anna Sjursdtr)
* Ole Torgeirsen (1700 Norway - 1772 Norway, married Barbra Magnesdtr)
* Torgeir Pedersen (1648 Norway - 1730 Norway, married Agate Olsdtr)
As an aside, look at the years between births in that line in Norway. These guys married relatively late in life!
3) If one of my wife's female cousins was tested, her mtDNA results might lead to further identification down this line:
* Amelia Anna (Brocke) Leland (1884 ID - 1975 CA, wife of Severt Oliver Leland)
* Anna (Grieser) Brocke (1859 MO - 1936 ID, wife of Nicholas Brocke)
* Katherine (Guddy) Grieser (1840 Bavaria - 1920 ID, wife of Ignatius Grieser).
4) There may be living male and female cousins of the Brocke family living in Idaho who could be tested for the Brocke line, which leads back to Germany.
5) On my mother's Kemp line, I have male third cousins living in the Los Angeles area who might provide some clues for my Kemp line. My cousin's Kemp line goes like this:
* Leroy James Kemp
* Leroy Gordon Kemp (1896 - 1933 CA, married Laura Ehlers)
* James Alexander Kemp (1872 Ontario - 1934 CA, married Bertha Fuller)
* James Abram Kemp (1831 Ontario - 1902 Ontario, married Mary Jane Sovereen)
* Abraham James Kemp (1795 Ontario - 1881 Ontario, married Sarah Sephrona Fletcher)
* John Kemp (1768 NY - 1861 Ontario, married Mary Dafoe)
* John Kemp (1723 ?? - 1793 Ontario, married Anna Van Vorst).
This last John Kemp is a brick wall ancestor. He may have been an English soldier in the French and Indian War in NY. A Y-DNA test might connect him to another Kemp family line in North America or England.
6) On my mother's Carringer line, I would need to find a living male Carringer descended from Henry Carringer (1800 PA - 1881 IA, married Sarah Feather). The male line from his son David Jackson Carringer has petered out (literally).
7) My mother's Smith line has also petered out, I fear. Devier J. Smith (1839 NY - 1894 NE) had a son, David, but he had two daughters. Devier's father, Ranslow Smith had only one son.
8) My mother's Vaux line may have some potential, but I would need to find some living female third cousins.
9) On my father's side, there are living male third cousins with the Richmond surname. They could provide some link to other Richman/Richmond males in England and the USA. The Richman/Richmond line is:
* Thomas Richmond (1848 Wiltshire - 1917 MA, married Julia White)
* James Richman (1821 Wiltshire - 1912 CT, married Hannah Rich)
* John Richman (ca 1788 Wiltshire - 1867 Wiltshire, married Ann Marshman).
Both John Richman and Ann Marshman are brick wall ancestors for me.
10) There may be female living distant cousins in England who were descended from John Richman and Ann Marshman and might lead to mtDNA connections to a Marshman line.
11) Likewise, there may be distant female living cousins for the Rich surname line in England.
12) There are probably some male Hildreth distant cousins that could be tested to get the Y-DNA markers for that line on my father's side.
13) I'm sure there are a lot more possibilities!!
Unfortunately, many of the above possible DNA connections would require extensive 20th century genealogy research, contacts with the cousins, their agreement to be tested, and somebody to pay for it.
My purpose in writing all of the above down was to try to figure out if DNA test could help define more than my own patrilineal and matrilineal markers. Once you start thinking about the possibilities, and actually identifying potential cousins that could be tested, there are many more than just two lines.
It seems to me that there is the probability that most people could define a line for all four grandparents and perhaps most of the 8 great-grandparents, but you need to know the family structure, identifying all-male lines and all-female lines. The reduction in size of 20th century families due to birth control and family planning makes the probability of big families, and therefore more candidates, lower.
It makes a great case for identifying cousins from common ancestors, doesn't it? The easiest way to identify possible DNA matches would be on a descendants chart for each potential family line. I'm going to work on that! The challenge is to populate it with all family members that lead to living 21st century persons.
The application of the Y-DNA tests to genealogy is pretty straightforward and understandable. The application of the mtDNA tests to genealogy is not as straightforward - I really don't understand just how exact the results are and how they can be effectively used.
That was fun! I wonder what Blaine Bettinger will do with it? We'll see!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Nuggets from the newspapers
I've spent several hours tonight putting "brick wall ancestors" names into the "Stories and Publications" search box on Ancestry.com. I've had quite a bit of luck finding books with my possible Lewis ancestral families, to the extent that I need to order some microfilms to gather vital records data in Long Island and Staten Island records from the 1670-1770 time period.
The biggest surprise were several "nuggets" found in the Newspaper clippings from the Sussex (NJ) Register, 1897-1899 concerning my David Auble. These items were in a column titled "Ancient Local History, compiled from The Register," which was published in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey.
1) From the Register for 4 April 1838:
"David J. Foster and David Auble form partnership and begin business as shoemakers in building recently occupied by George Dennis, and next to W.T. Anderson's law office."
David Auble (1817-1894) is my 2nd great-grandfather who married Sarah Knapp in 1844. David Foster was a brother-in-law, married to Sarah's sister Hannah Knapp in 1839. The two David's were partners, and David foster probably introduced David Auble to his future wife.
2) From the Register, 10 September 1844:
"William Auble, a native of Sussex, and a brother to David Auble, stabbed to death during a quarrel in Philadelphia, by two brothers , who sang obscene songs as Auble was returning from a party with ladies. Auble had a loaded pistol, but did not use it. The deceased and the men who sent him to an untimely grave were intimate acquaintances, and but for improper use of strong drink the trouble never would have occurred."
I do not have this William Auble in the family of John and Anna (Rau) Auble. In the 1830 census, there are 5 boys enumerated, and I only had the names of three of them (David, Robert and Hampton). What a sad story.
The Register newspaper in the late 1890's was picking one story from each day in the old newspapers - it's just luck that they picked these two stories on this particular day. Now I wonder if there are archives of this newspaper back in the 1830-s and 1840's that would have the full stories, and probably more about my Auble and Knapp families that resided in Newton. I visited there one day back in 2004 - they have a nice county library on the north side of town. Another item for my "to-do" list.
The biggest surprise were several "nuggets" found in the Newspaper clippings from the Sussex (NJ) Register, 1897-1899 concerning my David Auble. These items were in a column titled "Ancient Local History, compiled from The Register," which was published in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey.
1) From the Register for 4 April 1838:
"David J. Foster and David Auble form partnership and begin business as shoemakers in building recently occupied by George Dennis, and next to W.T. Anderson's law office."
David Auble (1817-1894) is my 2nd great-grandfather who married Sarah Knapp in 1844. David Foster was a brother-in-law, married to Sarah's sister Hannah Knapp in 1839. The two David's were partners, and David foster probably introduced David Auble to his future wife.
2) From the Register, 10 September 1844:
"William Auble, a native of Sussex, and a brother to David Auble, stabbed to death during a quarrel in Philadelphia, by two brothers , who sang obscene songs as Auble was returning from a party with ladies. Auble had a loaded pistol, but did not use it. The deceased and the men who sent him to an untimely grave were intimate acquaintances, and but for improper use of strong drink the trouble never would have occurred."
I do not have this William Auble in the family of John and Anna (Rau) Auble. In the 1830 census, there are 5 boys enumerated, and I only had the names of three of them (David, Robert and Hampton). What a sad story.
The Register newspaper in the late 1890's was picking one story from each day in the old newspapers - it's just luck that they picked these two stories on this particular day. Now I wonder if there are archives of this newspaper back in the 1830-s and 1840's that would have the full stories, and probably more about my Auble and Knapp families that resided in Newton. I visited there one day back in 2004 - they have a nice county library on the north side of town. Another item for my "to-do" list.
A final San Diego Fires post
As I noted on Wednesday, the weather turned cooler with winds from the west that stifled the westward progress of the fires in San Diego County. However, now the fires are burning on their eastern edges, mainly in National Forests. We had haze yesterday (from the smoke blown offshore coming back onshore) and this morning we had a thick fog. The fires are not all out, but they are being contained.
The number of people in the evacuation centers is dwindling, and people are returning to many areas, including Ramona (the first ones to evacuate on Sunday) but they can't use the water in Ramona yet. Now the stories about "what happened to me" are in the newspapers and on the radio and TV.
The TV news had constant video of homes burning and people walking in the rubble. They rarely showed maps or discussed where fires were burning. Usually, it was announcements of evacuations, discussion of resources, interviews with politicians, or news conferences. The radio news stations (KOGO-600 AM, KFMB-760 AM) had call-in programs 24 hours a day with reports from residents in fire areas, and was more useful but not comprehensive. The newspapers had excellent maps and summaries, but they were a day later. The web had some blogs with pictures and reports, KOGO had a chat room with many comments, and the news outlets had web sites with reports, maps and pictures.
The Reverse 911 phone system worked extremely well, and the evacuation centers worked well. Getting air and ground resources to San Diego was delayed by the distances involved, the other fires that started earlier, and by some bureaucratic red tape. In one case, the US Navy helicopters in San Diego weren't permitted to fight the fires because there weren't enough CalFire observers to ride along on them. They finally got airborne on Wednesday with Navy fire spotters and one CalFire observer for every 3 or 4 helicopters. They've gotta fix that.
You can see up-to-date posts from the San Diego Union-Tribune blog at http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/ . There was one today about how good things sometimes happen to good people - read this particular post. The highlight for me was:
"Kate Leidiger's first week on the job certainly as been more eventful than expected. The 20-year-old Del Cerro resident was a brand new EMT with Rural Metro when the fires broke out.
"Monday, her first day on the job, she worked the frontline for more than 30 hours.
"But the grueling job isn't without a few perks. Within the first 18 hours of her shift, she had the chance to shake hands with Gov. Schwarzenegger. The next day, she met Pres. Bush, who tucked her under his arm in an embrace."
Talk about a serious change in someone's life, and a fantastic experience for a young lady just trying to work her job and do good. She really made "family history" this week, didn't she? She will always remember it, and will probably have the pictures to prove it.
The number of people in the evacuation centers is dwindling, and people are returning to many areas, including Ramona (the first ones to evacuate on Sunday) but they can't use the water in Ramona yet. Now the stories about "what happened to me" are in the newspapers and on the radio and TV.
The TV news had constant video of homes burning and people walking in the rubble. They rarely showed maps or discussed where fires were burning. Usually, it was announcements of evacuations, discussion of resources, interviews with politicians, or news conferences. The radio news stations (KOGO-600 AM, KFMB-760 AM) had call-in programs 24 hours a day with reports from residents in fire areas, and was more useful but not comprehensive. The newspapers had excellent maps and summaries, but they were a day later. The web had some blogs with pictures and reports, KOGO had a chat room with many comments, and the news outlets had web sites with reports, maps and pictures.
The Reverse 911 phone system worked extremely well, and the evacuation centers worked well. Getting air and ground resources to San Diego was delayed by the distances involved, the other fires that started earlier, and by some bureaucratic red tape. In one case, the US Navy helicopters in San Diego weren't permitted to fight the fires because there weren't enough CalFire observers to ride along on them. They finally got airborne on Wednesday with Navy fire spotters and one CalFire observer for every 3 or 4 helicopters. They've gotta fix that.
You can see up-to-date posts from the San Diego Union-Tribune blog at http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/ . There was one today about how good things sometimes happen to good people - read this particular post. The highlight for me was:
"Kate Leidiger's first week on the job certainly as been more eventful than expected. The 20-year-old Del Cerro resident was a brand new EMT with Rural Metro when the fires broke out.
"Monday, her first day on the job, she worked the frontline for more than 30 hours.
"But the grueling job isn't without a few perks. Within the first 18 hours of her shift, she had the chance to shake hands with Gov. Schwarzenegger. The next day, she met Pres. Bush, who tucked her under his arm in an embrace."
Talk about a serious change in someone's life, and a fantastic experience for a young lady just trying to work her job and do good. She really made "family history" this week, didn't she? She will always remember it, and will probably have the pictures to prove it.
I prefer being lucky and good
One of my favorite sayings has been "I'd rather be lucky than good" but now I much prefer the saying "I want to be both lucky and good." There is also the saying that "luck is the residue of design" (which apparently comes from author John Milton, but is often attributed to Branch Rickey). I prefer the saying "good luck happens when you plan well."
In any case, I had a stroke of good luck last night as a result of methodically going through my genealogy database for my "brick wall ancestors." I don't do this as often as I should, but I will probably do it more often now!
I haven't used the "Web Search Resources" in FamilyTreeMaker at all, but I decided to try it out last night. Two of my "brick wall ancestors" are William Hutchinson (1745 NJ - 1826 ON) and his wife, Catherine Lewis. I found very little on the web search for Mr. Hutchinson but the search for Catherine Lewis netted a number of possible ancestral families. The site gave me the option to integrate those results into my database. I don't usually do that, but prefer to investigate the data posted for the suggested families in as many sources as possible. However, I wanted to see how the process worked, so I set up a "dummy" Catherine Lewis and downloaded some family data over several generations.
The source for the Catherine Lewis connection was the One World Tree database at www.Ancestry.com, so I was able to bring it up and print out some information - pedigree charts, note pages, and family group information. I checked for the families on the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, and found some interesting notes and the same data for many of the families. Now I need to check online and traditional resources to prove that the Catherine Lewis in the databases is the same one who married William Hutchinson. But now I have some leads.
This morning, while waiting for the cable man to come to diagnose my cable modem problems, I Googled the search string ["william hutchinson" "catherine lewis" loyalist]. I got my own ROOTS-L mailing list post from 1996 (!) and another mailing list post that provided a link to a WorldConnect database that listed William Hutchison (not Hutchinson!). The page for Mr. Hutchison is here for those curious about what I found. William Hutchinson's life has been well documented in this database, and most of it is data that I did not have previously (probably because I've always searched for Hutchinson rather than Hutchison). Not only that, the families of his children have been researched, with the exception of his daughter, Mary Jane Hutchinson. Guess which child is my ancestor? Yep - Mary Jane! However, there was great information about Mary Jane on her father's page. It reads:
"Mary Jane Hutchinson, eldest daughter of William, married Frederick Sovereign, the founder of Fredericksburg. Her children are enumerated in the Sovereign genealogy. This old pioneer mother was known far and wide as 'Aunt Jane Sovereign,' and was noted for her generous hospitality and her quaint, off-hand manner of speech. She was an indefatigable worker, and found rest in busy activity; and to sit still for any length of time was misery to her. She was a regular attendant at church, and to sit in a pew for a solid hour and keep awake until the old-fashioned "fourthly" had dragged out its weary length, was a cross that she was not always able to bear. On one occasion during a "protracted meetin'" the sermon had been unusually long, and when the "conference" exercises began "Aunt Jane" stood up, but said nothing. The kind-hearted pastor, divining that some great trouble was weighing upon her mind, called her by name and offered words of encouragement. "Oh!" exclaimed Aunt Jane, as she looked up with arms akimbo, "I've just stood up to rest my hips abit."
"As these lines are being written an old familiar scene presents itself. In my mind's eye I see the old fire-place aglow once more with its flickering flame. In it I see the old crane, and once again I hear the sputtering of the old iron teakettle. In front stands the bent form of a dear old familiar figure. With arms akimbo, she looks into the glowing coals for a moment while the ashes from the inverted bowl of her clay pipe drops upon the old hearth. For a brief moment I turn aside to catch a glimpse of some other passing scene, and when I look again, behold, all is changed! Was it only a phantom? Verily so. The old chimney is dark, damp and musty; the old hearth has caved in and the old crane lies buried in the dust. The old tea-kettle has yielded up its form and the elements of which it was composed have been incorporated into other and newer forms, and in the village cemetery I see a granite column whereon is engraved these lines: "Mary Jane, wife of Frederick Sovereign, died April 16th, 1868, aged 76 years, 2 months and 25 days."
Isn't that amazing? A personal recollection of my 4th great-grandmother, Mary Jane (Hutchinson) Sovereign. Priceless! To me, anyways.
The information about William Hutchinson was a fantastic find, and the recollection of Mary Jane is just one of the cherries on top of the whipped cream on top of the ice cream on top of the "cake" of my genealogy research about my ancestors.
Design? Intentional? Planning? Lucky? Good? Yep. It's been a lucky and good genealogy day so far!
In any case, I had a stroke of good luck last night as a result of methodically going through my genealogy database for my "brick wall ancestors." I don't do this as often as I should, but I will probably do it more often now!
I haven't used the "Web Search Resources" in FamilyTreeMaker at all, but I decided to try it out last night. Two of my "brick wall ancestors" are William Hutchinson (1745 NJ - 1826 ON) and his wife, Catherine Lewis. I found very little on the web search for Mr. Hutchinson but the search for Catherine Lewis netted a number of possible ancestral families. The site gave me the option to integrate those results into my database. I don't usually do that, but prefer to investigate the data posted for the suggested families in as many sources as possible. However, I wanted to see how the process worked, so I set up a "dummy" Catherine Lewis and downloaded some family data over several generations.
The source for the Catherine Lewis connection was the One World Tree database at www.Ancestry.com, so I was able to bring it up and print out some information - pedigree charts, note pages, and family group information. I checked for the families on the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, and found some interesting notes and the same data for many of the families. Now I need to check online and traditional resources to prove that the Catherine Lewis in the databases is the same one who married William Hutchinson. But now I have some leads.
This morning, while waiting for the cable man to come to diagnose my cable modem problems, I Googled the search string ["william hutchinson" "catherine lewis" loyalist]. I got my own ROOTS-L mailing list post from 1996 (!) and another mailing list post that provided a link to a WorldConnect database that listed William Hutchison (not Hutchinson!). The page for Mr. Hutchison is here for those curious about what I found. William Hutchinson's life has been well documented in this database, and most of it is data that I did not have previously (probably because I've always searched for Hutchinson rather than Hutchison). Not only that, the families of his children have been researched, with the exception of his daughter, Mary Jane Hutchinson. Guess which child is my ancestor? Yep - Mary Jane! However, there was great information about Mary Jane on her father's page. It reads:
"Mary Jane Hutchinson, eldest daughter of William, married Frederick Sovereign, the founder of Fredericksburg. Her children are enumerated in the Sovereign genealogy. This old pioneer mother was known far and wide as 'Aunt Jane Sovereign,' and was noted for her generous hospitality and her quaint, off-hand manner of speech. She was an indefatigable worker, and found rest in busy activity; and to sit still for any length of time was misery to her. She was a regular attendant at church, and to sit in a pew for a solid hour and keep awake until the old-fashioned "fourthly" had dragged out its weary length, was a cross that she was not always able to bear. On one occasion during a "protracted meetin'" the sermon had been unusually long, and when the "conference" exercises began "Aunt Jane" stood up, but said nothing. The kind-hearted pastor, divining that some great trouble was weighing upon her mind, called her by name and offered words of encouragement. "Oh!" exclaimed Aunt Jane, as she looked up with arms akimbo, "I've just stood up to rest my hips abit."
"As these lines are being written an old familiar scene presents itself. In my mind's eye I see the old fire-place aglow once more with its flickering flame. In it I see the old crane, and once again I hear the sputtering of the old iron teakettle. In front stands the bent form of a dear old familiar figure. With arms akimbo, she looks into the glowing coals for a moment while the ashes from the inverted bowl of her clay pipe drops upon the old hearth. For a brief moment I turn aside to catch a glimpse of some other passing scene, and when I look again, behold, all is changed! Was it only a phantom? Verily so. The old chimney is dark, damp and musty; the old hearth has caved in and the old crane lies buried in the dust. The old tea-kettle has yielded up its form and the elements of which it was composed have been incorporated into other and newer forms, and in the village cemetery I see a granite column whereon is engraved these lines: "Mary Jane, wife of Frederick Sovereign, died April 16th, 1868, aged 76 years, 2 months and 25 days."
Isn't that amazing? A personal recollection of my 4th great-grandmother, Mary Jane (Hutchinson) Sovereign. Priceless! To me, anyways.
The information about William Hutchinson was a fantastic find, and the recollection of Mary Jane is just one of the cherries on top of the whipped cream on top of the ice cream on top of the "cake" of my genealogy research about my ancestors.
Design? Intentional? Planning? Lucky? Good? Yep. It's been a lucky and good genealogy day so far!
"Digging Up the Undead" Program on 29 October
The Chula Vista Genealogical Society meeting is Monday, 29 October at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library auditorium (365 "F" Street in Chula Vista). Doors open at 10:00 a.m., and the program will start at about 10:20 a.m. Please enter through the conference room off the east entrance to sing in, pick up handouts, and have a snack. There will be a short business meeting before the speaker.
The program speaker will be Joan Lowrey of La Jolla, whose talk is titled "Digging Up the Undead - Finding Living People." In this presentation, you will learn the best websites and techniques for finding living people. Most people can be found, even those with unlisted phone numbers, using the tools that will be demonstrated in this presentation.
Joan Lowrey is a professional genealogist, specializing in the U.S. and Germany. She has extensive experience in San Diego County and also does missing heir research. A good part of her work is finding living descendants. Joan is the founder and past President of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD), and the editor of its fine newsletter, Compu.Gen.
CVGS welcomes guests and visitors to our meetings. Please come and enoy the program and our hospitality.
The program speaker will be Joan Lowrey of La Jolla, whose talk is titled "Digging Up the Undead - Finding Living People." In this presentation, you will learn the best websites and techniques for finding living people. Most people can be found, even those with unlisted phone numbers, using the tools that will be demonstrated in this presentation.
Joan Lowrey is a professional genealogist, specializing in the U.S. and Germany. She has extensive experience in San Diego County and also does missing heir research. A good part of her work is finding living descendants. Joan is the founder and past President of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD), and the editor of its fine newsletter, Compu.Gen.
CVGS welcomes guests and visitors to our meetings. Please come and enoy the program and our hospitality.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
TGN's CEO Tim Sullivan Interviewed
Kimberly Powell at her About:Genealogy blog has scored an excellent interview with Tim Sullivan, The Geneations Network President and CEO. He addresses the buyout, future plans for Ancestry, Genealogy.com, Rootsweb, the Internet Biographical Collection and FamilyTreeMaker 2008 release, and more.
It's an excellent and revealing interview. The things I found most interesting were:
* The buyout by Spectrum Equity Investments replaced current owners, and resulted in a majority owner named Dick Parker who is tuned in to genealogy.
* They weren't out to "steal" content with the IBC, and were hurt by the level of anger by many commenters.
* On FTM 2008, the research and testing somehow missed how important the genealogy report and publishing options were.
* There is a new search engine coming out as a beta, and they will user-test it before they implement it.
Read all of Kimberly's interview.
My opinion is that TGN is not well in tune with their customer base for Ancestry and FamilyTreeMaker. They really need to survey their customers, listen to their needs and opinions, and provide products that respond to those needs. You don't get this feedback from the professionals and magazine writers - you get them from the grass-roots users - folks who are not wealthy, who don't spend all day, every day doing genealogy, and who just want what they buy to work well.
I understand that the programmers want to implement the latest and greatest software bells and whistles, and make it work better, and there will be so many great things, and ..., and ... (take a breath). TGN needs to understand that many people are averse to change - it takes a while to accept change and then a while to understand and use what has changed. I think that changes should not be abrupt - they need to be add-ons rather than replacement at least for some interim period.
UPDATE 9:30 PM: The Genealogue also interviewed someone named Tim Sullivan here - leave it to Chris to make the oh-so-serious issue a laugh-out-loud funny! I needed it.
It's an excellent and revealing interview. The things I found most interesting were:
* The buyout by Spectrum Equity Investments replaced current owners, and resulted in a majority owner named Dick Parker who is tuned in to genealogy.
* They weren't out to "steal" content with the IBC, and were hurt by the level of anger by many commenters.
* On FTM 2008, the research and testing somehow missed how important the genealogy report and publishing options were.
* There is a new search engine coming out as a beta, and they will user-test it before they implement it.
Read all of Kimberly's interview.
My opinion is that TGN is not well in tune with their customer base for Ancestry and FamilyTreeMaker. They really need to survey their customers, listen to their needs and opinions, and provide products that respond to those needs. You don't get this feedback from the professionals and magazine writers - you get them from the grass-roots users - folks who are not wealthy, who don't spend all day, every day doing genealogy, and who just want what they buy to work well.
I understand that the programmers want to implement the latest and greatest software bells and whistles, and make it work better, and there will be so many great things, and ..., and ... (take a breath). TGN needs to understand that many people are averse to change - it takes a while to accept change and then a while to understand and use what has changed. I think that changes should not be abrupt - they need to be add-ons rather than replacement at least for some interim period.
UPDATE 9:30 PM: The Genealogue also interviewed someone named Tim Sullivan here - leave it to Chris to make the oh-so-serious issue a laugh-out-loud funny! I needed it.
Followup to "Deal of the Year?"
I posted on 7 October about what appeared to be the "Deal of the Year?". I received the box of software and documents a week later, and it appeared that it had everything promised. I waited until today to install the software due to my other time commitments.
I quickly installed FamilyTreeMaker 16 (in a separate directory from FTM 2005), GenSmarts (and updated it online) off the CD, and downloaded the Ancestry Reference Library (quite a few reference books, in a separate program called AncestryView), the 1-2-3 Family Tree in PDF format, The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in PDF format, and the Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary in PDF format. In addition, there are two DVDs with the FTM 16 Official Training DVD and the Ancestry Historical Maps & Photos Collection on DVD. There were also The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in book form, plus the small QuickStart Guide for FTM 16 in booklet form which provided directions for installing and signing up for everything.
I have not been able to fulfill the come-on of a one-year Ancestry subscription as part of this deal. The QuickStart booklet calls it a FREE TRIAL subscription, accessible through the FTM 16 Internet menu and the "Start an Ancestry.com Trial Subscription" link. I did that and got put into the Ancestry Store web page default screen with no visible link to proceed. I finally chose to "buy" a book for $6.95 just to get into the shopping cart area and there a Trial Subscription for $29.95 was listed. I eventually X-ed out of the web page. So I don't have the Ancestry.com subscription yet.
One of the commenters on my previous post said that they had to call Ancestry.com to get the subscription, so I will call them and see what can be done. I will update this post when I find out what happened.
All of that was obtained for $16.95 plus $6.00 shipping at http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/. Note that this specific deal item (using the link on Lee Drew's FamHist2 blog) is now $49.95 at that web site. There is another deal with a 9-month subscription and fewer add-ons for $29.95, and another with a 6-month Ancestry subscription and fewer add-ons for $14.95.
If someone didn't have genealogy software, these would be excellent deals even without the Ancestry subscription. Even if someone had an earlier version of FamilyTreeMaker, this is a pretty good deal for an upgrade plus GenSmarts and the books. If the Ancestry.com subscription comes through, then it was an outstanding deal.
I would be interested in how other folks did with this deal, especially with the Ancestry subscription part of it.
UPDATED 12:30 PM: I called Ancestry and talked to a very nice woman (Sherry) who told me that since I already had an account, that I couldn't have two accounts at the same time. She said I needed to cancel my present subscription when it is up, and call them to activate my new subscription on that date.
It was difficult to find the Ancestry phone number - in the US, it is 1-800-ANCESTRY (262-3787). I did note that you can cancel your subscription online, but you need to know the date it ends or else you'll get billed for another year.
I quickly installed FamilyTreeMaker 16 (in a separate directory from FTM 2005), GenSmarts (and updated it online) off the CD, and downloaded the Ancestry Reference Library (quite a few reference books, in a separate program called AncestryView), the 1-2-3 Family Tree in PDF format, The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in PDF format, and the Ancestry's Concise Genealogical Dictionary in PDF format. In addition, there are two DVDs with the FTM 16 Official Training DVD and the Ancestry Historical Maps & Photos Collection on DVD. There were also The Official Guide to FamilyTreeMaker 16 in book form, plus the small QuickStart Guide for FTM 16 in booklet form which provided directions for installing and signing up for everything.
I have not been able to fulfill the come-on of a one-year Ancestry subscription as part of this deal. The QuickStart booklet calls it a FREE TRIAL subscription, accessible through the FTM 16 Internet menu and the "Start an Ancestry.com Trial Subscription" link. I did that and got put into the Ancestry Store web page default screen with no visible link to proceed. I finally chose to "buy" a book for $6.95 just to get into the shopping cart area and there a Trial Subscription for $29.95 was listed. I eventually X-ed out of the web page. So I don't have the Ancestry.com subscription yet.
One of the commenters on my previous post said that they had to call Ancestry.com to get the subscription, so I will call them and see what can be done. I will update this post when I find out what happened.
All of that was obtained for $16.95 plus $6.00 shipping at http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/. Note that this specific deal item (using the link on Lee Drew's FamHist2 blog) is now $49.95 at that web site. There is another deal with a 9-month subscription and fewer add-ons for $29.95, and another with a 6-month Ancestry subscription and fewer add-ons for $14.95.
If someone didn't have genealogy software, these would be excellent deals even without the Ancestry subscription. Even if someone had an earlier version of FamilyTreeMaker, this is a pretty good deal for an upgrade plus GenSmarts and the books. If the Ancestry.com subscription comes through, then it was an outstanding deal.
I would be interested in how other folks did with this deal, especially with the Ancestry subscription part of it.
UPDATED 12:30 PM: I called Ancestry and talked to a very nice woman (Sherry) who told me that since I already had an account, that I couldn't have two accounts at the same time. She said I needed to cancel my present subscription when it is up, and call them to activate my new subscription on that date.
It was difficult to find the Ancestry phone number - in the US, it is 1-800-ANCESTRY (262-3787). I did note that you can cancel your subscription online, but you need to know the date it ends or else you'll get billed for another year.
Genea-Musings Greatest Hits
I read the "Popular Pages" and "Entry Pages" blog post statistics for Genea-Musings almost every night on www.Sitemeter.com and www.Statcounter.com. Unfortunately, I only get information about the last 100 visits, which is usually the last 8 to 12 hours.
Certain Genea-Musings posts are always on the list. They include (in approximate order of popularity):
* Family tree tattoos? I really don't know where I'd put one - on my head? At least it would be visible. I worry that my dermatologist would wipe out an ancestor or two if she found a cancer spot.
* World Records for number of children. Every time I read this I worry about how they dealt with the confusion and mayhem around the house, and the cost of college educations for all of them.
* Spooky names in the census. Others have done this, including myself.
* John Tyler's Grandson is still alive!. This was the most amazing research story.
* How rare is your personality type? I'm ISTJ, what are you?
All of these posts are picked by people Googling key words - they are not genealogists, just curious people.
My own favorites? I think that they are:
* Shopping for the Genealogist who has everything. I need to find new gifts for my wife's birthday and Christmas - I'd better start soon!
* Index for my Cornelia Bresee search. This links to all of the posts that detailed my efforts to tap online genealogy resources to find Cornelia's parents.
* The Ultimate "Dodging the Census" Puzzle. This lists my futile search for the Robert Leroy Thompson (1880-1963) family and his parents in the census records from 1850 to 1930. Not one positive census record, which leads me to think he had a name change.
* The Census Whacking Index. A list of my posts about strange and funny names in the census. Which reminds me, I haven't done one for a long time.
* Best of the Genea-Blogs (last one). My almost weekly series of posts highlighting genealogy blog posts that I judge "best of the week."
You can click on the categories at the bottom of each post on the actual blog page to see the "collection" in each category. I still haven't changed my blog to be able to list all of the categories - I worry that I will lose it all.
If you want to do a Google search of my blog, put the keywords in the little "Search Blog" box up at the top of the web page header.
.
Of course, this post is just another obvious attempt to create additional page views so that I can have my most ever visits and page views in October, and to increase my Reach in the Quantcast ratings.
Certain Genea-Musings posts are always on the list. They include (in approximate order of popularity):
* Family tree tattoos? I really don't know where I'd put one - on my head? At least it would be visible. I worry that my dermatologist would wipe out an ancestor or two if she found a cancer spot.
* World Records for number of children. Every time I read this I worry about how they dealt with the confusion and mayhem around the house, and the cost of college educations for all of them.
* Spooky names in the census. Others have done this, including myself.
* John Tyler's Grandson is still alive!. This was the most amazing research story.
* How rare is your personality type? I'm ISTJ, what are you?
All of these posts are picked by people Googling key words - they are not genealogists, just curious people.
My own favorites? I think that they are:
* Shopping for the Genealogist who has everything. I need to find new gifts for my wife's birthday and Christmas - I'd better start soon!
* Index for my Cornelia Bresee search. This links to all of the posts that detailed my efforts to tap online genealogy resources to find Cornelia's parents.
* The Ultimate "Dodging the Census" Puzzle. This lists my futile search for the Robert Leroy Thompson (1880-1963) family and his parents in the census records from 1850 to 1930. Not one positive census record, which leads me to think he had a name change.
* The Census Whacking Index. A list of my posts about strange and funny names in the census. Which reminds me, I haven't done one for a long time.
* Best of the Genea-Blogs (last one). My almost weekly series of posts highlighting genealogy blog posts that I judge "best of the week."
You can click on the categories at the bottom of each post on the actual blog page to see the "collection" in each category. I still haven't changed my blog to be able to list all of the categories - I worry that I will lose it all.
If you want to do a Google search of my blog, put the keywords in the little "Search Blog" box up at the top of the web page header.
.
Of course, this post is just another obvious attempt to create additional page views so that I can have my most ever visits and page views in October, and to increase my Reach in the Quantcast ratings.
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