You all know how to play Wheel of Fortune - I've given you R S T L N and E just like in the Final Round!
Take a stab at this quote:
_ E N E _ L _ _ Y ... _ S ... N _ T ... _ _ S T ... _ ... _ _ S T _ _ E,
_T'S ... _ ... _ _ S S _ _ N. -- _ _ R _ ... _ _ R R E L L - S E S N _ _ _.
[Note: If you can see the "..." they are spacers between words. Blogger doesn't do double spaces well. I whited them out on the blog web page.]
Extra credit if you can find the quote on a web page.
It shouldn't take too long! Put your answer in Comments.
Enjoy.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
The Elusive Russell Smith - Post 7
I wrote a series of six posts back in January and February documenting my search for information about Russell Smith, the probable father of my third-great-grandfather, Ranslow Smith. Post 6 of the series is here, and has links to the earlier posts.
In post 6, I listed the Oneida County NY deeds that I wanted to review from the Grantor and Grantee indexes. I have methodically ordered, received and reviewed the microfilms of the deeds from the Family History Library at the San Diego Family History Center. I captured digital images of all of them also, and have spent this morning extracting information from those for Russell Smith.
My extraction from the first deed involving Russell Smith is below:
On 1 March 1806, John Lansing Junior, and Cornelia his wife, of Albany in Albany County, New York, and Abraham Lansing of Albany, sold land to Russel Smith of Western town in Oneida County, New York, for $256 of money of the USA in hand. The land was "...all that certain parcel of land situate lying and being in the town of Western in the county of Oneida being part of a certain lot of land distinguished in the division of Fonda's Patent as lot number eighteen and which parcel of land is in a survey made by Benjamin Wright. bounded easterly by the east boundary line of the said lot number eighteen southerly by the northern bank of the Mohawk River westerly and northerly by a line drawn from a point seven chains & fifty links from the north east corner of the said lot number eighteen in the eastern boundary line of the same south forty three degrees forty minutes west twenty five chains and eighty eight links to the northeast corner of a square of four acres granted to Prosper Rudd then along the east line of the said four acres south six chains and thirty three links thence west three chains and twelve links and thence south two degrees twenty five minutes west fifteen chains and fourteen links to the Mohawk river containing fifty eight acres and an half together with all and singular the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining and the reversion and reversions remainder and remainders rents issues and proffits thereof and all the estate right title interest use trust property claims and demand whatsoever of the said parties of the first part either in law or equity of in and to the above bargained ..." John Lansing, and Cornelia his wife, and Abraham Lansing and Susannah his wife, acknowledged that this indenture was executed before Sebastian Visscure, Master in chy, and it was recorded on 23 May 1807 by Francis A. Bloodgood. (Deeds, 1791-1901, Oneida County, New York, Volume 12, Page 607, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,364,861).
Four subsequent deeds sell off bits of this land parcel to Henry Smith (a sibling or cousin or uncle?), Charles Leffingwell, Nehemiah Muscott and Benjamin Rudd. Russell Smith's last deed is in 1817, and sells all 58 and a half acres to Benjamin Rudd.
I still have several deeds to review - so far I haven't been able to connect Russell Smith with a specific David Smith, much to my dismay.
Several of the deeds mention neighbors and list witnesses, so those names have gone on my list of "associates" of Russell Smith. One of them may be related to Esther (--?--) Smith, Russell's wife.
I have had some experience with the metes and bounds type of land definition in New England, but I wanted to learn more about it. I cracked open E. Wade Hone's book Land & Property Research for the first time - it has been sitting proudly in my bookcase for several years. I especially wanted to refresh my memory about the measurements, such as:
* Chain = 100 links; 4 rods, poles or perches, 66 feet, 1/80th of a mile.
* Link = 7.92 inches
* Rod = 0.25 chains, 16.5 feet, 1/320 of a mile
* Acre = 160 rods square, 10 square chains, 43,560 square feet, 1/640th of a square mile.
I looked for a map of Fonda's Patent in Oneida County, and found several on the Oneida County NY USGenWeb site http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyoneida/. The 1829 map shows Fonda's Patent. The 1822 map shows the early towns, including Western and Lee just up the Mohawk River from the town of Rome.
If Russell Smith sold all of his land in Western in 1817, I wonder where he went from there? There are several Russell Smith's in the 1820 New York census, but none are in this area. Perhaps he and/or his wife went up to Jefferson County NY, where his son David settled around 1800, and where his sons George, Lyman and Ranslow Smith owned land in the 1830's.
Don't you just love the language in the older deeds? They don't use any punctuation other than a random period, it seems.
In post 6, I listed the Oneida County NY deeds that I wanted to review from the Grantor and Grantee indexes. I have methodically ordered, received and reviewed the microfilms of the deeds from the Family History Library at the San Diego Family History Center. I captured digital images of all of them also, and have spent this morning extracting information from those for Russell Smith.
My extraction from the first deed involving Russell Smith is below:
On 1 March 1806, John Lansing Junior, and Cornelia his wife, of Albany in Albany County, New York, and Abraham Lansing of Albany, sold land to Russel Smith of Western town in Oneida County, New York, for $256 of money of the USA in hand. The land was "...all that certain parcel of land situate lying and being in the town of Western in the county of Oneida being part of a certain lot of land distinguished in the division of Fonda's Patent as lot number eighteen and which parcel of land is in a survey made by Benjamin Wright. bounded easterly by the east boundary line of the said lot number eighteen southerly by the northern bank of the Mohawk River westerly and northerly by a line drawn from a point seven chains & fifty links from the north east corner of the said lot number eighteen in the eastern boundary line of the same south forty three degrees forty minutes west twenty five chains and eighty eight links to the northeast corner of a square of four acres granted to Prosper Rudd then along the east line of the said four acres south six chains and thirty three links thence west three chains and twelve links and thence south two degrees twenty five minutes west fifteen chains and fourteen links to the Mohawk river containing fifty eight acres and an half together with all and singular the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining and the reversion and reversions remainder and remainders rents issues and proffits thereof and all the estate right title interest use trust property claims and demand whatsoever of the said parties of the first part either in law or equity of in and to the above bargained ..." John Lansing, and Cornelia his wife, and Abraham Lansing and Susannah his wife, acknowledged that this indenture was executed before Sebastian Visscure, Master in chy, and it was recorded on 23 May 1807 by Francis A. Bloodgood. (Deeds, 1791-1901, Oneida County, New York, Volume 12, Page 607, accessed on FHL Microfilm 0,364,861).
Four subsequent deeds sell off bits of this land parcel to Henry Smith (a sibling or cousin or uncle?), Charles Leffingwell, Nehemiah Muscott and Benjamin Rudd. Russell Smith's last deed is in 1817, and sells all 58 and a half acres to Benjamin Rudd.
I still have several deeds to review - so far I haven't been able to connect Russell Smith with a specific David Smith, much to my dismay.
Several of the deeds mention neighbors and list witnesses, so those names have gone on my list of "associates" of Russell Smith. One of them may be related to Esther (--?--) Smith, Russell's wife.
I have had some experience with the metes and bounds type of land definition in New England, but I wanted to learn more about it. I cracked open E. Wade Hone's book Land & Property Research for the first time - it has been sitting proudly in my bookcase for several years. I especially wanted to refresh my memory about the measurements, such as:
* Chain = 100 links; 4 rods, poles or perches, 66 feet, 1/80th of a mile.
* Link = 7.92 inches
* Rod = 0.25 chains, 16.5 feet, 1/320 of a mile
* Acre = 160 rods square, 10 square chains, 43,560 square feet, 1/640th of a square mile.
I looked for a map of Fonda's Patent in Oneida County, and found several on the Oneida County NY USGenWeb site http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyoneida/. The 1829 map shows Fonda's Patent. The 1822 map shows the early towns, including Western and Lee just up the Mohawk River from the town of Rome.
If Russell Smith sold all of his land in Western in 1817, I wonder where he went from there? There are several Russell Smith's in the 1820 New York census, but none are in this area. Perhaps he and/or his wife went up to Jefferson County NY, where his son David settled around 1800, and where his sons George, Lyman and Ranslow Smith owned land in the 1830's.
Don't you just love the language in the older deeds? They don't use any punctuation other than a random period, it seems.
Book Report: "Death on the Family Tree"
I like murder mysteries, and when the book "Death on the Family Tree" by Patricia Sprinkle fell off the paperback book shelf at the library and I picked it up, I was hooked.
The cover says "These family ties don't bind ... they kill!"
The back cover says "If you dig around the roots of your family tree, you might find a few bodies."
The book summary (from the back cover) reads:
"With grown-up kids and a husband always on the road, Katharine Murray's nest would be empty if it weren't for her Aunt Lucy -- until the elderly woman dies. Now Katharine's saddled with her Aunt's worldly belongings - mostly knickknacks destined for the dumpster. But there's a priceless Celtic necklace among the dross - and a diary written in German, neither of which Katharine's ever seen before.
"Determined to find out where these objects came from, Katharine unwittingly discovers a branch of her family tree she never knew existed - namely Aunt Lucy's brother Carter, murdered more than fifty years ago after a mysterious trip to Austria. And when Lucy's artifacts are stolen, and the main suspect turns up dead, Katharine realizes she must solve a burglary and two unsolved homicides separated by a half-century ... before more than her family secrets end up dead and buried."
I really enjoyed this book because of the genealogy angle and the twists and turns of the murder stories. The setting is in Atlanta. One of the characters, Uncle Dutch, has done genealogy research and knows the family secrets but doesn't give them up. Katharine gets help at a "history center" and checks the 1930 census (using Soundex and microfilm) and later uses Ancestry.com on her uncle's computer to find the same record. The family relationships are believable and familiar - how many of us don't know about the personal life of our mother's sister's husband's brother?
I read these types of books while watching the Padres games during the endless baseball season, so I'm always on the lookout for works like this. Does anyone else have a recommendation for family tree or genealogy mystery novels?
The cover says "These family ties don't bind ... they kill!"
The back cover says "If you dig around the roots of your family tree, you might find a few bodies."
The book summary (from the back cover) reads:
"With grown-up kids and a husband always on the road, Katharine Murray's nest would be empty if it weren't for her Aunt Lucy -- until the elderly woman dies. Now Katharine's saddled with her Aunt's worldly belongings - mostly knickknacks destined for the dumpster. But there's a priceless Celtic necklace among the dross - and a diary written in German, neither of which Katharine's ever seen before.
"Determined to find out where these objects came from, Katharine unwittingly discovers a branch of her family tree she never knew existed - namely Aunt Lucy's brother Carter, murdered more than fifty years ago after a mysterious trip to Austria. And when Lucy's artifacts are stolen, and the main suspect turns up dead, Katharine realizes she must solve a burglary and two unsolved homicides separated by a half-century ... before more than her family secrets end up dead and buried."
I really enjoyed this book because of the genealogy angle and the twists and turns of the murder stories. The setting is in Atlanta. One of the characters, Uncle Dutch, has done genealogy research and knows the family secrets but doesn't give them up. Katharine gets help at a "history center" and checks the 1930 census (using Soundex and microfilm) and later uses Ancestry.com on her uncle's computer to find the same record. The family relationships are believable and familiar - how many of us don't know about the personal life of our mother's sister's husband's brother?
I read these types of books while watching the Padres games during the endless baseball season, so I'm always on the lookout for works like this. Does anyone else have a recommendation for family tree or genealogy mystery novels?
Friday, May 30, 2008
The LearnWebSkills Family History Tutorial
I posted over a year ago about the use of the http://www.learnwebskills.com/ web site to provide tutorial instruction in genealogy research to individuals working alone or to a group. The web site includes:
This site has an online genealogy tutorial that is excellent for both beginner and veteran Internet researchers. The tutorial is in six modules:
I- Getting Started (Home Sources, Charts, Recording Information, Citing Resources)
II - Using Online Resources (Online Databases, Search Engines, Directories)
III - Gathering Key Records (Vital Records, Federal Census Records)
IV - Exploring Further (Probate Records, Church Records, Military Records, Newspapers)
V - Sharing Information (Discussion Lists, Message Boards, Software Programs)
VI - Quiz
Module II, provides tutorials for:
1) Social Security Death Index
2) Rootsweb WorldConnect Project Database
3) LDS FamilySearch Databases
4) Ellis Island Database
5) Castle Garden Database
6) Ancestry.com (only the 1880 Census)
7) Google Search Engine
8) Cyndi's List
9) USGenWeb Project
In each tutorial, there is a summary of the database or web site, and links for Demonstration or Practice.
If you click on Demonstration, you will get step-by-step directions in the left-hand frame for how to use the database of web site with examples shown in the right-hand frame.
If you click on Practice, then the step-by-step directions appear in the left-hand frame, the actual web site input boxes and results are in the right hand frame, and you can input your own ancestors into the databases.
This web site has just provided a new tutorial for Researching Your Patriot Ancestor. This tutorial series has four modules:
* Getting Started (includes Home Sources, Social Security Death Index, and Chart basics)
* Finding a Revolutionary War Patriot (includes the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, census records, FamilySearch, Google, and DAR/SAR Patriot lookups)
* Documenting the Lineage (includes the SSDI, http://www.vitalrec.com/, http://www.deathindexes.com/, Family History Library Catalog, and http://www.sampubco.com/.
It all works beautifully. And it is free! The tutorial is fairly simple to use and accesses only freely available online databases. However, a similar tutorial that utilizes commercial web sites such as Ancestry, WorldVitalRecords, Footnote, GenealogyBank, NewEnglandAncestors and others might be useful to those who have access to these sites (for instance, at home, at a library, at the LDS Family History Library, and selected LDS Family History Centers).
The whole tutorial can be used to provide a fairly complete course on how to effectively pursue genealogy research on the Internet. IMHO, it is much better than any static lecture course because the student can see a demonstration and then practice using the databases with the step-by-step directions on the screen.
If your local society is struggling to provide online genealogy research instruction to your members, this is by far the best online hands-on at-your-own-pace tutorial I have found.
This site has an online genealogy tutorial that is excellent for both beginner and veteran Internet researchers. The tutorial is in six modules:
I- Getting Started (Home Sources, Charts, Recording Information, Citing Resources)
II - Using Online Resources (Online Databases, Search Engines, Directories)
III - Gathering Key Records (Vital Records, Federal Census Records)
IV - Exploring Further (Probate Records, Church Records, Military Records, Newspapers)
V - Sharing Information (Discussion Lists, Message Boards, Software Programs)
VI - Quiz
Module II, provides tutorials for:
1) Social Security Death Index
2) Rootsweb WorldConnect Project Database
3) LDS FamilySearch Databases
4) Ellis Island Database
5) Castle Garden Database
6) Ancestry.com (only the 1880 Census)
7) Google Search Engine
8) Cyndi's List
9) USGenWeb Project
In each tutorial, there is a summary of the database or web site, and links for Demonstration or Practice.
If you click on Demonstration, you will get step-by-step directions in the left-hand frame for how to use the database of web site with examples shown in the right-hand frame.
If you click on Practice, then the step-by-step directions appear in the left-hand frame, the actual web site input boxes and results are in the right hand frame, and you can input your own ancestors into the databases.
This web site has just provided a new tutorial for Researching Your Patriot Ancestor. This tutorial series has four modules:
* Getting Started (includes Home Sources, Social Security Death Index, and Chart basics)
* Finding a Revolutionary War Patriot (includes the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, census records, FamilySearch, Google, and DAR/SAR Patriot lookups)
* Documenting the Lineage (includes the SSDI, http://www.vitalrec.com/, http://www.deathindexes.com/, Family History Library Catalog, and http://www.sampubco.com/.
It all works beautifully. And it is free! The tutorial is fairly simple to use and accesses only freely available online databases. However, a similar tutorial that utilizes commercial web sites such as Ancestry, WorldVitalRecords, Footnote, GenealogyBank, NewEnglandAncestors and others might be useful to those who have access to these sites (for instance, at home, at a library, at the LDS Family History Library, and selected LDS Family History Centers).
The whole tutorial can be used to provide a fairly complete course on how to effectively pursue genealogy research on the Internet. IMHO, it is much better than any static lecture course because the student can see a demonstration and then practice using the databases with the step-by-step directions on the screen.
If your local society is struggling to provide online genealogy research instruction to your members, this is by far the best online hands-on at-your-own-pace tutorial I have found.
NEHG Register Table of Contents - April 2008 issue
The Table of Contents for The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Volume 162, Number 2, Whole Number 646), April 2008, includes:
* Editorial - page 83
* Peter Hackley of New London, Connecticut, and His Two Wives, Elizabeth (Waterhouse) Baker and Elizabeth (Marshall) Darrow, by Patricia St. Clair Ostwodl - page 85
* William Reynolds of Plymouth Colony and Cape Porpoise, Maine, by Martin E. Hollick - page 91
* The Identity of Phillipa, Second Wife of Nicholas West of Drayton, Somerset, and Grandmother of Joan (West) White of Lancaster, Massachusetts, by Patricia A. Metsch - page 93
* English Origins of Lawrence Leach of Salem, Massachusetts, by Robert F. Henderson and James R. Henderson - page 98.
* Identifying Mercy, Wife of Thomas Hinckley of Harwich, Massachusetts, As Mercy (Bangs) (Hinckley) Cole, by Glade Ian Nelson - page 101
* Various Wills Relating to New England Colonists: Gillett, Swaine, Cheney, and Tutty-Knight-Whitman, by Leslie Mahler - page 113
* Dorcas (____) Lippitt of Providence, Rhode Island, and Her Descendants, by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg (concluded from 162:36) - page 118
* Ancestry of Bennet Eliot of Nazeing, Essex, Father of Seven Great Migration Immigrants to Massachusetts, by William Wyman Fiske (concluded from 162:72) - page 128
* Wolston Brockway of Lyme, Connecticut, with Further Analysis of His Associations, by Gale Ion Harris (concluded from 162:46) - page 140
* Joseph and Phoebe (Millington) Rounds of Clarendon and Monkton, Vermont, by John Bradley Arthaud and Marcia (Yannizze) Melnyk (concluded from 162:64) - page 149
* Reviews of Books and CD-ROMs - page 154
The books reviewed include:
* The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1756-1656) [an error? probably 1576-1656] of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts: The Family in England and the First Six Generations in North America, by Eben W. Graves (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* The Pierponts of Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG, (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* The Descendants of John Grumman(t) of Cranfield, Bedfordshire, and Fairfield, Connecticut, and His Wife Sarah Try, by Martin Grumman Phillips (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* Royal Families: Americans of royal and Noble Ancestry: Volume Three, Samuel Appleton and His wife Judith Everard and Five Generations of Their Descendants, by Marston Watson (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007).
* The Ancestors of Alila May Miller (1881-1960) of Miller Place, Long Island, New York, by Willis H. White (Herndon, Va., the author, 2007).
* Caudebec in France and England: The Origin of Jacques Caudebec, 1664 - abt. 1764-1766, of Bolbec, France, and Deerpark, New York, Ancestor of the Cuddeback Family in America, by Elwyn L. Simons (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2005).
* Thomas Fairchild, Puritan Merchant & Magistrate. The Life and Times of an American Colonizer & Patriarch (c. 1610-1670), by W. Bruce Fairchild (New York, iUniverse, Inc., 2006).
* 15 Generations of Whipples: Descendants of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Abt. 1590-1647: An American Story, by Blaine Whipple, 4 vols. (Baltimore, Gateway Press, 2007).
* Hubbell by Choice: The Ancestry of Some Early Connecticut Women, by Mary Ann Walker Hubbell and Marjorie F. Hubbell Gibson, with Carol Hubbell Boggs, Bertie Herman, and Barbara Kruse (n.p., Hubbell Family Historical Society, 2008).
This issue has several interesting and useful articles for those researchers with the specific subject families. The Mercy (Bangs) (Hinckley) Cole brushes close to my Cape Cod Bangs and Cole families - she's not mine, but she's the wife of a sibling of one of my Cole ancestors, and a distant cousin due to her newly found Bangs family birth.
I value these issues because they demonstrate research techniques and results in finding colonial New England records and records in England prior to colonization. In many cases, they are inspirational to me - "look what they found, I wonder if I could try that for ..."
I also value the list of books reviewed, because Carlsbad Library in northern San Diego County often purchases new family surname books. In my own ancestry, I have the Whipple family from these works reviewed. The descendant books are also useful because they may cover collateral Seaver families in more detail than I have from my own research.
I checked the www.NewEnglandAncestors.org web site to see if the table of contents for this issue can be downloaded - the last issue they have on the site is January 2008, not the current April, 2008 issue. They show only the four 2007 issues available currently in PDF format. I really don't understand why organizations like NEHGS don't keep their web site up-to-date with the latest information.
Why doesn't NEHGS post the Table of Contents for the whole run of the publication online? It's only text, which doesn't have much bandwidth. That only makes sense to me. A researcher might Google a name and find that an article in NEHGR has been published. They may buy the specific issue, or even subscribe to the Society in order to gain access to the entire publication run.
* Editorial - page 83
* Peter Hackley of New London, Connecticut, and His Two Wives, Elizabeth (Waterhouse) Baker and Elizabeth (Marshall) Darrow, by Patricia St. Clair Ostwodl - page 85
* William Reynolds of Plymouth Colony and Cape Porpoise, Maine, by Martin E. Hollick - page 91
* The Identity of Phillipa, Second Wife of Nicholas West of Drayton, Somerset, and Grandmother of Joan (West) White of Lancaster, Massachusetts, by Patricia A. Metsch - page 93
* English Origins of Lawrence Leach of Salem, Massachusetts, by Robert F. Henderson and James R. Henderson - page 98.
* Identifying Mercy, Wife of Thomas Hinckley of Harwich, Massachusetts, As Mercy (Bangs) (Hinckley) Cole, by Glade Ian Nelson - page 101
* Various Wills Relating to New England Colonists: Gillett, Swaine, Cheney, and Tutty-Knight-Whitman, by Leslie Mahler - page 113
* Dorcas (____) Lippitt of Providence, Rhode Island, and Her Descendants, by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg (concluded from 162:36) - page 118
* Ancestry of Bennet Eliot of Nazeing, Essex, Father of Seven Great Migration Immigrants to Massachusetts, by William Wyman Fiske (concluded from 162:72) - page 128
* Wolston Brockway of Lyme, Connecticut, with Further Analysis of His Associations, by Gale Ion Harris (concluded from 162:46) - page 140
* Joseph and Phoebe (Millington) Rounds of Clarendon and Monkton, Vermont, by John Bradley Arthaud and Marcia (Yannizze) Melnyk (concluded from 162:64) - page 149
* Reviews of Books and CD-ROMs - page 154
The books reviewed include:
* The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1756-1656) [an error? probably 1576-1656] of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts: The Family in England and the First Six Generations in North America, by Eben W. Graves (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* The Pierponts of Roxbury, Massachusetts, by Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG, (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* The Descendants of John Grumman(t) of Cranfield, Bedfordshire, and Fairfield, Connecticut, and His Wife Sarah Try, by Martin Grumman Phillips (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2007).
* Royal Families: Americans of royal and Noble Ancestry: Volume Three, Samuel Appleton and His wife Judith Everard and Five Generations of Their Descendants, by Marston Watson (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007).
* The Ancestors of Alila May Miller (1881-1960) of Miller Place, Long Island, New York, by Willis H. White (Herndon, Va., the author, 2007).
* Caudebec in France and England: The Origin of Jacques Caudebec, 1664 - abt. 1764-1766, of Bolbec, France, and Deerpark, New York, Ancestor of the Cuddeback Family in America, by Elwyn L. Simons (Boston, Newbury Street Press, 2005).
* Thomas Fairchild, Puritan Merchant & Magistrate. The Life and Times of an American Colonizer & Patriarch (c. 1610-1670), by W. Bruce Fairchild (New York, iUniverse, Inc., 2006).
* 15 Generations of Whipples: Descendants of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Abt. 1590-1647: An American Story, by Blaine Whipple, 4 vols. (Baltimore, Gateway Press, 2007).
* Hubbell by Choice: The Ancestry of Some Early Connecticut Women, by Mary Ann Walker Hubbell and Marjorie F. Hubbell Gibson, with Carol Hubbell Boggs, Bertie Herman, and Barbara Kruse (n.p., Hubbell Family Historical Society, 2008).
This issue has several interesting and useful articles for those researchers with the specific subject families. The Mercy (Bangs) (Hinckley) Cole brushes close to my Cape Cod Bangs and Cole families - she's not mine, but she's the wife of a sibling of one of my Cole ancestors, and a distant cousin due to her newly found Bangs family birth.
I value these issues because they demonstrate research techniques and results in finding colonial New England records and records in England prior to colonization. In many cases, they are inspirational to me - "look what they found, I wonder if I could try that for ..."
I also value the list of books reviewed, because Carlsbad Library in northern San Diego County often purchases new family surname books. In my own ancestry, I have the Whipple family from these works reviewed. The descendant books are also useful because they may cover collateral Seaver families in more detail than I have from my own research.
I checked the www.NewEnglandAncestors.org web site to see if the table of contents for this issue can be downloaded - the last issue they have on the site is January 2008, not the current April, 2008 issue. They show only the four 2007 issues available currently in PDF format. I really don't understand why organizations like NEHGS don't keep their web site up-to-date with the latest information.
Why doesn't NEHGS post the Table of Contents for the whole run of the publication online? It's only text, which doesn't have much bandwidth. That only makes sense to me. A researcher might Google a name and find that an article in NEHGR has been published. They may buy the specific issue, or even subscribe to the Society in order to gain access to the entire publication run.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Records from Central and South America on Ancestry
Gary Gibb posted "Why Such Little Interest in Central and South American Records?" on the Ancestry.com blog on 23 May. Please read all of his post, and the comments too. In his post, Gary asked:
"Is it that we have had so few records from Central and South America that people that come from those places do not visit Ancestry?
"Is it that they just have lower interest in Genealogy?"
I saw the post on the first day, and recognized the importance of it to researchers with Latin American heritage. My local society in Southern California has noticed an increased interest in Central (including Mexico) and South American family history and genealogy, and we have found very few resources to help researchers with their research - mainly the Church records on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library and in their IGI and Vital Records databases.
My comments to Gary's post included:
"An interesting question, but I can think of several responses.
"1) How many databases do you have for Central and South America?
"2) It’s a pretty big place - with a total population exceeding North America. Only Belize and Guyana speak English as a first language, right? Brazil speaks Portuguese, Surinam [speaks] Dutch, and the rest speak Spanish. Does Ancestry have a Spanish or Portuguese language capability?
"3) The population of much of Latin America is poor, and does not have universal Internet access. If poor, buying basic necessities would trump paying for an Ancestry subscription - but a subscription to what?
"4) If you offer services in their language that meet their needs, they will come. The horse has to come before the cart."
There are now many more comments to Gary's post, which is good because only through feedback can Ancestry.com determine the importance of records to researchers. The commenters make good points.
Why did Gary write the post in the first place? Was it a post to determine if there was any interest at all? Or to determine what specific interest that there might be?
Is there an opportunity here for Ancestry.com to expand into church records that the Catholic Church now won't allow the LDS FHL to digitize or index? Is there an opportunity to digitize government records that may be available in many Central and South American countries - like census, vital, land, probate, military, immigration, etc. if they exist.
What do you think about this issue? Those with Latin American heritage are a significant percentage of the USA population. It must be remembered that it includes some of the Caribbean countries (e.g., Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc.). How can they be better served with genealogy databases and web sites?
I urge my readers with an interest in Central and South American genealogy research to respond to Gary's post with specific recommendations for databases and an expression of interest in having Ancestry expand to a Spain/Latin America specialty web site and subscription.
"Is it that we have had so few records from Central and South America that people that come from those places do not visit Ancestry?
"Is it that they just have lower interest in Genealogy?"
I saw the post on the first day, and recognized the importance of it to researchers with Latin American heritage. My local society in Southern California has noticed an increased interest in Central (including Mexico) and South American family history and genealogy, and we have found very few resources to help researchers with their research - mainly the Church records on microfilm at the LDS Family History Library and in their IGI and Vital Records databases.
My comments to Gary's post included:
"An interesting question, but I can think of several responses.
"1) How many databases do you have for Central and South America?
"2) It’s a pretty big place - with a total population exceeding North America. Only Belize and Guyana speak English as a first language, right? Brazil speaks Portuguese, Surinam [speaks] Dutch, and the rest speak Spanish. Does Ancestry have a Spanish or Portuguese language capability?
"3) The population of much of Latin America is poor, and does not have universal Internet access. If poor, buying basic necessities would trump paying for an Ancestry subscription - but a subscription to what?
"4) If you offer services in their language that meet their needs, they will come. The horse has to come before the cart."
There are now many more comments to Gary's post, which is good because only through feedback can Ancestry.com determine the importance of records to researchers. The commenters make good points.
Why did Gary write the post in the first place? Was it a post to determine if there was any interest at all? Or to determine what specific interest that there might be?
Is there an opportunity here for Ancestry.com to expand into church records that the Catholic Church now won't allow the LDS FHL to digitize or index? Is there an opportunity to digitize government records that may be available in many Central and South American countries - like census, vital, land, probate, military, immigration, etc. if they exist.
What do you think about this issue? Those with Latin American heritage are a significant percentage of the USA population. It must be remembered that it includes some of the Caribbean countries (e.g., Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc.). How can they be better served with genealogy databases and web sites?
I urge my readers with an interest in Central and South American genealogy research to respond to Gary's post with specific recommendations for databases and an expression of interest in having Ancestry expand to a Spain/Latin America specialty web site and subscription.
CVGS "Scottish Research" Program by Jackie Webster
The Chula Vista Genealogical Society program meeting speaker on Wednesday, 28 May, was Jackie Webster, who spoke on "Scottish Research." Jackie's CV and talk summary was posted here.
Jackie focused on the research that can be performed either using online resources or the LDS resources available at the San Diego Family History Center. She explained where records were located at the FHC, especially the Research Guides, the microfilms, the CDROMs, the computers, and the British Isles (BIGRA) collection. Jackie described the major books found at the reference desk, the general book shelves and the British Isles (BIGRA) shelves.
She summarized the availability of the Civil Registration of births, marriages and deaths (after 1855) and the Old Parochial Registers (OPR) of Scotland for the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), which has baptisms, marriages and burials before 1855. Scotland has 33 counties and over 900 parishes. All of these records can be found on microfilms, and many are held permanently at the San Diego FHC. She also mentioned non-conformist church records.
Jackie covered the census records, which are available for 1841 to 1891 at present. They are all available on microfilm, and several are in online databases. The FHC has all of the 1861 and 1871 census microfilms, and a microfiche series with the transcribed 1881 census.
The BIGRA shelves at the FHC have many genealogy gems, including Family History society newsletters for many counties, books for monumental inscriptions, occupations and trades, gazetteers, clans and tartans, and surnames.
Jackie showed examples of many records for her ancestors, and described the processes used to find them. She particularly mentioned the army, medical, ministry and biographical records connected with the Honorable East India Company (HEIC) for military persons (many from Scotland) who served in India during the 19th century.
This presentation was full of interesting and useful information, especially for those with Scottish ancestry. In response to a question, Jackie explained that Scotland was initially settled by people from Ireland in the medieval time, then some Scots migrated to northern Ireland in the early 1700's, and many emigrated to Canada (especially Nova Scotia) and the USA in the mid to late 1700's.
Jackie ran out of time to cover the Internet resources in detail. Her handout listed the following web sites:
DATABASES:
* www.familysearch.org -- IGI, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File have many Scottish families.
* www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk -- a commercial site with Civil Registration BMD from 1855, Old Parish Records to 1854, the 1841 to 1901 census, and wills and testaments to 1901 (free). You can subscribe for a set number of credits (30 for 6 pounds).
* www.scottishdocuments.com -- free site for historical records and documents.
ARCHIVES:
* www.nas.gov.uk -- National Archives of Scotland official web site
* www.scan.org.uk -- digital archive for the Scottish Archive Network which has digitized all testaments from 1500 to 1901.
* www.nls.uk -- National Library of Scotland catalog
BACKGROUND:
* http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/ -- Statistical Accounts of Scotland - sources for Scottish life in the 18th and 19th century.
DIRECTORIES:
* www.genuki.org.uk -- GENUKI is a "virtual reference library" of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland. It is a noncommercial service, provided by an ever-growing group of volunteers in cooperation with the Federation of Family History Societies and a number of its member societies.
We had a reporter and a photographer from the San Diego Union-Tribune present at the meeting. The reporter interviewed several members after the meeting, and the photographer took shots of the Board members, the speaker, and the attendees. We hope to see an article in the newspaper next week.
Jackie focused on the research that can be performed either using online resources or the LDS resources available at the San Diego Family History Center. She explained where records were located at the FHC, especially the Research Guides, the microfilms, the CDROMs, the computers, and the British Isles (BIGRA) collection. Jackie described the major books found at the reference desk, the general book shelves and the British Isles (BIGRA) shelves.
She summarized the availability of the Civil Registration of births, marriages and deaths (after 1855) and the Old Parochial Registers (OPR) of Scotland for the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), which has baptisms, marriages and burials before 1855. Scotland has 33 counties and over 900 parishes. All of these records can be found on microfilms, and many are held permanently at the San Diego FHC. She also mentioned non-conformist church records.
Jackie covered the census records, which are available for 1841 to 1891 at present. They are all available on microfilm, and several are in online databases. The FHC has all of the 1861 and 1871 census microfilms, and a microfiche series with the transcribed 1881 census.
The BIGRA shelves at the FHC have many genealogy gems, including Family History society newsletters for many counties, books for monumental inscriptions, occupations and trades, gazetteers, clans and tartans, and surnames.
Jackie showed examples of many records for her ancestors, and described the processes used to find them. She particularly mentioned the army, medical, ministry and biographical records connected with the Honorable East India Company (HEIC) for military persons (many from Scotland) who served in India during the 19th century.
This presentation was full of interesting and useful information, especially for those with Scottish ancestry. In response to a question, Jackie explained that Scotland was initially settled by people from Ireland in the medieval time, then some Scots migrated to northern Ireland in the early 1700's, and many emigrated to Canada (especially Nova Scotia) and the USA in the mid to late 1700's.
Jackie ran out of time to cover the Internet resources in detail. Her handout listed the following web sites:
DATABASES:
* www.familysearch.org -- IGI, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File have many Scottish families.
* www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk -- a commercial site with Civil Registration BMD from 1855, Old Parish Records to 1854, the 1841 to 1901 census, and wills and testaments to 1901 (free). You can subscribe for a set number of credits (30 for 6 pounds).
* www.scottishdocuments.com -- free site for historical records and documents.
ARCHIVES:
* www.nas.gov.uk -- National Archives of Scotland official web site
* www.scan.org.uk -- digital archive for the Scottish Archive Network which has digitized all testaments from 1500 to 1901.
* www.nls.uk -- National Library of Scotland catalog
BACKGROUND:
* http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/ -- Statistical Accounts of Scotland - sources for Scottish life in the 18th and 19th century.
DIRECTORIES:
* www.genuki.org.uk -- GENUKI is a "virtual reference library" of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland. It is a noncommercial service, provided by an ever-growing group of volunteers in cooperation with the Federation of Family History Societies and a number of its member societies.
We had a reporter and a photographer from the San Diego Union-Tribune present at the meeting. The reporter interviewed several members after the meeting, and the photographer took shots of the Board members, the speaker, and the attendees. We hope to see an article in the newspaper next week.
At the Beach!
I searched my family photographs for beach pictures for this Carnival of Genealogy post, but I found only one that I've scanned. I'm sure that there are more in my family photo albums, but they are not scanned yet.
The one I found is from 1958, and it certainly fills the bill about bathing beauties.
The one I found is from 1958, and it certainly fills the bill about bathing beauties.
This photo was taken by my father at Mission Bay in San Diego, and shows my mother (the bathing beauty) wading with my brother Scott while I and brother Stan play in the water and the sand.
My parents didn't take us to the beach very often - it was usually not a holiday and rarely more often than once a year. We almost always went to the bay (no waves) rather than the ocean (with waves) - this was probably a safety issue with them! As boys, we loved the beach! Water, sand, sand crabs, seaweed, kelp, fish, shells - what a beautiful playground. We could run and jump and make a big mess ... and take it home too. I remember being buried in the sand with only my head above the ground - a feeling of total helplessness.
When I was a teenager, we would hitchhike from the top of Texas Street to the beach - there were usually three or four of us, and invariably we ended up at Mission Beach, which had not only the ocean with nice bodysurfing waves but also Belmont Park, an amusement park with the Big Dipper roller coaster, and a salt-water indoor pool. Bodysurfing is exhilarating - the wave actually catches you and sometimes throws you down on the sand in front of the wave. There is a science to it. You spend hours bobbing in the ocean waiting for the right wave in the right place. It's difficult without swim fins. As a teenager, the beach was a great place to watch teen girls (and other females) in bathing suits - and learn about some of the finer points of the opposite sex.
I never learned how to surf on a board. The surf boom started while I was in high school and I didn't fit in with that crowd, so I never learned how. I was always envious of the guys who did. And I loved the surf music - the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Dick Dale and the Deltones, the Ventures, etc.
When we married and had children, going to the beach became a regular event for the Easter, Fourth of July, Labor Day and Christmas holidays. When the girls were small, we usually went to the Silver Strand State Beach because they had a snack bar and restrooms. In later years, we went to Imperial Beach (we have a friend that lives right on the beach) or the Coronado Beach by the Hotel del Coronado (the girls youth group often went here). There are other great beaches - notably Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Windansea Beach in La Jolla, La Jolla Shores, the clothing optional Black's Beach below UCSD, the glider port and the Torrey Pines Golf Course (I've never been there!), and more further up the coast. There are fishing piers extending out into the ocean at Imperial Beach, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach and Oceanside. On a holiday weekend, its not unusual to have more than half a million people at the San Diego beaches. Imperial Beach also has a great sand castle contest every year.
My daughters learned to swim early, and it was great fun to watch them scamper from the waves when they were young. When they were older, we all went into the ocean and bodysurfed and boogie-boarded. The real highlight for me was the creativity involved in building sand castles. We always took buckets and diggers, and created intricate English-style castles with moats and tunnels. Then we dripped sand from our fingers to make them look really old. If the surf didn't take the castle down before we left, the girls would body-bomb them - run and jump on them. Then they'd have to wash the sand off of them in the surf again.
The weather in San Diego is usually cool during May and June, with the sun rarely peaking through the clouds (we have May gray and June gloom) and beach air and water temperatures in the mid-60's. By July, the clouds disappear and it's sunny nearly every day into October, with beach temperatures in the mid-70's and water temperatures around 70 F. In September and October, the Santa Ana winds sometimes create hot days (over 100 F) and people flock to the beaches. In the late fall, winter and spring, the water is usually below 60 F but there are often warm and clear days for walking on the beach and enjoying the scenery. We often have beautiful crystal-clear and warm days at Christmas time and Easter time.
When out-of-town visitors are here, we usually visit Coronado Beach, the tidepools at the end of Point Loma, the wave-carved beach at La Jolla, the Children's Pool at La Jolla Cove, and we drive along the Sunset Cliffs on Point Loma.
In our retirement years, Linda and I occasionally go to Imperial Beach or Coronado Beach and walk along the beach for exercise and the atmosphere. We occasionally have a weekend vacation to Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and other Southern California towns - we stay in a motel, shop in the stores, and walk on the beach watching families with children having fun, and remembering the good old days.
See here for information, pictures and videos of all of the San Diego County beaches. There are some beautiful pictures of San Diego scenery - including beaches - here, here and here. I hope you don't mind that I sort of turned this into a travelogue show! I'm proud of my home town!
Actually, I did find another beach picture in my photo collection (not my mother, wife or any other relative) which I posted here.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Where do visitors go on Ancestry.com?
The web information company, www.alexa.com, provides some indication of the subdomains used by visitors to a web site.
For instance, for www.ancestry.com, Alexa provides the following percentages for these sub-domains:
* search.ancestry.com - 41% (this is the subdomain when you click on a match in a database)
* trees.ancestry.com - 28% (this is the subdomain when you click on your own, or someone else's, family tree)
* ancestry.com - 15% (this is the main domain where you start a search)
* content.ancestry.com - 9% (this is the subdomain when you click on a specific database from a menu to get a list of matches)
* boards.ancestry.com - 3% (this is the message board subdomain - you get to it from the main ancestry page by clicking on the Community tab)
* secure.ancestry.com - 1% (this the personal account page - you can get to it from the My Account link)
* awtc.ancestry.com - 1% (this is one of the Ancestry World Tree pages - you can get to it only by clicking on a match in Ancestry World Tree)
* awt.ancestry.com - 1% (this is also one of the Ancestry World Tree pages - you can get to it only by clicking on a match in Ancestry World Tree)
* rootsweb.ancestry.com - 1% (this is the main Rootsweb page - I don't think you can get to it from the main Ancestry page).
Those total up to 100% - they're probably rounded off a bit. It's interesting that the subdomains dna.ancestry.com, learn.ancestry.com, landing.ancestry.com, ancestrypress.ancestry.com and store.ancestry.com don't register on the list.
What can we figure out from the statistics? If we assume that these are page views, then:
* 28% are associated with family trees submitted to One World Tree, Personal Member Trees and Public Member Trees. Only 2% are associated with Ancestry World Tree for some reason (I think that AWT is much easier to navigate and use than the others, and contains much of the same information as the others). I'm surprised that this number is so high. It may be inflated because you have to click many times to find useful information on a family line in OWT and PMT.
* 41% are associated with actual searches in databases - results from a search request and the search results, including the database images. I'm surprised that this number is this low.
* 9% (Content) is associated with finding a specific database - but you have to do it from specific web pages, like the What's New list, the Card Catalog and the New Database list. I'm surprised that this number is as high as it is.
* Only 3% are for the Message Boards and only 1% for the Rootsweb main page and subpages. My opinion was that these percentages would be higher once Rootsweb came into the Ancestry domain. I usually use the WorldConnect database through Rootsweb (the subdomain would be wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com) and not through Ancestry Trees. Since it's free, I thought that this would have much more traffic than the Ancestry World Tree (also free) subdomains on Ancestry.
It's not clear what the time frame is for these statistics. If it's the last three months or more, they may be skewed by the use of the Rootsweb domain before April.
What are you surprised by in this list? How do you analyze this?
For instance, for www.ancestry.com, Alexa provides the following percentages for these sub-domains:
* search.ancestry.com - 41% (this is the subdomain when you click on a match in a database)
* trees.ancestry.com - 28% (this is the subdomain when you click on your own, or someone else's, family tree)
* ancestry.com - 15% (this is the main domain where you start a search)
* content.ancestry.com - 9% (this is the subdomain when you click on a specific database from a menu to get a list of matches)
* boards.ancestry.com - 3% (this is the message board subdomain - you get to it from the main ancestry page by clicking on the Community tab)
* secure.ancestry.com - 1% (this the personal account page - you can get to it from the My Account link)
* awtc.ancestry.com - 1% (this is one of the Ancestry World Tree pages - you can get to it only by clicking on a match in Ancestry World Tree)
* awt.ancestry.com - 1% (this is also one of the Ancestry World Tree pages - you can get to it only by clicking on a match in Ancestry World Tree)
* rootsweb.ancestry.com - 1% (this is the main Rootsweb page - I don't think you can get to it from the main Ancestry page).
Those total up to 100% - they're probably rounded off a bit. It's interesting that the subdomains dna.ancestry.com, learn.ancestry.com, landing.ancestry.com, ancestrypress.ancestry.com and store.ancestry.com don't register on the list.
What can we figure out from the statistics? If we assume that these are page views, then:
* 28% are associated with family trees submitted to One World Tree, Personal Member Trees and Public Member Trees. Only 2% are associated with Ancestry World Tree for some reason (I think that AWT is much easier to navigate and use than the others, and contains much of the same information as the others). I'm surprised that this number is so high. It may be inflated because you have to click many times to find useful information on a family line in OWT and PMT.
* 41% are associated with actual searches in databases - results from a search request and the search results, including the database images. I'm surprised that this number is this low.
* 9% (Content) is associated with finding a specific database - but you have to do it from specific web pages, like the What's New list, the Card Catalog and the New Database list. I'm surprised that this number is as high as it is.
* Only 3% are for the Message Boards and only 1% for the Rootsweb main page and subpages. My opinion was that these percentages would be higher once Rootsweb came into the Ancestry domain. I usually use the WorldConnect database through Rootsweb (the subdomain would be wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com) and not through Ancestry Trees. Since it's free, I thought that this would have much more traffic than the Ancestry World Tree (also free) subdomains on Ancestry.
It's not clear what the time frame is for these statistics. If it's the last three months or more, they may be skewed by the use of the Rootsweb domain before April.
What are you surprised by in this list? How do you analyze this?
What about unclaimed ancestors?
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has an intriguing blog post titled "Coroners and Genealogists Join Forces in New Show to Tackle Quiet Epidemic of Unclaimed Persons" on her RootsTelevision blog. Of course, there is a video also about this story - watch it here.
My semi-twisted mind wondered about the millions of unclaimed ancestors lying in graves around the world - marked or unmarked.
I wondered how many of them have never been put into a family tree by a descendant or genealogy researcher. There are over 500 million entries in the Rootsweb WorldConnect family tree database (the same as in Ancestry's World Tree), and hundreds of millions more in other family tree databases, but many of them are duplicates.
My SWAG (super wild-a$$ guess) is that only about 10% of people in the 1900 US census are in online family trees. The percentage is probably a bit higher for people in the 1850 census. What about the 1790 census -- higher or lower than 10%?
How can we figure this out? I'm going to try by looking at about five random pages from each census and see if the families are in the WorldConnect databases. I'll report back later on this.
Many of the unclaimed persons that Megan wrote and videoed about have children, siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins still living. The living relatives obviously don't know about the situation of their unclaimed family member or they don't care enough to find out about them. Both are sad situations to be in.
How would you like to be an abandoned or unclaimed ancestor? You could be moldering away in your grave worrying that nobody really cared enough to find you in a census or even write a memory story about you. Not mine - I'm trying to find out everything I can about them in order to honor their lives and their contribution to my genetic makeup so that my progeny, siblings and cousins can understand better their roots.
Don't let it happen to you - document your genealogy and family history and make sure that it is distributed to your family members. Make photo albums (with labels), family history books, collections of family papers, genealogy databases, family newsletters, blog posts, etc.
My semi-twisted mind wondered about the millions of unclaimed ancestors lying in graves around the world - marked or unmarked.
I wondered how many of them have never been put into a family tree by a descendant or genealogy researcher. There are over 500 million entries in the Rootsweb WorldConnect family tree database (the same as in Ancestry's World Tree), and hundreds of millions more in other family tree databases, but many of them are duplicates.
My SWAG (super wild-a$$ guess) is that only about 10% of people in the 1900 US census are in online family trees. The percentage is probably a bit higher for people in the 1850 census. What about the 1790 census -- higher or lower than 10%?
How can we figure this out? I'm going to try by looking at about five random pages from each census and see if the families are in the WorldConnect databases. I'll report back later on this.
Many of the unclaimed persons that Megan wrote and videoed about have children, siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins still living. The living relatives obviously don't know about the situation of their unclaimed family member or they don't care enough to find out about them. Both are sad situations to be in.
How would you like to be an abandoned or unclaimed ancestor? You could be moldering away in your grave worrying that nobody really cared enough to find you in a census or even write a memory story about you. Not mine - I'm trying to find out everything I can about them in order to honor their lives and their contribution to my genetic makeup so that my progeny, siblings and cousins can understand better their roots.
Don't let it happen to you - document your genealogy and family history and make sure that it is distributed to your family members. Make photo albums (with labels), family history books, collections of family papers, genealogy databases, family newsletters, blog posts, etc.
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