Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- The Time Capsule

Hey genea-fanatics, it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you deign to accept it (come on, it's fun!), is to:

1) Go to the dMarie Time Capsule Website - http://dmarie.com/timecap/

2) Select a date in your family history that you want to know about. You might pick a birth date or wedding date of your parents or grandparents.

3) Enter the date into the search form, and select the news, songs, toys, books and other things that you want to feature.

4) Share the date, why you picked it, and the results of your Time Capsule study on your own blog, in a comment to this post, or in a comment or post on Facebook.

Here's mine:

I chose my grandparents (Frederick Walton Seaver and Alma Bessie Richmond) marriage date - 21 June 1900. I found out that the news of the month included:

* Jun 1 - British army occupiers Pretoria South-Africa

* Jun 8 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the 6 Napoleons"

* Jun 12 - German Navy Law calls for massive increase in sea power

* Jun 13 - China's Boxer Rebellion against foreigners & Christians

* Jun 14 - Hawaiian Republic becomes the US Territory of Hawaii

* Jun 26 - Dr Walter Reed begins research that beats Yellow Fever

The United States President was William McKinley and there was no Vice-President (Garret Hobart had died in 1899).

Prices in 1900 included:

* Bread: 3 cents

* Milk: 30 cents per gallon

* Car: $500

* House: $4,000

* Stamp: 2 cents

* Average Income: $637 per year

Toys Used in 1900:

* Ouija Boards
* Tiddledy Winks
* Gund Soft Toys
* Parcheesi
* Cap Guns
* Snakes and Ladders

Top Books in 1900:

* Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
* Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

That's enough! What year should I do next?

Surname Saturday -- FLETCHER (Ontario? Quebec?)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ahnentafel list each week. I'm up to number 61, who is Sarah Sephrona Fletcher (ca 1802-????).

My ancestral line back to Sarah is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002)

6. Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7. Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14. Charles Auble (1848-1916)
15. Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)

30. James Abram Kemp (1831-1902)
31. Mary Jane Sovereen (1840-1874)

60. Abraham James Kemp, born 04 November 1795 in Fredericksburgh, Addington County, Ontario, CANADA, and died after 1881 in Norfolk County, Ontario, CANADA. He was the son of John Kemp and Mary Dafoe. He married 16 April 1818 in probably Prince Edward County, Ontario, CANADA.
61. Sarah Sephrona Fletcher, born 07 July 1802 in perhaps, Quebec, France or Lower Canada; died after 1861 in probably Hastings County, Ontario, CANADA.

I do not know who Sarah's parents are. The only information about Sarah's maiden name, birth date and marriage date was obtained from a typed transcription of a Kemp family Bible record of her grandson, John Evans Kemp, which is now in the possession of the Orange County Genealogical Society, Huntington Beach, California, and was accessed at the Huntington Beach (CA) Public Library.

The birth place of France is based on the 1851/2 Census records but this is not proven since the 1861 Census records show her born in Ontario. Also, the 1851 and 1861 census places her birth year about 1806/7. The 1851/2 census records indicates that Sarah's religion was "R.C." which is, I assume, Roman Catholic. That correlates well with the "France" birthplace in the 1851/2 census.

I have searched the available online Ontario and Quebec birth/baptism records for a Sarah or Sephrona Fletcher (and for a "Sephrona" without a surname) without success. I have also looked for a Fletcher family, without success, in Prince Edward County, Ontario where their first children were baptized.

If there are any Kemp cousins that haven't contacted me about the Abraham and Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp family, I would appreciate hearing from you at rjseaver@cox.net.

APG Professional Management Conference Announcement

Debbie Parker Wayne sent this notice about the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Professional Management Conference (PMC) on 17 August 2010 in Knoxville:

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Charting Your Path to Success – APG PMC, 17 August 2010, Knoxville, Tennessee

As professional genealogists we must educate ourselves on business issues, methodology, technological advances, and many other issues related to research. Conferences offer formal training opportunities as well as the ability to network with other professionals. Lunchtime and after–hours are often great times for networking. Put education at the top of your priority list and join us at this upcoming event.The 2010 APG Professional Management Conference (PMC) on 17 August 2010 in Knoxville, Tennessee offers great educational opportunities. Register by 1 June and save $20.00. For more information see: http://www.apgen.org/conferences/index.html

The topics for the 2010 PMC include:

* From the Trenches: How We Manage Clients, Time, and Projects, by Laura Prescott

* A Key to Success: Your Online Presence, by D. Joshua Taylor

* Overcoming Obstacles that Interfere with Genealogical Research, by Anne J. Miller, PhD

* Expand Your Revenue: Produce and Sell Your Lectures in Video Format, by Donna M. Moughty

* Niche Planning and Marketing, by Paula Stuart Warren, CG

* Choosing the Best Continuing Education Opportunities, by Elissa Scalise Powell, CG

* Get Published in Magazines!, by Leslie Albrecht Huber

Notice: There are two important changes to remember about the 2010 PMC. Prior PMCs were held on the Wednesday before the FGS conference started, but this year the PMC is a day earlier. The 2010 PMC is scheduled for Tuesday, 17 August. Lunch is included this year and is not a separate registration item.

Go to http://www.apgen.org/conferences/index.html for program details.

To register, go to http://www.fgsconference.org/. In order to attend the PMC, individuals must also register for at least one day of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference.

For Facebook members, information and a list of some attendees is available on the event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=302267319423

Permission is given to forward this to all interested parties.

Follow Friday - The Educated Genealogist

For Follow Friday, I want to highlight the genealogy blog of Sheri Fenley called The Educated Genealogist.


The description of this blog is a quote: "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire. ~W. B. Yeats"

Sheri (pronounced "sha-ree") is working on being a certified genealogist, and is active in her San Joaquin Genealogical Society in Stockton, California. She was the leader of my small group in the ProGen 1 study series.

Sheri is a really fun and funny person in person and in print. Almost everything she writes, even serious things, are done with a gleam in her eye and with wit. Read her posts about the 2010 NGS Conference and you'll see what I mean.

If you haven't been reading The Educated Genealogist, please make it a point to go to the blog and laugh your head off, and then put it in your favorite blog reader.

Nebraska Marriages (1855-1995) on FamilySearch Record Search

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I found more interesting information about my great-great-aunt, Matie (Smith) (Chenerry) (Cehway) Morrill (1866-1928) on the LDS FamilySearch Record Search site in the Nebraska Marriages (1855-1995).

I knew that she had married George Chenery in 1889 from family letters, but I didn't know much about the man. The information in the marriage record shows:

* Groom's Name: George M. Chenery
* Groom's Birth Date: 1854
* Groom's Birth Place: Bungay, England
* Groom's Age: 35
* Bride's Name: Mattie A. Smith
* Bride's birth Date: 1866
* Bride's Birth Place: Dodge County, WI
* Bride's Age: 23
* Marriage Date: 10 Dec 1889
* Marriage Place: McCook, Red Willow County, Nebraska
* Groom's Father's Name: Fred Chenery
* Groom's Mother's Name: Elizabeth Mills
* Bride's Father's Name: D.J. Smith
* Bride's Mother's Name: Abbie A. Vaax
* Groom's Race: White
* Groom's Marriage Status: Single
* Groom's Previous wife's Name: [blank]
* Bride's Race: White
* Bride's Marital Status: Single
* Bride's Previous Husband's Name: [blank]
* Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00325-5
* System Origin: Nebraska-EASy
* Source Film Number: 1994204
* Reference Number: Vol2Item2Page397cn396

This particular record provided not only information about the marriage, but also information about the age, birthplace, and parents of the bride and groom. If they had been married previously, the name of their previous spouse would have been included.

Not every entry in this database has all of this information, of course, but it might!

Unfortunately, I cannot find the marriage of David D. Smith to Leava Smith in this database. I thought that they were married in McCook, but now I'm not sure.

Information about this database can be found on the FamilySearch Research Wiki here. There are "only" 195,329 records in this marriage database. That doesn't seem like many, considering it goes through 1995. But there's a note that they have not included recent records due to privacy concerns. By using a surname of "Smith," I determined that there are no records after 1915!

FHL Microfilm 1,994,204 is in the LDS Family History Library Catalog as:

Nebraska. Probate Court (Red Willow County) (Main Author), Marriage records, 1874-1993; index, 1845-1993 (Microfilm of original records at the Red Willow County Courthouse, McCook, Nebraska).

Marriage records v. 1 1874-1900 v. 4 p. 1-101 1900 - FHL US/CAN Film [ 1994204]

That's interesting, because it doesn't indicate that Volumes 2 and 3 are on this microfilm, it just says Volume 1 and Volume 4. But Mattie Smith's marriage to George Chenery was in Volume 2 on page 397.

2010 FamilySearch Software Awards - what they mean

..
The FamilySearch 2010 Software Awards were announced in late April by FamilySearch at the Developers Conference. You can read the press release at Renee Zamora's blog (among others - I briefly met Renee at the NGS Conference) that was released yesterday (why did they wait over three weeks?).

The following recipients were announced and the awards were presented at the FamilySearch Developers Conference:

1) Best New Product Awards

* The MagiKey for the “Best New Windows” product -- http://www.themagikey.com/
* Arcalife for the “Best New Web site” -- http://www.arcalife.com/
* MobileTree for “Best New Mobile” product -- http://www.mobiletree.me/
* FamilyInsight for “Best New Macintosh” product -- http://www.ohanasoftware.com/


2) Best New Feature Awards

* OurFamilogy for “Best Research” feature -- http://www.family-genealogy.com/
* SharingTime for “Best Collaboration” feature -- http://www.sharingtime.com/
* Genetree for “Best DNA” feature -- http://www.genetree.com/
* Ancestral Hunt for the “Best Geo-Mapping” feature -- http://www.ancestralhunt.com/
* FamilyPursuit for the “Best Groups” feature -- http://www.familypursuit.com/
* Photoloom for the “Best Media” feature -- http://www.photoloom.com/
* FamilyChArtist for the “Best Print” feature --- www.generationmaps.com/chartist/
* AppleTree for the “Best Celebrity Tree” feature -- http://www.appletree.com/


3) Community Player Awards

* Gaylon Finlay, Incline Software, “Bug Hunter” award -- http://www.ancquest.com/
* Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee, Roots Magic, “Trailblazer” award -- http://www.rootsmagic.com/

These software awards are important for ALL genealogists (not just genealogists who are LDS church members) because these companies are either FamilySearch certified affiliates already or are striving to be affiliates. As certified affiliates, it is very likely that there will be links to these companies in the New FamilySearch Family Tree online database.

I speculated about how online collaboration was going to occur in New FamilySearch Family Tree in my post Genealogy Collaboration, Take Two, which noted that Sharing Time (http://www.sharingtime.com/) was one of the companies working with FamilySearch to enable real-time collaboration.

My speculation is that persons with a family tree database in RootsMagic will be able to add their tree content to the Family Tree database from within RootsMagic without using a GEDCOM file. Changes to the family tree added to RootsMagic may be able to be added to FamilySearch Family Tree through some sort of synchronization process. Likewise, if your tree data is in FamilySearch, then you can click on Family ChArtist from within New FamilySearch Family Tree and create a beautiful tree chart. And so forth for each software company listed.

The New FamilySearch Family Tree database is currently available only to LDS church members, but FamilySearch has said that it will be opened to the genealogy world in late 2010 or early 2011.

Someone at the NGS Conference told me something like this: "All of the certified affiliates are entrepreneurial companies - they saw the opportunities and are pursuing them. Much of the content produced by these companies will be hosted by the companies, and not on FamilySearch servers. FamilySearch will provide the family tree data, and links to the services." I don't recall who made that comment to me (if you did it, I would appreciate knowing, but then you might want to remain anonymous - your choice. Sorry, I'm a bad reporter here... I forgot to write down my source!).

That's why I think that it is important to investigate and test out these award winning companies. They are going to be the "winners" in their specialized field and many more genealogy researchers will be able to use those services whether through New FamilySearch Family Tree or not.

Some of the selected software winners are already online with significant content and anybody can use them if they wish to. Many of these companies had an exhibit at the NGS 2010 Conference and may be at the SCGS Jamboree in June in Burbank, and at the FGS Conference in August in Knoxville.

As I mentioned above - this is my own speculation based on what I've read, seen and heard over the past months - I'm trying to read the tea leaves here without knowing who is pouring the hot water. If I'm wrong with my speculation, I would like to know it (even anonymously via email, rjseaver@cox.net). I had only a few responses to my earlier posts about collaboration, but nobody said I was wrong.

UPDATED 4 p.m.: A reader provided the link to the New FamilySearch list of certified affiliates - see http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html. There are descriptions of each product and their compatibility with New FamilySearch Family Tree. Note the Certified Features Legend at the bottom of the page. Interesting!!

Genea-Musings makes the Newspaper

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When I posted (Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 98: A Picnic at La Jolla last month, I didn't expect it to make the newspaper.

Shortly after I posted the picture of my grandfather and his colleagues at La Jolla beach in 1915, I received an email from the editor of the La Jolla Light newspaper, who asked if they could run the photo in their newspaper. I said "of course" and forwarded images of the front and back of the picture.

The picture, with a short article, appeared in the May 19th edition of the newspaper - a screen shot is below:

The article, headlined, "A Look Back," notes:

"Chula Vista resident Randy Seaver, a retired aerospace engineer and genealogist who has been sifting through what he calls an 'endless collection' of family photos and papers, came upon this photo of his grandfather Lyle Lawrence Carringer, second from left, taken in 1915. He knew only that it was taken in La Jolla and likely was a group of employees from Marston's Department Store where his grandfather worked. With the help of La Jolla Historical Society archivist Mike Mishler and historian Carol Olten, he learned it was taken at Devil's Slide, by Goldfish Point, along what is the Coast Walk trail. Seaver, a native San Diegan, writes a blog at http://www.geneamusings.com/."

Thank you to the La Jolla Light for the article, and to @SouthwestArkie on Twitter for tweeting about it! News travels fast sometimes! I think that my grandfather would be amazed by websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and then he would jump into it!

50 Best Blogs for Genealogy - from OnlineUniversities.com

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A list of the 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks was posted on the OnlineUniversities.com blog yesterday. The list is in four parts - General, Specific Research Projects, Libraries and Resources, and News. There are 11 to 14 blogs listed for each category.

Genea-Musings was listed in the General category, and I thank the blog authors for the mention.

It is unclear if the blogs are listed in some order of preference, in other words 1 to N in each category, or even 1 to 50. I don't think they are, and I don't think readers or bloggers should treat them as numbers 1 to N. They were, I think, chosen without any order whatsoever.

When anybody lists a "Top 50" or some other number, I really think that they should make their selection criteria known. This may be another list of "Genealogy Blogs that I read and you might like" similar to the MyHeritage list we recently read.

There were several blogs on this Top 50 list that were not in my Bloglines reader, so I added several of them. The OnlineUniversities.com blog was not in my Bloglines but it is now, although it doesn't return the blog posts for some reason (I think the RSS feed doesn't find the blog, only the website).

I have resisted making a list of my favorite blogs, although I try to select one each week for Follow Friday. I note that many of my Follow Friday blogs are not on this list. That's OK - we all have favorites.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Auble/Kemp Marriage Record

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a time to reveal another gem in my treasure chest of family history.

I found the marriage record of Charles Auble (1849-1916) and Georgianna Kemp (1867-1952) in the boxes of family records that my mother had after her parents died. There are two images below:

1) A Milwaukee County, State of Wisconsin, certificate with seal for from the Office of the Register of Deeds certifying that the attached record of Marriage has been correctly copied from the records in Volume 119, Page 48. This certification was performed on 28 May 1948:



2) The Registration of Marriage form for the marriage of Charles Auble and Georgia Kemp on 19 June 1898:

The information on this marriage certificate includes:

)* No.: 1941

* Full Name of husband: Charles Auble

* Full name of the father of husband: David Auble

* Full name of the mother of husband (a): Sarah G. Knapp

* Occupation of husband: Painter

* Residence of husband: Chicago, Ill.

* Birthplace of husband: Newark, N.J.

* Full name of wife prior to marriage: Georgia Kemp

* Full name of father of the wife: James H. Kemp

* Full name of the mother of the wife (a): Mary Jane Sovereen

* Birthplace of wife: Ontario

* Time when marriage was contracted: June 19 -98

* The place, town or township, and county where the marriage was contracted: Milwaukee

* The color of the parties (b): White

* By what ceremony contracted: Methodist Episcopal

* Names of subscribing witnesses: Laura Masden, W.B. Masden

* Any additional circumstances: [none written]

The clergyman that performed the marriage was C.P. Masden, a resident of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.

This is the first "original source" document that lists the parents of Charles Auble and Georgianna Kemp. There are no birth records for either of them. I do have census records that shows them with their parental families before their marriage, and death certificates for both of them that list their parents.

There are at least three errors in the information above: Georgia is consistently named as Georgianna in the Ontario census records; she went by Georgia, I believe. Charles Auble's mother was Sarah Cutter Knapp, not Sarah G. Knapp. The father of Georgianna Kemp was James Abram Kemp, not James H. Kemp.

It's interesting that the birth dates and/or ages of the husband and wife are not listed on this document.

Charles Auble and Georgia Kemp resided in Chicago, Illinois before their marriage, and almost certainly met there. Why didn't they marry in Chicago, Illinois? They were both of age (he was 49, she was 30). I don't know - perhaps they went to Milwaukee and, on a whim, got married. They returned to Chicago and lived there until after the 1910 U.S. Census when they moved to San Diego with their only child, Emily Kemp Auble, my grandmother.

UPDATED 22 May: Reader Linda commented that:

"I am a Masden researcher, and I know who Rev. C.P. Masden was, although I'm not related to him. I am a friend of one of his descendants. I have an article about Masden that was probably a human interest wire story, as it appeared in a Wyoming paper. It says Masden was the "Gretna Green" minister of Milwaukee. E-mail me, and I'll send you a PDF copy."

Thank you, Linda, for the information about Mr. Masden being a "Gretna Green" minister. I wondered about that when I noticed that the two witnesses were also named Masden.

Unfortunately, Linda didn't leave her email address, so if she sees this, please email me at rjseaver@cox.net. I am definitely interested in seeing the article.

Massachusetts Vital Record collections on FamilySearch Pilot

The LDS FamilySearch.org Pilot website recently added a number of databases to their collection, including many vital record collections from US states. I was particularly interested in the Massachusetts vital record collections.

Five vital records collections are listed:

* Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915 (5.9 million records)**
* Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910 (3.7 million records)**
* Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915 (only 1906 to 1915 at present, 58% complete)
* Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910 (3.0 million records)**
* Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915) (only 1896, 1897 and 1906-1915 at present, 27% complete)

Why are there two sets of Deaths/Burials and Marriages? They apparently come from two different sources. The three noted by ** above have extracted information and no images, while the other two, partial, databases have extracted information with images.

I wanted to see how the new databases worked, so I clicked on the Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910 database and entered Isaac Seaver into the search fields:





Rather than search immediately, I wanted to determine the sources of the information in this database. I clicked on the "About This Collection" link below the search box and saw:

The link takes the user to the FamilySearch Research Wiki page with information about this specific database. Further down the page is the information about the Sources of this collection:

For this database, the Source is shown to be:

"'Massachusetts Vital Records Index,' database, FamilySearch. Digital copies of originals housed in various repositories throughout Massachusetts.

Each entry in this index has a source listed. The index may be a compilation of records from a variety of sources, including the following:
Family Records
Church Records
Civil Registration

That's fairly useless, isn't it? It does say that "each entry in this index has a source listed." OK, let's see if we can figure it out.

Back on the Search page, I clicked on "Search" with the name "Isaac" "Seaver." The results looked like this:

There were 17 matches. The second one down is my Isaac Seaver's third marriage, and when I ran my mouse over his name the information box with the indexed data shows up:

If I click on Isaac Seaver's name, then the information from this record shows up in the right hand panel:

The icon for "Record Image" is gray, so there are no images for this record, only the extracted data in the results panel for the specific person.

Both the mouse-over box and the record data page show the same items:

* Groom's Name: Isaac Seaver

* Groom's Age: 64

* Groom's Birthdate: 1824

* Bride's Name: Alvina M. Lreis Bradley

* Bride's Age: 40

* Bride's Birthdate: 1848

* Marriage Date: 15 Oct 1888

* Marriage Place: St. Regis Falls, New York

* Groom's Father's Name: Benjamin

* Groom's Mother's Name: Abigail

* Bride's Father's Name: Harvey

* Bride's Mother's Name: Sarah F. Bradley

* Indexing Project Number: M01822-6

* System Origin: Massachusetts EASy

* Source Film Number: 1415225

* Reference Number: Page 373

So how can I find the source of this information? The best way is to look up the LDS Microfilm Number in the Family History Library Catalog. Using the Film/Fiche Search, I easily found the film information here. The specific film is:

"Marriages v. 389-390 1888 - FHL US/CAN Film [ 1415225 ]"

In this case, there are two volumes for this record range, and I don't know which volume has this record, specifically on page 373. The record also does not tell me in which Massachusetts town records the event was recorded. I'm pretty sure that it is in Leominster in Worcester County, but the record in Record Search does not state the town.

These records are also online at the New England Historic Genealogical Society website, www.NewEnglandAncestors.org, but the researcher must be an NEHGS subscriber.

To summarize, the indexed records are excellent, but the sources for this dataset leave a lot to be desired.