Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your ancestral home

... Attention, Genea-Musings readers: it's Saturday Night! Are you ready for some Genealogy Fun? Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to: 1) Find one of your ancestral homes on Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Put the street address in the search box and find the home. Select Map and/or Satellite view. 2) Find out if this location is shown in Street View (click on the Push Pin, does it show Street View?). If so, click on Street View and manipulate the image to get a good view of your ancestral home. 3) Show us the pictures!! (I use screen shots, but if you want to edit the image, go ahead!) Put them in a blog post of your own, or put the picture(s) on Facebook. If you can't do images, then tell us about what you've done in a blog post, a comment to this post, or on Facebook. 4) Did you learn anything from this mission about your ancestral home? Is it still there? Has it been improved or modified? Here's mine: The last time I checked Google Maps did not have a Street View for my ancestral homes at 2115 30th Street, 2119 30th Street, 22114 Fern Street, 2116 Fern Street and 2130 Fern Street, all in San Diego. I was thrilled to find Street Views now! 1) Here is the Map view of the block bounded by 30th Street to the west, Fern Street to the east, Ivy Street on the north, and Hawthorn Street on the south: This basic Google Map now shows the approximate land plot size for each lot. The push pin above is on 2130 Fern Street. 2) Here is the Satellite view of the block (with maximum zoom in):

The larger building with the near-white roof is 2115-2119 30th Street; the smaller building with the near-white roof is 2114-2116 Fern Street. There are four buildings just to the north of these two buildings with gray roofs - the two on 30th Street are 2123 and 2127 30th Street. The two on Fern Street are at 2130 Fern Street - the smaller one is a separate garage (which may be a granny flat now?).

3. Here is the Street View of 2115-2119 30th Street. There are two separate residences in this two-story building. The apartment house to the right was built in about 1953.

4) This is the Street View of 2114-2116 Fern Street, the smaller two-story building with the near-white roof:

5) The Street View below is of 2130 Fern Street:

My great-grandparents, Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer, built the residence now at 2115-2119 30th in about 1895, but it was located on the corner of 30th and Hawthorn. In the 1920's it was moved to the middle of the block, and the second story was added on to and made into a separate residence. I lived in 2119 30th Street from 1947 to 1968 with my parents and brothers.

In the 1920's, the Carringers built the second two-story building at 2114-2116 Fern Street. After World War II, my parents lived in both between 1945 and 1947.

My grandparents, Lyle and Emily (Auble) Carringer built the home at 2130 Fern Street in 1920, and lived there until about 1947, when they moved to 2115 30th Street after Lyle's parents died. During World War II<>

I think the thing that I learned from this was the relative size of the lots - the 2115-2119 30th Street lot is larger than the 2114-2116 Fern Street lot. I've always thought that the lots and the buildings were approximately the same size.

Surname Saturday - KEYES (England > MA)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I'm up to number 73, who is Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793), one of my 4th-great-grandparents.

My ancestral line back through six generations of KEYES is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

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

4. Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank W. Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Harriet Hildreth (1857-1920)

18. Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19. Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

36. Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857)
37. Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857)

72. Zachariah Hildreth, born 13 January 1754 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA, and died 17 March 1828 in Townsend, Middlesex County, MA. He was the son of Zachariah Hildreth and Elizabeth Prescott. He married 01 September 1777 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA.
73. Elizabeth Keyes, born 08 April 1759 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA; died 06 August 1793 in Townsend, Middlesex County, MA.

Children of Zachariah Hildreth and Elizabeth Keyes are: Aaron Hildreth (1778-????); Elizabeth Fletcher Hildreth (1780-1792); Hannah Hildreth (1782-1848); Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857); Lucy Hildreth (1785-1865); Patty Hildreth (1787-????); Fanny Hildreth (1789-1865); Nabby Hildreth (1791-1791); James Hildreth (1793-1797).

146. Jonathan Keyes, born 21 January 1721/22 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 20 June 1781 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. He married 20 January 1745/46 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA.
147. Elizabeth Fletcher, born 09 March 1719/20 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 23 July 1761 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 294. Samuel Fletcher and 295. Hannah.

Children of Jonathan Keyes and Elizabeth Fletcher are: Joseph Keyes (1746-1823; Joanna Kewyes (1749-1753); Aaron Keyes (1751-1753); Stephen Keyes (1754-1758); Joanna Keyes (1757-????); Elizabeth Keyes (1759-1793); Hannah Keyes (1761-1833).

292. Joseph Keyes, born 01 May 1698 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 11 July 1744 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. He married 28 February 1719/20 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA.
293. Elizabeth Fletcher, born 10 June 1698 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 03 September 1775 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 586. Joshua Fletcher and 587. Sarah Woolley.

Children of Joseph Keyes and Elizabeth Fletcher are: Elizabeth Keyes (1720-????); Jonathan Keyes (1722-1781); Sarah Keyes (1723-????); Lydia Keyes (1724-????); David Keyes (1726-????).

584. Joseph Keyes, born 24 May 1667 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA; died 09 June 1757 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. He married 28 May 1690 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA.
585. Joanna Cleaveland, born 05 March 1669/70 in Woburn, Middlesex County, MA; died 18 March 1758 in Westford, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 1170. Moses Cleaveland and 1171. Ann Winn.

Children of Joseph Keyes and Joanna Cleaveland are: Lydia Keyes (1693-????); Joanna Keyes (1695-1787); Joseph Keyes (1698-1744); Miriam Keyes (1700-????).

1168. Solomon Keyes, born About 1631 in ENGLAND; died 28 March 1702 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA. He married 02 October 1653 in Newbury, Essex County, MA.
1169. Frances Grant, born before 12 June 1634 in Cottingham, Yorkshire, ENGLAND; died 1708 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA. She was the daughter of 2338. Thomas Grant and 2339. Jane Haburne.

Children of Solomon Keyes and Frances Grant are: Hannah Keyes (1654-????); Sarah Keyes (1656-????); Mary Keyes (1658-????); Jane Keyes (1660-1681); Judith Keyes (1662-????); Solomon Keyes (1665-????); Joseph Keyes (1667-1757); Ruth Keyes (1669-1671); Moses Keyes (1671-1746); John Keyes (1674-????).

2336. Robert Keyes, born about 1605 in ENGLAND; died 16 July 1647 in Newbury, Essex County, MA. He married before 1631 in ENGLAND.
2337. Sarah, born about 1611 in ENGLAND; died 07 July 1681 in Newbury, Essex County, MA.

Children of Robert Keyes and Sarah are: Solomon Keyes (1631-1702); Sarah Keyes (1633-????); Peter Keyes (1635-????); Rebecca Keyes (1638-????); Phebe Keyes (1639-1701); Mary Keyes (1642-????); Elias Keyes (1643-????); Mary Keyes (1645-1668).

Are there any KEYES cousins reading this post? If you want to share information about this family line, please contact me at rjseaver@cox.net.

Revolutionary War Rolls on Footnote.com

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After being frustrated with the poor results on Ancestry.com finding the Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 entries for my soldiers (over 15 of them), I turned to http://www.footnote.com/ to see if the same database was available there. It is!

And the Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 are available for FREE on Footnote.com through 7 July, as part of their Revolutionary War Collection:


I could have clicked on the link in the ad shown above, but resisted that temptation. That special link may not be there after this free access period.

On the Footnote.com home page, I clicked on "Browse Titles" and then on the Browse screen, I clicked on the "Colonies and Revolution to 1815" link, and saw the list of databases, and picked the Revolutionary War Rolls" link and then was able to put "martin carringer" in the Search box:

There were two matches: one on page 2, and the other on page 4, of Folder 35 of the Pennsylvcania 8th Regiment in 1778:

Here is the first record easily found with one click of the thumbnail image or the link in the results list above:

The second image was found by clicking the "Go Back" link - although I could have opened the filmstrip and picked "Page 4" to see it:

Is this the same record as what I couldn't find on Ancestry.com? I don't know for sure. The source information for the records found on Footnote.com is:

* Content Source:: The National Archives

* Publication Number: M246
* Publication Title: Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783
* Publisher: NARA
* National Archives Catalog ID: 602384
* National Archives Catalog Title: Revolutionary War Rolls, compiled 1894 - 1913, documenting the period 1775 - 1783
* Record Group: 93
* Short Description: NARA M246. Muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
* State: Pennsylvania
* Military Org: 8th Regiment
* Date Range: 1778
* Folder: 35

So this is the same Record Group 93 and Microfilm Publication M246 as what is on Ancestry.com.

This was very easy to search for, review and see on http://www.footnote.com/. I downloaded both pages to my computer files. Now for my other 14 soldiers!

One more thing. Footnote.com, in the search for this specific soldier, found two pages with the name of Martin Carringer on the Revolutionary War Rolls. Ancestry.com never indicated that there were two pages with the name. Strange... you would think that every name occurrence on any page in any database would be indexed.

The lesson learned here is to check all possible databases that may contain a specific record. Sometimes, there are significant differences between different websites in terms of search characteristics, results, indexing, and imaging.

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of footnote.com, and have never received any remuneration from them. I am a fully paid subscriber to Footnote.com.

Follow Friday: Casefile Clues

For Follow Friday, I'm going to highlight Michael John Neill's weekly email newsletter called Casefile Clues. He is up to week 47 now, and each issue has been five to ten pages of interesting and often useful research tips based on the cases that Michael presents.

In honor of the 4th of July holiday, Michael has made the following offer:

"In recognition of the 4th of July Holiday, Casefile Clues is offering a year of the newsletter and back issues 41-47 for $17.76.

"There is more information on our website at:
http://blog.casefileclues.com/2010/07/july-4th-special-on-casefile-clues-1776.html

"Questions can be sent to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com."

If you've been wanting a weekly newsletter packed full of practical research tips and case studies, I encourage you to subscribe to Casefile Clues.

Disclosure: I have received no remuneration from Michael John Neill. I am a fully paid subscriber to his newsletter.

FGS FORUM Summer 2010 Issue - Table of Contents

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The Summer 2010 issue of the Federation of Genealogical Societies FORUM magazine is available for members to download from the FGS website (http://www.fgs.org/). If you are a member, you should have received an email about this issue.

This issue has 61 pages, and is edited by Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.

The cover photograph is unidentified, taken circa the early twentieth century, and may have been taken in Braidwood, Will County, Illinois (photo courtesy of FGS Director Tim Pinnick):




The Summer 2010 issue's Table of Contents includes:

* page 3 - Final Countdown to FGS 2010 Conference in Knoxville, by Lori Thornton.
* page 7 - Ancestry Offers Free Classes at FGS 2010
* page 9 - Librarians Day at FGS Conference
* page 11 - Recovering Family History Through Memories, by Joseph F. Martin
* page 13 - Two Essential Reference Books Now on Wiki

* page 14 - New Source for United Kingdom Research
* page 16 - An Urban-Friendly Resource [about ProQuest Collections]
* page 21 - Tribute to Birdie Monk Holsclaw, by Karen Mauer Green
* page 23 - Early Black Musicians, by Tim Pinnock [related to cover photo]
* page 24 - Malcolm H. Stern NARA Gift Fund

* page 26 - News in Brief
* page 27 - Society Spotlight, Using a Wiki to Preserve a Society's Knowledge Base, by Michael J. Hall
* page 31 - State Reporting [includes info on KY, MS, NC, OH, OK, RI resources]
* page 33 - Ethnic and International [includes info on American Indian, Australia, Haiti, New Zealand and United Kingdom resources]
* page 34 - Column: Records Preservation & Access, by Linda McCleary

* page 36 - Column: Family Associations, by Christine Rose
* page 38 - Column: Genealogy 2.0: Genealogy and Cloud Computing, by Randy Seaver
* page 41 - Board Bytes
* page 44 - Column: Book Reviews, edited by Paul Milner
* page 57 - Federation of Genealogical Societies Membership - as of 1 June 2010

Here is a screen shot of the first page of my Genealogy 2.0 column, titled Genealogy and Cloud Computing:


I encourage genealogical societies to join the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and individuals can subscribe to the magazine [thank you to George Morgan for correcting my earlier statement]. Benefits include receiving the quarterly FORUM magazine and discounts for conference registration. See the FGS website at http://www.fgs.org/ for details.

Revolutionary War Rolls on Ancestry.com: Hard to Find Records

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I noted yesterday that the Revolutionary War Rolls on Ancestry.com had been updated, and realized that I had not saved images of these records for my Revolutionary War soldiers. That lead me to do some searches for these records:

From the Military Records collection page (I tend to search now in specific collections and specific databases, rather than do a "global search"), I input "Martin" and "Carringer" in the search fields:




The list of matches came up, and I noted that the Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, was on the list (note that I tend to search according to "summarized by category"):




Clicking on the link for the Revolutionary War Rolls, I saw that there was one match for Martin Carringer:

The record indicates that he is in Roll Box 83 for Pennsylvania. There is no indication of page number or image number for the entry in the Roll Box 83.

I clicked on the "View Images" link and saw this:

This is the first page of 702 pages on Roll 83. I clicked the right arrow (up next to the "Go" link in the menu line) many times and finally got to the actual records on Page 38 on this roll. I quickly gave up on trying to find Martin Carringer's name on one of the remaining 694 pages!

So let's try to analyze this situation:

* Ancestry.com imaged 138 rolls of NARA microfilm publication M246.

* Ancestry.com entered names into an Ancestry.com created index (or perhaps used a previously created index) of names on the rolls of film.

* Ancestry.com then linked to the first image on the roll of film containing the requested name.

* Ancestry.com left it to the user to search through hundreds of pages in a treasure hunt for their requested name.

Doesn't Ancestry.com run these records through some sort of quality check so that a subscriber is assured of finding the actual record found by a search?

Was additional information added to the indexed information, such as the military organization, the year, the folder containing the soldier's record in this dataset? Having that information might help a searcher browse through the dataset as it is currently constituted.

My guess is that most researchers, encountering this problem on Ancestry.com, will grumble about and curse Ancestry.com. And then try to find the record elsewhere. I found it on http://www.footnote.com/ - and will show the results in a later post.

Perhaps this problem has existed since the first release of this database, and others have complained about the non-linking of requested names to record images in this particular database. I don't know - but in my first use of the dataset I am pretty frustrated. I think I'm being kind to call this database "Hard to Find Records." Actually, almost impossible.

Disclosure: I am not a paid employee, contractor or affiliate of Ancestry.com. I am a fully paid subscriber to the U.S. Deluxe collection.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Della (Smith) Carringer's Death Certificate

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It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to share another genealogy jewel from my collection of stuff.

This week, it is the Death Certificate of Della (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) in San Diego, San Diego County, California on 1 January 1944.

This is a death certificate created very near the date of death, presumably typed by the Department of Public Health Registrar in San Diego County, and signed by him on 7 January 1944.

Items I learned from this death certificate:

* Della died at home at 2115 30th Street in San Diego. She had resided in the county and in the state for 55 years [actually 56].

* Her birthdate was 11 April 1862, and she was born in Rolling Prairie, Dodge County, Wisconsin to parents Devier I. Smith and Abbey A. Vaux. [Father was Devier J. Smith]

* Her husband's name was Henry Austin Carringer, and he was 90 years old at the time of her death.

* She was cremated on 8 January 1944 at Cypress View Crematory. The Funeral Director was Benbough Funeral Parlor at 711 Date Street in San Diego.

* She died on 1 January 1944 at 5:10 p.m.

* The immediate cause of death was chronic myocarditis occlusion.

* The medical doctor was Julio Paex, who first attended her on 21 December 1943.

Della was one of my great-grandmothers. The only new information on this death certificate, for me, was the death time, the place of cremation and funeral service, and the cause of death. There are several errors on this certificate, including her given name (which was Abbie Ardell Smith if you believe the Smith Bible records).

If I go down to the San Diego County Recorder's office next week and obtain a death certificate for Della, I don't think that all of the above information will be on the certificate.

Footnote.com has Revolutionary War Collection FREE through 7 July

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I received this in an email from Justin Schroepfer at Footnote.com today:

"I wanted to let you know that we will be opening the Revolutionary War Collection free to the public tomorrow. This will be open through July 7. The collection features some of our most popular titles including the Revolutionary War Pension Files. You can point your readers to www.footnote.com/revolutionary-war to access the records in this collection. I appreciate if you could let your readers know of this special promotion."

Here is a screen shot of the Revolutionary War Collection (accessed through "Browse Collection" and then "Colonies and Revolution to 1815"):

The FREE Revolutionary War databases available include:

* Final Payment Vouchers Index for Military Pensions

* George Washington Correspondence

* Revolutionary War Prize Cases - Captured Vessels

* Revolutionary War Rolls

* Revolutionary War Service Records

* Revolutionary War Pensions

This is great news for those readers who do not have a Footnote subscription! I urge you to take advantage of this offer if you have Revolutionary War soldiers in your ancestry.

Ancestry.com has Complete Revolutionary War Pension Files!

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I noted that Ancestry.com recently has added the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 to their list of online historical record databases. This is a major addition to the Military Records collection.

Here is the screen for this particular database. The user can search for a name or browse the list of soldiers with pensions or bounty land warrants from this screen:




I put "Martin" and "Carringer" in the search fields and, as you can see (in the screen above), Ancestry.com tried to help me by suggesting all of the Martin's in my Ancestry Member Tree. I don't really like that "feature," and wish that there was a way to turn it off.

I clicked on "Search" and there was only one match:




I clicked on "View Record" and saw the Record Summary:




The most useful pieces of information on this Record Summary are the Total Number of Pages in Packet - in this case, it was 47 pages.

I clicked on the "View Image" and the first page of the packet appeared:




The Source tab on the right provides the Ancestry.com Source citation for this particular record. It says:

"Ancestry.com. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C."

Unfortunately, the source citation does not describe the specific record here. From the Record Summary page, I noted that it is from Archive Roll Number 480, Archive Publication M804. No specific page number is given for the record on the Archive microfilm. From the Record Image page, I noted that the first page is Image 532. Therefore, the last page should be Image 578, since there were 47 pages.

I paged through several pages and often got this screen:



This is very frustrating - you find a wonderful record, and some of the pages cannot be viewed. The screen says "Error Processing Image Request." There was no error on my part ... why does this happen with more regularity now on Ancestry.com? Ten minutes later, the system produces the requested images.

The user can go page-by-page through the specific file using the small left and right arrows on the far right of the menu bar - just below the green bar and to the right of the "Go" button. The user could enter a number in the "Image" box to the left of the "Go" button and that image will appear.

It appears from my cursory search that only the soldier's name, and those of his spouse if they are on the first index card for each file, are indexed by Ancestry.com. I put in "Molly" "Carringer" in the search fields and the "Martin Carringer" match came up. I put in his son, Joseph Carringer, and no matches appeared.

This complete dataset has been available on www.Footnote.com before this addition to www.Ancestry.com. The benefit of the Footnote.com collection is that many of the names on the pages of the pension and bounty land warrant files were indexed, and researchers can occasionally find their soldiers or ancestral family members (spouses, children, etc.) in the records.

I'm glad that Ancestry.com added this dataset to the Military Collection, but am disappointed that the name index only appears to contain the pensioners.

"Learn from Experts" Articles on Archives.com

I've been browsing through the www.Archives.com website (a subscription site with some searchable databases and an online family tree collection) recently, and came upon the FREE "Learn from Experts" set of articles on various genealogy subjects.

The "Learn from Experts" page is at http://experts.archives.com/. The most recent articles are:

* Homestead Records: A Glimpse Into Your Ancestor’s Past by Bobbi King

* How To Identify A Photograph Without Looking At The Picture by Colleen Fitzpatrick

* Family Reunion Sense and Sensibility by Maureen Taylor

* Five Strategies For Finding Forgotten Females by Lisa Alzo

* Volunteer Projects Help Family Historians by Sherri Bradley

* Genealogy Resources At The Public Library by Amy Coffin

* Mobile Ancestors: Why They Moved And How To Find Them by Diane Richard

There are currently 33 articles in this series - you can find links to all of them on http://experts.archives.com/articles.html.

Disclosure: I have not written for Archives.com, nor have I been paid by Archives.com for any blog post. I am currently a subscriber to Archives.com through my NGS membership.