Book Review - Online State Resources for Genealogy E-Book, Version 2.0

Michael Hait, a professional genealogist residing in Delaware, revised his eBook in PDF format recently.  It is titled Online State Resources for Genealogy, and is available as an online download through Lulu.com (see the links at bottom of this review)

The Introduction notes:

"Many researchers are unaware of the sheer volume and variety of records that have been brought online, at no cost, by government agencies and others active in individual towns, counties, and states. This book will provide a directory to sites that offer record images and indexes nationwide, including:

*  state archives
*  state libraries
*  state health departments
*  county clerks
*  historical societies
*  genealogical societies
*  university libraries
*  public libraries
*  others"

It also notes that online indexes and databases provided by free (e.g., FamilySearch, Find-A-Grave, Rootsweb) and subscription (e.g., Ancestry, Fold3, GenealogyBank) genealogy websites are not covered by the book.

Michael has added many more resources to this book - there are now 428 repositories covered, with over 6,000 links.  The initial version had 201 repositories listed.

There are 765 pages of state resources described in this book!

In the book, each state has a chapter, and within that chapter are links to governmental, institutional,  genealogical and historical society archives and libraries with online indexes and databases.  In many cases, there are links to the different online collections available at the entity.  For each database entry, there is an explanation, usually in the website's own words, about the content of the database.

An example entry from the Illinois section (I picked one that almost every researcher knows about):

"Illinois State Archives  
(http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/archives.html/"
and down the alphabetical list a bit:

Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1950 (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/idphdeathindex.html) : “This database provides listings of death certificates filed with the Illinois Department of Public Health between 1916 and 1950. As a result of 1989 legislation, that agency makes available for public inspection at the Illinois State Archives only copies of death certificates produced 50 years ago or longer (410 Illinois Compiled Statutes 535/24). The Illinois State Archives has determined that this Web site is an extension of its Reference Room services. In accordance with a policy agreement with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois State Archives will make the index to death certificates produced fifty years or longer available on its Web site.”

There are now 17 California repositories listed (there were 4 in the first edition) with 76 collections on 14 pages; 6 Colorado repositories listed (there was 1 in the first edition), Illinois has 21 repositories listed (there were 6 in the first edition), and Maryland has 11 repositories listed (there were 9 in the first edition).

The book includes websites that have both freely available databases and members-only access to other record databases, but the book does not include the members-only databases.  An example is the Illinois State Genealogical Society.  However, state and regional level institutions that do not have have any freely available state record indexes and document image databases - the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston comes to mind, are not included in the book - see Update below!  

The book does not include repositories that have online indexes for catalogs but no actual online data in index or document image form.  For example, the California State Libraries (not listed in the book) at http://www.library.ca.gov/calhist/databases.html, has no actual data (transcriptions or images) at the library website - only a searchable catalog of books on the shelf at the library.  A casual reader might assume that there is no State Library or that it has no web presence at all, when the reality is that there is no actual data available online.

Those are not "complaints," they are statements of fact about the contents of the book.  The Introduction notes that:

"Only the most useful resources for genealogy research, and contextual historical information, have been included in this guide."

One of the very best features of this book are the active hyperlinks in the text.  The reader can click on the hyperlink, which is often very long, and go directly to the online database of interest.

This updated and extensively revised book is an excellent compilation of the state resources freely available in online databases with actual data - index information and/or document images.  It will be very valuable to every researcher trying to perform a reasonably exhaustive search for their ancestral families.  

I know that I will use the resources in this book in my genealogical research.  It will be a valuable addition to any American researcher's genealogical library.

The cost of this book is $15.99 for a PDF download from Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-hait/online-state-resources-for-genealogy/ebook/product-20348866.html ).  An e-reader EPUB version of this book can be purchased for $15.99 from Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-hait/online-state-resources-for-genealogy-epub/ebook/product-20349384.html)

All purchasers of this edition will be eligible for one complimentary updated edition. 

Disclosure:  Michael Hait contacted me last weekend asking if I would write a review of his book, and he provided me with a PDF copy of the book.  I try very hard to write objective reviews of books for the benefit of my readers.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/book-review-online-state-resources-for.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Updated 1 PM:  Tessa Keogh commented on Google+ that the New England Historic Genealogical Society offers a range of free databases - see http://www.americanancestors.org/free-databases/.  I stand corrected!

Amanuensis Monday - Petition for Land Ownership Sale

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The document this week is the land ownership affidavit filed by the administrator of the estate of my great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922), who died 27 November 1922 in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.  Frank's wife, Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver, died in 1920 before Frank did, and Hattie was apparently the owner of their property (probably though her mother, Sophia (Newton) Hildreth).  

Here is the petition requesting sale of the property by Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver, as part of the estate of Frank Walton Seaver:

The transcription of this document is (handwritten portions in italics, blanks underlined):

To the Honorable the Judges of the Probate Court in and for the County of Worcester:

RESPECTFULLY represents J. Ward Healey 
administrat or execut of the estate will of 
Hattie L. Seaver
late of Leominster,
in said County, deceased, in testate, that the said Hattie L. Seaver,
at the time of her decease, was the owner of certain real estate situate in
Leominster, in the County of Worcester,
bounded and described as follows, viz.:

A certain tract of land in Leominster, Massachusetts, on the 
southwesterly side of Lancaster Street, containing 19317 square 
feet, more or less, bounded as follows:
 Beginning at a stone bound on the southwesterly side of said 
Street at land now or formerly of City Coal Co; thence by said
City Coal Co.'s land South 68° 5' West 209.1 feet, more or less, 
to land at New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company;
thence by said Railroad Co. land northerly 104.08 feet, more or
less, to land of City of Leominster; thence by said City's land
North 69°9' East 174.8 feet, more or less, to the said southwesterly
side of Lancaster Street 100.12 feet, more or less, to the place of beginning.
 The above described land is the same as that described on a
certain plan of land entitled "Land owned by the heirs of Edward 
Hildreth, Leominster, Mass. , Sept. 22, 1923. Wm P. Ray, C.E."

That it is for the advantage of all parties interested that the same be sold for the purpose of dis-
tribution; that an advantageous offer for the purchase thereof, to wit, the sum of six thousand
dollars, has been made to your petitioner,
and that the interest of all parties concerned will be best promoted by an acceptance of such offer.
  Therefore your petitioner prays that he may be licensed to sell the said real estate of 
said deceased at private sale, in accordance with such offer or in such manner as the Court may 
direct, for the purpose of distribution.

Dated this 26th day of October A.D. 19 23,
............................................ J. Ward Healey

The undersigned, being all persons interested, hereby assent to the foregoing petition.

Frederick W. Seaver
J. Ward Healey As Administrator of Estate of Frank W. Seaver
Harry C. Seaver

This property is the house and land located presently at 149 Lancester Street in Leominster, Massachusetts.  It had been purchased by Edward Hildreth, Hattie's father, in the 1870s.  Edward, his wife Sophia, his daughter Hattie and his son-in=law Frank W. Seaver all died there.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/amanuensis-monday-petition-for-land.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 19 to 25 August 2012

Hundreds of genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

*  Happy Birthday, Mom!! ** A Sad Read by Angela Kraft on the Leaves of Heritage Genealogy blog.  Angela's mom died when she was a baby, and Angela is looking for records about her death in Chula Vista.

*  Genealogy Societies are Meant to Survive by Ruby Coleman on the Genealogy Lines blog.  Ruby has excellent advice for society members and officers.  She has an interesting example (no officers, no dues = thriving) at the end of her article.

*  FamilySearch Wiki ~ Research Logs by Lee R. Drew on the Family History with the Lineagekeeper blog.  Lee highlights some of the Research Log resources in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

*  Tuesday's Tip: County Histories and Biographies (Mug Books by Miriam Robbins on the Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors blog.  Miriam is starting a new weekly meme for Monday - great idea!  This post provides links to mug book collections.

*  Women of the DAR Come in All Shapes and Sizes by Sheri Fenley on The Educated Genealogist blog.  Sheri highlights the life of Mrs. Tom Thumb.  Fascinating post!

*  AncestryDNA: Confusing Relationship Predictions and Adoptees and Follow Up: Lab Error Responsible for Adoptee's Confusing Match at AncestryDNA by CeCe Moore on the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.  Oops!  Good job, CeCe on smoking this out.

*  Terms of Use: GenealogyBank by Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist blog.  I love the way Judy takes apart these Terms of Use...but I don't like the results!

*  If Genealogy Dominated Reality Television by Amy Coffin on the We Tree Genealogy Blog.  Some potential TV show descriptions from the mistress of geneablog humor!  Great fun!

*  What Type of Genealogist Are You? by Lorine McGinnis Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.   Hunter, Gatherer, Finder, Hoarder, Collector, Scholar, Analyzer, Planner?  What are you?

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:   

*  Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Monday Recap for August 20, 2012 by Amanda on the Geni Blog.

*  Monday's Mentionables by Cyndi Beane Henry (Texicanwife) on the Mountain Genealogists blog.

*  Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

*  Follow Friday, Fab Finds for August 24, 2012 by Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and family History Blog.

*  From the Blogs, August 24 by Michael Leclerc on the Mocavo Genealogy Blog.

*  Friday Finds - 08/24/12 by Julie Cahill Tar on the GenBlog blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, August 20-24 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  Follow Friday - Senseless Vandalism and Other Posts to Make You Think by Anne Gillespie Mitchell on the Finding Forgotten Stories blog.

I encourage readers to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blogs to your Favorites, Google Reader, RSS feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 1280 genealogy bloggers using Google Reader, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/best-of-genea-blogs-19-to-25-august-2012.html

Copyright(c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver 

Neil Armstrong - Rest in Peace, Son of America

A great man died today - a hero in every sense of the word, at least to Americans who grew up at the beginning of the Space Age.  

You can read the biography of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_armstrong).  That describes his life and accomplishments, and provides his parents names, and a mention that he was of Scottish and German descent.

There are no Kings or Queens, no famous persons, in Armstrong's ancestry.  Just immigrants who left their home country to come to the promise of land in America, worked hard and made successful lives.  And a world-famous descendant has highlighted these facts.

You can see Neil Aemstrong's family tree in 33 Ancestry Member Trees and on several trees in the Rootsweb WorldConnect collection.  Here is one of the best trees I found on Ancestry (it's already been modified to add his name and death date):

The best tree I found on Rootsweb WorldConnect was probably this one:

If you click the link above, and select the "Ahnentafel" link, you can see the known 6-generation ancestry of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012).

Thank you, Neil, for your contribution to United States history and world history.  Well done.  Rest in peace.

My hope is that the next Space Station, or interplanetary craft, will be called Armstrong Station in honor of this son of America.

A parting quote, which I lived and fits me to a T (wearing my white socks every day!):

“I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow.” — Neil Armstrong, 2000.

He forgot slide rules!

The URL for this  post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/neil-armstrongs-rest-in-peace-son-of.html

copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ancestor Name Roulette

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born?  Divide this number by 50 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick a great-grandmother, a grandparent, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!

Here's mine:  

1)  I chose my great-grandfather, Charles Auble (1849-1916).  Dividing 1849 by 50 results in 36.98, rounding up to 37.

2)  Number 37 on my Ancestral Name List ("ahnentafel") is Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857).  Here is the Vital Record information I have for Hannah Sawtell:

Hannah Sawtell was born on 6 November 1789 in Brookline, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, United States, the daughter of Josiah Sawtell and Hannah Smith. She died on 13 January 1857 at the age of 67 in Townsend, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Hannah married 21 October 1810 in Townsend, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States to Zachariah Hildreth.  He was born on 10 April 1783 in Townsend, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.  Zachariah died on 22 January 1857 at the age of 73 in Townsend, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

3)  Three Facts about Hannah (Sawtell) Hildreth:

a)  Hannah (Sawtell) Hildreth had nine children - Aaron Hildreth (1811-1884), Clarissa Hildreth (1814-1819), James Hildreth (1917-1890), Clarissa Hildreth (1819-1852), Elizabeth Hildreth (1922-1910), Milo Hildreth (1824-1893), Moses Hildreth (1828-1893), Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) and Harriet Augusta Hildreth (1835-1850).

b)  Hannah (Sawtell) Hildreth and her husband died in January 1857 in Townsend within nine days of each other (Hannah on 13 January 1857 of paralysis, Zachariah on 22 January 1857 of consumption) and are buried in the Hillside Cemetery with their children, Clarissa (1814-1819) and Harriet Augusta (1835-1850).

c)  Hannah (Sawtell) Hildreth was a 4th great-granddaughter of Olive (Welby) Farwell (1604-1692), who was an 11th great-granddaughter of Edward I, King of England (died 1307).  I doubt that she knew that she had a royal ancestor!

4)  I just did!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

Copyright (c) 23012, Randall J. Seaver

Surname Saturday - NORMAN (England > Massachusetts)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I am up to number 515: Eunice Norman (1686-1743). [Note: The 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].  This starts my 7th great-grandmothers.  

My ancestral line back through four  generations of NORMAN families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

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

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)

32. Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825)
33. Abigail Gates (1797-1869)

64. Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816)
65. Martha Whitney (1764-1832)

128.  Norman Seaver (1734-1787)
129.  Sarah Read (1736-1809)

256. Robert Seaver (1702-1752)
257.  Eunice Rayment (1707-1772)

514.  Samuel Rayment, born 18 May 1679 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1723 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 1018. John Rayment and 1019. Martha Wooden.  He married 21 November 1704 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.

515.  Eunice Norman, born 14 March 1686 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1743 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  

Children of Samuel Rayment and Eunice Norman are:  John Rayment (1705-????); Eunice Rayment (1707-1772); Samuel Rayment (1716-????); Sarah Rayment (1718-????); Benjamin Rayment (1719-????).

1030.  John Norman, born about 1660 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died after 25 February 1709 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 10 November 1683 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
1031.  Sarah Maverick, born about 1659 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 1723 in probably Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2062. Moses Maverick and 2063. Eunice.

Children of John Norman and Sarah Maverick are:  Richard Norman (1684-1724); Margaret Norman (1685-1685); Eunice Norman (1686-1743); Moses Norman (1687-1731); John Norman (1690-????); Sarah Norman (1693-????); Benjamin Norman (1694-????); John Norman (1696-1725); Benjamin Norman (1699-????); Jonathan Norman (1701-1724); Elizabeth Norman (1706-????).

2060.  Richard Norman, born about 1623 in Charminster, Dorset, England; died before 11 August 1683 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married 28 March 1660 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.
2061.  Margaret Flint, born about 1642 in probably Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States; died before 03 September 1705 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 4122. William Flint and 4123. unknown.

Children of Richard Norman and Margaret Flint are:  John Norman (1660-1709); Elizabeth Norman (1663-1716); Joseph Norman (1665-1691); Benjamin Norman (1670-????); Jonathan Norman (1672-1713).

4120.  Richard Norman, born about 1580 in probably Dorset, England; died about 1653 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.  He married before 1606 in probably Dorset, England.
4121.  Florence, born about 1580 in probably Dorset, England; died in probably Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Richard Norman and Florence are:  John Norman (1607-1672); Elizabeth Norman (1611-1613); Margaret Norman (1615-1694); Susanna Norman (1617-????); Florence Norman (1619-1672); Richard Norman (1623-1683).

Information about the Norman family that settled in northeastern Massachusetts was obtained from:

*  Leslie Mahler, "The English Origin of Richard Norman of Salem, Massachusetts," The American Genealogist, Volume 77, Number 2, April 2002, page 102.

*  Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 (Boston : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), Volume 2, pages 1334-1336.

*  Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (Portland, Maine : Southworth Press, 1930), pages 44-53.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/surname-saturday-norman-england.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Looking for Stephen Cutter's Will in New Jersey Probate Records on FamilySearch

I noticed that the FamilySearch record collection for New Jersey, Probate Records, 1678-1980, had been updated recently, so I went exploring - looking for the will of my fourth great-grandfather, Stephen Cutter (1745-1823) of Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey.  I knew that there was a will from earlier correspondence with Russ Worthington.

Here is the New Jersey, Probate Records, 1678-1980 record collection front page:

This is a "Browse Only" collection with over 3 million images.  The description says:

"Images of probate records from various court houses in New Jersey. Most records end in 1920 but some counties have records up to the year 1970."

After clicking on the "Browse through 3,084,661 images" link, the list of New Jersey Counties opened:

I wanted Middlesex County, so I clicked on that:

The top of the list of Volume titles and years opened.  The bottom of the page (after scrolling down) looks like:

I wanted a Will, so I checked the "Will Index, 1804-1930, Vol. 1 & 2" collection.  After thrashing about for several minutes, I found an entry for Stephen Cutter on Image 16 of 187:

The Will Index indicated that his Will was in Volume B, page 624, proved 13 August 1823.

Back to the Volume Titles page, and I chose the "Wills 1804-1824, Vols. A-B" title, and eventually found Volume B, Page 624 on Images 605 and 606:

That's great!  I saved the pages to my [Ancestor Files > Family History - Carringer-Smith-Auble-Kemp > Cutter > 01-Stephen Cutter & Tabitha Randolph > Documents] file folder.

Now I need to transcribe the will for Amanuensis Monday some week.  I've already read through it (what, you expected me to wait?) - it mentions his daughter Sally (Cutter) Knapp, my third great-grandmother.  It also describes the Cutter property in Woodbridge, so I may be able to identify the location of their home.

My next venture into these records are earlier wills and estates of my Cutter, Fitz Randolph, Kent, Rolfe, and other ancestral families in Middlesex County, and also my Knapp families in Sussex County.

Note that there are many more record types in this record collection.  I haven't looked for information in the Estate Index, Estates, Orphans courts Minutes, Proceedings Index, or Releases and discharges yet.

Did I mention that these records are absolutely FREE?  They are!  This is like having a slow microfilm reader in my Genealogy Cave.

This was REAL genealogy fun this afternoon!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/looking-for-stephen-cutters-will-in-new.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Follow-Up Friday - This Week's Helpful Reader Comments

On Fridays, I like to follow-up on reader comments from the past week.  This week, the comments included:

1)  On Mining the Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954 (22 August 2012):

* Geolover said:  "Randy, since you are revisiting VT items, and your kin Nathaniel Seaver (1707-1777) and wife Judith Treadway wound up there, perhaps something I stumbled across would be of interest.

"In Lancaster VR is the intention of marriage between Nathaniel Seaver of Narragansett No. (blotch) and Judith Treadway of Framingham, recorded on a date that contradicts what you have for their marriage.  This is better indexed than some on the same page, but I entered a correction for Nathaniel's surname. My relative Aaron Sawyer is indexed as "Karoo Saroya."

"The "Naragansett" entry perked up my interest since Narragansett No. 1 was Buxton, then in York County, ME, where some generations of my kin dwelt at that time (and before and after). But I am not certain that "Naragansett No. 1" is what the entry in the Lancaster record meant.

" The item is here: http://tinyurl.com/c9h3pu9 "

My response:  Interesting - I had not found the Lancaster marriage intention before.  Here is a snippet of it:

The intentions were dated 26 June 1754.

In the Framingham [Mass.] town record book, the marriage is recorded as:

So, the marriage date is 17 July 1754, which is consistent with a 26 June 1754 intentions date.  As Geolover points out, the date I published earlier for the marriage was 17 July 1753...so I made a mistake and he found it.  I don't know if the error is in the published Framingham Vital Records book or my extraction- error.  It's fixed now!

As I thought, Nathaniel Seaver resided in Narragansett #2 (Westminster, Mass.) where his parents had settled.  The Framingham record is very clear!  However, the Framingham records appear to be transcriptions of the original town clerk records.

Cathi makes a great point below:

*  Cathi Desmarais noted:  "I love searching the Vermont VR collection this way. I've found I have to try lots of variations in the spelling of the surnames though. 

"Also, please remember that these are not really "vital records." They are *index cards,* created by town clerks in the 20th century to index the actual vital records. These are only a finding aid to the actual records, which sometimes contain more information than is on the card. Some of these cards aren't even index cards to vital records - they are index cards to tombstones. On top of that, there are vital records that don't appear in the index cards. I am planning a blog post or two about this topic, but just haven't gotten to it yet!"

My response:  You're absolutely correct, and thank goodness for "Index Cards" created from the town records, and for FamilySearch for microfilming them and digitizing them.  As such they are Derivative Sources.  They are very useful for a one-name study that collects names, dates and places to help point other researchers to the actual Original source records.  If they were my ancestors, I would go look for the Vermont town record book entries on FHL microfilm to make sure that I had all of the information.

2)  On Ancestry.com Loaded More Massachusetts Town Records (23 August 2012):

*  Delia Furrer asked:  "Just curious how long it took you to enter that one source. This is my huge frustration spending so much time trying to figure out how to enter that correctly to EE standards and deciphering Ancestry's records. Will be interested in reading others comments."

My response:  I did scuffle around a bit making three different source citations.  The one I did from scratch (using the RootsMagic source Template) took about two minutes to figure out which fields to use and make it look right.  But now I have a master source model.

*  Geolover noted:  "One anomaly is that most of the microfilms are not Town records but Church records. There are often overlapping entries that sometimes differ in dates, name-spellings and other record elements.

"Another is record titling: A partial Church (of Christ) record for Lancaster is peculiarly entitled "Immigration and Town Records," although there seem to be no 'immigration' entries (not even Warnings Out) or Town-Record permissions to settle. So figuring out the nature of a given record can be a real chore."

*  Martin commented:  "I think Ancestry does a real disservice to researchers by naming this Massachusetts Town Records. It's not. It's the Holbrook Collection, which is a collection of filmed vital records from many sources in Massachusetts. Town records are completely something else and include tax records, school records, town elections, warnings out, land records, and yes, vital records. But the Holbrooks only filmed the vital records. You are missing out on much if you think that all of a give town's records are what is filmed and indexed on Ancestry."

My response:  Thanks to Geolover and Martin for their observations.  As I highlighted in my post, there can be many different volumes in this Ancestry collections for one town, and Gelolover notes that the labelling of them may be "interesting."  I think Martin is right - Ancestry.com should have labelled the collection the "Holbrook Collection" since it is not comprised of the entire Town Record books for all of these towns, but only selected portions of the town records.

3)  On Having Fun in the Summertime - is the name Brown? (21 August 2012):

*  Suzie Henderson said:  "Brown looks pretty plausible...but give some consideration to Harriet rather than Hannah... Just a thought."

My response:  Harriet crossed my mind, as did misspellings of Hannah.  I thought Hannah looked more plausible than Brown ... and the children's records name their mother as Hannah.  

*  RHolmes asked:  "I tried to look at the image on Ancestry to see it better. I found the image of the vital record book in Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988, but I can't determine where you found the original record. What am I missing?"

My response:  I found the record by searching the Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988 collection using the name John Phillips and a marriage year of 1749.  Three matches come up - the image I showed is here.

*  Rosemary asked:  "Can you tell if she was a widow when she married?"

My response:  No, I can't tell if she was a widow, but that is an EXCELLENT thought!  Why didn't I think of that?  One reason may be that John Phillips was all of 24 years of age when he married in 1749 and my mindset was that Hannah was probably about the same age.  All I need to do is search for a Hannah who married a Mr. Brown, and the Mr. Brown died before 1749. Should be a piece of cake, right? If I find this, I'll definitely report on it!  

4)  On Ancestry.com iPhone/iPad App - Filters Work! (22 August 2012):

*  Kay Haden commented:  "Ancestry may have changed/added to their algorithms for hint searching in the past two days or so. My hints have also multiplied. I have three small private trees. As of yesterday two of them had 0 hints - today both have between 40-80. The number has increased during the day today and I've noticed databases that I don't believe have been searched in the past. I have also noticed that as I add legitimate hints, additional ones are sometimes found within minutes."

*  Rosemary noted:  "They just added a buncha records to this Mass. database. http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=2495 "

My response:  I think the Massachusetts Town Records were the big factor for me - I'm up to 4024 "All Hints."  I do have 49 "Recent Hints" that are not from that collection.

My thanks to my readers for their comments, corrections and suggestions to help me solve my ancestral problems and process questions.  

Let me leave you with this comment from Martin:

"Also, Blogger's robot defense codes are so unreadable, I had to type in a code six times to get my comment published. I may go another six times for this comment."

My response:  I am sincerely sorry to put my commenters through the Captcha ordeal in order to submit a comment.  I've tried it with no Captcha and you don't want to see my spam file!  I'm damned if I don't, and less damned if I do.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/follow-up-friday-this-weeks-helpful.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver (except for reader comments which are their copyrighted material)

Do You Source Your Person's Name? Spouses? Parents?

I was watching Geoff Rasmussen's interesting Webinar on "Researching with Geoff - Live!" today (available for free until 28 August 2012), and noticed that he does many things during data entry in his database that I don't do.  I probably should do them, but I don't.

One of the things that he does is provide a source citation for the Name of his Person, and also for the Relationship to the Parents of a Person.  That seems very logical, but I haven't done it in the past.

What records should I source to a Person's Name?  Logically, a birth record, baptism record, marriage record, death record, burial record, I guess, since all supply a person's Name.  Even census records, military records, etc.  But I already source them to the Fact.  Why would I want to source them to the Name?  The most logical one to source to Parent's Names is the Person's Birth Record.

I do have some records where the only information I have about a Person's Name, or their Parent's Names, is a Marriage Record, a Death Record, or an Obituary Record.  I guess that makes sense to source the Relationship to the Parents.

What about Marriages?  I have source citations for the Fact of a Marriage - should I source the same Record(s) to the Spouse Fact in my database?

RootsMagic 5 provides a Note and Source button for the Name, Spouse and Parents Facts.

What about Given Names, which can often be numerous - First Names, Middle Names, Nicknames, Initials, etc.  I haven't been adding them to my database either - should I be?  I really dislike seeing a long list of Alternate Names in the Fact List.  But each name used to identify a Person should probably be included in the database (which can make the Fact list very long!).

If I provide a Source for the Names and Relationships, shouldn't I also attach the Media Item in the genealogy database also?

I guess what I'm asking here is - What is the Standard for Name entry in a genealogy database/family tree, and for sourcing Names, Spousal Relationships, and Parental Relationships?

I found a useful document titled "Getting It Right: Data Entry Standards for Genealogists" by Judith Schaefer Phelps (2010) at http://www.columbinegenealogy.com/pdfs/Getting%20It%20Right.pdf  That addresses names, dates and places, but not sourcing names and relationships.  She refers to a book:

Slawson, Mary H., 2002, Getting It Right: The Definitive Guide to Recording Family History Accurately, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 263 pgs.

The National Genealogical Society has short documents titled Standards for Sound Genealogical Research, and Standards for Use of Technology in Genealogical Research, but it doesn't address my Source the Name/Relationship issue I'm discussing herein.

Can someone point me to a discussion of these somewhere, preferably on the Internet?  Or tell me what they do, and why?

Last thought:  I wish I had thought about this 20 years ago!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/do-you-source-your-persons-name-spouses.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Ancestry.com Loaded More Massachusetts Town Records

I highlighted the first release of Massachusetts Town Records in Ancestry.com Adds Original Massachusetts Vital Records on 20 March 2012.  

Ancestry.com released Town Vital Records for many more Massachusetts towns this week from the Jay Mack Holbrook collection of microfiche images.  These are, in general, the handwritten, ORIGINAL, town records that contain birth, marriage, death and burial information dating from 1620 to 1988 (not all towns have records spanning these years, of course!).

I didn't keep a list of the Towns that were previously covered, but I did list some of my ancestral towns of interest that were not covered back in March - they were Medfield, Eastham, Wellfleet, Salem, Concord and Sudbury.  As of today, only Wellfleet on that list of five towns is available.

There are hundreds of towns available, however, and by far the easiest way to search the records of one town is to start at the   "Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988" record collection page, where there is a dropdown menu on the right sidebar to determine the towns included in the collection, as shown below:

I wondered what records they now had for Boston, so I scrolled down to Boston in the dropdown list and clicked on it.  The list of different titles of documents is shown - there are a lot of them!

I put Last Name = "Seaver" and Any Event - Location = "Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA" in the search fields in order to narrow my search to only Boston records:

I clicked the "Search" button and received 1,763 matches.  Yikes, I need to do more mining!

I clicked on the first match (for Benjamin C. Seaver marriage to Susan Bill, which had no year indicated for some reason - the indexing is imperfect, I fear), and saw the record summary:

I clicked the "View image" link and saw the record:

Now I understand why there was no year - it was not totally visible to the indexer!  It was 1843, based on other resources.

The Ancestry.com source citation for this specific record is:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Note that the Ancestry.com Source Citation does not reflect the current Title of the Ancestry.com database.  It also does not reflect the specific Title where the record was found, or the specific page number in that Title, or the Image number in the collection, or the specific record selected, let alone the line number!

My own free-form source citation for this record, based on Evidence! Explained principles (as best I could), is:

"Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 August 2012), citing original data from Massachusetts Town and City Clerk records in Jay and Delene Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, Utah : Holbrook Research Institute), Microfiche collection. Boston Marriages: Benjamin C. Seaver and Susan Dill (6 July 1843) entry.

Unfortunately, I cannot ascertain from the Ancestry.com record exactly which Title was used for this specific record.  It was Image 5329 of 60705.  I don;'t know if that image number will change if/when more towns are added, and I'm leery of using the Image number.  I can browse back to try to find the first page of this specific Title...and I did - it's on Image 5181:

So I should probably modify my Free-form source citation to read:

"Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 August 2012), citing original data from Massachusetts Town and City Clerks Records, collected by Jay and Delene Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, Utah : Holbrook Research Institute, n.d.), Microfiche collection. "Boston Marriages, 1841-1849," page 378 (penned), Benjamin C. Seaver and Susan Dill (6 July 1843) entry.

That is "doable," but it's a real pain to find the specific Title by browsing for the title page image.


Another Source Citation, crafted from the RootsMagic 5 source template for "Vital Records, Town Registers (New England)" is:

Boston, Massachusetts, "Boston Marriages, 1841-1849": Page 378 (penned), Benjamin C. Seaver (of Boston) and Susan Dill (of Eastham) entry, 6 July 1843. Digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), "Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988," citing original data from Massachusetts Town and City Clerk records in Jay and Delene Holbrook, Massachusetts Town and Vital Records (Provo, Utah : Holbrook Research Institute, n.d.), Microfiche collection.

I like the latter one, but it requires a lot more typing or copy/pasting to put all of that into the "Source Detail" field in the Free-form citation.  Any comments or recommendations from "Citation Mavens?"


If a researcher is looking for a specific name in a specific locality, it might be advisable to search through each specific Title, and thereby be assured that s/he knows in which specific Title the record was found.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/ancestrycom-loaded-more-massachusetts.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver