52 Ancestors - Week 155: #220 John Underhill (1745-1816) of New Hampshire

Here is my 52 Ancestors biography for week #155:

John Underhill (1745-1816) is #220 on my Ahnentafel List, my 5th great-grandfather, who married #221 Hannah Colby (1745-????) in 1767.

I am descended through:

*  their son, #110 Amos Underhill (1772-1865), who married #111 Mary "Polly" Metcalf (1780-1855) in 1801.

*  their daughter #55 Mary Ann Underhill (1815-1883) who married #54 Samuel Vaux (1816-1880) in 1839.

*  their daughter, #27 Abigail A. Vaux (1844-1931), who married #26 Devier J. Smith (1839-1894) in 1861.

*  their daughter, #13 Abbie Ardell Smith (1862-1944), who married #12 Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946), who married  in 1887.

*  their son, #6 Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), who married #7 Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977) in 1918.

* their daughter #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002), who married #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983), in 1942.

*  their son #1 Randall J. Seaver (1943-....)

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1)  PERSON (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

*  Name:                       John Underhill[1–3,4]   
*  Sex:                          Male   

*  Father:                      John Underhill (1720-1793)   
*  Mother:                    Joanna Healey (1718-1809)   
  
2)  INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
  
*  Birth:                       20 June 1745, Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States[1,3–4]   
*  Military:                  16 August 1777 (age 32), Battle of Bennington; Sergeant in Revolutionary War Army[2]   
*  Death:                     1816 (about age 71), of hypothermia; Plainfield, Sullivan, New Hampshire, United States[5]   
  
3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
  
*  Spouse 1:                Hannah Colby (1745-    )   
*  Marriage 1:            1767 (about age 22), Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States[1]  

*  Child 1:                  Joseph Underhill (1770-1843)   
*  Child 2:                  Amos Underhill (1772-1865)   
*  Child 3:                  Nancy Underhill (1774-    )   
*  Child 4:                  John Underhill (1776-1858)   
*  Child 5:                  Susan Underhill (1778-    )   
*  Child 6:                  Jonathan Underhill (1779-1875)   
  
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):   

The Underhill Genealogy written by Josephine C. Frost has this information about John Underhill (Volume 4, Page 29)[1]:

"JOHN UNDERHILL, son of (2) John and Joanna (Healey) Underhill, was born in Chester, N. H., June 20, 1745, and married in 1767, Hannah Colby, daughter of Joseph. They resided near the brick school house on the opposite side of the road a little to the southwest. He removed to Plainfield, N. H., where he died in 1816."

The History of Old Chester [N.H.] from 1719 to 1869, by Benjamin Chase provides this information about John's life:

*  page 375: Pay-roll of Capt. Stephen Dearborn's company, Thomas Stickney's regiment, in Gen. Stark's brigade, which company marched from Chester, in the State of New Hampshire, and joined the Northern Continental Army, 1777, from July 19 to September 18; John Underhill, Sergt., Company A., advanced to Sergt. Aug. 16.

*  page 603: John Underhill, born 20 Jun 1745 married Hannah Colby, settled in Chester near the brick schoolhouse where W. Whittemore now lives and removed to Plainfield and died of hypothermia in 1816, had seven children.

Everything indicates that this was the John Underhill who was promoted to Sergeant at the Battle of Bennington, Aug. 16, 1777. 

The birth record for John Underhill provides his birth date of 20 June 1745 in Chester, New Hampshire, the son of John Underhill and Joanna Helay[3,4].  

John Underhill and Hannah Colby married in about 1767 [1] and had seven children between 1770 and 1785, all born in Chester, New Hampshire. 

Joseph Colby, of Chester, N. H., resided on Lot No. 40, located on the Long Meadow road and near the old brick school house. On March 2, 1774, his daughter Hannah and her husband, John Underhill, purchased this place and lived there until they removed to Plainfield. They sold it in 1801 to Mary Brown but previous to its purchase they lived in Candia. 

There is no death record in the Plainfield, N.H. town records, nor is there a known burial record.  There is no probate record for him in Cheshire or Sullivan County, New Hampshire probate court records.

5)  SOURCES

1. Josephine C Frost, Underhill Genealogy, Volume 4 (N.p.: Myron C. Taylor, in the interests of the Underhill Society of America, 1932), page 29, John Underhill sketch.

2. Benjamin Chase, History of Old Chester From 1719 to 1869 (Auburn, N.H. :  the author, 1869).

3. "New Hampshire, Birth Records, 1659-1900," indexed database with record images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), "Thurston - Vochon," John Underhill birth entry.

4. "New Hampshire Birth Records, Early to 1900," online database, FamilySearch International (http://FamilySearch.org), FHL microfilm, 98 reels; citing New Hampshire Registrar of Vital Statistics, Concord, N.H., "Index to births, early to 1900", John Underhill, born 1745, entry.

5. Josephine C Frost, Underhill Genealogy, Volume 4, page 29.

NOTE:  Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post Challenge:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog.  I have extended this theme in 2016 to 156 Ancestors in 156 Weeks.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/52-ancestors-week-155-220-john.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Incline Software Releases Ancestral Quest 15 Family Tree Software

I received this information in a press release from Incline software:

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Incline Software Releases Ancestral Quest 15

Salt Lake City, Utah (December 15, 2016) – Incline Software, LC, producer of Ancestral Quest™, premier family tree software for Windows and Mac, announced today the release of version 15. This new release provides exciting, easy to use new features, including the new TreeTips™ research assistant and Memories Manager, along with improvements to core screens that take better advantage of newer, higher resolution monitors.

Major New Features

TreeTips is a new technology built into Ancestral Quest that will search the world's major databases of genealogical records and let users know if there are any records for them to examine. TreeTips combines the hinting capabilities of MyHeritage (based in Israel, with over 6 billion searchable records), FamilySearch (based in Utah, with over 5 billion searchable records) and Findmypast (based in England, with nearly 3 billion searchable records). With TreeTips, many users will feel like Ancestral Quest practically does their family history research for them. Users simply enter what they know about their family into Ancestral Quest and let TreeTips examine over 14 billion records, suggesting where to look next, as they expand their tree and discover and document more depth into their family's heritage.

As AQ finds hints on one of these sites, it shows icons next to the name of the ancestor to whom the records relate. Users simply hover their mouse over the icon to see how many records are available, and click on the icon to see actual records.

Note: While receiving hints from all these sites are free, accessing some records may require a subscription or other fees.

Memories Manager. Many family historians have ancestral photos, documents and stories to share with others, and have wished there was a quick, easy method of uploading these to FamilySearch, for the benefit of their extended family. Many researchers have found that distant cousins have shared such memories about their ancestors on FamilySearch, and they have wished there were an easy way to download these family treasures to their computer. AQ's new Memories Manager views the stories and scrapbook items users have collected in their local family tree, side-by-side with the memories for the same people in FamilySearch, then uploads or downloads memories with the click of a button.

Some users need to store their scrapbook items offline, so that as they share their family tree records with others, the links to scrapbook items will not require them to also find a way to transfer the media files. AQ can link a scrapbook item not only to a file on their computer, but also to a file stored on the Internet. Memories Manager provides a means of linking the scrapbook items in a user's file directly to the memories in FamilySearch, so it doesn't matter whether original files are transferred when sharing databases. This can be especially helpful to those who use AQ's Collaboration feature, which allows a team of researchers to work on one master file over the Internet, using Incline Software's proprietary NetFam™ Collaboration service, without having to worry about copying photographs and documents to multiple computers.

For those who use a Family Tree software other than Ancestral Quest, who would like to more easily exchange memories with FamilySearch, they should consider getting a copy of AQ, using GEDCOM to bring their records into an AQ database, then using Memories Manager to easily exchange scrapbook items with FamilySearch.

Learn more about Memories Manager by watching this short video.

Other Enhancements

Pedigree View. Ancestral Quest has always provided a 5 generation Pedigree view to see the big picture of the family tree. AQ 15 now also allows users to select up to 7 generations, if a user has a large enough monitor, or select down to 3 generations if they have a smaller screen, or need to see much larger fonts.

Individual Merge. When comparing the details of two people to be merged, AQ 15 now allows a side-by-side comparison as well as the over/under comparison of recent versions.

Family View. The Family screen now takes better advantage of wide monitors and has a new icon next to each child, indicating whether the child has a spouse, children, or both. This helps users see at a glance which children may need more attention.

FamilySearch Integration. Users who work a lot with FamilySearch through AQ's award winning interface will appreciate that AQ can append not only the RIN or the FamilySearch ID next to a name, but can now show both the RIN and FSPID.

Importing of Ancestral Lines from FamilySearch has been improved. In the past, if users needed to extend several lines of an ancestor, they had to extend them one at a time. Users can now import extensions for all the lines of a selected person with one operation, making the importing of multiple lines much faster and more efficient.

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since. AQ is a powerful yet easy to use, full-featured genealogy records manager, used both by beginners and professionals. Its reporting capabilities are excellent, and it uses unique, advanced technologies to enable accurate source documentation. AQ has advanced scrapbooking capabilities that allow users to preserve their precious photos, video clips, and audio clips for posterity, keeping the memory of ancestors alive for generations to come.

Ancestral Quest was the first family tree desktop product to be certified by FamilySearch to sync with with the FamilySearch databases, and was given the “Most Comprehensive Syncing” award by FamilySearch in 2009. AQ is now the first such product to be certified to sync memories with FamilySearch.

Genealogy enthusiasts can acquire Ancestral Quest for Windows or Mac by visiting www.ancquest.com. A free "Basics" version is available, which contains all of the essential features of recording a family tree at no charge. For a modest fee, new users can purchase a key to unlock the advanced features ($29.95 for Windows or $38.95 for Mac). Existing users can upgrade for $19.95 for Windows or $24.95 for Mac.

All users of versions 12-14 should download and use the newer AQ 15. If they do not purchase an upgrade key, they can still use the features for which their key entitles them, while taking advantage of the ongoing adjustments needed to keep their copy of AQ working with constant changes in the FamilySearch API.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in several other languages including complete translations in German, French, Spanish, Danish, and Norwegian, and ample translations in Swedish, Polish, Finnish and Hungarian, with more languages being developed. Learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest or Ancestral Quest Basics by visiting www.ancquest.com or by calling Incline Software at 801-280-4434.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/incline-software-releases-ancestral.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

My Favorite Record Collections - #2: U.S. Social Security Death Index

One of my favorite record collections for genealogy and family history is the U.S. Social Security Death Index.

This collection is described in the FamilySearch Research Wiki as:

"The "Social Security Death Index" is an online searchable database. This index is a master index file of deceased individuals whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration. It has been kept since 1962, when operations were computerized. The index includes a few deaths from 1937 to 1961, about 50 percent of deceased persons from 1962 to 1971, and about 85 percent of deceased persons from 1972 to 2005. Records for the most recent 3 years are not available. 

"Married women are usually listed in this index under their married name. Last names longer than 12 letters are shortened to 12 characters. The death place listed is not necessarily the place of death, it is the last place of residence that the Social Security Administration has on file. When two geographical divisions are given they represent County/State as opposed to City/State. For example Jefferson, Texas refers to the county of Jefferson not the City of Jefferson. If a town name of last residence is not listed, it may be found by use of the Zip code. The death date, residence at time of death, Social Security number, and state of issue are usually reliable information since the information comes directly from the Social Security Administration’s master file. However, realize that errors may have occurred when the information was originally entered. Information listed for the name and birth date was provided by an informant and may be inaccurate."

On FamilySearch, the record collection is FREE to search at  https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535?collectionNameFilter=false.

I put my mother's married name in the search field, and got matches:

My mother's record was the 4th one on the list.  The indexed record on FamilySearch looks like this:

As you can see, the FamilySearch record does not include the Social Security number assigned to her by the Social Security Administration for privacy reasons.

The FamilySearch source citation for this specific record is:

"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J11G-XP6 : 20 May 2014), Betty C Seaver, 04 Jan 2002; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

This record collection is also available on these other record providers:

*  Ancestry.com ($$) -- U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 (SSNs available before 2006)

*  Findmypast.com ($$) -- Social Security Death Index (has SSNs)

*  MyHeritage.com ($$) -- U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) (no SSNs)

*  AmericanAncestors.org ($$) -- Social Security Death Index (has SSNs, FREE to access with guest registration)

*  GenealogyBank.com ($$) -- Social Security Death Index (SSDI), 1937-2014 (no SSNs, FREE to access)

Why is this one of my favorite record collections?  Because the indexed record provides a birth date, a death date (only the month and year before 2000), the last known address, the year and state where the application was submitted.  The name is the last one used in the Social Security records.  While there is no record image, an image of the Social Security application can be ordered for a fee from the Social Security Administration.

Death records for 21st century deaths are hard to find - this collection provides a date which can be used to find a newspaper obituary, a burial record or some other record.  

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The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

1801 Marriage Record for Amos Underhill and Polly Medcalf in Piermont, N.H. -- Treasure Chest Thursday Post #344

This week's treasure is the 1801 marriage record of Amos Underhill and Polly Medcalf in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire:

The extracted information from this record includes:

*  Groom:  Amos Underhill
*  Bride:  Polly Medcalf
*  Residence of Groom:  Piermont N.H.
*  Residence of Bride:  Piermont, N.H.

*  Intention Filed:  Piermont, N.H.
*  By Whom Married:  Thomas Russell Jr.
*  Residence:  Piermont, N.H.
*  Official Station:  Justice of the Peace
*  Date of Marriage:  March 25th 1801
*  Place:  Piermont, N.H.

*  Note:  Recorded by Thomas Russell, Town Clerk
Mch 26th 181

The source citation for this record is:

“New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1637 to 1947,” indexed database, FamilySearch International (http://www.FamilySearch.org : 2009), Piermont, Amos Underhill and Polly Medcalf entry; citing “Marriage Records.” New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord. FHL microfilm.

This record was transcribed from the Piermont Town Records in the 1900 time frame as the state requested births, marriages and deaths to be extracted onto cards for filing with the state vital records office.  The information on these cards is from a Derivative Source (the original was the original town record), Primary Information (the informant was likely the minister or town clerk at the time of the event) and Direct Evidence (it provides an explicit answer to the question of the date and place of marriage).

I have spent over one hour looking through the Piermont Town Records in the 1801 time period for this record without success to date on FamilySearch.  There is no index for persons, and the marriage records are spread between two volumes in several segments amongst town meetings, tax lists, etc.  I will keep trying!

Amos and Polly (Medcalf) Underhill are my 4th great-grandparents.  I descend through their daughter, Mary Ann Underhill (1815-1883) who married Samuel Vaux in about 1839.

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The URL for this post is:   http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/1801-marriage-record-for-amos-underhill.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Seavers in the News -Orin G. Seaver Receives a Gift

It's time for another episode of Seavers in the News.

This week it's a sad story and an uplifting story too - found in the Ann Arbor [Mich.] News-Argus newspaper dated Tuesday, 17 September 1907, accessed on GenealogyBank:

The transcription of this article is:

JAP STUDENT SENDS $20 CHECK TO SEAVER

As Orin G. Seaver, the university student who lost both legs in a street car accident lay on his cot in the Detroit hospital Saturday morning his face beamed with good nature and hopefulness.  On a table by his side stood a number of bouquets from friends, some of them fellow students at Ann Arbor,, and among a stack of letters from sympathetic persons was one from a total stranger.  In it was a check on the State Savings bank for $20.  It was from A.K. Ozawa, a Japanese law student at Ann Arbor.

The writer said in his letter that, although he had never met the patient, he couldn't refrain from extending sympathy and offering a little help.  He heard of the accident through the newspapers, he said.

I have just come to Ann Arbor to study law," Mr. Ozawa said in closing, "and I hope to soon have the pleasure of giving you a hearty handshake/.  I admire your grit in determining to continue your marine engineering course in spite of your handicap.  I am a Japanese by parentage, but an American in spirit."

Seaver, only 24 years old, has made a plucky fight for an education.  A student from early childhood, he went from his home in Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor for his high school education and later entered college.  While at high school he carried a week's victuals from his home every Monday morning, living on cold food all the time.  Later, while at college he washed dishes for his meals and attended to a furnace for his room.  He will return to college as soon as his condition will permit.

Since leaving college last spring Seaver has been running the engine at the cold storage plant of R.Hirt Jr., 34 Market street, in an effort to make enough money to pay his own expenses at college during the coming term.  His father, a farmer and butcher at Ypsilanti, is able to help him, but Orrin is of such an independent spirit that he decided to stand the expense of his education himself.  He now holds a first-class stationary engineer's certificate.

The source citation for this article is:

"JAP STUDENT SENDS $20 CHECK TO SEAVER," Ann Arbor [Mich.] News-Argus newspaper, online index and digital image, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 14 December 2016), Tuesday, 17 September 1907, page 1, column 1.

I easily found Orrin G. Seaver in my RootsMagic family tree database.  He was born 25 January 1883 in Ypsilanti to John Smith and Theresa Mary (Yeiss) Seaver.  He married Mae Murphy in about 1916, and he died on 22 December 1974 in Ypsilanti.  His World War I draft registration card provides his birth date, an occupation of high school teacher, and a physical description of "medium height, slender build, with blue eyes, brown hair, and had both legs off."

I need to go find the gory details of the accident - I'm sure it made the newspapers.  Yep, there was an article in the same newspaper for 6 September 1907.  I'll post that in the next episode of Seavers in the News.

This article raises all sorts of questions, like "Did Orrin and Mr. Ozawa ever meet, and did they have a long-standing relationship?"

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/seavers-in-news-orin-g-seaver-receives.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Visiting Deerfield and London, Wisconsin -- Post 443 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

During our 2011 vacation to Springfield, Illinois and surrounding states, we had one day in Dane County, Wisconsin  finding Natvig and Leland homes and graves.  I wrote about it in Day 12 on the Seaver Midwest Genealogy Tour (posted 17 September 2011).

After our visit to the church and finding the graves of some of Linda's Leland ancestors, we headed for Deerfield.  My notes for the day say:

*  We drove up to Deerfield and stopped at a gas station to ask directions to London.  The library was next door, so I went there and copies some pages from the 2005 Dane County government book, which was a plat map of each town with the current owner names, and the roads well defined.  

*  We drove to London (a small town in Deerfield town right on the Dane County border with Jefferson County) via London Road, and went down to Cambridge (in Christiana town south of Deerfield town).  We had lunch at the Lake Ripley small family diner - it was great and cheap.  Then it was back to London to find the Leland land in Section 23.  There was only one house on that 40 acres, and it didn't look 140 years old.   I took pictures, and other pictures of the countryside.  There sure are a lot of corn and soybean fields!

Some photos:

1)  A farm house, perhaps on land owned by the Lelands in the 1870s, in Deerfield township:

2)  The corn was high on this farm (it was September, after all!):

3)  The diner in the town of Cambridge:

4)  One of the longer streets in the town of London.  The Lelands lived near here in the 1880-1915 time frame:



























This was our last day in Dane county.  We went on to Old World Wisconsin on the next day, which we will visit next week in photos.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/deerfield-and-london-wisconsin-post-443.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Dear Randy: How Do You Search on FamilySearch for Records for a Person?

One of my local society colleagues asked this question of me recently, and I thought I would share my answer with my blog readers.

My short answer was to "use the FamilySearch Search page (https://familysearch.org/search/) to find records, using known information, then look at the FamilySearch Family Tree also for clues."

Let me use an example:  I was looking in my RootsMagic family tree on my computer for persons that I need to update.  I chose Robert Auble (1830-1920), my second great-granduncle (we share third great-grandparents, John and Anna (Row) Auble).  I found that I had his birth date, his death date, his marriage date to his first wife, the first name of his second wife, and a 1920 U.S. Census record for him.   I'm sure that there are more records for him that I have not added to his profile, along with source citations, and I need to improve his profile in my RootsMagic database and also in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

1)  I went to the FamilySearch Search page (https://familysearch.org/search/) and entered information about him:

The information I entered into the search form fields included:

*  First Names:  robert (not exact)
*  Last Names   auble (not exact)
*  Birthplace:  new jersey (not exact)
*  Birth Year (Range):  1828-1835 
*  Death Place:  new jersey (not exact)
*  Death Year (Range):  1918-1922

I chose to use "not exact" names so that I found records that have variations of "robert" (such as "Robt" or "R") or "auble" (such as "able," "aubel," "obble" etc.)

I chose to use "not exact" for the birth and death places because not all records will have a birth or death place listed, or the place listed in a record may be wrong.  I chose to use year ranges for the birth and death years so that errors in these years are found, but are limited to the ranges.

2)  I clicked on the "Search" button below the search form, and saw these results (6 screens):

Note that I specified six search parameters in the search fields - first name, last name, birth place, birth year range, death place, and death year range, with none of them marked "exact."  Many search engines work on a principle that the highest ranked search result is the one with the most matches to the N search parameters that match exactly.  The "best" search results should be at the top of the list of search results.

3)  In this case, the search found 30 results.  They were (exact match information is bolded):

*  Find A Grave Index - for Robert Auble, born 1830, died 1920, buried in New Jersey (5 parameters matched).
*  1910 U.S. Census - for Robert Auble, age 78 (born 1832) in N.J. (4 parameters matched)
*  1920 U.S. Census - for Robert Auble, age 90 (born 1830), in N.J. (4parameters matched)
*  1870 U.S. Census - for Robert Auble, age 40 (born 1830) in N.J. (4 parameters matched)
*  1860 U.S. Census - for Robert Auble, age 30 (born 1830) in N.J. (4 parameters matched)
*  1850 U.S. Census - for Robert Auble, age 20 (born 1830) in N.J. (4 parameters matched)
*  1905 N.J. Census - for Robert Auble, age 70 (born 1835) (3 parameters matched)
*  1915 N.J. Census - for Robt. Auble, age 80 (born 1829) in N.J. (3 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for child Auble, father is Robert Auble (2 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for child Theodore F. Auble, father is Robert Auble (2 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for child Auble, father is Robert Auble (2 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for child Auble, father is Robert Auble (2 parameters matched)
*  1885 N.J. Census - for Robert Auble, age 20 to 60 (2 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Marriages - for Emma T. Auble , father is Robert Auble (2 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Marriages - for Geo. W. Auble, father is Robert T. Auble (1 parameters matched)
*  New Jersey Deaths - for Minnie Auble, father is Robt. Auble (1 parameter matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for infant Auble, father is Robt. Auble (1 parameter matched)
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings - for infant Auble, father is Robt. Auble (1 parameter matched)
*  New Jersey Marriages - for Robert Obble (1 parameter matched)
*  New Jersey Marriages - for Robert Obble (1 parameter matched)

The last 9 matches match only one parameter, but not the first name - these are all different persons than Robert Auble.

The search as constituted found variations for Robert, for Auble (but within pronunciation limits - i'm surprised it found Obble), within the birth and death ranges.

The search did not find an actual birth date or death date.  I have those from other sources that are, apparently,  not on FamilySearch (such as family papers, obituaries, etc.).

4)  In essence, it found the "low hanging fruit" of census, burial and child vital records where the father's name was mentioned.  The search added the burial information and eight more census records - the 1880 U.S. census is missing, so I need to hunt that down.  I found it - he said he was 40 years old that year (born 1840), so the birth year range may eliminate the record from consideration.

I could have done an exact search with the different given name and last name variants, with a different birth and/or death year range, but it would have taken a lot of time to find all 21 records found above.  I saved a lot of time and I don't think I missed any FamilySearch records in the process (except for the 1880 U.S. Census).

5)  The same type of search for Robert Auble on Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage might find different records.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/dear-randy-how-do-you-search-on.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

BCG Webinars for 2017 Announced

I received this information today from the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG):

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The Board for Certification for Genealogists is proud to announce its webinar line-up for 2017. All webinars will be broadcast by Legacy Webinars, and held on the third Tuesday of the month at 8 p.m. Eastern. The webinar schedule is as follows:

• 17 January – Michael Leclerc, CG, “Writing up your Research”
• 21 February – Karen Stanbary, CG, “Weaving DNA Test Results into a Proof Argument”
• 21 March – Rebecca Koford, CG, “Are You My Grandpa? Men of the Same Name”
• 18 April – Rick Sayre, CG, “The Genealogy in Government Documents”
• 16 May – Debbie Parker Wayne, CG, “MAXY DNA: Correlating mt-at-X-Y DNA with the GPS”

• 20 June – Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, “Beating the Bushes: Using the GPS to Find Jacob Bush’s Father”
• 18 July -  Angela Packer McGhie, CG, "Analyzing Documents Sparks Ideas for Further Research"
• 15 August – LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, CG, "Analyzing Probate Records of Slaveholders to Identify Enslaved Ancestors”
• 19 September –  Tom Jones, PhD, CG, "When Does Newfound Evidence Overturn a Proved Conclusion?"
• 17 October, David Ouimette, CG, “Databases, Search Engines, and the Genealogical Proof Standard”

• 21 November – Malissa Ruffner, JD, CG, “Research in Federal Records: Some Assembly Required” 
• 19 December – Judy Russell, JD, CG, CGL, “The Law and the Reasonably Exhaustive (Re)Search” 

President Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG, says, “The Board for Certification of Genealogists is excited to offer this webinar series that supports our mission to provide education for family historians. These webinars will address genealogy standards for research. By promoting a uniform standard of competence and ethics, the BCG endeavors to foster public confidence in genealogy.”

To register for any of these webinars, please visit our page at Legacy Family Tree Webinars: http://familytreewebinars.com/BCG.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. For more information contact: office@BCGcertification.org.

View BCG’s past Legacy webinars at http://familytreewebinars.com/BCG and http://BCGcertification.org/blog/bcg-webinars. For more information on BCG’s education opportunities, please visit: http://familytreewebinars.com/BCG.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/bcg-webinars-for-2017-announced.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Tuesday - 1880 U.S. Census Record for Frederick Schaffner Family in San Francisco County, California

This week's Tuesday treasure is the 1880 United States Census record for the Frederick Schaffner family enumerated in San Francisco, San Francisco County, California:

The Schaffner household:

The extracted information for the Schaffner family, residing at 1880 Lombard Street:

*  Frederick Shaffner - white, male, age 52, married, a saloon proprietor, born Prussia, parents born Prussia/Prussia
*  Dora Shaffner - white, female, age 43, wife, married, keeping house, born Prussia, parents born Prussia/Prussia
*  Frederick Shaffner - white, male, age 19, son, single, book binder, born California, parents born Prussia/Prussia
*  Louis Shaffner - white, male, age 16, son, single, printer, born California, parents born Prussia/Prussia
*  Charles Shaffner - white, male, age 13, son, single, at school, born California, parents born Prussia/Prussia

*  Nellie Shaffner - white, female, age 11, daughter, single, at school, born California, parents born Prussia/Prussia

The source citation for this record is:

1880 United States Federal Census, San Francisco County, California, population schedule, San Francisco, Ward 2, enumeration district 12, Page 142C (stamped), dwelling #129, family #154, Frederick Schaffner household, indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T9, Roll 73.

Frederick Schaffner (1829-1899) is my wife's second great-grandfather, by Matilda --?-- (about 1834-before 1880), through their eldest son Herman Schaffner (1851-1921), who married Mary Ann Paul (1854-1908) in about 1876.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/treasure-chest-tuesday-1880-us-census.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Don't Rely on Ancestry.com's Indexes for Wills and Probate Records

I have mentioned this several times in earlier blog posts, but I want to emphasize it with several more examples.

I found the will of Samuel Brown (1686-1749) in the Barnstable County, Massachusetts probate records using the search fields provided by Ancestry.com.  There were three images for this record from Volume 8, pages 238-242.  I transcribed the three pages in Amanuensis Monday - 1748 Will and Court Records for Estate of Samuel Brown (1686-1749) of Eastham, Mass. today.

1)  I decided to see if there were more records for this particular Samuel Brown, especially an inventory and an account since they were referred to on the pages I transcribed.  I needed to look for an Index to the probate records that included this time period of 1680 to 1800.

I went to the Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 database page, and selected "Barnstable" on the dropdown menu for the County in the "Browse this collection" area:

I scrolled down the list of "books" below the County, and saw the "Consolidated General Index to Probate Records and Cases, M-Z" as shown on the screen above.

When I opened the "Consolidated General Index to Probate Records and Cases, M-Z" I found that the index was alphabetical by surname, and then by given name, and then by year probated.  I was able to find the pages that had Samuel Brown" surname on it:

There are four probate files for persons named Samuel Brown of Eastham in the 1691 to 1749 time period.  My ancestor is the 4th one on the list, the one with records in:

*  Will Volume 8, Page 238
*  Letters Testamentary in Volume 8, page 239
*  Inventory in Volume 8, page 240 
*  Subdivision of the estate in Volume 17, page 156
*  Children's Guardian records in Volume 7, pages 137-139.

NOTE that the Ancestry.com Index found only the Volume 8, pages 238-240 records, and not the other two records.

2)  I had searched for my ancestor George Brown (1652-1721) in the Ancestry index with no results.

The Probate Index for Brown noted above shows records for George Brown who died in 1721:

There are records for a number of George Brown's including George (1652-1721).  The records for him are:

*  Will in Volume 4, page 11
*  Letters Testamentary in Volume 4, page 12
*  Inventory in Volume 4, page 12

I went back to the Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 database page, and scrolled down to find Volume 4:

I found the "Probate records, Vol. 4-5, 1721-1741" collection on the list, so I selected that and was able to easily find Page 12 of Volume 4:

There is the beginning of the will of George Brown at the bottom of the right-hand page of the image.  Why wasn't this in the Ancestry index of this collection?

NOTE the filmstrip below the image - this specific image (image 11) was indexed as "George Crowne" rather than Brown.

In the process, I noticed that the file after John Freeman (images 12-15) was indexed as "John Bafset:"

This is actually "John Basset" because the indexer was unaware of the "long S" convention in some colonial handwriting.

3)  So my observations are:

a)  You cannot trust the Ancestry.com indexes for the wills and probate record collections to be accurate or complete.

b)  There are complete indexes in most of these collections that include all of the entries for a person, but not all of the entries are in the Ancestry indexes.  Nor is every Index book indexed (that would really help!).

c)  Within a span of three names, two of the names were indexed incorrectly because the indexers were not familiar with the handwriting characteristics of the time and place.

d)  The list of "Books" in the "Browse this collection" area are listed alphabetically.  This means that the "Books" are not in a logical order (e.g., Volume 8 after Volume 7 and before Volume 9) because that is not alphabetical.

e)  Researchers need to use the probate indexes available in these Wills and Probate databases, rather than relying on Ancestry's index.

It is unfortunate that Ancestry.com did not do a better job on these probate record indexes.  These are excellent records to determine relationships and describe estates.

5)  A researcher needs to find EVERY record that probates an estate, not just the will.  Unfortunately, unless researchers are aware of the problems with the index, they will not find EVERY probate record.  In this case, these are the Probate Court clerk transcriptions, and not the actual probate papers found in a Packet in the Probate courthouse.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/12/dont-trust-ancestrycoms-indexes-for.html

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.