Thursday, October 25, 2018

Seavers in the News - Earl Seaver of Akron, Ohio Dies in 1980

It's time for another edition of "Seavers in the News" - a weekly feature from the historical newspapers about persons with the surname Seaver that are interesting, useful, mysterious, fun, macabre, or add information to my family tree database.

This week's entry is from The Akron [Ohio] Beacon Journal newspaper dated 25 May 1980:


The transcription of the article is:

"Earl Seaver, 81, Aerospace retiree

"Earl Seaver had intended to keep his semi-annual luncheon date Thursday with the men who helped build two ill-fated dirigibles - the Akron and the Macon.

"But illness kept him away.

"Mr. Seaver, 81, of 1145 Copley Rd., telephoned his regrets to Mrs. B.L. Frank Wednesday.

" Mr. Seaver died Friday at Akron General Medical Center.

"'He called to say he had told my husband he was coming.' Mrs. Frank said., ' but that he was having trouble breathing and would have to go to the hospital.'

"Mrs. Fran;'s husband is in charge of organizing the twice-a-year affair.

"'I feel we've lost a good friend in Mr. Seaver,' Mrs. Frank said Saturday. 'I didn't know him well, but we've spoken on the phone a great deal.'

"Her husband did know Mrs. Seaver well.  The two worked for Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. prior to World War I.  The company later became Goodyear Aerospace. Frank, Mr. Seaver and their colleagues who built the airships have kept in touch over the years.

"The group is called the Goodyear-Zeppelin Old Timers.  And it's getting smaller.

"'We lose two or three a year,' Frank said.  'But we still have quite a few turn out.  This last Thursday, we had 61.'

"'Earl was  one of my callers.  He was a real nice fellow.  He didn't antagonize people and everybody liked him.  He helped call people to our luncheons.'

"Mr. Seaver retired from Goodyear Aerospace in 1964.  He was a life member of Goodyear Foreman's Club and Goodyear 25-Year Club.

"He was a veteran of World War I, a 50-year member of american Legion Post No. 19 and a member of First United Church of Christ."

The source citation for the first article is:

"Earl Seaver, 81, Aerospace Retiree," The Akron [Ohio] Beacon Journal newspaper, dated 25 May 1980, page 37, column 1, Earl Seaver obituary; digital image, Newspapers.com   (https://www.newspapers.com :  accessed 25 October 2018).

The article did not provide any family information, but it did permit a birth year estimation, and provided some biographical information.  Who were his parents, was he married, and did he have children?

I did not have Earl Seaver in my RootsMagic family tree database.  Since he was born in about 1899, I searched Ancestry.com and easily found him in the 1900, 1910 and 1930 census records with parents Orrin D. and Jennie Seaver.  I had several Orrin Seaver names in my database, and he turned out to be Orrin Dalson Seaver (1875-1955) of Akron, Ohio.  I was able to add Orrin's two marriages, his four children, and several grandchildren to my RootsMagic database as a result of this obituary.  I also found that Earl married in 1920 to Augusta Kramer in Akron, and they had several children.

I am not related to Earl Seaver.  His great-grandparents were Christian and Lydia (Kissinger) Seaver from Pennsylvania, whose parents probably came from Germany.  

=============================================


The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/seavers-in-th-newsd-earl-seaver-of.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.



MyHeritage LIVE Conference Presentations to be LiveStreamed

I received this information today from Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage:

===============================================

We are just 8 days away from an exciting weekend in Oslo and I have good news to share with you. 
We are making the final arrangements to live stream the genealogy and DNA tracks online on the MyHeritage LIVE conference website, so please tune in from 9:00 a.m. Oslo time on 3 November. If you need help calculating the time difference to your local time zone, you can use https://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/. 
Make sure to visit the conference website to see the full schedule and tune in at the time of the lecture to watch the live stream.
Speaking of social media, I plan to be very active posting quotes, photos, audio, and videos from the exhibition hall and social areas during the conference, so be sure to follow me:
and follow MyHeritage:
Don’t forget to post and share all your experiences using the conference hashtag: #MHLIVE2018
=============================================


NOTE:  Central European Standard Time (CEST) is GMT + 1 hour, so for EDT (on Saturday 3 November) it would be 5 hours earlier (i.e., noon CEST would be 7 a.m. EDT, 6 a.m. CDT, 4 a.m. MDT and 4 a.m. PDT.  However, in the USA, daylight savings time ends on Sunday morning, so for EST (on Sunday 4 November) it would be 6 hours earlier (i.e. noon CEST would be 6 a.m. EST, 5 a.m. CST, 4 a.m. MST and 3 a.m. PST). 

This appears to be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the topics being presented.  Nothing is said about a cost to view these, so I assume (I may be wrong!) that they are FREE to view.  Will presentations in both tracks (Genealogy and DNA) be livestreamed, or only one in each time slot?

My next question is "Will the talks be available to view after the conference?"  I hope so - I have a schedule conflict on that day and don't want to get up at 1 a.m. to watch Gilad Japhet's keynote.  My guess is that the presentations by MyHeritage personnel will be available after the conference - I hope that's the case. 

==========================================

Disclosure:  I receive a complimentary subscription to MyHeritage, and gave received other material consideration in past years.  I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product.  This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products.


The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/myheritage-live-conference.html

Copyright (c) 2017, 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.

1712 Birth of Daniel Carpenter in South Kingstown, R.I. - Post 435 for Treasure Chest Thursday

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a chance to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1712 birth record of Daniel Carpenter in the South Kingstown, Rhode Island  Town Records:
The birth record of Daniel Carpenter is near the bottom of the page:

The transcription of the birth record for Daniel Carpenter is:

"[CARPENTER, Daniel, [of Solomon and Elizabeth]   Dec. 28, 1712."

The source citation for this record is:

"Rhode Island, Vital Records Extracts, 1636-1899," indexed database and digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Volume 5, Washington County Births, Marriages and Deaths, page 40, (image 160 of 523), Daniel Carpenter birth entry.

This record is a  derivative source record for the birth of Daniel Carpenter.   The original record is in the South Kingstown town record books, which are on Family History Library US/CAN microfilms, available at the local FamilySearch Center.  

Daniel Carpenter (1712-1784) was the son of Solomon and Elizabeth (Tefft) Carpenter of South Kingstown, R.I.  He married  in 1733 in North Kingstown to Renewed Smith (1717-1766), daughter of Ephraim and Margaret (Pearce) Smith of North Kingstown, R.I.

Daniel and Renewed (Smith) Carpenter are my  6th great-grandparents, through their daughter Elizabeth Carpenter (1741-????) who married  Stephen Hazard (1730-1804)  in 1760.

                              ===========================================



Copyright (c) 2018, 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.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Down the Rabbit Hole: Finding Maggie's Grandparents

I've had some genealogy fun today working on Denmark records for my dear friend, Maggie, who is 103 years old.  She and her son asked me if I could find the names of her paternal grandparents.

Maggie's father was Carl Emanuel Thompson (1888-1975).  He was born in Denmark (Copenhagen?) on 25 November 1888 according to the California Death Index and his World War II Draft Registration Card in 1942.  That was a good starting point.  What other records could I find?  Could I find his parents names?

Fortunately, FamilySearch has wonderful indexed records for Denmark.  There are church records (1484-1941), census records from 1840 to 1930), and more.

I started out in the 1901 Denmark census, because Carl would be a youth and perhaps his parents would be listed.  So I searched for Carl Thompson born between 1886-1890.  I quickly found:


There they are, the 4th family on the page (I can't decipher the legends at the top, or the written words in most of the lines) in Kobenhavn, Denmark:

*  Lars Thomsen - male, born 17/4/1847, married, etc.
*  Gunhilda Thomsen - female, born 31/12/1850, married, etc.
*  Fritz Thomsen - male, born 2/9/1886, single
*  Carl Thomsen - male, born 25/11/1888, single

Carl Thomsen's birth date is the same as on the death index and the draft registration!

Can I find a birth or baptism record in the church records?  In the Church records, I input "Carl Thomsen" and 1888 as a birth year, and found:

Carl is the 4th entry down the page above.  He was named Carl Emanuel Thomsen, born 25 November 1888, christened 13 January 1889, and his parents were Lars Thomsen and Gunhilda Larsen.

This seems like a certain match for Maggie's father's birth to me.  The records are consistent.  I found the 1890 census record for the family also.

I will have to study the other writing on the page to get the birth place of the parents, and then search for their marriage record (1876?), birth/baptism records, parents names, and death/burial records.  The search has only started!

The genealogy fun has just begun on this, I think.  There's more to come, Maggie's mother's family comes from England, and her husband's family was from Sweden.

I started a family tree for Maggie several years ago for her 100th birthday, but I didn't provide it to her or her family.  Now, since FamilySearch has added the Denmark records over the past year, I can find much more information without getting into the FamilySearch digital microfilm.  Naturally, I have added this limited information into the family tree, and TreeShared it into a new Ancestry Member Tree.

                          =============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/down-rabbit-hole-finding-maggies.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.


Randy's Birth Announcement -- Post 537 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Recently, I discovered an envelope of small photographs saved when my mother died in 2002 - it was hiding in plain sight in the Genea-Cave! 

Included in the photo cache was this oldie-but-goodie - my baby announcement!


75 years ago yesterday my father wrote this after my birth - he probably wrote many of them - and sent them off to the family and friends.  Thankfully, they saved this one.

So it says my name is Randall Jeffrey, born October 23, 1943, in perfect condition, weight 7 pounds 14 ounces, and parents Betty and Fred Seaver.

I am no longer in "perfect" condition, and weight a lot more than 7 pounds 14 ounces.  

                                   =============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/randys-birth-announcement-post-537-of.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Genealogy News Bytes - 23 October 2018


Some of the genealogy news items across my desktop the last four days include:

1)  News Articles:


*  
Watch Online for FREE! GEDMatch and Genetic Genealogy Segment on 60 Minutes

*  Ancestry.com Is In Cahoots With Public Records Agencies, A Group Suspects

*  New Guides to Tracing Ancestors in Tipperary and Leitrim

*  NERGC 2019 - The New England Regional Genealogy Conference April 3 - 6, 2019

2)  New or Updated Record Databases:

*  
Added, Updated and Coming Soon Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 14 to 20 October 2018

*  Added or Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - Week of 14 to 20 October 2018

*  Milestones for NEHGS collection of RC records (Boston)

3)  Genealogy Education:

*  GeneaWebinars Calendar


*  Free Family History Library Classes and Webinars for October 2018

*  FREE National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair – October 24, 2018

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar - Wednesday, 24 October, 11 a.m. PDT:  10 Eastern European Genealogy Resources You Might be Missing, by Lisa Alzo

*  Upcoming Family Tree Webinar - Friday, 26 October, 11 a.m. PDT:  Researching your French and Indian War Ancestor, by Craig R. Scott

*  Archived Family Tree Webinar:  John Jacob Kramer: Case Study of Mistaken Identity among Revolutionary War Soldiers, by Rebecca Whitman Koford

*  Archived Family Tree Webinar:  Using Indirect and Negative Evidence to Prove Unrecorded Events, by Thomas Jones

* Archived Family Tree Webinar:  The Discriminating Genealogist: Telling Good Evidence from Bad, by Judy G. Russell

* Archived Family Tree Webinar:  True Stories of Families Reunited thanks to Genetic Genealogy, by Roi Mandel

*  Research Like a Pro Podcast:  RLP 15: When to Hire a Professional Genealogist

*  Extreme Genes Podcast/Radio Show:  Episode 256 – Making The Most Out Of Your Ancestry.com DNA Matches / Nice Changes Coming For RootsTech 2019

*  Fisher’s Top Tips Podcast:   #12- Got DNA Skills? Become A Search Angel For Others!

*  Jennifer Holik YouTube:  Military Research Tip! The Missing & The Dead


*  Jennifer Holik YouTube: Research Tip! Where Can I Find a Service Number?

*  Jennifer Holik YouTube:  Why Are We Repeating History?

*  Ancestral Findings YouTube:  AF-201: Alternative Sources for Tracking Your Ancestors

4)  Bargains:

*  Genealogy Bargains for Tuesday, October 23,  2018


5)  DNA Stories:

*  LONG-LOST SISTERS: Half-siblings adopted decades ago by different families reunite in Bryan

*  DNA testing reveals a world of family

6)  Did you miss the last Genealogy News Bytes - 19 October 2018?

==============================================


Copyright (c) 2018, 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.

CVGS DNA Interest Group Summary

We had our first monthly meeting of the new Chula Vista Genealogical Society  DNA Interest Group on Wednesday, 17 October at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library.  Our relatively small society of 86 had 29 in attendance, and all but two were members of the society.

There is tremendous interest in learning more about autosomal DNA in our membership - not everyone understands the science, the ethnicity estimates, how to find common ancestors or DNA matches, and so on.  In the monthly CVGS Research Group meetings this past year, DNA tests and matches have dominated the conversation.  So we started the interest group for our membership.  San Diego Genealogical Society started a DNA Group this past year, and the North San Diego County Genealogical Society in Carlsbad has had a DNA Group for several years.

Here is a photo of the group paying rapt attention to my presentation of "Overview of Autosomal DNA Testing and Analysis for Genealogy" (courtesy of Patricia Diane Godinez):  


I presented only the first half of it, which did not include going through each testing company and how to work with the results.  We will do one company at a time in future meetings.

The second part of the meeting was a polling of the 29 attendees as to how knowledgeable and experienced they were, and which testing companies they had used.  The results were:

1)  How knowledgeable and experienced are you in autosomal DNA testing:

*  Novice -- 17 (59%)
*  Basic -- 9 (31%)
*  Advanced -- 3 (10%)
*  Expert -- 0

2)  Which testing companies have you tested with (can be more than one)?

*  AncestryDNA -- 21 (72%)
*  23andMe -- 48%
*  MyHeritageDNA -- 7 (24%)
*  FamilyTreeDNA -- 5 (17%)
*  Living DNA -- 4 (14%)
*  None -- 2 (7%)

Neither poll surprised me, and reinforced my perception that CVGS needed to educate and help their members with autosomal DNA testing and analysis issues.

The third part of the class was to request issues that the attendees would like to see addressed in future monthly meetings.  We didn't get to all of the attendees, but the issues they raised fell into several categories:

*  How do I find common ancestors of close matches?

*  My relative was adopted, how do I find the birth family?

*  How do I download my raw data from one company and upload it to another company?

*  How do I use GEDMatch?

*  How can I use a spreadsheet in my DNA analysis?

These questions provide a great springboard for several years of monthly classes, I think!  I need to find online articles or papers that address these issues and provide links to them to the group.  Any help from my Genea-Musings readers?

              ===========================================================

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2018, 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 -- 1870 U.S. Agricultural Census Record for D.J. Carringer in Iowa

The treasure today is the 1870 United States Agricultural Census record for D.J. Carringer, my 2nd great-grandfather, in Jackson, Washington County, Iowa:

There are two pages for these records, and they are on two different images on Ancestry.com.  Here are the two images:



D.J. Carringer is in Line 35 on the first image on the right-hand page, and his agricultural information carries over on Line 35 the left-hand page on the second image.

Here are the headings and D.J.'s information (Line 35) on the first page:


The headings and D.J.'s information (Line 35) on the second page are:



The information on the first page is (by column number):

1.  Name:  D.J. Carringer
2.  Acres of land - Improved: 40
3.  Acres of land - Unimproved - Woodland: 1
4.  Acres of land - Unimproved -  Other: 0
5.  Present cash value - Of farm ($): 1200
6.  Present cash value - Of farming implements and machinery ($): 300
7.  Total amount of wages paid during the year, including board ($): 0
8.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Horses: 4
9.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 -  Mules and Asses: 0
10.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Milch cows: 3
11.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Working Oxen: 0 
12.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Other Cattle:  0
13.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Sheep:  0
14.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Swine:  9
15.  Live stock, June 1, 1870 - Value of all live stock ($):  520
16.  Produce during the year - Wheat, Spring (bush):  452
17.  Produce during the year - Wheat, Winter (bush): 0
18.  Produce during the year - Rye (bush): 0 
19.  Produce during the year - Indian corn (bush): 400
20.  Produce during the year - Oats (bush): 39
21.  Produce during the year - Barley (bush): 0
22.  Produce during the year - Buckwheat (bush): 0
23. Produce during the year - Rice (bush): 0
24.  Produce during the year - Tobacco (bush): 0

And on the second sheet:

25.  Produce during the year - Cotton (bales): 0
26.  Produce during the year - Wool (lbs):  10
27.  Produce during the year - Peas & Beans (bush):  0
28.  Produce during the year - Potatoes - Irish (bush):  40
29.  Produce during the year - Potatoes - Sweet (bush):  0
30.  Produce during the year - Orchard products ($):  0
31.  Produce during the year - Wine (gallons):  0 
32.  Produce during the year - Produce of market gardens ($):  0
33.  Produce during the year - Dairy products - Butter (lbs):  200
34.  Produce during the year - Dairy products - Cheese (lbs):  0
35.  Produce during the year - Dairy products - Milk sold ($):  0 
36.  Produce during the year - Hay (Tons):  3
37.  Produce during the year - Seed - Clover (Bush):  0
38.  Produce during the year - Seed - Grass (Bush):  0
39.  Produce during the year - Hops (Lbs):  0
40.  Produce during the year - Hemp (Tons):  0
41.  Produce during the year - Flax (Lbs):  0
42.  Produce during the year - Flax seed (Bush):  0
43.  Produce during the year - Silk cocoons (lbs):  0
44.  Produce during the year - Sugar - Maple (Lbs):  0
45.  Produce during the year - Sugar - Cane (1000 Lbs):  0
46.  Produce during the year - Molasses (Gallons):  0
47.  Produce during the year - Bees - Wax (Lbs):  0
48.  Produce during the year - Bees - Honey (Lbs):  0
49.  Produce during the year - Forest products ($):  0
50.  Produce during the year - Value of home manufacture ($):  0 
51.  Produce during the year - Value of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter ($):  80
52.  Total value - Estimated value of all farm production ($):  685

The source citation for this entry is:

1870 United States Federal Census, Washington County, Iowa, Agricultural Schedule, Jackson township: Page 9, Line 35, D.J. Carringer entry; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 April 2010); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T1156, Roll 13.

From this, we can see that D.J. Carringer's 40 acre farm had 4 horses, 3 milch cows and nine swine; the farm produced 452 bushels of spring wheat, 400 bushels of Indian corn, 39 bushels of oats, 40 bushels of Irish potatoes, 200 pounds of butter, 3 tons of hay, 10 pounds of wool, $80 worth of slaughtered animals, with a total farm production of $685 in the year ending June 1, 1870.  Presumably, the rest of the farm production was used on the farm itself or traded for other commodities with other producers.  The farm's value was $1200, the machinery and farm implements was worth $300, and the livestock was worth $520. 

 It appears that he had no hired workers during this year.  In 1870, D.J. was age 41, with wife Rebecca age 38, two sons, Harvey age 18 and Henry aged 16, and daughter Effie aged 11.

Isn't that a great record?  It's a snapshot of the possessions and livelihood of one man and his family for one year.  

Don't we all wish we had information like this for all of our ancestors?  I need to look for more Agricultural Census records for my farmer ancestors in the Midwest.

David Jackson (D.J.) and Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer are my 2nd great-grandparents through their son Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946), my great-grandfather, who married Abbie Ardell (Della) Smith (1864-1944) in 1887 in Wano, Kansas.

              ===========================================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/treasure-chest-tuesday-1870-us.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.