Where Were My Peeps in 1940?

I have been finding where my ancestral families resided in 1940 in order to prepare for the 1940 U.S. Census release at 9 a.m. EDT on 2 April 2012.  To do this, I'm using the Steve Morse Unified 1940 Census Tool (http://stevemorse.org/census/quiz.php) to find the Enumeration district for each family.

Here are the ancestral families I've figured out so far (I'll do the extended families in another post).

1)  Lyle L. Carringer (born 1891), Emily K. Carringer (born 1899) and Betty V. Carringer (born 1919, my mother) resided at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego, San Diego, California.  The ED number is 62-63A.

2)  Georgia K. Auble (born 1868) is Emily's mother, and she resided with the Lyle Carringer family at 2130 Fern Street.

3)  Henry Austin Carringer (born 1853) and Della S. Carringer (born 1862) are Lyle's parents, and they resided at 2115 30th Street.  This is the same block that Lyle lived on, so they will be in the same ED.

4)  Frederick W. Seaver (born 1876) and Alma B. Seaver (born 1882) are my paternal grandparents and I think that they lived in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts at either 20 Hall Street or 53 West Street.  Using Google Maps, 20 Hall Street is between West Street and Academy Street.  Using the ED Finder, it did not include Academy Street, so I used Merriam Street and also Gibson Street.  The ED  found was 14-179.

53 West Street appears to be on the north side of the street with the block bounded by West Street, School Street, Merriam Avenue and Orchard Street.  The ED Finder shows that the ED is 14-180.

To check this out, I went to the National Archives Online Public Access site )http://www.archives.gov/research/search/) and entered Leominster, Massachusetts into the search box.  The map of Leominster came up and I was able to zoom in to see the boundaries of EDs 14-179 and 14-180:

That was easy!

5)  Where was my father, Frederick W. Seaver (born 1911) living in 1940?  I don't know.  He may have been enumerated with his parents, but he may have been residing with one of his sisters.  I don't know the towns, or the addresses in those towns, where his sisters lived in 1940.  I may have to wait until the indexes appear to find him.

UPDATE:  After reviewing the 1940 Leominster City Directory on Ancestry.com, it appears that the Frederick W. Seaver family, including my father, resided at 90 Main Street in Leominster.  Assuming that 90 is on the west side of this north-south street, the cross streets are Merriam Avenue and Walnut Street, and the back street is Grove Street.  This gives an ED number of 14-181.

I will do my father's siblings and cousins in the next post.

Do you know where your family members were in 1940?  If you have the town/city and address, you can use the ED Tool to find the ED before the census is released in 13 days.  If you don't know the street address, there is still time to find out by using the list of resources in How Can I Find Out Where My Folks Lived in 1940?  A hint:  Check Ancestry.com for city directories for the 1940 time period!

UPDATED:  22 March, 9 a.m. to correct address in 1940 from Leominster city directories.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/where-were-my-peeps-in-1940.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Finding the Buck-Brigham Marriage Record

After writing Ancestry.com Adds Original Massachusetts Vital Records yesterday, I went "hunting" for Massachusetts records that heretofore had eluded me.  One of my first targets was the marriage of Sophia Buck and Lambert Brigham.  I knew from a Columbian Centinel article that they had been born before 22 February 1817 in Sterling, but I had not found the actual record.


In the Ancestry.com Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988 collection, I entered Sophia Buck into the search box:

I received 11 matches for this search.  The first two look promising:

The first item in the index says Sophia Buck married Lumbert Breyer on Feb. 12.  Here is the entry from the Sterling (Worcester County, Massachusetts) book, page 261:

The Buck-Breyer entry is the first line, and Lambert Brigham's entry is smudged badly, hence it was indexed as Lumbert Breyer.  It says:


"Feb 12. Came Lambert Brigham and Sophia Buck both of Sterling in Marriage.  John Robbins Justice of the Peace."


The entry before this one (on the previous page) was dated 1828, and the entry after this one was dated 13 March 1817.


The second match on the list was for Sophia Buck and Lambert Brigham on 22 December 1816.  Here is the image (Sterling, page 41):

This page is titled "Intentions of Marriages recorded by M. Sawyer."  The entry reads:


"Mr. Lambert Brigham and Miss Sophia Buck both of Sterling Dec 22. 1816"


It makes sense that the actual marriage was 12 February 1817, even though the year was not in the specific record on page 261.  


Now for a source citation for this record (here's my first shot at it):


"Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988," online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com, accessed 20 March 2012), citing original data from Massachusetts town and city clerk records; Sterling [Worcester, Mass.] Vital Records, 1740-1900, Marriages, page 261 (penned); Lambert Brigham and Sophia Buck, 12 Feb 1817.



There are two more matches for this couple further down the list - entries for Lumbert Breyer and Sophia Buck, and for Lambert Brigham and Sophia Buck.  These link to the same page images.  The indexing apparently finds both the husband and wife entries in the database.


This search exposes some of the problems with these records.  The handwriting is often smudged, faint or unreadable (perhaps the information is more visible in color, but the images are black and white), and the indexing suffers as a result.  If I only knew that Lambert Brigham had married a Sophia, and if the intentions had not been recorded in a separate entry, I probably would not have found this marriage.


The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/finding-buck-brigham-marriage-record.html


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 197: "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).    

Here is a small photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family collection handed down by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:  

This is a picture of an older brother (moi!) and a baby brother (Stan) taken in 1947 on a sunny day in San Diego.  I wish I could recall what I was telling Stan.  I'm sure he doesn't remember - it looks like he was bored lying on my legs like that.  It was probably about Gramps taking this picture that would be seen by million on the Internet in 65 years.  Or telling him to wake up and smile.  I always like to check out my hairdo in these pictures - I used to be blond!


Updated:  Jo commented, and as a result I changed the blog post title.  I couldn't resist!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-197.html


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Ancestry.com Adds Original Massachusetts Vital Records

The big news for me today was that Ancestry.com has added their "Massachusetts, Town Vital Records, 1620-1988" record collection.  Crista Cowan wrote about it today in Got Massachusetts Ancestors? on the Ancestry.com Blog.  Crista described the collection as:

"After searching town records for their own relatives, Jay and DeLene Holbrook, realized that the majority of towns in Massachusetts had little to no knowledge of the condition or even the location of their vital records collections. To catalog and preserve the state’s rich history, the Holbrooks traveled town by town through Massachusetts in a 30 year effort to meticulously compile a complete collection. They often found themselves in town vaults organizing and inventorying untidy stacks of records, sometimes making copies of them on-site when the town clerk would not allow the records to be removed from the building. In some instances, it took years of return trips to get permission to access the records, and in the case of the state’s largest cities, weeks and months to duplicate the records. To date, this amazing couple has visited 315 of the state’s 351 towns and cities to film their holdings of vital and town records.

"Now, in partnership with Ancestry.com, they are making this entire collection available online for the first time ever! This database includes original images of Massachusetts town records with details such as names, birth dates, birth places, baptism records, parents’ names, marriage records, courthouse records, and death records."

Looking at the database a bit this afternoon, I saw the original handwritten town clerk vital records from before 1850.  I also saw the vital record registers for the 1841 to 1915 time period.  There are some towns with records up until 1988.

The above implies that: all of the records for a specific town are available.  In reality, the beginning year and ending year for town records depend on town formation and when the last town book ended.  For instance, the handwritten Leominster town records start in 1768 and go through 1845.  The vital records register books start in 1846 and go through 1900.  

The only way to determine the coverage for a given town is to browse the pages for the town.  If you start at the  "Massachusetts, Town Vital Records, 1620-1988" record collection page, there is a dropdown menu on the right sidebar to determine the towns included in the collection, as shown below:

I selected "Leominster" from the dropdown menu, and the first image in the collection for Lreominster appeared.  There are 1140 pages for "Leominster Births, Marriages and Deaths."  Here is the first image:

The first image with actual information is Image 2, which starts the alphabetical index list of the handwritten town records with the letter B:

Browsing forward to image 180, there is the first image of the actual handwritten town records starting in 1768:

Browsing forward again, image 590 shows the first image of the yearly vital records register starting in 1846 until 1900.  This apparently was all in one register book:

The last image, number 1140, is the last page of the vital records register for 1900:

It is important to determine the extent of the records in this database - both the towns available and the years available for a specific town.  An unsuspecting user might search the whole database, not find their target person, and conclude that they are not in any of the Massachusetts Vital Records.  They may be in the records that are not included in this record collection.

For example, I went looking for some of my ancestral towns; Boston, Worcester, Marblehead, Dedham, Westminster, and Sterling are included, but Medfield, Eastham, Wellfleet, Salem, Concord and Sudbury are not.  

The announcement by Ancestry.com leave many questions unanswered, including:

*  Will the collection have more records added to it?

*  Will there be a list that summarizes the towns covered with the years available?

This collection contains images of original handwritten records from the record books kept by town clerks in each town.  As such, they are usually the earliest, and most reliable, records for the towns.  The published "Vital Records of [insert town] to the Year 1850" series of books used these town clerk records as one of the sources for the records.  

These records have been indexed, but like all handwritten records, the indexing is not perfect.  The searcher of names in this collection is advised to use wild cards to get around spelling variations or indexing errors.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/ancestrycom-adds-original-massachusetts.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Mocavo Search Widget on Genea-Musings

I installed the Mocavo Search Widget several weeks ago on Genea-Musings so that readers, and me, could search for names, locations or other word combinations on Genea-Musings.  It is a little way down my right sidebar, and looks like this:

 I did a search using the widget - searching for [thomas j. newton], one of my elusive ancestors, to see what I've posted.  The results were:

There were 215 matches in this search for my search terms on Genea-Musings.  If I click one of the matches, the blog post opens in a separate window tab:

As you can see, the search terms are highlighted in the blog post.  It is not clear what criteria Mocavo uses to order the matches.  My cursory look at the results indicate that it is not ordered by date.  It may be ordered by the number of matches within the posts.  My preference would be to order them by date, with the most recent matches first.

Note the Mocavo frame that includes the web page.  The user can close the frame by clicking on the "Close Bar" link on the right side of the frame.  I was assured some time ago by the Mocavo creators that this frame feature does not reduce the hit count on the blog.  However, I haven't figured out a way to test that yet.

While I have many labels on my blog, I have very few for family names, and none for given-surname combinations.  Therefore, I have to use Mocavo, Google Search or Blogger search (at the top left of the blog) to search for specific people or word combinations.

Do you want a Mocavo Search Widget for your blog?  You can get yours at mocavo.com/widgets today!  It's FREE.  And useful.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/mocavo-search-widget-on-genea-musings.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday's Tip - Massachusetts Vital Records on FamilySearch.org

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Check out the FamilySearch collection of Massachusetts Vital Records.

To find the list of Massachusetts record collections on FamilySearch, go to https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list and type "massachusetts" into the Search box in the upper left-hand corner.  The list of all collections with Massachusetts in the collection name appears.  

The vital record collections on the list today include:

*  Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915 (4,639,049 records) - index with no images, partially derived from the FamilySearch International Genealogical Index (IGI)

*  Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915 (3,818,515 records) - yearly town birth registers submitted to the state, with images available

*  Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910 (1,545,640 records) - index with no images, partially derived from the FamilySearch International Genealogical Index (IGI)

*  Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915 (2,744,355 records) - yearly town death registers submitted to the state, images available

*  Massachusetts Death Index, 1970-2003 (2,037,187 records) - state index of deaths with no images.

*  Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910 (1,944,319 records) - index with no images, partially derived from the FamilySearch International Genealogical Index (IGI)

*  Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915 (1,538,139 records) - yearly town registers submitted to the state, images available

*  Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920 (browse only) - Massachusetts births, marriages and deaths for 1916-1920, plus state amendments to vital records from 1841 to 1920.  It has images but no index. 

Birth and marriage information before 1850 was extracted from the town record books and included in the FamilySearch IGI, and are included in those index collections.  There are other resources for them, especially the town vital record book series for many, but not all, Massachusetts towns.

The birth, marriage and death collections for the 1841 to 1915 time period are indexed from the images of the town registers submitted to the state every year.  The images provide much more information about the record than is indexed.  

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/tuesdays-tip-massachusetts-vital.html 

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Dear Randy - Why Do You Use Several Genealogy Programs?

I've received several emails and blog comments asking me why I use several different genealogy management programs, so I wanted to answer it once and for all.

I currently have Family Tree Maker 16, Family Tree Maker 2012, RootsMagic 5, Legacy Family Tree 7.5, and Family Tree Builder 6 on my desktop computer (and on my laptop).  I've paid for all but Family Tree Builder, but have received free copies of Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic and Legacy Family Tree from the companies in the past as part of genea-blogger goodie bags at conferences and meetings.

The simple answer to the question is "Because I want to learn to use each program so that I can advise my society colleagues on the features of each program, and so that I can use the best features of each program in my own research."

I currently use RootsMagic 5 to enter information (names, dates, places, relationships, events, sources, notes, etc.) into my "master" genealogy database.  The ease of creating free-form source citations in RootsMagic 5 decided that for me in 2011.  Navigation and data entry in RootsMagic are relatively easy to perform in terms of minimum keystrokes and intuitiveness.  I like buttons with names on them rather than icons.  The RootsMagic interface with the FamilySearch Family Tree is easy to use.  The RoiotsMagic-To-Go feature is very useful.  However, I don't especially like the report and chart capabilities in RootsMagic.

I occasionally create a GEDCOM file (perhaps once a month) and import that into the other programs.  I add and edit information only in my master database using RootsMagic 5.  I don't add document images or photographs to my master database, except to test the features.  I don't do web searches from within the software except to test the features.  I don't attach document images or source citations directly from Ancestry.com because Ancestry's sources are poorly crafted.  I do save document images in historical record collections  to my computer file folders and can then attach them to my database if I choose to.

I use the other programs for:

*  Family Tree Maker 16 STILL makes the best narrative reports.  I use it to create the report for the Surname Saturday posts.  Navigation and data entry is very easy (but I don't do that any longer in FTM 16).

*  Family Tree Maker 2012 is the only program that syncs with my Ancestry Member Trees.  It has some unique reports that I like, but the charts are fairly primitive.  Navigation and data entry are fairly easy.  Source citation creation is not as easy as in RootsMagic IMHO.  GEDCOM imports are still imperfect.

*  Legacy Family Tree 7.5 has some unique reports and chart features that I like.  Navigation and data entry are fairly easy, and source citations are easy to create and edit.  GEDCOM imports and exports work well.

*  Family Tree Builder 6 makes it easy to upload a new tree to the MyHeritage website.  Navigation and data entry are fairly easy.  Source citations can only be created with a generic source template.  I dislike the narrative reports in this program since they are not "standard" or "sequential."

While I am not an expert on using any of these programs, I know enough to be "dangerous" in each of them. I can usually help my society colleagues with a problem using the Help button if I don't know the answer immediately.  I can usually find a way to create a report or a chart with the information I want in a format I like.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/dear-randy-why-do-you-use-several. html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Amanuensis Monday - Special Guardianship in Alpheus B. Smith Estate

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own 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 subject today is the administration papers filed on the estate of Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840) of Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.  This record is in:

Norfolk County (Massachusetts) Probate Court, "Probate docket books, and record books (1793-1916)," Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, on 142 microfilm reels.  Volume 73, Pages 931-932 (accessed on FHL US/CAN Microfilm 842817), Guardianship, Estate of Alpheus B. Smith, dated first Tuesday of June 1840.

The image of this record is: 

The record of interest is at the bottom of the first page and at the top of the second page.  The transcription of this record is:

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Norfolk SS. At a Court of Probate holden at Dedham in said County on the first Tuesday of June A.D. 1840.

Application having been made by Elizabeth H. Smith the widow of Alpheus B. Smith late of Medfield in said County yeoman deceased, to have her dower in the real estate of said deceased set off to her, and it appearing that Lucretia T. Smith & James A. Smith of Medfield minors are intrusted in the estate of said deceased.  It is thereupon ordered that Stephen Turner of Medfield be and he hereby is appointed Guardian to said minors for the occasion, and he is hereby authorized and required to represent said minors in all things relating to the assignment of the dower of the said widow in the estate of the said deceased.

S. Leland Judge of Probate

The list of probate records in the probate packet (see Amanuensis Monday - Insolvency Sale of Land of Alpheus B. Smith, posted 17 January 2011) lists this document as "Special Guardianship."

The children of Alpheus B. Smith are minors in 1840 - Lucretia was born in 1828 and James in 1830 - so they need a guardian to watch out for their legal interests as the estate is probated.  This document seems to say the representation of Stephen Turner is only for the settling of the widow's Dower.  

I wonder who Stephen Turner is?  This is the first mention of his name in these proceedings.  He may or may not be acquainted with the family.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/amanuensis-monday-special-guardianship.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

CVGS Spring Seminar is Saturday, 31 March

The theme of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Spring Seminar is:  

British Isles To America And Migrating West 

Special Spring All-day Saturday paid Seminar
Saturday, March 31 2012, 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Chula Vista Golf Course
4475 Bonita Road, Bonita, CA

There are four talks, two each by nationally known speakers Leland Meitzler and Bill Dollarhide. They are:

1)  Bill Dollarhide:  "The Main Migration groups from the British Isles to America prior to the Revolutionary War"

2)  Leland Meitzler: "Migration Routes of Our Ancestors"

3) Bill Dollarhide: "The Scots-Irish Invasion of America"

4)  Leland Meitzler: "Newspaper Research in the 21st Century"

This is an all-day paid event with many exciting features. The registration fee is $35 through March 20. After, and at the door, is $40. This fee will include morning refreshments, a keynote address, two main sessions, a fully catered lunch, afternoon light refreshments, opportunity drawings, door prizes and a silent auction.

Our speakers will have books and CDs on sale throughout the day.

The registration form can be downloaded at
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgs2/Flyers/2012_03_Seminar.pdf

Best of the Genea-Blogs - 11 to 17 March 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:   

*  Spell it out. Pls. Thx. by Paula Stuart-Warren on the Paula's Genealogical Eclectica blog.  What an interesting post.  Paula thinks we should spell things out in this digital age.  I agree.

*  WDYTYAL Marketing differences between England and America by Janet Hovorka on The Chart Chick blog.  Janet compares how customers shop at genealogy conferences in England and America.  Interesting!

*  My Needs and Wants for Genealogy Database Software; How Well Does Family Tree Maker Mac2 Measure Up? by Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog.  What a great review.

*  Genealogy is for the Living by Claudia C. Breland on the Claudia C. Breland Genealogy and Online Research blog.  Claudia solves a found burial urn case using newspapers and vital records, in spite of a plethora of errors in the records.

*  Family Tree Maker 2012 by the writer of The Ancestry Insider blog.  Mr. AI finally takes the plunge to use a genealogy software program, syncs with his Ancestry Member Tree, and figures out how to make a list of Ohio ancestors.

*  Gadget bag for the travelling genealogist - the verdict by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog.  Jill went on a seven-week vacation with lots of gadgets, and figures out what the ones she should have left at home.

*  Hit A Brick-wall? Be Patient and Persistent by Barry Ewell on Barry's Blog.  Some excellent advice here.  Especially the patient part!

*  Who Do You Think You Are – the Lou Gossett Blog-Episode by Melvin Collier on the Roots Revealed blog.  Mel does a WDYTYA treatment on Lou Gossett because he thinks they might be related.  

*  WDYTYA – 3×04 – Reba McEntire – The Nitpicker’s Version by Banai Feldstein on The Ginger Jewish Genealogist blog.  Banai nitpicks Reba's episode.

*  The joy of unindexed records by Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist blog.  Aren't they great, these unindexed records?  Just like having a microfilm machine at home without the crank.  Judy finds some gems by just reading them...and challenges us to do the same.

< *  The Trouble with Literature Searches by Marian Pierre-Louis on the Marian's Roots and Rambles blog.  She's right - it's a struggle to find authoritative books for genealogical research in specific topics.  

*  Getting Down to the Basics - A Review by Susan Clark on the Nolichucky Roots blog.  Susan asked for explanations of how researchers use their genealogy software, and highlights four other posts and describes how she's going to use her own database.

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

*  Fab Finds for the Week of 11 March 2012 by GenuinelyLAF on the 1 Ancestry 2 Little Time blog.

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

*  Notable Genealogy Blog Posts, 12 March 2012 by Michael Hait on the Planting the Seeds blog.

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

*  Best of British Genealogy - 16th March 2012 by Nicola Epsom on The Genealogy Workshop blog.  

*  Genealogy News Corral, March 12-16 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.  

*  Friday Finds - 3/16/12 by Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog 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 1200 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/2012/03/best-of-genea-blogs-11-to-17-march-2012.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver