ANCESTOR HUNTING

What's In A Name

2011-12-26T13:17:00.000-06:00

I came across a genealogy involving one of my ancestors. There was a dispute over his name. I could offer my argument for the name IF I could offer proof. Of course, there is no birth or death certificate and this case there is no marriage certificate due to a courthouse fire. I know where the body is buried but there is no readable stone. I have several pictures of him which prove nothing. My grandmother, for reasons unknown, always referred to her grandfather as Berryman B. Wood. Something about that amused her but I never thought to ask. I have no doubt as to his name. And there was certainly no provision to add the following.

Berryman Baughan and Solomon Wood were close friends. They married sisters. Solomon Wood married Phebe Lucas and Berryman Baughn married her baby sister Jane Lucas. The story is they each agreed to name a child after the other. When they made this arrangement is unknown. Both married in Greene County, Ohio, and then came to Logan County, Illinois, settling in Corwin Township.

In researching families we frequently see sons named after grandfathers with the third son named after the father.

Berryman and Jane had six children, four of whom were girls. The boys were Abraham and Hiram, probably the grandfathers - we know Abraham was Jane's father. Then Jane died. Berryman remarried and had four children, three girls and one son, Solomon Wood Baughan. His second wife died. He remarried again and seven children, two of whom were boys. He promptly named the first son Berryman but the child died. The second son was also named Berryman. In the end Berryman Baughan had 17 children, only five of whom were boys. But one was named after his friend Solomon Wood.

Solomon and and Phebe had eight children before Phebe died. Only two were boys. The first was Joel, which was Solomon's father's name, and the second was Berryman Baughan Wood. After Phebe's death Solomon, who was the second coroner of Logan County, married Rhoda Turman. They had one son, Solomon S. Wood, before Solomon died.

How can there be doubt as to the name of Berryman Baughan Wood?

Fantasy Genealogy

2011-11-27T15:57:00.001-06:00

A woman wrote that she was descended from "almost all of the Magna Carta Sureties." I advised that several of them either had no known issue or their line was extinct within four or five generations. She became very upset, said I was just jealous. I didn't hear from her again.

I don't know of any Magna Carta Sureties in my lines. My sister has some. She's a Calvert descendant. It doesn't seem to make her life better or worse. She may not even be aware of it because she's not terribly into genealogy.

Frankly, if I were going to pick a noted ancestor I'd want it to be one of the Yorkists, the later Plantagenets. I just find them more interesting. Alas, I think that is highly unlikely.

I have seen one of my lines traced back to Adam online. A genealogist of some regard thinks one of my lines goes back to Charlemagne. I don't believe either one.

I have ancestors who were Revolutionary War veterans, War of 1812 veterans and Civil War veterans. Isn't that enough? There are plenty of people who would happy for those. I have Huguenots. I have Dutch settlers and those who were in Jamestown and early New England. No Pilgrims though. No Kings either. There is a thief who was transported, barely escaping death at Old Bailey*.

What is with us that we need to have fantasy pedigrees to someone famous? Isn't a thief we can prove better than an fantasy online pedigree hooking us to Cleopatra?

*Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 6.0, 27 November 2011), April 1740, trial of William Isgrigg (t17400416-2)

Occupy Genealogy

2011-11-07T14:24:00.000-06:00

Have we lost sight of what genealogy is all about? There is a movement to turn genealogy over to a select few with highly specialized skills. By making it a formal profession with strict requirements, testing, etc. they hope to give it credibility as well as allow the pros to make more money doing it. I don't think the founders of the movement meant to push the rest of us out but some are advocating just that. Will it happen? Not in my lifetime!!!

Back in the dark ages, before we had the internet, we had CompuServe and the Roots forum. In 1987 I was looking for a program to diagram my research into those pesky later Plantagenets who liked to all use the same first name. I knew I wanted pedigree charts and family group sheets, having been raised with genealogy, but I wanted my computer to do it. That's when I learned about PAF. Later members of the Roots forum would get involved in an experiment which resulted in The Master Genealogist, TMG for short. I began using that genealogy software when it was in beta [because I knew beta testers, not because I was one] and I used it until last year. It is a highly flexible but very complex program. I never did learn all its bells and whistles and I had regular problems. Eventually I decided I wanted to spend less time on the program and more time on genealogy. After a lot of agony and then research I switched programs.

Recently there was something I wanted to try but couldn't find enough information in the program's help file to do it. I posted on the program's user forum, a pretty active group. I got the answer but I also got some that distressed me. A received a couple private emails and one forum post suggested I should spent more time learning the finer points of the program so I wouldn't have to ask questions!

Yes, I know, what is a user forum for if not to ask questions. But it also seems to me that we should be able to expect a genealogy program that just works, keeps track of our information and then spits those pedigrees and family group sheets back at us on demand without requiring a degree in computer science. Apparently those three don't think so. Maybe genealogy software pros are coming next?

Let's "occupy" genealogy, from the comfort of our homes of course, and take it back for family researchers!

Google Search Tips for Genealogists

2011-10-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

Google Search Tips for Genealogists | TechTips | FamilySearch

'via Blog this'

Nearly 11 minute video showing ways you can use Google in your genealogy search.

Scientists Discover Virus Responsible for Genea-Skankery

2011-10-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Scientists Discover Virus Responsible for Genea-Skankery:

'via Blog this'

I'm sure you have seen trees like she discusses.

Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933

2011-09-30T17:18:00.000-05:00

Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933 | Learn | FamilySearch.org

The Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933, are online. You can read the details of the collection at the link above. Near the bottom is an index to the rolls with a link to each roll. Unfortunately you will have to go through the roll to see if the person you are seeking is there. If you chose pdf and wait for it to load [and you will wait] you can save the entire roll to your computer. I found that contributed to faster searching. I used Adobe Acrobat and viewed the pages two up.

The cards only cover 1907-1933. If your veteran and beneficiary died before 1907 you won't find them here. If you do you will find the veterans service and maybe his disability, often his location and sometimes his cause of death along with the date. If the final payment to the widow it generally states that. Most I checked were handwritten but some were typed.

These veterans would have preferred that their disability not be listed on cards for all to view. It seems many of them suffered from chronic diarrhea.

Not every veteran is a male. Ellen Downing, a nurse, got a pension beginning June 12, 1896. When she died June 19, 1910, her final payment went to Daniel W. Downing of Pittsburgh. It doesn't state his relationship to Ellen.

One George Downing alias Henry Harris [that's what it says] began collecting his pension on August 7, 1894. On May 24, 1913, he was dropped from the pension rolls. He didn't die. They learned he "did not render 90 days of service." This really sounds like an interesting story. He wasn't the only person with a totally unrelated name as an alias that I ran across.

A word of warning. Whoever alphabetized these cards was not perfect. Check before and after where you expect to find your ancestor.

Huguenot Records at FamilySearch.org

2011-09-16T20:26:00.000-05:00

The Lucases came to the US in 1710, having fled up the Rhine from Otterberg, Germany. Before that they lived in France. They were Protestants and fled France to Germany. For some reason the records of the French Protestants in Otterberg survived three centuries of war. Now you can look them up on FamilySearch.org. The Otterberg records show up in Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898. [https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1473000]

Just because I could I checked out France, Protestant Church Records, 1612-1906. [https://familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1582585]

There are Lucases there, haven't checked those out yet. There are images of the French Protestant records so I can check out nearby names.

Whatever happened to Jacob Bowman?

2011-09-16T19:03:00.000-05:00

Richard Bownam was born on October 20, 1767, in Somerset County, NJ. He married Mary Senteney and they had 10 children. By the time he was ready to draw up his will in April 1829, he was living in Hamilton County, Ohio. Apparently the first child Abraham and the last child William were deceased by that time as he does not mention them. George was living nearby in Ohio. Ezekial was in Indiana on his way to Illinois and the remaining children were in Logan County, Illinois. Three of the four girls and Ezekial were married to Lucases.

The remaining children except for Jacob that is. It is obvious from the will, which names every living child regardless of sex, that no one knows where Jacob is. Twice in the will Richard writes: "if my son Jacob return or call for his share within two years..." Richard thinks Jacob is alive and might return although he prudently makes provision for Jacob's share if he doesn't within two years.

All we know about Jacob is that he was born between 1802 and 1808 and that in 1829 his father did not believe he was dead. Did he run away? Did he go off on a trip and never return? I have never seen any research which finds Jacob.

It seems to have been a close family. They traveled together and lived in proximity even as adults. Four of them married into the same family, to three siblings and their cousin. After Richard's death Mary moved to Illinois to Mt. Pulaski Township to be with her family and is buried in Steenbergen Cemetery.

So what happened to Jacob?

The Mystery of the Ashes

2011-09-16T18:55:00.000-05:00

Buried among some discarded photographs the letter caught my eye.

It was from Charles R. Loomis of Loomis, Offers & Loomis of Buffalo, New York, to Mrs. Alma Cunningham in New York City. The date on the letter was September 24, 1943. It said:

Dear Mrs. Cunningham:
I have just returned from securing the permit for shipment of your sister's ashes and for the burial of the same. Unless I am otherwise advised we will send the ashes by express to you, care of Mr. Carl Lipp, Mt. Pulaski, Illinois on Monday of next week. They should then arrive at about the same time you do.

It seemed odd to keep such a letter so I had to track it down. I knew who Carl Lipp was, my great uncle by virtue of his marriage to my great aunt, and the letter was in their daughter's possession. But I had no clue who Alma Cunningham was. So I dug.

Alma Vonderlieth Cresmer Cunningham was the daughter of George Vonderlieth and his wife Catherine Miller. George was a brother of Adolph who married first Elizabeth Lipp and second her sister Anna Catherine. Elizabeth and Anna were sisters to Carl Lipp. There's the Lipp connection.

But who was Alma's sister? A Vonderlieth. And then I knew. A quick check of dates showed Leonore Vonderlieth died May 28, 1943, in Buffalo.

Leonore Vonderlieth, better known as Vaugh de Leath, was born September 26, 1894, in Mt. Pulaski. She was known as the "First Lady of Radio" in the 1920s and was one of the first "crooners." One of her hits, from 1927, was a hit for a guy named Elvis years later. Hear Vaugh de Leath's version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5TGHuvX68.

The ashes were buried in Mt. Pulaski Cemetery in the family plot with her parents and her sister Alma.

Newly Released War Of 1812 Land Records | Jim Dane

2011-09-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

How did I miss this? This is the new part:

"The National Bureau of Land Management recently released family military land records to the general public. These records have only been available in the last couple of years and the best part of this release is that you can print the actual documents from your home computer for free. You can expect to find the actual military land warrant document given to your ancestor for completion of service to the United States during the War of 1812..."

If you haven't looked at the federal land patents lately it's time for another look.

Newly Released War Of 1812 Land Records | Jim Dane:

'via Blog this'

SSDI Last Residence is Not Place of Death

2011-08-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Here's something from another blog that is a good reminder for those who use the SSDI.

RootDig.com: Ancestry.com--SSDI Last Residence is Not Place of Death

Three Rules to Research By

2011-08-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

Genealogy's Star: It is both who and what you know

James Tanner is one of the smartest genealogists out there and he communicates well. These are old rules but he makes it very clear why you should stick to them.

You might even want to subscribe to his genealogy blog.

Google Images

2011-07-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

Randy Seaver, a prolific genealogy blogger, wrote about finding cemetery images on Google Images recently. Naturally I had to try it. I am not sure how it works but searching for "Robert Downing cemetery" brought up his stone, his relatives' stones, my non Downing relatives' stones, photos from my blogs of unrelated people, even pictures of me. I guess he is linked to me in their logic.

A search for "Samuel Downing cemetery" did not produce a photo of Samuel's stone which I know is online in several places but it did produce much of the same results as the Robert Downing search.

I searched for my name and got pictures of me and people with the same name.

Needless to say there are many other photos produced in a search that appear to have no connection to what I searched for. It also produced some of the graphics on my blogs and web pages such as the Geneabloggers logo on this page.

If you are looking for that elusive stone, maybe a historical spot, a town, whatever, it is worth a look to see what is online.

BillionGraves Update

2011-07-21T15:45:00.001-05:00

IF you have an iPhone and you want to try this buying the app will save money. Yes, it is a gimmick.

BillionGraves: Save a Dollar—Buy the iPhone App Now

Remember, a GPS smartphone is required. iPods, iPads and Android tablets need not apply.

If you try it let me know how it goes.

Joseph A. Bozarth Probate

2011-07-07T13:36:00.000-05:00

Joseph A. Bozarth wrote his will on February 28, 1896. He died April 18, 1897, in Illiopolis, Sangamon County. I got it through IRAD because it less expensive. Also, the interns at IRAD are more experienced at finding the entire file. It's their job. It is not the primary job of the Circuit Court Clerk. Documents from IRAD are generally copied in the format in which they exist, ie, double sided pages are copied double sided.

Joseph Bozarth was born in Morgan County where he married Elizabeth Ann Henry and they moved to Sangamon County as did his brother William and his wife Lucinda Jones. William died on January 28, 1896, possibly prompting Joseph to write his will a month later.

Elizabeth survived her husband as did two of their five children, Florence Bozarth and Eva Bozarth Wood. Eva was married to William Tobias Wood.

Bozarth left his wife a life estate in his property. At the death of his wife and after paying all debts he left the remainder in two parts, "one part to Florence Bozarth without qualification, the other part to be invested in real estate for the benefit of Eva Wood, her heirs and assigns forever." He intended it to be entailed forever.

We also know from the probate that they were members of the Christian Church in Illiopolis which got $7.50 from the estate.

It would appear that Joseph Bozarth did not think Florence would marry. He wanted to make sure Eva's inheritance went to her children and not her husband - a totally unnecessary precaution since Eva outlived her husband by nearly 30 years but not an uncommon one.

Elizabeth Henry Bozarth did not die for ten years, on February 7, 1907, in Kansas. Florence Bozarth did indeed marry, to a Nichols. She received notice of the final estate settlement by mail under that name. Unfortunately no address was given. There is no marriage in the Illinois State Archives database which may just mean she married after 1900.

The Bozarth monument in Riverside Cemetery, Illiopolis, cost $184.15. Elizabeth's plaque is on the other side.

The final settlement of the estate did not occur until December 22, 1908.

William Henry Downing Probate

2011-07-04T19:07:00.002-05:00

William Henry Downing's probate file came from the Logan County Circuit Clerk. Parts of it could be found at IRAD and the whole probate would be in the FamilySearch files.

On December 2, 1903, in the typhoid epidemic, William Henry Downing died. He was the only child of William Nelson Downing, who died in the Civil War, ironically of "typhoid pneumonia," and Delilah Downing Downing. He was 40 years old, not expecting to die and had no will.

His heirs were his widow Eliza Harding Downing, sons Clarence, Charles Ellis, Ennis and Floyd. Clarence was 17 and Floyd was 7. [Floyd isn't in the picture.]

The widow was named Administrix on December 8, 1903. David Shellhammer, husband of Delilah Downing Downing, and James Shellhammer, Delilah's first son by her second marriage, stood as sureties. Appointed as appraisers were Lewis Upp, Charles Brooker and William Beckers, all three very close neighbors. Brooker would become the father in law of the eldest son Clarence. Upp was married to a Lincoln, descendant of the same immigrant ancestor as the more famous Lincoln.

They finished up their work promptly and reported on December 28, 1903, valuing the property of the estate at $4,700.25. The list is four pages long and is quite specific at times - "6 rocking chairs, 1 bay mare named Brownie, 1 red steer, 1 gray mare, 66 hogs" - and less specific at others - "1 lot of chickens" [which I first read as "a lot of chickens"].

The value of the widow's property as prescribed by law, which included school books, a sewing machine, beds, one fourth of a cow for every family member [fortunately for the cow there were four members], two sheep for every family member, one horse, etc., was $1,281.50.

The Administrix reported on March 23, 1907. There was $4,700.25 in receipts which included $599.37 for "property not sold but kept...to make up amount shown on appraisement bill." In the long list of bills totalling $3,704.76 we learn that funeral expense was $263.75 and the stone cost $1,140. The balance after all bills was $995.49, less than the widows' amount.

The land apparently passed separately. It is not mentioned. Each son received 80 acres which was farmed by son Ellis until the early 1970s. Most of it is now farmed by his grandson, Roy Downing.

Delilah Downing Downing Shellhammer Will

2011-07-03T19:07:00.002-05:00

Delilah Downing Downing Shellhammer was the youngest child of Robert Downing whose probate was previously discussed. I had never considered that she had a will or probate but I found it in the probate records posted online at FamilySearch. These probate files are more work to collect, not being word searchable, but they are also free. Help with the records.

Delilah died June 22, 1909. She first married William Nelson Downing who died in the Civil War. She then married David Shellhammer. She had a son, William Henry Downing, by her first husband. William Henry died in 1903 leaving four sons. She had two sons, James and Albert, and two daughters, Sarah Jane Shellhammer West and Augusta Shellhammer Park, by her second husband.

On June 1, 1909, Delilah executed a will. Delilah couldn’t write and had to sign it with her mark. Whether Delilah couldn’t write or was too ill to write at the time is unknown.

Delilah very carefully and specifically divided her property into fifths giving one fifth to each child and the remaining fifth to be equally among the heirs of her deceased son William. Her estate consisted of her personal effects and furniture and land in Section 1, Mt. Pulaski Township. She directed that one heir buy out all the others and that the others cooperate to do that.

Finally she named T. A. Scroggin executor of her will. There were no claims against the estate. Everyone cooperated and probate closed November 1, 1909.

Some of Delilah’s descendants should have taken a lesson from her will.

7 cloud services compared: How much control do you give up? | ZDNet

2011-07-03T10:10:00.002-05:00

7 cloud services compared: How much control do you give up? | ZDNet

If you are considering cloud storage you need to read this.

Gadgets and Gear for Genealogy

2011-07-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

If all goes as planned I will be taking a trip and there will be research. Since my last trip my toys have changed.

My new phone is an old smartphone. It's a Nokia E71, their version of a Blackberry. It has a camera and internet, some apps but it is an older phone. It has built in free GPS. It has built in tethering [which I have not tried]. The best part: unlimited talk, text, internet - everything - is $45 a month, no contract. So I can stand in a cemetery, take pictures and send them on by text message or email as a backup. It has a micro SD card which means I could fill one and swap it out too.

I have an iPod Touch, before the camera was added, which has copies of my genealogy database and some files. See FamViewer and GEDViewer for a discussion of the database programs. I have since added Families which works with Legacy genealogy software only. I switched to Legacy last winter but that's a story for later.

In the spring I added an iPad2. An iPad is an iPod Touch with a much larger screen. [I am told Apple hates that remark.] I love my iPod Touch so a larger would make it perfect, right? Well, yes and no. I find my iPad2 to be just a bit too big to be comfortable. That is my only complaint though. It has a front facing camera and a rear facing camera. Certainly the database is easier to read on the larger screen. The digital genealogy books I carry are also easier to read. I did not buy the version with the built in cell internet service. It was more expensive and I didn't want to commit to a contract. It soon became clear I'd love the iPad2 and even the iPod Touch better if they had internet service.

Thus the latest addition to my genealogy toolbox is a Virgin Mobile hotspot. It is a small device, easily fits into a pocket, and up to five devices can connect wirelessly to the internet through it. If you buy your device at a certain very very large retailer [and only then] you can also buy from them 1GB of service for $19.99. It's good for 30 days. You can renew or not, as needed, or you can sign up to automatically add a new GB every 30 days.

Finally, in addition to standard backups to a separate removal drive and backups to the cloud I started backing up to an additional removal drive. About once a month I take the drive to the safety deposit box, which is built to withstand a category 4 hurricane, deposit it and bring the old home to fill.

Robert Downing Probate

2011-07-01T15:22:00.002-05:00

This is the first of several planned posts on probate. This probate file was obtained in the standard way from the Logan County Circuit Court Clerk.

On June 14, 1887, Robert Downing died. The War of 1812 veteran and one of the earliest settlers in Logan County, Illinois, was 93 1/2 years old. He died without a will. Letters of Administration were not issued to his eldest surviving son, Robert Harden Downing, until January 3, 1888. As he died with little money, no land and two of his daughters were given a lump sum by agreement of all other heirs it would appear he had carefully divested himself of most of his property, probably beginning after the death of his wife Jane Morrow Downing on May 16, 1882.

The heirs of Robert Downing were the four daughters of his deceased eldest son John, son Robert Harden who was the administrator, daughter Mary Downing Roberts, son Lorenzo, son Alexander, the son of his deceased son Henry Clay, daughter Elizabeth Downing Downing, daughter Delilah Downing Downing Shellhammer. One child, Hannah, had died young.

At the time of his death Robert was receiving a pension of $24, apparently per year, for his War of 1812 service. In the estate was an uncashed check for $24 which was characterized as "utterly worthless" as the government refused to pay it.

Daughters Elizabeth and Delilah, the youngest of the children, were given $200 each which all of the other heirs agreed was proper so that they "might equally share the estate." This seems to indicate the others already had their $200 at the time of death. Each heir signed off on the agreement. Their individual affidavits tell us where they were located at the time as well as their name.

The stone for Robert cost $23.75. I would have to guess this is the "Father" stone at the side of the major stone for Robert and Jane. In the foreground is the War of 1812 marker.

When all was said and done, exclusive of the $400 above, each of the eight heirs received only $53.28. The four daughters of John each received $13.32. Elizabeth died after her father but before the disbursement. Each of her eight children got $6.66.

Mystery Pictures

2011-05-27T14:41:00.001-05:00

This isn't an original idea but its a good one. I'm posting mystery pictures to a web album. Naturally since I have the pictures I must know someone in them but often that's it, I know one person. Any information on the pictures is welcomed. Free free to share the link.

Mystery Pictures - Cheryl Rothwell - Picasa Web Albums

Cloud Storage Options

2011-04-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

Say you want to store some genealogy files online where you can easily get to them with your laptop, iPad, smartphone, Android device, etc. Maybe you want to backup, show relatives, share, refer to while at a research site. What can you do? There are multiple options but this is about cloud storage.

To know what cloud storage is best for you really need to know what you want. Do you want to store, sync, collaborate, backup? I have used all three of the following free storage options.

Dropbox, with 2 GB free storage, is promoted by many. The prime reason most give for preferring it is the ability to sync files. When you are on your laptop and you change a file it automagically changes that file on your desktop and all other devices. That is not always a good idea in my book. Yes, it gives you a mirror backup on all your devices but if you mistakenly delete a file or overwrite a good file it is gone on all your devices. If I am collaborating with a researcher and they change the file it is changed whether I think that was a smart idea or not. If you want to share files or collaborate you need to give the other person log on information. I'm not comfortable with that. I can attach it to an email instead. You can limit the folders they see.

Dropbox has an app for almost every device making logging on pretty much a no brainer. There are ways you can up your free Dropbox storage to 8 GB which involve giving out your friends' emails.

Windows SkyDrive gives you 25 GB free storage, no strings. It provides backup and makes your files available from another computer. You can chose which files your want to sync and which you don't. You can chose who you want to share with and which folders you share with them. You can provide a link to files you want others to see. Reviewers like to note is the 50 MB limit on file size. Check your files and see how many you have which are 50,000 KB. If you have a lot of large pictures saved in .tif that might be an issue. Otherwise you should be good to go.

Windows SkyDrive does not have an app for all your devices. You need to log in. Make it a favorite or a bookmark.

Amazon Cloud Drive gives you 5 GB free storage. If you buy an album during the promotion period you can get an additional 20 GB. Amazon wants you to buy music from them and store it on the cloud drive so it is available to you wherever you are. I did put some music there - music you buy from them does not count against your storage limit - but mostly my storage is genealogy files. That's really what it is, storage which you can access - no sharing, no sync, at least not yet. Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has withheld approving any app which accesses Amazon because, of course, they want you to buy music from them using iTunes. If you are using the storage for backup or to have files available to you from another computer then this is not an issue. It works for storage.

Google's cloud drive for the masses seems to be lost in space. You have long been able to collaborate on documents. Google has free photo sharing through Picasa. They made cloud storage available for the Google Apps customers but reviews were not exactly glowing.

Your computer manufacturer may also provide you with some free cloud storage. There are some other companies that provide a small amount of free storage.

Is it safe? The original file is still on your hard drive I hope and you do back that up, right?

Bottom line: there is free cloud storage out there. Chose the one that suits your needs. Or chose all of them. In theory you could have 58 GB free cloud storage that way.

No Slave to Citation

2011-02-24T14:03:00.000-06:00

You must read this blog including all the comments. That's the blog in the link, not this one.

Citations are the bane of the average person's genealogy research - needlessly. You can't skip citations but you don't have to be a slave to them. Elizabeth S. Mills told me years ago the deal is [my paraphrasing] you need to include enough information in your cite so someone can find it in the future. Simple as that. [Ok, maybe not but close.] Despite her fearsome reputation she is not the evil monster of citations, worrying about every comma.

Kerry Scott is so right on, saying what many have said privately for years but didn't dare to say in public out of fear of the cult.

Really, you must read THE BLOG and the comments. If the links don't work here it is again:
http://www.cluewagon.com/2011/02/source-citations-in-genealogy-church-or-cult/#comments

Dualies

2011-02-13T16:01:00.000-06:00

I own two monitors. I finally gave in and set both up on the same computer. For work it has been okay, not worth going out and buying the second one though.

Genealogy is a very different story. Today on one monitor I had my genealogy program open to a family. On the other I had the Illinois Archives databases open. I was able to quickly check the dates for marriages and some deaths, Civil War and other military records where appropriate. I had a book open on the desk which sometimes had a different date than what I had entered probably 20 years ago and I wanted to see what the state said.

Illinois State Archives Databases

Without disturbing the open databases I could easily flip between people and families. Sometimes when they are sharing one screen one gets lost behind another window, accidentally closed, etc. With two monitors everything could stay open, full size, and visible at the same time.

Of course, it doesn't have to be the state archives. It could be ever growing FamilySearch.org or any other web site with information. On FamilySearch you can open some census records for example.

It is amazing the amount of time saved when you can enter the information directly into the program, enter the source, look back to verify if necessary and move on.

I wish I hadn't waited so long to convert to dual monitors.

13

2011-02-13T10:24:00.000-06:00

Samuel Downing, my ggg grandfather, was second of 16 children. His immediate younger brother Thomas followed him to Illinois and purchased neighboring land.

Thomas had three wives. He apparently had a thing for the number 13 too. [Remember that.] He married Elizabeth Kellison in Pike County, OH, on May 13, 1819. They had five daughters before she died. He married Rebecca Huff in Pike County, OH, on September 13, 1832. They had three children, a daughter and two sons, before she died. He married Loretta Sherman, who was 17 years younger, on October 13, 1842, in Ohio. They had four children, three daughters and a son. Add it up. Thomas had 12 children, nine daughters and three sons.

On June 11, 1865, Thomas Downing died in Logan County, Illinois. The original probate documents leave a blank for his widow, list five daughters [Margaret, Nancy, Susan, Mary and Rebecca] and three sons [George, William, Thomas]. Three daughters [Caroline, Elizabeth and Sarah] had died young or at least without heir. The child of the deceased daughter Hannah Downing French is listed. 12 children, all accounted for. Thomas had no will and probate took some time.

There apparently was a dispute which resulted in a suit to partition and to assign specific land to Loretta as her dower. It was filed September 23, 1867, more than two years after Thomas' death. This suit lists the heirs of Thomas as Loretta, the five daughters, the child of Hannah and his FOUR sons George, William T., Thomas and Samuel W.

Samuel W.??? Where did he come from?

Samuel W. duly got his share of the estate, specific parcels of land which can be found on 1873 plat maps. Since he was not a minor we can assume he was a child of one of the first two marriages. He is not mentioned in any other documents before or after but he is a very real presence in the probate documents.

Samuel, brother of Thomas, died 14 months after Thomas. His son Samuel Wesley inherited a share and controlled more of that estate as guardian for various other heirs.

Did the courts get confused when the names were the same and the lands were all in the same area? Are land records wrong?

Or is the mysterious Samuel W. the 13th child of Thomas? [cue 'Twilight Zone' theme]

10,000 Dead People

2011-01-03T20:15:00.000-06:00

It was a long and miserable December thanks to the cold from hell. The bright spot is when I was able to be up but not able to go out I worked on my "10,000 Dead People" database and got it to a place where it could be uploaded. I had to divide it into thirds to do that and fidget with the formatting to get each part to reasonable size. It went up the last week of December and almost immediately I began receiving additions, corrections, etc.

What I personally call 10,000 Dead People is basically a list of people buried in south Logan County, Illinois. Why there? With only a few exceptions this includes all of my ancestors back to the beginning of this country so I am particularly concentrated in this location. Unfortunately that made it more difficult to work on which is why I gave it the frivolous name. I am related to a lot of these people, was very close to some of them, knew many more of them. It's difficult to look at some of them as a name on a stone. Too many memories.

Now it is up and it is a great resource for those researching in south Logan County along with the Logan County ILGenWeb site which, if I do say so, contains many resources for researchers of the same area.

It's permanently a work in progress. If you have additions or corrections send them on.

Genealogy Blog Finder

2010-12-26T09:17:00.000-06:00

Genealogy Blog Finder

Looking for a genealogy blog? There are too many to count but you can use the above link to 1,691 genealogy blogs [number as of the moment of writing]. At the top of the page there is a search box so you can narrow your search to fit your specific interests.

Scanning Update

2010-11-26T14:05:00.000-06:00

This morning I was up early but not to shop. Before 9 a.m. I scanned another 487 photos. I have learned to scan all mindlessly. I can decide what to keep, whether it is a duplicate, etc., later. My ScanSnap saves both sides so if there is something on the back to help me identify the photo later that is saved. Step two of this process will be naming the photos.

While scanning the photos I have found those I had no idea I had and plenty that I can't identify as well as innumerable pictures of that little girl everyone apparently loved to photograph. What is really bad is today I found a picture from 1957 where I could only identify one person [my oldest brother] and possibly another [neighbor]. My sister, who was not born in 1957 as I am sure she wishes me to point out, used her later time memory to suggest a logical possibility for two of the people. The other two remain a total mystery. As shown before here, sometimes an outside person can shed light on a picture. Never hesitate to ask anyone you can.

I am now down to one file drawer, about half full of documents not related to genealogy, and one box of photos. Unfortunately it is a large box and probably contains 12-1500 photos. The good news is half of them are travel, scenery, etc., which may not survive the pruning. Prior to digital we took some bad pictures and were stuck with them.

I'm not giving up my beautiful remaining bookcase even when it is empty but I do have three shelves of books relating to the later 15th Century in England I'm ready to donate. No genealogy unless you a Plantagenet.

Start At The Beginning - Genealogy 101

2010-10-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

It seems basic but I have had so many questions lately I'm posting it.

START AT THE BEGINNING. Write down what you know - your name, birth date and location, marriage date and location, etc. Add the same information for your children. Then do your parents and siblings. If you don’t know these details for your parents ask. If your parents are deceased ask your siblings, your parents’ siblings - anyone you can think of who might know. Ask them about your grandparents and any other ancestors they know about. If your parents don’t know perhaps their siblings do. Ask them. The answers will provide your initial research road map.

Collect your own documentation, birth certificate, marriage certificate, any other legal documentation including divorce papers. Gather your children’s birth certificates and their other documentation. If you don’t have this you may have to obtain copies from the County Clerk in which the birth, marriage or other event occurred. It's also at the state, at least modern records, but generally the County Clerk is less expensive. You need a copy of the official record [doesn't have to be certified]. Next do the same for your parents and your siblings. Do you know everyone’s maiden name, when and where they were born, married and if appropriate died and were buried? Were they in the military and if so when?

One of the top regrets genealogists have is “I didn’t ask my mother/grandmother/ uncle when I had the chance and now they are gone.”

You will be doing this progressively back for each generation. Remember, two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and so on. And if you have step parents in any generation you probably want to include them. They and their children, even if unrelated to you, may be important later.

You can see that there are a lot of people, a lot of information and a lot of documents. With all that information and documents you need to be organized. You need a two part plan, one for recording the information and one for saving the documentation. I'm sure you know by now my motto is Scan Everything.

The best thing to do with the information is to enter it into the genealogy program of your choice. Data entry can be time consuming but you need to enter every detail you know about every person and you need to cite the source for that piece of information. It will become obvious what you are missing when you enter the data into your genealogy program. Make a list of what is missing and make a plan for finding it.

Citing your sources is a critical step. If a person read your file in five years could they find your documentation? If the answer is not yes you haven’t done it correctly. This is the other top regret - “I didn’t cite my sources [or didn’t cite them fully] at the time and now I can’t find the information.”

Many people have elaborate filing systems for the documentation. I believe you should keep it simple. There are many options but you should chose one that works for you. If you are not a super detail oriented person you probably won’t carry through on an elaborate filing system. It is more important to file in an orderly manner so you can find it.

To begin try eight files, one for each of your great grandparents using the maiden names for females. If you don’t know your great grandparents do it with your grandparents. You can expand later. In the beginning those eight folders are enough. Later you will probably want to have subfolders for such things as census records, vital records, military records, etc. as you gather more and more data. I scan all the information and keep the files on my computer, backed up of course. You can also easily share the scanned copies with relatives. Think of it as additional backup.

When you have completed your grandparents and you have filled out all the information you can find, with special attention to completing birth, marriage, death and children, then you can proceed backward, generation by generation. At that point you will have a better idea what you need to learn more about - census records, vital records, military records, immigration and naturalization, land records, probate records, etc. There is internet research, courthouse research, library research, archives research, organization - there’s always something to learn that will enhance your genealogy.

And when you have your family under control - you are never really “done” with your ancestors - there is your spouse’s family, the families of your children’s spouses and on and on. Don’t worry. You’ll never run out of people.

America's Top Ten Genealogical Repositories | FamilySearch.org

2010-10-27T11:33:00.001-05:00

America's Top Ten Genealogical Repositories | FamilySearch.org

This blog post lists the top ten best archives and libraries for genealogy. If your library participates in Interlibrary Loan it's worth checking World Cat to see if they have your book. They assuredly do not loan every book but your librarian can determine if they will loan the one you want.

Genealogy Tip of the Day

2010-10-25T19:47:00.000-05:00

I'm testing out Blog This! an extension for the Chrome browser. When I see something that I would like to share I can now do it with a click instead of making notes or attempting to remember it.

This is from Michael John Neill's Genealogy Tip of the Day. I'm a fan of Michael who also does Casefile Clues discussed here earlier.

Genealogy Tip of the Day: Have You Overlooked an Alternate Spelling?: "Have You Overlooked an Alternate Spelling?
Is it possible you've overlooked an alternate spelling of a last name? A relative's mother's name was listed in all documents as Morris. Her Social Security Application listed the last name as Morse. Just one that for some strange reason had not crossed my mind. It happens to all of us."

Everyone May Be Someone

2010-10-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

Some people just want to find out about their direct ancestors. They think that will be enough. They ignore all the external people they find: siblings of in laws, neighbors, business associates, anyone who isn't their direct ancestor. They don't know how addictive this "little" genealogy hobby will become.

Don't fall into that trap. When you find a person who married into your line and you see something about his brother write it down. Often when a person married into a family other siblings and/or cousins also married into the same family. Or maybe they didn't but their children did. You may not know why now but someday you'll wish you had made the notes when you had the chance.

Originally I busily entered my ancestors into my database. This is a time consuming and, I admit, sometimes semi boring process. Naturally I avoided "unnecessary" people. I quickly learned that, sooner or later, I would need those unnecessary folks. Now I enter all sorts of people, even people who are totally unrelated to me [as far as I know today] but who were living in the area. I am no longer surprised when I eventually find a connection.

About 13 years ago I "met" Neal Downing. Back in the 1850s and 60s three children of Samuel Downing married three children of Robert Downing. These lines were previously unrelated, from different parts of the country, but ended up a mile apart in Logan County. I am a descendant of one of those marriages. Neal descends from another. His ancestors left Logan County and moved west - long gone but once they were closely related.

Last winter Neal commented he didn't know as much about his wife's family. In an amazing coincidence her ancestors had also lived in Logan County but moved west. They met in California. He sent me the line they knew, no names I recognized as they were from a different part of the county - until I got to her ancestor Charity Bowman. I did a double take.

I am related to both Neal and his wife. Charity was a sister of Hannah Bowman, my 4th great grandmother. Their mother Mary Senteney Bowman is my 5th great grandmother and Jackie's 4th great grandmother. Hannah, Charity and their mother are all buried in Steenbergen.

Take the time to write down those names and whatever else you run across. You just never know.

Genealogy Volunteer Opportunity

2010-10-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

All those records in Granite Mountain near Salt Lake City are being digitalized and will eventually be available online free.

As you can imagine, there are millions of records which the LDS Church has collected over the years. They have the digitalizing down to a science and anticipate it will be completed in 10 years. That's the worldwide collection.

The indexing, which is necessary before you can search these records, is done by volunteers, checked and double checked, will take longer. There's just one problem. At the current rate the volunteers are working it will take 300 YEARS.

You don't have to be a member of the LDS Church to volunteer to index. You don't have to go to a Family History Center. You can do it from the comfort of your home. You need a computer and internet access. You don't have to have a fast internet access. You can chose to work offline but you will need the connection to download the software, download the projects and upload them when you are done.

There is a time limit for each project but if you can commit an hour over the week after you download a project you are fine. Some projects take less than than that but that's the time they suggest. And once the project is indexed and goes through the checking process it goes online.

To volunteer go to beta.familysearch.org. Sign up and download the software. I strongly suggest you view the training even if you find it simple. The main reason is there are a few instructions in there on the rules for handling specific situations such as when you can't read the handwriting [and obviously you will encounter this issue]. At the end you'll find you can actually download the training file and the "handout" for future reference.

If you need help there are FAQS and resources and a forum. The forums are a separate signup although you can use the same name as your indexing user name if you wish.

If you are reading this I assume you read English but if you read other languages remember this is a worldwide project and records come in all languages.

If every genealogist and historian volunteered for one project - one hour - a week it would have an impact on the timeline for completion. What are you waiting for?

The Quilt

2010-10-04T20:26:00.000-05:00

When the weather starts to turn, too cool for just a sheet, not cool enough for a blanket, I drag out my old quilt. As I did so this year I thought it was looking pretty tired. It is fraying, has some holes through one layer, has some spots and is yellowing. But it is still in one piece and still does its job. My friend Betty, who is a quilter, sent me something to soak it in that took out a lot of the spots and the yellow. Smells strange but it did a nice job.

Get a new one? Not a chance. I have been dragging that quilt around all my adult life. I slept under it long ago in college. I wrapped up in it in my chilly apartment in Chicago. I still sleep under it at various times even though it is too small for the bed.

The quilt is a double wedding ring, obviously made for a double bed. I remember my grandmother pulling it from a pile of old and unused quilts in the back of the closet. She said she made it when she married. Back then they still had quilting bees as entertainment in the winter. She had one that was made of scraps, literally, a hodgepodge of fabrics and shapes. Many scraps had someone's name embroidered on them. It was interesting but some of the scraps were wool and my skin doesn't like wool. So I ended up with this quilt.

My grandmother married on January 19, 1910, over 100 years ago. I should look as good as the quilt when I am that age.

More Pictures, More Story

2010-09-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

We have pondered last week's picture for more than a dozen years. For some reason it has always intrigued me. Sometimes you just need to put it aside. When you go back and ask the question again someone might have the answer. Or your brain may just kick in.

What's event? My sister's idea is likely the correct answer, Edward Daniel Ryan's birthday, what would be his last one, July 14, 1950. We already knew it was taken in the summer of 1950 and that would make sense as the reason.

Where are the rest of the relatives then? I have literally thousands of pictures. The original picture came from my files - although there are multiple copies of it around. But I had not seen these two from Tessa Rasnick, a great great granddaughter of Lillie and Edward. She sent them to me sometime in the last year and I hadn't really gotten to them [because there was another interesting picture in the group]. They are before her mother's time but her great grandmother Mary Ryan Veech is in the pictures.

Here are Edward and Lillie Wood Ryan with all five of their then surviving children. Obviously this is the same day and location. Margaret, Mary, Lillie, Ethel, Edward, Cora [partially hidden], Wilford.

And here are more people, not too many of the men - and this was before tv - and more children. Of the males I only know my uncle Orville, last one on the left. All my older cousins are in the picture but I am missing as is my aunt Patricia, soon to be a bride.

Now I wonder if there are more pictures of that day hiding in a box in the back of a closet somewhere.

Final Four - Who Are They?

2010-09-06T13:33:00.000-05:00

This picture, taken during my lifetime, continues to baffle me. I am looking for the final four pieces in the puzzle.

I can date the picture by the oldest and youngest. Edward Daniel Ryan died at Christmas 1950 and the infant is Jacqueline Green, born October 1949, making this warm weather after May 1950. From the background I would guess it was taken at Emagene Veech Green's home in the country between Mt. Pulaski and Illiopolis.

There are 19 relatives in this picture. I identified 13. Emagene Green was able to identify two more. That leaves four we don't know and yet we know they are almost undoubtedly descendants of Benjamin B. and Sarah Lucas Wood or the spouse of a descendant.

Back row, Irma Mae Ryan Sapp, Margaret Ryan Rentchler Graul, Janet Downing Rubin, Thelma Volle Downing, Vera Brown Downing, Ethel Ryan Downing, no clue, no clue, Bessie Wood Meade, Cora Ryan Lipp, no clue, Marie Wood Havener Heard, Mary Ryan Veech.

Front row, Betty Downing Rothwell Atwood, Lillie Wood Ryan, no clue, Edward Daniel Ryan, Emagene Veech Green, Jacqueline Green Kapper. I'm sure the two younger women in the front row got to sit because Emagene was holding a baby and Betty had had one in May.

Cora, Ethel, Mary and Margaret are among the 10 children of Lillie and Edward Ryan. The unknowns are not from their families. Bessie and Marie are daughters of Lillie's brother Caleb Wood and his wife Marcy Conaway. The unknowns may be connected to them.

And, I wonder, where are the men and the rest of the children. Without a doubt I was there.

If you know the answer to this puzzle PLEASE let me know.

Take Your Books With You

2010-09-01T09:11:00.000-05:00

I have a copy of Evidence Explained which I bought when it came out in pdf. I have it on my computer for instant reference. I have copies of various other publications, either purchased, free online or that I bought and then scanned. It IS handy to have some of these reference books at your fingertips.

Have you thought about one of those reading devices that allows you read a book without a book? Most allow you to download a book instantly. Say you are researching at a library and realize you really need the census guide you saw at [chose your favorite retailer]. With one of these devices you can get it right now. The device may also read pdf and other formats that you may already own.

Those devices are nice but they are also pricey and are just one more piece of equipment to carry around.

Did you know you can download the app for those devices to your computer, laptop, netbook, iPad, even your smartphone? Did I mention the apps are all free? You could download them ALL to your laptop. Whether you chose one or all you can have the books - and access to more - but save money by using equipment you already have.

What devices you can use them with and what they can do varies as do the procedures and requirements. You can generally share between devices. With Amazon's Kindle, for example, you can read the book on your netbook at the library, make notes, then pick up where you left off - including the notes - at home on your desktop, then on your smartphone later.

Here are links to the three most popular readers.

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Sony

FamilySearch

2010-08-22T13:21:00.000-05:00

FamilySearch is constantly adding searchable records.

I tested their records for Cook County, Illinois. I note you cannot right click and save a section but if you have Windows 7 you can use the snipping tool. If you hover over a name you get more information, perhaps spouse, parents and/or children. And if it is a vital record you can order a copy from the Cook County Clerk.

It produced assorted birth, death and immigration records for the surname. I note they have not done a bang up job with the ethnic names or the foreign birthplaces so you need to be flexible. Needless to say, the document may not have spelled things correctly to begin with.

I then tried their Wisconsin records. Hovering produces information which can be copied.

I could not find a Civil War pension index card for my 2g grandfather - there is a widow's pension application and a dependent pension record. It's a work in progress and perhaps they haven't gotten to them.

You need to check back periodically to see if they have added a database you can use. You can also volunteer to help with the transcribing.

GEDViewer

2010-08-05T15:03:00.000-05:00

Back on February 1, 2010, I said GEDViewer, a genealogy program for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, looked promising but couldn't handle a large database. The programmer David Knight sent me an email saying yes it could, that the limit is based on your device memory. For my 3G iPod Touch 12 generations is probably the max. [GEDviewer is not to be confused with Genviewer, a useful product by Mudcreek Software.]

I loaded the program on my iPod Touch. It imported my 10,000+ name database efficiently. I was surprised at the speed. More, I was surprised that it didn't eat all my iPod memory. In fact I hardly noticed. [How do they do that?]

I find GEDViewer to be better than FamViewer not to mention quite a bit cheaper. It is faster. When I open FamViewer it wants to import my gedcom which takes awhile. When I open GEDViewer it opens to my data.

When I had a question Knight responded promptly, not with a canned response but an actual answer.

Totally aside, FamViewer comes with a Kennedy family database. GEDViewer comes with a British royals database. I'm a Ricardian so I was delighted to have the British royals database.

Spencer Turner Revisited

2010-07-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

I have recently done more research on the Turners, not enough but more. Spencer Turner was one of the first settlers in DeWitt County, arriving in Wilson Township near Waynesville just east of Logan County in 1835. His parents had moved to Illinois in 1827 living first near Athens in Menard County, then Rocky Ford in Logan County, then to Waynesville in what became to DeWitt and eventually to Wapella.

From transcribed newspaper accounts of social goings on, which I read on the DeWitt County ILGenWeb site, he apparently was not seriously damaged by being charged with murder and stiffing Abraham Lincoln. If I hadn't read the court record I would have strongly suspected the story was not factual or heavily embellished but no, it is true.

Spencer's stone in Sugar Grove Cemetery near Wapella does not look like that of a man who couldn't pay his legal bill. You can see the stone here. When his widow Nancy Hoblit died in 1900 she had three lots in the town of Wapella and an 80 acre farm.

Useful Tools Addendum

2010-07-18T11:12:00.000-05:00

I have been a long time user of the Firefox browser but lately I have been using Chrome a lot. Both are free. Both have good and bad points. I think it is a personal thing. Safari, the browser from Apple, which you can use on a Windows computer, is visually interesting. It's on my iPod Touch. I have not figured out Opera. It's on my phone and I do plan to try it on my computer. I don't use Internet Explorer, mostly because it is the most prone to viruses but I think there is some rebellion there too. Some programs work better with some sites than others. If one isn't working well with a favorite site experiment with another. Yes you can use five browsers if you want. Web site managers generally have several.

Chrome has a slick add on that allows you to clip a page or part of a page and send it directly to Evernote. It integrates well with Evernote, just fill out the notebook and tags and it is gone. Firefox uses Evernote's clipper which has not worked all that well for me, not to mention it is always behind the current version. The two don't seem to be communicating. What? You are not using Evernote? You really are cheating yourself of an excellent free tool. I keep all my notes from everything in it. I don't know how people live without it.

Since I have scanned all my paper and saved it in pdf I am now looking for a program to read and manipulate pdf documents. I originally used Adobe Acrobat Pro, a good but expensive program from a less than supportive company. My version isn't working well with Windows 7 and I really don't want to buy the upgrade. I have used NitroPDF reader and PrimoPDF to print. I tried the entire suite but I had problems with it, probably more related to me than it since I insist on using WordPerfect and they use Word. [It's a bigger issue than you would imagine and seems to be getting worse. Think Corel v. Microsoft.] I'd prefer not to have six programs. If you have suggestions let me know.

Scanning Update

2010-06-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

Ok, Ms. Smarty Pants, are your files perfect someone asked? Nope. And my system is not perfect to begin with, rather it is one that works for me and may work for you.

In my defense I have computer files dating back to 1987. Most have had had their file form changed a couple times. I used WordPerfect then - and still do - but I didn't have Windows. I don't remember if they had Windows yet at that time. Yes, hard to believe. These days when I have time I convert non photo files to pdf and try to rename them at that time.

I also have multiple lines with the same name. I have maternal and paternal Wood lines, unrelated. Ditto Harding and others. There are the Downings who were unrelated until about 1855 when they began intermarrying. Then there are common ancestors where I have multiple lines of descent. Abraham Lucas and David Clark [the mystery man who never got out of New Jersey] are two examples.

You need to make a basic plan, using logic that makes sense to you and that you can remember, and adapt it to your situation as these things arise. Consistency is the most important element.

How are the pictures coming? I have maybe - maybe - half of the boxed photos scanned. We are talking literally thousands of pictures. Only a small portion are named. I have an idea for the that when the scanning is done. I have found duplicates and pictures that there is no reason to save - I had a fine time when I first got a digital camera. Not all of the pictures are genealogically related of course.

I have found some amazing old photos I didn't even know I had. There are people I don't know who are probably related. There are people I don't know but I am certain they are not related. And there are so many photos of one cute little girl that even I am getting tired of her. At this point I feel like just scanning and naming all the pictures will keep me busy until at least 2025. And with the SnapScan the scanning is now easy.

Why name in the same order, ie, surname, first name, type, date, location? One reason is to make sure you put everything in the name. Another useful reason is to sort them. Example, if named properly the following files will sort as follows:

Downing John census 1790 Westmoreland Pennsylvania.pdf
Downing John census 1810 Madison Ohio.pdf
Downing John census 1820 Madison Ohio.pdf
Downing John census 1830 Logan Illinois.pdf
Downing John land 1803 Madison Ohio.pdf
Downing John land 1821 Logan Illinois.pdf

and so on. It makes it handy to see what you have.

Digital Organizing

2010-06-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

You've been scanning away. Time to organize. If you follow the outlines of this flexible system you will always be able to find your digital documents. Pictures are a separate topic.

I use an external hard plugged into a USB port for my genealogy. It keeps my genealogy all in one place, can be easily removed and taken with me if needed and - this is important - it gets automatically backed up with my offsite backup procedure. It also makes it easier to create your own filing system because you don't have to fight with your operating system's idea of where things should be filed.

Name your people files in the following manner: birth surname, first name, type date location. An example: Downing William census 1860 Chester.pdf. I suggest you stick to surname then first name. If you want a different order for the other information that's fine. There is no right or wrong. You are the one who has to find the documents later. Just be consistent.

The key, at least in my experience, is to be consistent. Consistency trumps just about everything. If you use a numbering system the number should be the first word in the file name. I don't use a numbering system. It's just one more thing to organize and remember but if a numbering system works for you do it.

Make eight directories, one for each birth surname of your great grandparents. Keep in mind that if you are doing this for your children that would 16 directories. Put everything pertaining to that ancestor in that folder. If you have a lot of information on ancestors prior to your great grandparents you may chose to make a separate directory for additional surnames. It doesn't matter how many directories you make. This is digital. You have the room. Do what works for you.

I hear you. What about great grandmother Jane who was born a Smith and married a Jones? Put her in Smith. If you want to put a copy in Jones go for it. It's digital. Duplicates aren't an issue.

Also make directories for cemeteries, census, birth, marriage, death, land, etc. If you collect funeral cards make one for those. My census file has subdirectories for each federal census. A copy of all census documents I have is in that directory. Another copy of the individual page is in the appropriate surname directory. For documents in these files the name might be 1880 Census Illinois Logan Laenna.pdf. Illinois is obviously the state, Logan is the county and Laenna is the township. Using spaces between words makes it easier to find them through a digital search if needed.

Get the idea?

Now go to http://www.voidtools.com/ and download the free Search Everything. If you goofed in spelling but you included all the elements you can search on any one of the elements and find the file.If you misfiled it you can still find it. Search Everything only searches files on your computer, including the drives attached by USB. It will not search network attached storage or home servers.

Casefile Clues

2010-06-06T08:39:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of blogs out there, good, bad and indifferent. Some feel they have to write something every day whether they have something to say or not. Some get paid to write. Some blogs have paid sponsors. Some of us just write when we have something we want to share, no schedule.

Casefile Clues is written by Michael John Neill. He writes one a week about his research. Most of the specific issues, like post Civil War immigration, are totally irrelevant to my research but there is something to learn in watching his process as he moves along. He calls it a casestudy.

He doesn't have a staff. His day job is math teacher. There are typos and mistakes and the blog may be late but he always catches up. There are no ads, he has no agenda and he is not pushing any company. I find it a refreshing.

I also really like his genealogy tip of the day at http://genealogytipoftheday.blogspot.com. You can subscribe to those free by RSS feed in your feed reader. They always give you something to think about, probably something you have not thought about, or at least not in that way.

Neill also leads research trips to Salt Lake City and Ft. Wayne and he speaks at genealogy societies.

ScanSnap 3 - Photos

2010-05-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

I put nearly 200 photos through the ScanSnap in less than an hour while I was talking on the phone the other morning. It pretty much does everything for you. I feed them through individually after sorting a bit by size. It seems to work best if the guides are adjusted to the size of the picture but after the first couple that is pretty mindless. It scanned both sides if there was anything on the back at all. Some of the photos I put through are least 80 years old.

In some cases it assigned a number to the scanned pictures which would indicate the front and back are together and in some cases it didn't. I didn't feel it necessary to spend time trying to figure that out.

I have no idea how many pictures I have. There are more in that box and I have two additional larger boxes. I easily have 2,000 more. It won't happen overnight but I am now confident I will get them done. It's much easier and faster with the ScanSnap than the flatbed scanner I was trying to use [which is perfect for stacks of single sided pages and does legal size] and does not require as much of my attention.

After the pictures are scanned I spend time renaming them with names to indicate who is in the picture. Those that I have no idea or not enough information keep their scanner assigned number which makes them stand out as unidentified. It is easy to work with them in the ScanSnap Organizer although you don't have to use it.

All my pictures are saved to a 1 TB NAS drive, that is a large drive attached to my router and available from any computer [or iPod or SmartPhone] on my network. There Picasa automatically begins working on the face recognition. Read about that here. It does some amazing things, sometimes telling me who is in the unknown pictures.

ScanSnap 2

2010-05-02T15:59:00.000-05:00

I have worked with the ScanSnap with pictures this week. Unfortunately I haven't had enough time in the last week to put it through all its paces but I am impressed so far. I put some snapshots of scenery through it first just in case. This also gave me a chance to play with the settings, see how everything worked. They did well. I progressed, eventually getting to a 1920s photo in good shape. I was quite pleased. I don't believe I would put the original 1862 wedding picture of my great great grandparents through it but since I have "new" copy of that I have no problem. I should point out that most of my old photos are in pretty good shape. If a photo was fragile or delicate in any way I would not put it through a sheet feed scanner.

This week I also took the binding off a paper bound genealogy book and fed it through. The hardest part was cutting off the binding, both mentally and physically. I had a hard time tearing up a book. It wasn't that easy to remove the pages either. You need to remove all the glue bits, jagged edges, etc. I called someone who has done before and he recommended a high tech device -- use my band saw. I also note that heavier paper, such as the cover of many paper bound books, does not feed well or in some cases not at all.

Where did I get the ScanSnap? It's available in a lot of places. Amazon.com is a good place to start for many things. I suggest you search for it online and see what the going price is when you are thinking of buying. These things vary from week to week. For example, when I first began considering the ScanSnap there was only the 300 in the color duplexing portable department. Now there is the 1300 which is a bit better and a bit cheaper. And there are other models.

Scan Like It Is 2010

2010-04-26T14:20:00.001-05:00

The ScanSnap is a small portable scanner that does double sided copying in one pass. According to Fujitsu's web site it is the world's smallest duplexing scanner. It can operate off your laptop without a separate power source if necessary. In theory you could scan documents anywhere, at least until the laptop battery ran out.

Sounds good but I wasn't interested, in part because the capacity of the ADF is "up to 10 sheets." I rarely seem to have a document of only ten pages. And it is pricey, particularly when I have a perfectly good scanner.

However, although I had scanned most of my paper I still had two oversized file drawers of double sided pages. I could come up with no efficient way to scan them so I broke down and ordered the ScanSnap S1300. I'm only sorry I waited so long. Within days of its arrival I had totally eliminated the two drawers of scanning and shredded or recycled the paper.

The ScanSnap scans at eight pages a minute color, 16 pages black and white. That would be eight pages, both sides, but it is remarkably fast. And the 10 page limit on the automatic document feeder is simply not true. You can add to the pile as it goes so you can fill the ADF, let it most of them and add more pages which will all end up in the same document. Even if it stops it gives you the option of proceeding from that point.

It takes pages up 8.5 by 14.17 which is more than legal size. Those old wills and other legal documents are no problem. [No, I did not shred those after scanning.]

Mine came bundled with software file manager software which allows you to scan to file, email, fax, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, a picture file, a printer. Or you can scan to my all time favorite program Evernote and have your word searchable documents available to you on any computer, online, on many smart phones and you iPod Touch.

You can scan in business cards and a program reads them. Your documents are read by a version of ABBYY Fine Reader. You can straighten documents. There is a Rack2-Filer program to organize your documents. Depending on which version of the scanner package you buy that may be a trial version.

I own Adobe Acrobat Pro and the full version of ABBYY so I have not tried the bundled software. Their system, at least in the ScanSnap Organizer, is simple and easy to use. I sometimes used it for a temporary holding system before moving the document to my own system. I concentrated on scanning and making sure I had all the pages. I didn't always name the files. I will go back and do that as time permits, might check out their software then.

One thing that is a bit of an issue is paper exit. You put the pages in the automatic document feeder. When they come out they have no bin to go to so they shoot across the table, desk, etc. I found working on a kitchen island to be ideal for that. You could rig up a tray to catch the paper if needed. It's a small price to pay for a portable scanner.

The ScanSnap allows greater flexibility in putting different size documents through without issue. It's just more convenient. I'll let you know how it does on my next big project - pictures.

Genealogy Podcasts

2010-04-25T11:27:00.000-05:00

Genealogy podcasts can be useful and educational. I listen to several, some current, some no longer active, while walking. I always learn something, even from those that don't sound all that interesting.

You can listen on your computer or any music player that plays MP3 format. It's very convenient. The problem is if you listen on your MP3 player or in your car or any other place away from your computer or desk, you can't make notes on what is said and you can't possibly recall all the things you wanted to remember later.

Some podcasts have "show notes" online. However, if you are listening to an older podcast [older may mean a year] the show notes are gone or outdated. This is understandable but a problem.

Podcasts come and go. It's a lot of work to come up with something fresh every week. There is no good current list. Not even Cyndi has them all. There is a personality factor. Some of these podcasters may just not appeal to you. Others are fine but after awhile you might get tired of their idea of humor.

You can google "genealogy podcasts" as a starting place for locating podcasts. One that is less obvious but I have found interesting is the Online Programming for All Libraries [OPAL]. It is not strictly genealogy but there may be something for you at their website http://www.opal-online.org/archivegenealogy.htm. You can also view the presentations online with slides.

FamViewer Genealogy App

2010-03-26T15:07:00.001-05:00

One of the things I miss most about my Palm is having my TMG database available. I read about the [limited number of] genealogy apps for the iPod Touch and iPhone and checked each one out. A huge red flag was the limit in database size.

FamViewer, the most expensive at $14.99, did not seem to have a limit and reviewers commented that it didn't. They also commented that it was easy. I confess, due to the price [it is expensive as Apple Apps go] I waited several weeks before I decided to give it a try.

My file contains over 10,000 names and yes, I uploaded them all. That tells you it worked. Is it easy? Yes it is but getting it set up requires some prep time. I advise going to the company's website and reading the limited instructions. The limited instructions almost changed my mind. I'm glad it didn't.

The first thing you need is Bonjour on your computer. Unless you are using an Apple computer it isn't likely to be there. Not only am I using a PC, it is a 64 bit and I run Windows 7. A little research turned up that this would not be a problem. I downloaded the proper file. However, when I went to install it I was asked if I wanted to "repair" or "remove." Some application had installed a small version on my computer. It's almost always easiest to remove and start over which is what I did.

The next thing you need is a GEDCOM of your file exported from your genealogy software. That took awhile, quite awhile, due to my large file.

Following the instructions, which were very clear, I uploaded the file. It took seconds. My entire file seems to be there. Although it is a GEDCOM it has many of the events as well as notes and sources. It may not be my complete file but it is probably enough information to travel with.

In the end I uploaded the file using the Windows by IP address method rather than Bonjour because I use that method for other apps and it seemed easier at the time.

You can also enter notes into the program on any person. These notes, of course, do not magically migrate to your genealogy database but you can email them, individually or in batches, to yourself so you can add them to your database when you get to it. They remain on your iPod Touch/iPhone until you are ready for them.

How much space does that database take? Apparently not much. I didn't make a note but I had commented to a friend regarding how much free space I had the day before. She was concerned about filling hers up. I said I didn't think it would be easy, that I still had 20+ GB free. After installation I still have 20+ GB free and I also downloaded another app, some podcasts and some additional music.

And I now have my genealogy with me.

A Great Picture Viewer

2010-03-20T18:54:00.000-05:00

I am using Windows 7. I had tried Media Center in Vista but it was mostly an unpleasant experience. Win 7 was no better and I wrote it off. Then I discovered Media Center is meant to be manipulated with a remote control rather than a keyboard and mouse. After dithering for several months I ordered a remote for Windows Media Center. They seem to run between $12 and $25. I don't know anything about them, chose the $18 variety.

Oh my! I opened my picture folder. I quickly learned I could make the picture the size of the screen which in my case is 22" - which translates to 18.5 by 12. I quickly spotted details I had not noticed before. A little more playing and I found I could zoom in more and then once more. I can pan the picture, left, right, up and down. It's great for group shots.

A long mysterious group shot containing quite a few relatives now can be seen to have background details virtually invisible before which might provide clues to the location of the event. I was able to study faces a lot better and have tentatively identified two more people.

Imagine doing this on a large flat screen television. I did not notice any distortion in going from the standard size from full screen. Who knows what one might discover.

You can also view videos, play music, even view and record tv assuming you have a tv tuner or have cable hooked up. I did run into trouble when I tried to access photos on my network attached storage which works well with other programs. I have not had time to look into that.

Media Center is part of the OS in Vista and Windows 7.

iPod Touch as a Genealogy Tool

2010-02-01T15:19:00.008-06:00

For years I depended on my Palm personal digital assistant [PDA] to keep me organized and keep all my information at my fingertips. My Palm contained my entire database from The Master Genealogist, every single fact.

Software changed. Palm changed. I was left without a PDA and was unsuccessful in my search for an appropriate replacement. I thought my Blackberry Smartphone would do it but it doesn't.

Recently I bought an iPod Touch. Basically it's an iPhone without the phone or camera. It has my calendar, my contacts, applications, music and pictures. Podcasts like Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems and genealogy lectures from iTunes U are "other" under music. You could add tv shows and movies although I can't imagine watching any on the 2 x 3.5" screen.

One of the first apps I downloaded was Evernote. I don't know how people live without it. I keep all my genealogy notes in it. On the iPod Touch you can make notes but you need the internet to see your stored notes and to sync. This is also true of Dropbox, another application. If you put a file in your Dropbox you can see it on you iPod Touch when you have wi-fi. The iPod Touch has wi-fi but you need a wi-fi source to use the internet. When you have that the internet is your oyster. More and more places have wi-fi internet these days.

I downloaded several pdf reader apps, found one that works for me called pdf Reader, and uploaded Michael John Neill's Casefile Clues collection to the iPod Touch. I wouldn't want to read a book [you can though - in fact there is a Kindle app] but blogs and such work quite well. The pdf files are stored on the iPod Touch - no wi-fi required.

I'm not impressed with the genealogy apps at the moment. Although GEDViewer looks promising it cannot handle more than 2-3,000 names. I'm sure it is just a matter of time until one I like comes along.

You can record voice memos too.

The virtual keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but I have become an accomplished one finger typist. Think of the hours I wasted learning to type correctly!

If it had a camera and continuous internet connection it would be about perfect. Oh wait, that's an iPhone. I suspect there's one in my future.

More Information, More Questions

2010-01-27T17:15:00.000-06:00

When I had entered my notes on the Wood/Rice research and was checking to make sure I had everything done I remembered that I owned an Illiopolis history. It was put together for the 2006 sesquicentennial of the town by the same Mary Ann Kaylor who tracked down and transcribed the Pritchett Funeral Records. For several years she was the County Coordinator of the Sangamon County ILGenWeb site.

I looked up Charles McCorkle, he who married Hattie Wood. On p. 89 in a section where Mary Ann collected items from old newspapers, I found that “Mrs. Charley McCorkle, Miss Louesa Rice and Elmer Rice spent Friday in Springfield.” Unfortunately there is no date but it is in the 1923-1934 section.

I also learned in the same section that “After spending a month visiting friends and relatives in this community, Mr. and Mrs. Charley McCorkle returned to their home near Alexandria, Indiana, early Saturday morning.”

Later on I learned that McCorkle was a member of and made tables for the new Christian Church in 1905 and that he had been a janitor in an Illiopolis school.

It gets better.

Also working at the school was Sanders Rice. Remember, Hattie Wood McCorkle’s mother was a Rice. Those Rices weren’t from the same county area and the census does not list other Rices in the area. But I do know Sanders Rice. He was married to Lovina Wood, my great grandaunt from my maternal Wood line.

In the course of tracking this down I located Emily Rice Wood Beason living with a Beason son whose name I cannot make out, possibly Oscar, born June 1881 and Cline McCorkle, born May 1889, grandson, but not with Joseph Beason on the 1900 census. He is a boarder in town. Obviously a split. Did she also split from William Wood? Is that what caused her to use her maiden name when marrying Beason?

The more you learn the more questions you have.

Give Me An Hour

2010-01-26T12:35:00.003-06:00

Earlier this week when I found myself with a free hour I decided to work a question in my genealogy. It couldn’t take more than an hour or so and had to be doable free online.

I chose my paternal grandmother’s family which I have not ignored but have not done much work on. I knew her parents’ names and had information on her mother’s line. I turned to her father’s line, a painfully common name and a puzzle. To complicate matters, in my maternal line and in the same geographic area I have the same common name. I had tracked the line far enough to know the paternal Wood line is not related to the maternal Wood line which I have back nearly 300 years.

Wilma Wood married Robert Rothwell on January 1, 1923. She was the daughter of William Tobias Wood and Eva Nora Bozarth of Illiopolis, Sangamon County, Illinois. I had William Tobias’ death certificate and the marriage record indicating they had married February 17, 1889, in Illiopolis. I knew the state database had a typo on the date. I had tracked back into the Bozarth line a couple generations a few years ago.

Wood was a puzzle. I knew he was born August 23, 1863, in Shelby County, Illinois. I knew that his parents were William Wood Sr. and Emily Rice. I knew that did not mean William Sr. was named Tobias but it might. I knew from the 1860 Shelby County census that Emily’s father was Nathan Rice. I knew William Wood did not appear on the 1870 census although Emily did with William Tobias. Emily appears in the household of Joseph Beason in 1880 with William Tobias listed as his stepson.

I knew a William Wood had served in the Civil War, age 22 in 1863, Pvt., Company F, 5th Illinois US Calvary, who mustered in at Effingham County and mustered out at Springfield in 1865. Emily also had a daughter Hattie Wood who was 13 on the 1880 census - although she does not appear on the 1870 census. This would suggest William Wood returned from the Civil War, fathered a daughter and died between 1866 and 1870. A Civil War pension search is on the to do list.

Using the online Illinois State Archives marriage database I found the marriage of Emily [listed as Rice, not Wood] and Joseph Beason. Using the death database I found Emily’s death on April 27, 1927. Joseph Beason must have died before 1916 when death certificates were required and had to be recorded with the state.

Using the Sangamon County ILGenWeb site I found that Emily was buried at Riverside Cemetery. The Pritchett Funeral Records transcription by Mary Ann Kaylor on the same site indicate Emily's age at death as 83 years, 2 months and 13 days. Using an online birth date calculator I got a birth date of February 14, 1844.

The same records list Emily’s parents as Nathan Rice and [unknown first name] Little. Back to the Illinois State Archives databases where I found Nathan Rice married Emily Little on March 13, 1828, in Shelby County, Illinois. Presumably there were children born between the marriage in 1828 and Emily’s birth in 1844 who are just waiting to be found. While I was there I found a Hattie Wood married a Charles H. McCorkle in Sangamon County on March 28, 1886. On another day I’ll tell why I’m sure that is my great grandaunt.

Lots more to go but in a little over an hour I was able to find plenty of new leads to check out free online.

The Dress

2009-12-31T20:13:00.003-06:00

This is the dress made for Ethel Ryan for her marriage to Ellis Downing on January 19, 1910, at the Lincoln Christian Church. Check out that waist - 18 inches.

In 1910, as told in an earlier post, Ethel, her two older sisters and her mother were pregnant. Ethel's sister Cora had made the dress. When Cora's daughter was born she cut up the dress to make baby dresses for her daughter. Ethel was not thrilled. Cora said Ethel would not be needing a wedding dress again so what was the big deal. It always rankled but the two remained close until Cora's death less than 14 months before Ethel's.

How Did You Meet Grandpa?

2009-12-26T19:26:00.004-06:00

Sunday, April 14, 1907, was Ethel Ryan's 15th birthday. Although not a member, she went to the dedication of the new Mt. Pulaski Christian Church building with her friend. There was a social. Also at the event was Ellis Downing whose minister ancestors and their family founded several of the Methodist Churches in Logan County and across central Illinois. Ellis enjoyed music and dancing, which the Methodist Church in 1907 did not, so he and his brother were attending the Christian Church. The couple met that day.

Ellis was the second of the four sons of William Nelson and Eliza Sciota Harding Downing, our Lida of prior posts. Ellis' father, who farmed land his family originally settled, had died of typhoid in 1903.

Ethel was the third daughter of Edward Daniel and Lillie Margaret Wood Ryan [see "A Family Affair"]. Teddie was a bricklayer whose ancestors came from Ireland in the 1830s. Both of Lillie's parents were descendants of Abraham Lucas. To be kind, Teddie liked his drink. The families did not know each other, certainly were not in the same social or economic circles. Most would have said the couple had nothing in common.

Ellis' older brother Clarence was dating Lena Drake. Her stepfather was Charles Brooker. The Brookers lived half a mile west of the Downing household. The families were friends and the couple seemed well suited.

Eventually the talk to turned to marriage and it seemed natural to have a double wedding. Lena could afford a wedding. Ethel could not. In order to have the double wedding Ellis paid for Ethel's dress. The couples, joined by their mothers, went by horse and buggy to Lincoln on January 19, 1910, where they were married at the Lincoln Christian Church. Both couples settled down to farming.

Ellis and Ethel had five children. She died on January 8, 1975, 11 days short of the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. Ellis wrote his family story to be placed in the cornerstone of the new sanctuary of the Mt Pulaski Christian Church, starting with the story of their meeting in 1907. He witnessed the dedication of that new sanctuary in 1977 and died on June 28, 1978.

Clarence and Lena had one son, Darwin. They eventually divorced. One September day in 1942 Clarence showed up at Ellis and Ethel's' home and said he felt ill. They put him to bed and called the doctor but Clarence died on September 28, 1942. Lena died in October of 1985.

Identifying Photos Revisited

2009-12-18T19:09:00.005-06:00

I got involved in revising my file system, going to Network Attached Storage and installing Windows 7. The last required a clean install and a reinstall of all programs. Thus I downloaded the last version of Picasa which is 3.6. I turned it loose on my pictures in their new location. This time I was able to do with an unattended laptop that I didn't need for the day so it was allowed to do its work uninterrupted.

The latest version seems faster and also seems more adept at facial recognition. It has identified nearly 7,000 faces and identified about 100 people who are in multiple pictures. It has found the younger version of people I only knew as old and, upon inspection, has been right most of the time. It thinks at times my sister might be me and makes other interesting family connections, my niece in a close up and my grandfather for example. I don't see the resemblance but it must be there.

Some of those 7,000 faces are people who happened to be in the picture, maybe in the background. You can tell Picasa to ignore those. Some are part of historical group pictures I own but cannot identify. Why my grandmother had them if there are no relatives in them escapes me so I continue to look.

I have been able to identify about 700 of the 7,000. Some are relatives I never met, knew or even heard of. Some are children of friends of my mother or grandparents that I never knew. When I have a rough time frame and perhaps a last name and location I have posted the information to boards and lists, so far without success.

I have enlisted extended family in identifying the pictures. I don't understand why people get possessive about pictures. Scan them, share with all, get help with the identification. I'm not one who has to own the original but even if you feel you must you can still scan them and share.

We say we should have ask these questions, identified these pictures, etc. when the older generations were still here and yet we aren't doing it for future generations.

I'll get off the soapbox now but considering making scanning and identifying your photos, old and newer, a New Year's resolution.

A Family Affair

2009-10-25T19:07:00.006-05:00

In 1910 the three oldest daughters of Edward and Lillie Wood Ryan were "in a family way." Sarah Katherine Ryan Kinert, the eldest, already had a young son, Floyd. It would be the first for Cora Ryan Lipp and Ethel Ryan Downing. Their mother was also expecting.

On August 9, 1910, the Ryan sisters' youngest sister Margaret was born. On August 26 Ethel's eldest son Orville was born. On December 1 Cora's only child Dorthalene was born. On January 18, 1911, Sadie's daughter, Adela, was born. Then things went terribly wrong. Eight days later Sadie died, apparently of sepsis.

The widower was unable to take care of the children and work too. Floyd went to live with Cora. Adela was raised by another family.

Cora and Ethel lived past 80. Floyd died of an infection at 28. I never knew Adela. My mother never met her. I don't recall hearing her mentioned except in response to direct questions. By the time I had enough information and the internet to track her down she had died.

Using Picassa 3.5 to Identify Photos

2009-09-29T14:08:00.004-05:00

I have been playing with the facial recognition in Picassa 3.5, Google's free photo organizing and editing software. I have a lot of pictures scanned [and at least as many to scan]. Working with photos is not my favorite thing. After playing with the latest version of Picassa for about an hour I'm down to only 9,000 to identify!

The most interesting thing to me is it often chooses family members as potential matches. When I was labeling my granddaughter Marly's pictures it brought up for my consideration some of her sister Sarah's pictures. It did the same with my brothers.

I was hopeful that it would use this family resemblance to help identify some of my unknown ancestors but that has not happened so far. The only photo it has identified that I didn't know was one baby picture. It suggested it was my #2 brother. Upon closer inspection I believe it is. So there is hope it will find others as I start to identify the ancestors.

By pulling up the faces it did show me pictures I didn't even remember or know I had, an interesting side benefit.

I don't like the way it wants to link the pictures with an email address from my Google contacts. To foil it I used full names for men, maiden and married names for women. For those woman who don't use a married name I included their middle name. It seems to be looking for a perfect match in contacts and accepts these as new people. Of course, the problem will not arise with the old pictures but I tested on those I was sure about.

The price - free - is right so you have nothing to lose and maybe some photos to identify.

Keeping Up

2009-09-06T14:31:00.004-05:00

We all have multiple lines we are researching. It seems I pay more attention to some lines and less to others. I field more queries about those lines and am generally more familiar with them. The other day I got an inquiry about a line and I couldn't recall the details. Then I realized I haven't had an inquiry about that line in years.

There was a time when I had so many inquiries on that line my expert sent his GEDCOM file so I could just pull it and find out a few things, decide where to sent the researcher for more. In those days my internet connection was dialup and things were slow. Now internet is always on and generally fast. I realized that I didn't even have a bookmark for the database my expert has developed [and keeps up] so I hadn't had an inquiry since I moved five years ago.

I could say it means interest in lines goes in spurts and that's probably true. It also means I have neglected to keep up with my genealogy. I'm more organized but I've gotten sloppy on the lines no one asks about, particularly when there are others who are paying attention to those lines.

Is it possible to keep up with all the lines? Is there a formula for how much time to devote to each one? Is it okay to forgot some lines because others are devoting all their time to them? Contrary to what some might suggest, we cannot possibly do all the original research on all our ancestors. What is the compromise?

Happy Birthday Cousin Bob

2009-07-19T10:04:00.007-05:00

July 22 is my cousin Bob's birthday.

Abraham Lucas' father was Thomas Lucas. Thomas' father Frans came with his father in 1710 from Otterberg, Germany. Their ancestors were Huguenots who had fled from France into the Pfalz. Records of the church there miraculously survived all the wars. Abraham had a great many descendants including my gggrandparents Berryman B. Wood AND his wife Sarah Katherine Lucas Wood.

Thomas and his wife, whose name is unknown, had nine children who reached adulthood. We know this because of a lawsuit over his estate. Abraham was the eldest child followed by Sarah. The family moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio. Sarah married Daniel Ullery in Pennsylvania. They stayed in Ohio. Abraham moved on to Illinois.

Thomas Lucas is my 5th great grandfather. Turns out he has another 5th great grandchild, a descendant of Sarah, that you may have heard of -- former Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert Dole. William Addams Reitwiesner, a genealogical researcher who is noted for medieval research as well as checking out the family trees of U.S. political figures for as long as I can remember, did the research on Dole for the 1996 election.

On July 22, Bob Dole will be 86. Happy Birthday cousin Bob.

War of 1812

2009-07-05T18:14:00.007-05:00

John Downing was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. After the war he left Pennsylvania for Ohio where he lived for many years before moving on to Logan County in 1821. John and his wife Hannah Frakes had nine children, three of whom served in the War of 1812 from Ohio. They were living in Madison County at the time.

The eldest son John was a Private in Captain Levi Pinney's Company, First Regiment [McArthur's], Ohio Militia. He enlisted May 1, 1812, the same day as his brother Josiah, and was discharged December 12, 1812. Josiah, the second son, was killed in action against the British on July 20, 1812. John named his first son Josiah. John died in 1819 in Ohio. His widow was living with her in-laws in the 1820 census but apparently did not travel to Illinois with them. Josiah left a widow but no children.

John and Hannah's third son and fourth child was Robert Downing. He served in Capt. John Wilson's Company of the Ohio Militia May 8-29, 1813, and July 26-August 26, 1813. This is the service listed in his pension record. He also served as a Private, Renick's Mounted Regiment, Ohio Volunteers. In 1819 Robert married Jane Morrow and in 1821 traveled to Logan County, Illinois, with his parents and surviving siblings. They had 10 children, three of whom married children of a neighbor [unrelated] named Samuel Downing. In general the descendants of John are buried at Bowers-Templeman. The descendants of Samuel are buried at Downing.

Useful Item #2 - Netbook

2009-06-21T15:42:00.003-05:00

Laptops are portable, sort of. They are heavy, most weighing in about six pounds. They don't go very long without power. And what do you do in a library when you have a laptop but need to go get another book?

Netbooks are small laptops, generally with 9-10" screens. They weigh under three pounds. They aren't new. Gateway made tiny laptops in the early 90s but they just didn't sell. Others have made them since. After 17 years their time has finally come.

Mine fits in my purse. Ok, I tend to carry a large purse when I am traveling. The first day after I got mine I shoved it in my purse and carried it around all day, shopping, to lunch, to the library, to the grocery store, etc. It's doable.

The battery keeps going and going and going. The reason is you close the lid and it hibernates. Some manufacturers claim the battery lasts nine hours. Mine does BUT I don't use it steadily for those nine hours.

Two weeks later I went on a two week trip with the netbook as my only computer. Mine has a camera, wi-fi, bluetooth, a 160 GB hard drive and 2 MB of memory. I loaded up my programs, my work files, my pictures, my music [the sound isn't bad] and my genealogy files.

With cloud computing through programs such as Gmail and Evernote, your data is available to you wherever you are. More and more storage is available that way. My netbook came with 10 GB cloud file storage. Windows Live provides free cloud file storage. Cloud computing is the future.

There is no CD drive. To add a program you need to download it, install it from an external CD drive, copy it to the netbook across your network or copy it to a flash drive and then use that as your installation disk.

Some come with wireless cards. In fact, you can get a pretty inexpensive netbook with a built in wireless card if you sign a two year wireless contract. For about $30 a month you can "tether" your netbook to your smartphone to connect -- which sounds cumbersome to me. Or you can connect when you are at one of an ever growing number of places with free wi-fi access, places from city parks to fast food outlets. It's a great excuse to go to Dairy Queen.

The screen IS small for reading long documents but that's what scrolling is for. I wouldn't want to do eight hours of work on it. That's really the only downside. My biggest gripe is the inability to disable the built in touchpad to use a wireless mouse. There is a way to do it but it just doesn't work. I finally cut a piece of lightweight cardboard and taped it over the touchpad. That effectively eliminated about 85% of the problem. If you use the touchpad you don't have this problem.

I think a netbook is the perfect tool for research trips.

Useful Item #1 -- Smartphone

2009-06-14T14:52:00.005-05:00

I recently got a couple new items that are quite useful. And they turn out to be useful for genealogy too. I finally gave in and replaced my antique with a new cell phone. I really don't even like having a cell phone. That has changed, at least in part. I still refuse to have it permanently attached.

I bought a Blackberry Curve. That's an older model with a keyboard made up of tiny but typeable keys and a 2 x 1.5" screen, not large. It's pink, dubbed Pinkberry, and in a neon pink case. It's easy to see.

The first thing I learned, quite by accident, was you can take a picture with the cell phone and then you can email it to yourself or anyone else, even post it to various online sites, regardless of where you are. Even if you can't figure out how to get it off the cell phone you have the picture. Later I learned that with the new phones you can easily get your pictures from the phone to the computer but I've gotten used to emailing them.

Soon I was taking pictures of everything. It's so easy. Your cell phone is always handy, much handier [and lighter] than the camera I always carry in my purse, and always ready. No copy machine. No problem. Click. I wasn't planning to stop at this cemetery and now look what I found! Click. You can even make a video if great aunt decides to spill the beans.

The smartphone holds more useful tools. Where exactly is that cemetery? Just look it up on the internet on your cell phone. You can even get GPS on the phone if you need such things. I looked up a cemetery layout on my web site when I couldn't find a particular stone. Even in the middle of nowhere I could do it. If you think you'll do a lot of looking up things online I suggest you look for a large screen phone but it is doable on the smaller screen.

Mine also has a calculator, note pad, voice recorder, maps, a calendar and Evernote, the program I cannot live without. The phone version, at least for my older version phone, is not that impressive but I can take notes and I can connect to the internet and use it there. For work we keep an assortment of information in Evernote too. Evernote is pretty critical to me and having it on the phone factored into the choice.

As far as I know there is no genealogy program for the Blackberry. If your smartphone uses Windows Mobile there is a genealogy program for it. I'm not hot to read my genealogy on that small screen so it wasn't something I considered.

I'm sure there are many other things you can do with a smartphone. If you are in the market I suggest determining what is available, what you will actually use [as opposed to might when stranded on an island] and then narrowing down your choices. I did that, went home with the information and researched for another week, went back with a phone in mind. When I got to the store I had two more questions. The answers totally changed the phone I finally chose [and saved a chunk of money]. So ask a lot of questions.

I have not scratched the surface of the Blackberry's talents and probably never will. For me it is a tool and not a toy. My life does not depend upon it. But it is useful and for the first time I'm happy to have a cell phone.

My package includes sending the pictures from phone to phone. That package also includes unlimited text messaging. I find myself using it more and more. I'd really rather get a text message than a phone call if it is just pass information. So much less intrusive. [HINT]

Blog Hits Pay Dirt

2009-06-05T18:21:00.005-05:00

On February 1 I wrote about Berryman B. Wood, my great great grandfather. I have some pictures and a lot of questions.

http://genealogysleuth.blogspot.com/2009/02/mystery-of-berryman-b-wood.html

As a result I have heard from several people. Two are relatives who have never lived in Logan County. The first is a granddaughter of his son, also Berryman B. Wood, who moved to Minnesota. When I was a child her twin aunts and their husbands [brothers] visited several times. Marlys resides in Minnesota. She has some great pictures.

Tessa wrote that she was related to a cousin. I hear that a lot and it invariably turns out to my relative's husband. But Tessa said no, she is a 3 great granddaughter of Berryman and a great granddaughter of my great aunt Mary. Her family had been the subject of discussion just days before. As soon as we had the connection figured out I heard from her aunt who lives directly across the state from me.

Tessa, young as she is, has been researching for about 15 years. She had lots of information. She even has a possible death date for Berryman. And yes, she has pictures, lots of pictures. Her great grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. I am having a great time with the pictures.

We've been trading all the stories about family skeletons. The infamous ones were in the family only by marriage but we have some that are almost as good who are blood relatives.

Eventually we should be able to draw a much more complete picture of this family line.

Presenting Dr. J

2009-05-08T17:01:00.007-05:00

This isn't about ancestors or ancestors hunting. It's about this this very cute girl pictured with her grandpa.

Here they are a few years later. She's a junior at La Lumierie in this picture taken after Sarah's Bat Mitzvah. [Yes, Sarah got cut out for this blog.]

After spending more than 20 of her 25 years in school she is now Jenny Tristano, M.D. Shortly she begins her residency at a major Chicago hospital.

Congratulations Jenny!!!

All Your Notes, All the Time

2009-05-05T14:37:00.004-05:00

How would you like to have all your notes with you all the time so you can't forget something? It's possible.

I've been using a product called Evernote for nearly five years. About a year ago it totally changed from a program on your computer to one that is shared. I admit I was reluctant but now I can't live without it.

If you share your notebook or notebooks the notes are also on your personal space at Evernote and shared with everyone you have shared with. That could mean merely your other computers. Or it could be other people. Think of the possibilities. You could use a notebook to share information among all the researchers of a certain line.

A note I add to the notebook on my desktop computer is almost instantly there for me in the program on my netbook or my laptop. I can use my SmartPhone browser to go to the web space, see my notes, add new notes. If I used a Windows Mobile compatible phone I could have the program on my phone. It also works on Macs. And you can run it from a flash drive.

When you are researching on the web you easily clip from a web page and there it is in your notebook, including the URL so you don't have to make a separate note. The URL works later if you need to go back. You can also clip from any document you can copy from on your computer -- a word processor, spreadsheet, pdf, etc. Your notes are right there when you want to enter them into your genealogy program, insert in an email, add to a blog -- whatever, wherever.

Did I mention you can include photos, audio, ink, pdf, anything you can scan in too? You can snap a photo with your SmartPhone and email it to your Evernote. If you photograph a document Evernote will recognize the text in the photo. Again, think of the possibilities.

The program is free for up to 40MB per month, $45 per year for up to 500MB per month.

John Winans Clark

2009-03-26T13:20:00.005-05:00

John Winans Clark, one of the two younger brothers of Rev. David Clark, was born in New Jersey January 17, 1779. At the age of 20 he went with his brother to Bourbon County, Kentucky. There, on February 15, 1805, he married Ann "Nancy" Isgrig. Her interesting ancestry will be the subject of another post.

Three children, Hannah, Margaret and David Ward, were born in Kentucky before, following his brother, they moved to Miami County, Ohio, where six more children were born: Daniel Isgrig, Phoebe, Nancy, Isaac, Sarah Winans and Mary French. Nancy died before they left Ohio, again following his brother, in 1838.

In 1838 they settled on son Daniel's land in Yankeetown, Laenna Township, Logan County, Illinois.

John died on March 5, 1859, and is buried in Laenna Cemetery. See Graveyards of South Logan County for his stone and military service.

This picture is reputed to be the adult children [except for Phoebe] of John Winans and Ann "Nancy" Isgrig Clark. Since Hannah died in 1866 then it is a very old picture, taken no later than early October 1866. Or perhaps it is not Hannah but Phoebe and it was taken when their mother died -- all are wearing black. Ann died December 8, 1867, and Margaret died two weeks later so the time frame is small but possible.

John Winans Clark was a great grandfather of Lida.

Rev. David Clark

2009-03-21T19:05:00.004-05:00

David Clark was born in New Jersey in 1776. No proof of his ancestry beyond his parents has been found. There were several Clark families in the town, so much intermarriage and so many people with the same name it is very difficult to determine the lines. Another theory is his father, also David Clark, came from Scotland to New Jersey where he married yet another Sarah Winans.

In 1799 David Clark and his brother John Winans Clark traveled to Bourbon County, Kentucky. There he married Rachel Rutter and they had two children, Samuel and Mary. Sometime before 1806 Rachel and Samuel had died and David married Sarah Winans. They were first cousins. Mary, of course, married a Winans. David Clark was an active Methodist preacher.

In 1807 Richard Winans, Rev. David Clark and Uriah Blue were the first settlers of Section 14, Staunton Township, Miami County, Ohio. Richard was Sarah's brother, also married to a Sarah. Five children were born in Ohio. In 1829 he donated the land for the Hyattsville M. E. Church, sold his possessions to Robert Evans and they moved to Williams Township, Sangamon County, Illinois. He "settled on Wolf Creek, serving during the remainder of his life, as he had for more than twenty years before, as an acceptable and useful local preacher. He was a man of strong convictions, faithful, devout, and highly respected." [Methodist Ministers, Vol. 1, Illinois Great Rivers Conference] Their last child was born in 1830.

Sarah died in 1843 and was buried in Mt. Pulaski Cemetery. Rev. David died in 1847. They share a stone. "Sally Wife of Rev. David Clark and Daugh. of Samuel and Hannah Woodruff died Dec 3, 1843 by the 54th year of her age. Also Rev. David Clark Born Aug 28, 1776 Died Jan 6, 1847 In the 72d year of his age."

They are the great grandparents of Lida.

The Frenchman

2009-03-15T13:12:00.004-05:00

My ancestors mostly came from the British Isles to the new world. However, there was a Frenchman [and woman of course] in there.

Francois Lucas, son of Jean Lucas and Elizabeth Rollaire, was born August 8, 1663, and baptised in the French Reform Church in Otterberg, Germany, on August 12. The church, many of whose records survived to be filmed by the LDS, was comprised of French Huguenot refugees. On November 9, 1688, in that church, he married Marie Baudouin, daughter of Arnolt Baudouin and Marie Menton.

The religious freedom began slipping away during the Palatinate War of Succession and subsequent wars which ravaged the country and left hunger and destruction in the wake of the invading armies. In 1709 residents of the Palatinate began fleeing up the Rhine. The first group arrived in Rotterdam April 19. We don't know if Francois and his family were in that group but we do know that Francis Lucas, age 46, cloth & linen weaver, his wife, sons aged 17 and 11 and five daughters aged 19, 8, 6, 3 and 3 were in the first party to arrive in London by May 3, 1709. Also in those earliest refugees were ancestors of Elvis Presley and Jimmy Carter.

About 3,200 Palatine refugees boarded 12 ships in the Thames which left London in December 1709 for New York. About 470 died on the voyages. Whether Marie Baudouin died in London or on the voyage is not known. The twin girls and the eldest son also did not arrive in the new world. We do not know their names.

The refugees were bound for New Rochelle, New York, courtesy of Queen Anne of England. Francois, however, ended up in New York City where, on August 9, 1711, he married a widow named Elisabeth Engeler. By July 29, 1718, his son Franz was in Raritan, Somerset County, New Jersey. Franz married Jannetje Aten and on February 20, 1723, their daughter Maria was baptised in the Reformed Dutch Church [later First Reformed Church] in Raritan. Records of Francois after his marriage disappear until November 1741 when he is Somerset County, New Jersey, presumably with Franz. There is no more.

Lillie Margaret Wood

2009-03-01T15:10:00.001-06:00

Lida died before I was born. A couple great grandmothers hung around until I arrived. The one I knew most of Lillie Margaret Wood Ryan.

Lillie had a long hard life. She was a daughter of Berryman B. Wood. Her paternal grandfather was Solomon Wood, 2nd Coroner of Logan County, Illinois. Her great grandfather was Abraham Lucas saw Revolutionary War service and whose proven line goes back to the Huguenots in France. [Unproven and somewhat creative reports go to Charlemagne.] The Lucases arrived in America in 1710. Other early ancestors were Quakers, arriving on the second voyage of the Kent. On her mother’s side she was a great great great granddaughter of the same Abraham and Marcy Kelsey Lucas. Marcy’s father served in the Revolutionary War and her Kelsey ancestors arrived in New England in 1631.

As previously mentioned, Berryman B. Wood was not a great provider. While the family was in Kansas for a few years Lillie met Edward Daniel Ryan, son of a neighboring farmer, and they married. When her parents returned to Illinois the newlyweds remained.

That went sour fast. Apparently there was a major disagreement over the religion of their first child, daughter Sarah Catherine. Lillie came from a long line of early adopters of the “new religion.” Daniel and his family were Catholics, the religion her ancestors left. His parents came from Ireland as toddlers. Apparently they failed to discuss this prior to the marriage. There was no compromise.

In the 18 months between their first and second child the couple packed up a covered wagon and moved to Mt. Pulaski, Logan County, Illinois, where Lillie’s family lived. They never saw his family or any relative again although we know he received correspondence from his mother. His father died within two years of their departure.

Lillie and Daniel had 10 children, eight of whom survived childhood. They never had much. Edward took up drinking although he worked every day there was work. According to my grandfather, who never had a drop of liquor in his life, his father-in-law put in a good full day’s work every day and closed the bar each night before rolling home to begin all over again.

In 1950, a few days before Christmas, Daniel died while exchanging gifts with his youngest daughter. He was 85. They buried him on Christmas Eve beside her parents and in the shadow of her maternal ancestors. Shortly thereafter Lillie took to her bed. For a few years she got away with it, her children and grandchildren coming in to cook and clean. Eventually she went to the Christian nursing home. On Christmas Eve 1956 Lillie died at the age of 85.

The Mystery of Berryman B. Wood

2009-02-01T15:01:00.007-06:00

This is about Berryman Baughan Wood. Berryman B. is not related to Lida although all but three of her grandchildren are his great grandchildren.

Berryman was the son of Solomon and Phebe Lucas Wood. His parents came from Greene County, Ohio, with the migration of church members who formed the Lake Fork Predestinarian Baptist Church in Logan County, Illinois. Phebe's parents, Abraham and Marcy Kelsey Lucas, and living siblings also made the move. The couple bought land and settled at Rocky Ford in Corwin Township, about 15 miles from the rest of the family. Berryman was born there on December 22, 1834.

What happened next is a mystery due to the 1856 courthouse fire. We know that Solomon Wood was the second coroner of Logan County. We know Phebe died after 1839 when her last child was born, probably before Solomon sold his land on what is now Lucas Chapel Cemetery and moved in 1842. [Land records survive.] It assumed that Phebe is buried in Lucas Chapel but time and the regular spring flooding of Salt Creek have erased all traces of burials in that section of the cemetery.

Solomon remarried by 1847 and his last child was born February 23, 1848. Less than two months later Solomon was dead. Rhoda Tuman Winn Hoffman Wood, the widow, was Administrator of the estate [notice published in Springfield paper]. On April 23, 1849, the widow deeded all interest in Solomon Wood's land to his heirs and they in turn deeded all interest in her premarital property to her. John Lucas signed as guardian of Joel, Berryman, Lucinda, Rebecca and Solomon. By 1858 the record indicates Ezekiel Bowman was guardian of the two remaining minor children, Solomon and Rebecca, and executor of the Wood estate.

Berryman was apparently raised by John Lucas, his mother's brother, who was married to Sarah Bowman, a sister of Hannah who was the widow of James Lucas, another brother of Phebe. [Remember this. It will come up again.] Ezekiel Bowman was their brother. The 1850 census lists him as "Benjamin."

On December 22, 1855, Berryman married Sarah Katherine Lucas. Berryman was a grandson of Abraham Lucas. Sarah was a great granddaughter of Abraham Lucas. Her grandparents were Hannah Bowman and James Lucas. Berryman and Sarah produced 13 children while bouncing around the country. They went to Missouri but returned to Logan County. They went to Texas and returned to Logan County. They went to Kansas and returned to Logan County. On January 20, 1896, Sarah died.

The above picture is of children and grandchildren of Berryman B. and Sarah Katherine. We suspect it was taken when they gathered after Sarah's death. They placed a stone for her.

The rest of Berryman's life is also a mystery. My grandmother remembered him with love and amusement. No children or grandchildren survive and almost all of the great grandchildren have died. No record of Berryman's death has been located. We know it was 1911-1915, probably 1912-1914. When he died no one put up a stone. Years later a grandson made a marker out of concrete and put it on the grave. The death year is unreadable.

Some Old Clarks

2009-01-25T16:17:00.005-06:00

Lida Harding Downing's mother Mary Ellen was a Clark. Her father was Rev. Richard Clark, son of Rev. David Clark and Sarah Winans. Her mother was Margaret Clark, son of John Winans and Ann "Nancy" Isgrig Clark. John and Rev. David were brothers. Did I mention the mother of Rev. David and John Winans Clark was also a Sarah Winans and their father was also a David Clark? You really need a genealogy program to keep the Clarks [and Winans] straight.

The Clarks, whether ministers or not, were active in founding Methodist churches. David, John and another brother Isaac came to Illinois in the 1820s, spreading the word as they had in Ohio. Isaac went to Fulton County.

The above is said to be the adult children of John Winans and Ann "Nancy" Isgrig Clark. That would be Margaret on the right in the back. If it is those children [and it most likely is] they did not age gracefully. Margaret died in 1867 at the age of 59. Hannah had died the year earlier at the age of 61. That means the picture was taken before October 1866. Hannah and Margaret were the oldest so those "old" men were even younger as were the other women. Mary, in the lower right hand corner, would only be 44.

John Winans Clark died in 1859. The Rev. David and Sarah Winans Clark had been dead for more than 12 years by then. Ann "Nancy" Clark died on December 8, 1867, and her daughter Margaret Clark Clark died less than two weeks later on the 21st. Lida was not yet born. This may account for the lack of strong connection to the Clarks that is obvious is some later correspondence.

Daniel Harding

2009-01-18T11:51:00.004-06:00

Benjamin Harding was born June 7, 1836, in Belmont County, Ohio. He fought in the Civil War in the 106th Illinois, lived in Logan County, moved to Iowa with all but one of his adult children in 1894. He died there June 29, 1915. He married Mary Ellen Clark on March 30, 1866, in Logan County. She was the daughter of the Rev. Richard Clark and his wife Margaret Ann Clark Clark. There were five children, only two of whom had descendants. One was Lida Harding. She's on the left in the picture.

Benjamin Harding came to Logan County with his parents Daniel and Elizabeth Wilson Harding. They were married March 21, 1822, in Belmont County, Ohio. It is believed there were 13 children, including at least one set of twins, although we only know about six of them and what we know about five of those is very little. We know six married in Logan County, two into the Clark family. Some researchers have concluded that the other seven died before reaching adulthood. They apparently did not go to Illinois.

We know nothing about Elizabeth except she told the 1880 census taker she was born in Virginia as were her parents. Virginia at the time of her birth [October 30, 1801] included territory north into Pennsylvania and west into the unknown.

Daniel was also born in Virginia, on April 29, 1798. He died August 19, 1869, in Logan County, Illinois, so he didn't get to tell the census taker where his parents were born.

Harding is a very common name. It is also spelled Hardin, Harden, etc., often in the same family. One of the theories is Daniel was the son of John Bennett Hardin, baptised in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1761. He was the son of William Harding and Clarissa Million.

John Bennett Hardin was living in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1820 as was Daniel. John Bennett Hardin was living in Knox County, Ohio, in 1830 and died there on August 18, 1849. Daniel was living in Knox County at least by 1838. He was living there in 1850 after which he left for Illinois. John Bennett Hardin had a son named Daniel whose birth date is the same as Daniel Harding's. No proof has been located.

Abe and Me

2009-01-15T12:50:00.004-06:00

Where I come from is closely associated with Abraham Lincoln. "You can tell you are from Logan County because every school trip for 12 years was to Lincoln something." [There are several counties which could say the same.] In addition, we had one of the two remaining courthouses where he practiced in town. Unfortunately after they moved the actual court a fire destroyed most of the records from that time.

As a result I confess I am not terribly interested in one A. Lincoln. While others were trying to find a connection I was happy not to have one. My ancestors were farming, not spending time in court...or if they were it will remain secret because the records were destroyed.

2009 is the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. Work has been going on for several years. It caused two web sites of interest to be created. One is the Lincoln Papers and the other is the Lincoln Log.

On July 10, 1834, in Sangamon now Logan County the Rev. Michael Mann married Thomas Lucas and Mary Turner. They had 10 or maybe 11 children before she died.

Mary had a brother named Spencer Turner. He lived in neighboring DeWitt County. Spencer Spencer liked his alcoholic beverages. One cold night, ironically April 15, in 1840 Spencer hit a fellow drinking buddy named Matthew K. Martin. Martin died on April 18 and my 3rd great granduncle became the first man charged with first degree murder in DeWitt County.

Spencer hired the legal team of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas defended him. Turner admitted that he hit Martin, saying Martin was drunk and made insulting remarks about Turner's wife Nancy Hoblit. Lincoln and Douglas argued that Martin did not die from the assault but from alcoholism or exposure to bad weather. The court agreed and issued a not guilty verdict.

The Turner-Lincoln connection did not end there. As the Lincoln Papers and Lincoln Log show, their relationship would drag on for several years.

Spencer did not pay his legal fees. In October 1841 Lincoln sued for $200. He eventually got a judgment but could not collect. Douglas also sued and, for whatever reason, Spencer paid Douglas.

After the matter dragged on for some time Turner and Lincoln reached an agreement. He offered Lincoln a horse in exchange for the fees due and Lincoln accepted. The horse soon went blind.

Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, the victim of an assassin's bullet. Spencer Turner died, presumably peacefully, on April 26, 1896, at the age of 79.

An Airplane!

2009-01-10T15:31:00.003-06:00

On September 29, 1910, my grandmother, Ethel Ryan Downing, hitched up the buggy and took her month old son Orville [I never asked why he was named Orville. I don't think he was named for Orville Wright but the plane was being hyped when he was born.] to town where she picked up her sister Cora Ryan Lipp, seven months pregnant. They stopped by their mother's house but Lillie Margaret Wood Ryan absolutely refused to accompany them. She thought the plane might somehow harm her seven week old daughter, Ethel and Cora's youngest sibling. Lillie didn't think her daughters should go either. They weren't afraid though and drove the buggy out to the big field on the south edge of town to see a real airplane.

There was a big race that day. The Wright Brothers bi-plane piloted by Walter Brookins, raced the Illinois Central train from Chicago to Springfield, a distance of 187 miles. Wilbur Wright was on the train. $10,000 was at stake.

The plane stopped twice to refuel, the second time in Mt. Pulaski, Illinois. Brookins lost a wheel on takeoff but he won the race.

The New York Times of September 30, 1910, proclaimed the news: Longest American Flight by Brookins; With Two Stops He Goes in Wright Biplane from Chicago to Springfield, 187 Miles. Loses Wheel, But Goes On. Declares It Was a Trying Experience. Believes Chicago to New York Race Is Practicable.

Later a pilot named Lindbergh would fly the mail over about the same the route as he flew the mail from St. Louis to Chicago with stops in Springfield and Peoria.

Ethel was one of Lida's daughter-in-laws.

More pictures of the plane-train race here.

A Brief Marriage

2009-01-09T20:26:00.008-06:00

Ah the happy couple. Don't they look blissful? I think they had pickles at the reception. This is William Nelson Downing and his bride Delilah Downing. Downing is her maiden name and no, they were not related. They were neighbors though. Two of her sisters had already married two of his brothers and, on February 27, 1862, they were married.

It didn't last. Five months and one day later he was gone with her brother and other relatives in 106th Illinois Infantry out of Logan County, Illinois. She never saw him again. Their only son was born February 23, 1863.

William Nelson Downing died April 30, 1865, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Delilah's father in law provided her with a hired man and Delilah soon married him.

Their son, William Henry Downing, grew up and married Eliza Sciota Harding - our Lida.

2009-01-07T18:15:00.005-06:00

The post on Lida's picture has been awarded the Proximidade Award by Tina Sansone of Gtownma's Genealogy.

These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Now it seems I must find eight genealogy blogs who meet the criteria. Now I have a great excuse to read more blogs!

Lida's Life

2008-12-31T17:21:00.008-06:00

So many people have asked me what happened to young Lida Harding. It seems appropriate to tell it in pictures.

Lida married William Henry Downing, a neighbor. Their fathers served together in the 106th out of Logan County, Illinois. His father died at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He never knew his father. According to William Henry's obit, they went to Springfield to marry. No marriage record exists in any county in Illinois. Did the minister fail to return the marriage documents or was it lost? We will never know.

They moved to a house on William's land northwest of Mt. Pulaski. William built a new house on the land and about 1900 the family, William Henry, Lida and their four sons: Clarence, Ellis, Ennis and Floyd moved in. Clarence and Ellis got typhoid in the epidemic of 1903. William helped nurse his sons and caught the disease. Clarence and Ellis survived by William did not. He died, ironically, of the same disease that killed his father at Pine Bluff. Lida was left alone with four sons. The picture above does not include Floyd who was 7 when his father died.

On January 19, 1910, in a double wedding, Clarence married Lena Drake and Ellis married Ethel Ryan. The brides were friends. Ellis met Ethel on her 16th birthday at a dance at the Mt. Pulaski Christian Church. The adult Downing boys, who came from a line of Methodist ministers, had left the Methodist Church because they liked to dance and play cards. The Methodists frowned on both at that time.

Ellis and Ethel moved into the house and Ellis took over farming the land. Clarence and Ennis went into business. Eventually Floyd joined the US Postal Service.

In 1915 Lida married John Rupp. She was 46. He was 37. [You go girl!] Both had lost their spouses. He had a daughter. She had four sons. They had a prenup!

Lida wrote: Our honeymoon was spent on the Rupp farm out in the vicinity of Latham where we lived 6 yrs. then we moved to the Rupp Home near Mt. Pulaski where we lived 5 years. When Johns father died and as he had willed this farm to his wife her lifetime we then had a sale & moved to Mt. Pulaski living here almost ten years when John Passed on to the other world, Apr 18th 1935 with mystery surrounding his going.

Clarence and Lena had one son Darwin. The marriage did not endure. Ellis and Ethel had three sons and two daughters. They were married 65 years. Ennis and his wife Reta had one son Julian who died before his parents. They were married 59 years. Floyd and his wife Lena had one son Richard. Floyd died at 54 and Lena lived to 102.

Lida continued to live in town after John's death. She spent her time with her children and grandchildren. As she had done throughout her life, she failed to follow all the rules. She died on St. Patrick's Day, 1942.

Solving the Mystery

2008-12-11T15:56:00.003-06:00

Genealogy is often a mystery. Everyone loves a good mystery, right? In genealogy we want to solve all the mysteries and end up with all the facts. But until we do we need to search out the facts like any good detective.

The tools of a genealogy detective are very much like those of a good reporter. We want to know all the facts. We want to know the source of all the facts so we can evaluate their validity. "Anonymous sources" and those "highly placed sources" aren't good in genealogy. A good genealogist deals in documented facts.

Let's take the picture below. Who is it? It is Eliza Sciota Harding, known to her friends as Lida. Hopefully it says that on the back of the picture but most likely it doesn't. The picture's owner knew who it was and likely didn't see the need to write it on the picture. The owner never dreamed we'd be studying it 130 years later. We know it is Lida because we compared it to other pictures of Lida and recognized her, not to mention there were living folks who had known her when we first found the picture. In this case it was easy.

What is it? It's a picture. Did you think this was a trick question? That was the easy one.

When was it taken? This is harder. It can important in identifying who is in the picture. There are books which tell you what to look for in terms of backgrounds, poses, clothing, etc. If you have a lot of pictures to identify invest in a good book or two.

Lida isn't terribly old in this picture. How old do you think she is? Can you see that "I don't want to do this" look on her face? That, her childish body and her shorter skirt are indications of her age. Let's say she is 10. Since we know she was born in June 1869, if she is in fact 10 in the picture, this could have been taken between June 1879 and June 1880. It was probably taken in the winter because farmers didn't take time out for such things in the summer when every hour was devoted to work. We know her father was a farmer.

Where was it taken? Perhaps the name and town of the photographer is on the picture or the picture enclosure. In this case she was born, lived and died in a six mile area of the same county so we can be pretty sure it was taken in Logan County, Illinois.

Why isn't a critical question in this case. We have other pictures which would indicate all of the family members, Lida, her sister, her three brothers and her mother had their pictures taken at what appears to be the same time, same studio, same backgrounds. What about her father? If his picture was taken it did not survive. If there was a family portrait made it did not survive. The father, Benjamin Harding, appears in later family portraits so he wasn't against having his picture made. Probably his picture was taken when this one was but for some reason did not survive.

The First Settlers

2008-11-25T17:58:00.002-06:00

Your ancestors were the first settlers of the country? They came over on the Mayflower? This will come as a surprise to many but the Pilgrims were not the first European settlers in America. They weren't even the first English settlers. This fact is often overlooked in the scramble to form history around Thanksgiving.

Just over 100 Pilgrims arrived in 1620 in Massachusetts followed six years later by the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam, now New York.

But in 1607 a group of English colonists - 104 people sailed from England - arrived in Virginia and established the first permanent English settlement in America. How could you forget Captain John Smith and Pocahontas?

In 1565 the Spanish established a colony at St. Augustine in Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in America thanks to about 100 settlers and even more soldiers who came ashore that September.

The oldest [and largest] European settlement in what is the continental U.S. was made on August 15, 1559, when Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano and over 1,400 people settled on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico. They called it Pensacola. Just a month later a hurricane struck the colony. Many were killed. Half the ships sank and supplies were ruined. The survivors stayed on but the natives weren't friendly and famine set it so they left in in 1561. Presumably no settlers stayed behind in Pensacola and left descendants. The Spanish did not return and reestablish the colony until 1696.

Slides Update

2008-11-01T13:20:00.003-05:00

The slide/negative scanner came with Photo Impressions 6. I was not pleased with what I was seeing. On the advice of several people I purchased Photoshop Elements 6. I read several reviews which said the new version wasn't a prize and also the old version was cheaper. I only wanted basic so that worked for me. The difference is incredible. Just using the basic "quick fix" option the results are so much better.

Real life has gotten in the way of my genealogy. I spent the time I had reminiscing over the slides I had scanned. It was worth it. As a result I've probably gone through 100 slides, haven't even tried the negatives with Photoshop Elements.

Viewing the Slides and Negatives

2008-10-19T19:45:00.004-05:00

I had a wonderful day, out and about in the perfect weather. I picked up the slide and negative viewer, came home and installed it. Then I spent a couple enjoyable hours looking at slides. Ah the memories!

I've only made a dent. I estimated I had 300 but 500 appears to be more likely. So far I've found some slides which I believe my college roommates would pay to have destroyed. :)

I'd say the device works pretty well. The slides are old and definitely have deteriorated to some extent. But I can view them and determine if I want to save the picture or toss with ease. It comes with photo editing software called Photo Impression, version 6. I am not a photo editing expert, looks decent.

Negatives are a different story. Pre 35mm negatives come in an assortment of sizes. The plastic negative holder is designed for 35mm negatives both in size and spacing. This can probably be overcome with some dedication. The bigger problem is while I can see the negative on my screen the software often gives error messages trying to copy the negative. I don't know enough about the software to determine why but I will see if I have the same problem with another software.

Instructions are minuscule but the device is fairly mechanical -- you put the slides or negatives into the appropriate holder and manually push it through. I can hear a little click when it is centered over a slide. Presumably that is true for the negatives too although I haven't gotten to any negatives that are really the "right" size so I haven't used that notification. You have to give it a minute to provide a digital image on your computer screen. You can push a button on the device to save the image. After that it is all up to the software -- this is where it says it can't get the image on many of the negatives I've tried so far.

Slide and Negative Converter

2008-10-18T19:59:00.003-05:00

Turns out if you ask enough people one of them will be the right one with the right answer.

Slide and Negative Converter

Take all those old 35mm slides and film negatives out of storage and share them with family and friends. This film scanner makes it easy. Simply load negatives or slides into this compact scanner to transfer to digital files. Once scanned, share them and save them. Scans images at 5.0 mega pixel quality. Auto color balance and exposure. Films color, monochrome film and mounted slides. Built-in back light. 2.0 USB interface. Outputs to JPG or TIF formats. Compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP. (Converter is not compatible with MacIntosh computers.) Model #FS-C1-VP.

The irony here is I saw this item less than a week ago, laughed and said, but who has slides and negatives anymore.

Tomorrow I will be having another look at this product. Stay tuned!

Negatives, Slides - Now What?

2008-10-18T10:32:00.001-05:00

This morning, in a box I probably haven't opened in more than 20 years and at least 6 moves, under a collection of my published newsletter articles from long ago, I found envelopes full of negatives and a box full of slides. I thought I was done with pictures except for the two boxes sitting at my feet in preparation for Scanfest October 26.

1. How do I look at these things to determine if I want to mess with them? They could date back to about 1960 so I must look.
2. How do I scan those I want to keep? Would it be easier to scan first and then decide -- would they be more viewable, better able to manipulate size, etc. if I scan first and ask questions later?
3. Are there web sites, books, etc. I should be looking at? I have Maureen Taylor's book as well as a couple others but they are geared to identifying rather than scanning.
4. Who would know about this?

Tag - You're It!

2008-10-16T19:14:00.003-05:00

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings started a game of tag. I was tagged by Libbi Crowe.

10 Years Ago I

# was involved with ILGenWeb
# was living in Tennessee
# foolish believed they got all of Michael's cancer
# was plotting a move to the Emerald Coast
# had just gotten my Caravan -- which I still have

5 Things on Today's To-DO List

# get the HBTS newsletter done
# finish several pleadings
# find out about a couple genealogy programs
# think about how I am going to fix my LAN
# answer some genealogy email

5 Snacks I Enjoy

# fruit
# Chex Mix - but I avoid it
# cheese
# most anything that goes crunch
# fresh brewed unsweet iced tea

5 Places I Have Lived

# Mt. Pulaski, Illinois
# Chicago, Illinois
# Oak Park, Illinois
# Birchwood, Tennessee
# Navarre, Florida

5 Jobs I Have Had

# Editor
# Reporter
# Paralegal
# Freelance Writer
# Caseworker

5 Blogs I Tag to Play

# Tina Sansone of BellaOnline
# everyone I know has been tagged!

Genealogy Photo Album

2008-10-09T10:45:00.003-05:00

One of the things you can do on Facebook is upload photos and, frankly, it is a lot easier than creating a web page. Now you can share the photo albums with people who aren't on Facebook.

You can find my first venture into a shared genealogy photo album at:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8670&l=0a9c1&id=1035780550

I'm learning as I go. I just realized there is a continuity with the pictures I picked at random. They are all related.

Facebook Genea-Bloggers

2008-10-07T10:52:00.003-05:00

A month or so ago, at the request of a friend, I did something I never thought I'd do -- joined Facebook. A lot of genealogists seem to think it is something we will find useful. I find it a bit confusing. Is there a manual???

I see a lot of people I know. There are various things that might be useful to genealogists, groups to participate in, etc. It's yet another learning experience.

Done Digitalizing the Paper

2008-08-16T18:12:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile but at this point all of my paper is scanned in and pretty much organized. It's also backed up. It's a great feeling. That doesn't mean I have entered all the information in my genealogy program or done everything I want to do with the materials but I have eliminated the possibility of losing it to, say, a hurricane.

I still have a couple boxes of pictures. For some reason I dread scanning them. Of course, I will not be tossing them after they are scanned either.

The multi-function Brother printer/scanner/fax/copier is attached to my router and available to all computers on my network. Sounds great, right? The reality is you really need to be sitting by the scanner when you are scanning.

I'm experimenting with software which allows me to write a caption on the photos so down the road people won't say "who the heck is this?" as I have said many, many times.

Cemetery Walking

2008-02-14T19:33:00.001-06:00

It will be summer again [safe to say from Florida]. Are you planning a trip to a cemetery or two? Are they old cemeteries out in the middle of nowhere? Here are some things you need to consider.

Know how to get there. In some counties you really can pick out a cemetery from several miles away [it is the only spot with trees] but that is not true everywhere. Don't waste your valuable time searching for the cemetery. If possible plot it out on road or plat map before going – and don't forget the map. In some areas the Google Earth maps are useful. Microsoft also has online maps. You can search GNIS, the government's geographic names database at: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/ for location and then plot it on a map with a couple clicks.

If there is a map of the cemetery or an online listing of any sort that gives you clues on how to locate the particular stone print it out and take it along. USGenWeb sites often have cemetery listings. Make a note of the people buried around your ancestor so if for some reason their stone is unreadable you'll know you are in the right place and can go from there.

Wear a hat and take plenty of water. The only drinking available is highly likely to be what you brought with you. Dehydration is dangerous in summer cemetery treking. Someone suggested if you drink too much water you'll need the facilities and the cemeteries have no facilities. I'll leave it to you to figure out how to deal with that situation in the middle of nowhere. If you plan to be at the cemetery awhile you should take some snacks or even pack a lunch along with the water. In olden days people often picnicked in cemeteries. You can too.

Don't go alone if you can avoid it. Take your cell phone. You could have trouble with your vehicle and be in the middle of nowhere. [This is the voice of experience long before cell phones. It was a long walk.] You could fall and hurt yourself or even break something. The ground will not be smooth and level. Stones have been known to topple. Some places, particularly where cemeteries are not mowed regularly, have critters [they dug those ankle wretching holes] or stinging bugs. Be safe. Take a friend and a cell phone. I always have a first aid kit in the car.

Take your camera with a large memory card but don't forget pen and paper or a recording device. If you record on tape or digitally be sure to spell everything out even if it is spelled wrong. If it is small cemetery do yourself and fellow researchers a favor and photograph each stone. You are there. It is an act of genealogical kindness. Otherwise draw a map of the stone location area so the next person can find the stone.

Where Did I Put That? - Getting Organized

2008-02-12T19:34:00.000-06:00

Going Digital 5

Just because the paper is now digital does not mean you don't need a system of organization that you can use to file and retrieve the documents. For most this is the hard part. Fortunately it is easier to search and move digital files than boxes or shelves of books, magazines, saved articles, etc.

Remember the lady with the file cabinets? That's a pretty common method for filing. Each file cabinet becomes a folder. But, with digital documents, you can easily have a subfolder for each and every surname in that line. You can file great aunt Milly under her maiden name, as you should, and slip a copy under her third husband's name if you know that's where you'll look for it because you cannot recall her maiden name. You can file a copy of Joe and Mary's marriage certificate under Joe's surname and another under Mary's maiden name if that will help you locate it later. You can have many copies of the same file without worrying about taking up space.

I have a folder for forms, another for those digital books, one for each course I have taken, another for articles to read. A copy of the article may be wherever it seemed appropriate too -- research in Greene County, Ohio, is probably also filed under a couple surnames and, maybe, in a Greene County folder too. You can get as complex as you want, folders with subfolders in subfolders, or keep it simple. You can have the surname folder, then a subfolder for pictures, one for census, one for vital records, etc. You can just put all the files in the surname folder. You can do some variation. Digital makes it easy. And if you start simple and later decide to go complex it is easy to just move the files to new folders.

I do not mean to suggest I am totally bookless or paperless. I recently had new carpet installed and, weed and scan as I might, I still have a whole bookcase for genealogy. But it is only 100" of books, a significant reduction. And I am down from eight file drawers to less than three.

Genealogy and Vista

2007-12-31T19:07:00.001-06:00

In case you don't read the comments, time has passed and all genealogy programs use are now working with Vista.

Who Are Those People? - All Those Pictures

2007-12-31T18:57:00.000-06:00

Going Digital 4

Scan all your old pictures. That's the first step. If you have many pictures think about scheduling an hour or two or three a week to the task until it is done. There's plenty of advice online as to how to do it. Select the method that is best for you and get busy. As you scan them name them in whatever system you are using. I name them by surname first name(s) description and then file them in the appropriate surname folder. Some people assign them numbers. If there are many people in the picture and you know who they are this is the time to make a text file with that information. I save it with same file name as the picture ending with ID. Thus the picture is jones john and family at 1876 graduation.jpg [or .tif] and the text file is jones john and family at the 1876 graduation ID.txt. Getting the pictures scanned should be a priority.

You probably should start the identification process as you are scanning because you may need the help of people who don't have forever left. Start with those with a few missing people and work up to those where you know only a couple of many or no one. Study the picture. Makes notes about what you do know in a text file you can save - date, location, event, who you can identify, etc. Share the picture and the text file with other researchers and family members. Great Aunt Nellie may not remember everything but she may recognize someone in the picture. Take a dozen pictures to her. Since she's not computerized you can take those you haven't scanned. [If she is send them by email.]

Set aside some time to identify pictures on a regular basis until you are done. In my case that will be the rest of my life.

Remember, your older relatives are your friends as are any older people who lived in the area where your family is from or who may have known the people in the photo for any reason. Researchers who didn't live locally may provide clues -- "looks a lot like Mary Jane Smith in this picture" or "don't know who they are but that is the old house at the homeplace in the background." Remember, none of us are getting any younger including those older relatives. This is something you should not put off.

I have a photo my mother clearly had all her adultt life. It's probably a high school senior picture and based on the clothing she is close to the same age as my mother. I don't know the person. My mother's relatives do not know the person. My mother's closest friends and high school classmates do not know the person. How did my mother get this picture and who is she? I intend to find out.

Unfortunately, just becase Great Aunt Nellie thinks it is someone you still need to seek other verification. I sent a picture to some older relatives. Two of them agreed as to some of the people in the picture and it seemed reasonable since these two relatives were actually in the picture. They should recognize the people, right? Unfortunately, several of the people identified were dead before those relatives were born. Later I realized some of those deceased people had children with the same name. Are those really the younger namesakes, a distinction blurred a bit by age? The investigation continues.

Securing the Data - Backup! Backup! Backup!

2007-12-28T16:17:00.000-06:00

Going Digital 3

I live in hurricane heaven. I used to live in tornado territory. Some live where earthquakes threaten. Fire and flood can happen to anyone. Digital files are so much easier to protect from such disasters than paper files and books.

I keep all my files on external hard drives. I find it easier to have one hard drive for work files which are confidential, one for genealogy files, one for personal files, etc. but that's a preference. Having one drive would be easier for most people. I bought a small powered D-Link hub that efficiently handles seven USB items and takes up only one USB port on the laptop. Hard drives are getting smaller in size and larger in storage space. They also get less expensive almost daily. My WD Passport drives plug into any USB and do not require a separate electrical supply. They also fit in a large pocket, a purse, a briefcase, etc. I call them my "grab and go" drives. Several times a week they back up, independently, to a large portable hard drive. Once a week the large portable hard drive backs up to a MyBook hard drive. The MyBook is stored away from the computers and other portable hard drives.

With hurricanes you have plenty of warning if you are paying attention. It also works when you are going away for vacation. One drive goes to the bank where it fits nicely in the bank box. One drive is wrapped securely and goes into a secure container placed in what is deemed to be the safest place in the house along with other valuables. The small portables always stay with me. If I evacuate they go in my bag with the laptop. [What? Travel without a laptop? You are kidding, right?]

Backing up is a lesson you can learn the hard way or the easy way. Develop a system for backing up your files, then do it more often than you think is necessary and you won't learn the painful hard way.

Books - Will It Happen?

2007-12-27T10:00:00.001-06:00

Going Digital 2

I had to remove all the books in my office so new carpet could be installed. It was a back breaking task that took several days. Along the way I noted, despite several moves and heavy handed weeding out, there were still books I don't need. I made piles of them. Now as I place the books back into the bookcases I am attempting to sort by subject and do further weeding. Since my dogs do not object to the disarray I can afford to take my time going through the books. Unfortunately I have a list of books I still want to purchase...

Books undoubtedly take up the most space of all my "necessary" paper. Obviously I have a computer which can play audio files including books and podcasts as well read many file formats. I also have Palm LifeDrive which can play audio books in several formats as well as read files in four or five formats -- making the available library of books and articles portable. There are many other devices that do that including some cell phones.

Several years ago through a promotion I got a copy of Val Greenwood's Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy in pdf, all 660 pages in the palm of my hand. A friend read parts of her copy on a plane during a long flight. I've read a bit while waiting in a doctor's office but, frankly, I don't like reading on a 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" screen all that much - and that's a larger than normal screen. Recently I purchased a 22" monitor for my laptop. That's more like it.

This year I purchased Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained in pdf. I confess, it is still no joy to read on the LifeDrive but it is incredibly handy to have that book with me while researching. And it is word searchable. Next June I am taking her course at IGHR so, after I registered, I bought the book too. In that scenario it is probably easier to have the book.

A couple years ago, as a project for a genealogy society, I tore apart some reprints they had made of old public domain books, ran them through a high speed scanner at a law office in Chicago, converted the output to pdf and made it word searchable. [This now doable in one step.] The final document was burnt to CD. The society now sells the CDs and doesn't waste space or money storing books to sell. They can literally print a book on demand. Digital books are attractive to sellers because they don't represent an investment in storage space or paper.

There are many already digitalized books online, often free to download, of interest to researchers. Google Books is a treasure chest of such books. And the word searchable benefit is hard to top.

Having the digital book -- and you can easily keep the whole book, not just a few pages -- on your computer means you never having to kick yourself for not looking up one more thing when you had the book in your hands 10 years ago.

Until your library is digital list your books on LibraryThing so you know what you have. I'm using a printout of my LibraryThing books to make sure I have all my genealogy books together as I put the office back together. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I still have more books than space in the bookcase assigned to genealogy.

Swimming in Paper? Empty the Pool

2007-12-25T14:04:00.001-06:00

Going Digital 1

We all have way too much paper and genealogists have more than most. I welcomed the opportunity to get statements, bills and other documents of day to day life electronically -- don't even have to scan, just rename and save. Any document not smart enough to come electronically -- tax bills for example -- are scanned as soon as paid. My personal life is now fairly paper free.

But what about all those records, carefully collected over many years, of our ancestors? I know a woman who has eight file cabinets of it -- one each for mother's maternal line, mother's paternal line, father's maternal line, father's paternal line and then the same for her spouse's ancestors. I hope she never moves or has a fire, flood or other disaster.

In 2002 my cousin decided she wanted to add more ancestors to her DAR membership. Mine lapsed but she keeps hers up. I advised I could do a couple without much effort so she chose those two. Guess what? DAR wants a copy of the vital records -- not the ones with an embossed seal but a copy. [More and more jurisdictions are giving up the embossed seal anyway.] I scanned all the documents, census records and vital records, printed them out and sent them to DAR. I saved the census records and other documents on my computer and tossed the paper. My cousin wanted to keep the vital records. As long as she is filing them it is fine with me.

I began scanning documents -- pages, including title page for citation, of multiple histories of counties where my ancestors were mentioned, pages from many books, stacks of email [carefully printed out] from other researchers on various lines, web pages [carefully printed out] with information or clues.

Publications are nice but generally there are only a couple items I want to keep. So I read them all, then I scanned the articles I wanted to save and tossed the paper. Why aren't journals available electronically? Some older ones are actually. You can obtain the NEGHR online as a member. The same is true of NYGBR which also has the complete collection on CD through 1960 available for purchase. There are undoubtedly others. I haven't developed whatever it takes to tear TAG apart just yet but I heard they have discussed making it available electronically too.

I have eliminated two file cabinets. I have one over sized file drawer with documents still to sort through and a stack of legal size papers. My legal size scanner is elderly and prefers to work only in small batches. As soon as that stack is gone it will be retired. After that it will more efficient to go to a copy service -- or to photograph them with a digital camera.

Genealogy and Vista

2007-10-14T15:57:00.000-05:00

Have you updated to Windows Vista yet? I was forced to when I needed a new computer. Fortunately I have an older laptop running XP or I'd probably have jumped out the window. [It's only about 6" to the ground.] As it was I tore my hair out. Six months later I still prefer the old XP computer.

Several programs I use daily [not genealogy programs] do not work and were expensive upgrades, Adobe Acrobat Pro being one of them. There were some problems with hardware too including drivers for printers, scanners, etc.

I use TMG [The Master Genealogist]. The current version works with Vista with a few minor tweaks. I did check that out in advance of the install because in this case you need to know those things before installing. I also own Second Site, a program that works with TMG to create web pages. It works with Vista.

The latest version of GenSmarts works with Vista. GenViewer from MudCreek seems to work but GenMatcher does not. I like GenMatcher for comparing two GEDCOMS. Yes, I know other programs I own, including TMG, can do it but I like the way GenMatcher does it.

I have an old program which I believe is called Places. You type in a town name and state. The program tells you what county that town is in. Surprisingly it works just fine. I don't have a place in the US without a county in my TMG database because of this nifty program.

I use a Palm LifeDrive and GedStar Pro. GedStar Pro contains my entire TMG database in my pocket. Palm does not work with Vista and therefore neither does GedStar Pro. The only option is to switch to a Windows based PDA and a Windows PDA genealogy program. That's expensive, not to mention replacing all the other software I've come to depend upon in my 10 years with Palm. I also have several genealogy books on my Palm for reading on the go. I'm not giving it up any time soon.

Family Tree Maker says it works with Vista. I haven't tried it.

If you are considering a new computer it is going to come with Vista and you are going to have as much "fun" learning the system as you can stand. Vista is to XP as a dog is to a spider unfortunately. Make sure you know upfront what programs and hardware you need to replace, update or learn to live without. More importantly, make sure your genealogy software is compatible or can be made compatible with an upgrade or a tweak. Changing programs with database is not something to take lightly.

Librarything

2007-06-30T16:46:00.000-05:00

Ever buy a book while at an event or traveling only to find you already had a copy when you got home?

I attended IGHR [Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research] at Samford. I've been a member of Librarything for awhile but I've never really used it. Amy Giroux, CG, CGL, suggested using it to list your genealogy library. It is stored online and available to you from any computer so you can't forget it. If you are organized you can print out a list of your books before you go. If you aren't you can still print out a list when you get there.

It's free for the first 200 books. If you want to catalog your entire collection you can get an annual membership for $10 or a life membership for $25. You can make your catalog private or public. If it saves you buying one duplicate it is probably worth for that alone.

This is my genealogy library, at least what I have entered so far. I haven't done the local histories or surname books.

Of course, you are not limited to genealogy or any one subject. And there are other uses for the list -- for your insurance should something happen to your collection like fire, flood, tornado, hurricane for example.

I see another use for the catalogs. Perhaps you simply cannot find the book you need, particularly one of those local histories or a long out of print book. Maybe you can go Librarything, see who has the book and, very nicely, ask if they would mind looking it up for you in their copy.

Free Stuff

2007-05-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

The web is just full of free and useful tools. For example, you can calculate a person's birthdate from the date of death and age [commonly found on old tombstones] at: birthdate calculator.

Have you found a place but have no clue where it is? Try the Geographic Names Search from USGS.

The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world. That's what the LDS Web site calls itself. It is constantly growing site without equal.

One of my favorite sites is by Stephen Morse. He has many, many "one step" pages to speed your search of public databases. A good many of them facilitate the search of immigration databases like Castle Garden and Ellis Island as well as manifests from some ports. There are also one step searches for census records and vital records which are online. In addition there are searches specific to Jewish genealogy.

How about the Civil War? [If you call it something grin and bear it - the information is generally filed under Civil War.] If your ancestor served you will want to check the federal government's Soldiers and Sailor System - a searchable database with a microfilm source citation for the information so you can look it up yourself. A state by state list of links [not necessarily free] is another source. Many of the individual state GenWeb sites have their own Civil War information.

Footnote is NOT a free site but it has several free databases of interest, notably the Pennsylvania Archives. They have the Civil War pension files from the National Archives although not in the free databases.

These are just a few of the freebies. Every day it seems there is something new. You can keep up with what's happening in genealogy by reading Dick Eastman's blog. It's free. Eastman has been doing genealogy online for close to 25 years. He'll keep you uptodate and introduce you to sites you never considered.

CENSUS - MORE

2007-02-15T13:15:00.000-06:00

The Census is often overlooked as an information source. It's much more than a list of the names of the people who lived at a particular location. It is particularly useful for people researching ancestors 1870-1930 as those censuses contain more information than earlier censuses. Also, if your ancestors were immigrants information on immigration was collected beginning in 1900.

For general census information, including the non population schedules, go to Dollarhide's Census Book and read all about it. However, the easiest way these days is probably to go to Heritage Quest or Ancestry.com -- possibly both available free through your local library -- and view the census records. Be sure to check with your library -- many provide Heritage Quest to you from your home computer.

So what can you learn from the census? How about where your ancestor was born [state or country] and the birthplaces of that ancestor's parents? From 1900, how old precisely are they, including month and year of birth? When they arrived in the US? Were they naturalized? How long they were married on census day? How many children were born to the woman and how many are still living? Some questions were repeated in later censuses so you can compare. Earlier censuses provide less information. A complete list of the census questions is online at Census Finder. They also have downloads of census forms so you can do your own transcriptions. Remember, get the names of the neighbors too -- they may be helpful at some point.

There are other useful pieces of information on the Census Finder site so take some time to browse. They have, for example, links to free information regarding censuses and other listings, often to GenWeb sites. They have done a lot of work for you. It's a good place to start when doing research.

The Census Finder site is not limited to U.S. Censuses.

Using tools available to many free you can find and/or flesh out several generations of your genealogy in a few hours.

THE SOURCE

2006-12-21T16:13:00.000-06:00

You have probably heard about The Source which is now out in its third edition. You may have looked it up and discovered it run around $80. Despite its nearly 1,000 pages and nothing but rave reviews you thought was a little too pricey for your research.

That was an error in judgment. Oh yes, it is not inexpensive. But it is worth every penny.

The subtitle is "A Guidebook to American Genealogy" and that is precisely what it is. Think of it as a self paced course in American genealogy in one very thick and quite heavy volume. There are 20 detailed chapters. Take court records. There are 66 pages of detailed information as well as a comprehensive and up to date list of resources. That's because all the chapters are written by experts in that field of genealogy. If you concentrate on that chapter like there was a test you will become very knowledgable in court records. If you absorb all of the chapter on land records and then absorb Hone's Land and Property Research you will be an expert in land records. If you don't want to be an expert or even very knowledgable it is still the resource to have in your genealogy library.

Then there are the appendixes with all the extra information you might want about genealogical societies, historical societies, lineage societies, not to mention the National and State Archives.

Ok, your budget is really limited. Go online and search for a copy of the second edition. The price should be less than half. It won't be up to date but it will still provide you with a wealth of information that you can use in your genealogy research.