Great Books: NGS Conference Souvenirs

What's a genealogy conference with out buying books?  I went with a list of 3 books I was looking for and came home with 4, but only 2 of them from the original list.

The Great Migration Newsletter: Volumes 16-20 by Robert Charles Anderson.  Boston: NEHGS, 2012.

This one brings me up-to-date on the newsletter compilations, a must have for anyone with early New England ancestry.  It's nice to have a book from a highly reliable source with one of my ancestors in every issue if not every page!  I enjoy reading these even when not actively researching a specific individual.  The locale info is always especially worthwhile.




Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones.  Arlington, VA: NGS, 2013.   

A workbook format with glossary, reading list, and answers for the exercises.  Much of this seems to have been in his two presentations I attended at the conference.  It will be great to have the content in a book format. Besides an overview of the Genealogical Proof Standard, each element gets its own chapter.  I'm really looking forward to reading this one, probably over and over!



Becoming an Excellent Genealogist: Essays on Professional Research Skills edited by Kory L. Meyerink, Tristan L. Tolman, and Linda K. Gulbrandsen.  No location: ICAPGen, 2012.

I spotted this at their booth, thumbed through, slept on it, and bought it on Day 2.  On Day 3, I went back and told them that after only 2 chapters, it seems like a great book!  The font for the chapter titles and sidebars is irritating, but otherwise, I'm really, really looking forward to reading this one! Contributors include Kitzmiller, Russo Adams, Daynes, and Wight.  Essays are in categories including methodology, records, and recording.  Specific topics include migration, medieval research, jurisdictions, writing, and accreditation.

NGS Research in the States Series: Kentucky by Bettie Cummings Cook. Arlington, VA: NGS, 2012.

More a pamphlet than a book, I find myself going back frequently to the other items in this series.  So, it's good to have Kentucky. I'm determined to apply thorough research processes to the Richardson ancestry there and I'm optimistic this guide will help.

Frozen with Indecision

My research has been  frozen by a chain of decisions I've made or not been able to make.  I haven't done any real research or analysis for 4 months.  Have you ever read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? ....

I firmly decided after returning from my Salt Lake City research trip in early April, that there would be no new research until I got all of that trip's output reviewed, analyzed, into my databases, and filed neatly away.  Good idea, right?

After I returned home, I did buy that additional computer I was yearning for in March.  I decided  I would return to my Apple origins and that I would NOT run Windows on my new Mac Book Pro.  So, then it didn't make any sense to do all the data input on the old PC just to have to transfer it later.  I played with the Mac in general to get used to it and I researched Mac database programs.  Narrowing it down to Reunion and FTM for Mac 2, I went off to Jamboree hoping to try them both while there.

I thought my decision was made for me when I actually won a copy of FTM Mac 2 at Jamboree!  And the Ancestry people were incredibly nice at their booth.  In the last two months, I've made gedcoms of my databases and imported them on the new Mac.   I really like how all the Ancestry.com document images are automatically attached/sourced in the database; it's really nice to be able to see the docs offline and from inside my database.  I've even synced 2 of my trees with Ancestry.com trees.  The syncing works quite well.  (Another decision had been to start making my online trees public: why do all this original research if I'm not more actively sharing it?)

But, otherwise, I'm just not sure.  All names and notes seem to have come through fine.   It's cosmetic, but many of my notes are missing spaces between words; I think the gedcom misses some <return> characters between paragraphs.  The biggest problem is that my citations did not all survive the import.  Source notes (IE: condition, edition, comments on validity) have vanished.  In general, the format of the sources is just so different from what I am used to that it is taking me forever to do anything.  Ancestral Quest allows citations attached to the name of the individual (I've been using that for hints, null searches, and sources with more detail than I care to input, etc.).  None of those citations show up in FTMMac2 at all.

Twice  in the last 2 months, I've been so frustrated that I stopped using FTMMac2. I went so far as to download Reunion, MacFamilyTree, and one of the open source alternatives.  But they each had major, major things I absolutely did not like.  And, then I even considered running Windows and a third-party program that would allow me to still run Ancestral Quest on my new Mac.  But, no, I just don't want to do that...  But the Family Group Sheet printouts are so much nicer in Ancestral Quest...

See what I mean by frozen with indecision?  Now, I've decided that if I am sticking with Mac, I just have to decide to stick with FTMMac2 until I get used to it.  And, I don't have to be compulsive about my sources & citations not being as elaborate as they were.  This is a hobby, it should be fun, and I do not have to agonize over perfection.  I am not responsible for archiving the world.

So, I'm going to start getting all that no-longer-so-new research into my new databases.  I really want to do some new research.  That's the part I like best.  Maybe I'll return to having FirstFridayFolders and use that to fully reconcile each direct-line couple between the old and new databases (at 12 couples per year, it'll only take 166 years...) but I won't make that decision now ...  I think I've decided that I'm giving the mouse a cookie, in fact, a whole box of cookies, ...and that means there will be some clean-up to do.... Maybe I can get the mouse to do her share?

Ideas, etc.

[WARNING: This post contains a shameless plug. What can I say? I'm a proud wife.]

Gosh, it's been a while ... but I think I'm back...!  Some things I've learned recently:

If your spouse writes a book, it will seriously affect the time you have for genealogy research, blogging, etc. And, even once it's published, marketing is indeed a full-time job.  The best part may be that now you know you have to be a two-computer household and your spouse really owes you....

If you break your elbow, it will seriously affect your research, blogging, etc....!

One Place Studies seems like a great source for British Isles sites on places, both history and genealogy.  It makes me want to do one for Huttons Ambo or Weaverthorpe or most any town in New England or Morgan County, Missouri or ....

Too many ideas, too little time...

Great-Great-Grandparents: Heritage Pie

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun looked interesting.  I guess it's still ok to participate on Sunday afternoon....

It took only about 3 minutes to make the graph at Kid Zone's "Create a Graph" and represents the birthplaces of my great-great-grandparents.

My sixteen great-greats, with abbreviated info, are:
William CARR (1840-1916?) -- Yorkshire
Jane ETHELL (1841- after 1901) -- Yorkshire

Charles CAUSIER (1836-1912) -- born Worcestershire, died Wisconsin
Catherine HUGHES (1838-1911) -- born Staffordshire, died Wisconsin

Carl Benjamin HEGWER (1791-1860) -- born Silesia, died Kansas
Maria Rosina ILGNER (1801-1873) -- born Silesia, died Kansas

John D. RICHARDSON (1829-1908) -- Missouri
Isabella SHAW (1828-1877) -- born Ohio, died Missouri

parents of Patrick KEATING  -- unknown Ireland

parents of Cathrine DOOLEY -- unknown probably Ireland, possibly but unlikely
 Canada

Homer Thomas PORTER (1813-1903) -- Vermont
Dolly Ann BATES (1823-1892) -- born Vermont, died Montana

Titus DAVISON (1804-1900) -- Vermont
Hannah Field BASCOM (1808-1881) -- Vermont

If I use the location of their deaths, I get a different picture.  I've kept the same people in the same color or with a different value of the original color.

It's a little complicated not knowing four of the 16 at all.  This activity has certainly reminded me that that generation saw a lot of major changes in their lives.

A more specific problem this activity has reminded me of is that I've found info to make me think that the death date/location I have for William CARR could be wrong.  I've got to add that investigation to my TO-Do list!

10 Generations Data: Not so great?

Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog for 7 March 2010 was a very interesting discussion about being able to document a person's ancestry back 10 generations.  It's only taken me five weeks to get around to doing the calculations for my ancestry....

I counted myself as Generation 1 (Randy started with his parents each as Gen 1, but some of those who commented started with themselves as Gen 1 or even a child of theirs as Gen 1; so be careful comparing yourself to Randy, his commenters, or me).  I only counted a woman if I had a birth surname and I only counted anyone of whom I'm very sure should be in my lines.

The first result is as expected: No, I do NOT have everyone back 10 generations.  But, if I did, maybe this wouldn't be a fun hobby?! 

I am solid through 4 generations, having all 8 of my great-grandparents, but in the 5th, I've lost parents for either of my 1850ish Irish immigrant great-grandparents.  For the subsequent generations, the ancestors I claim are:

6th generation  --  3g grandparents  --  19 out of 32 possible or 59%

7th  --  4g   --  19 out of 64 or 30%

8th  --  5g   --  30 out of 128 or 23%

9th  --  6g   --  44 out of 256 or 17%

10th--  7g   --  64 out of 512 or 13%

Overall, that gives me 203 out of 1023 or 19.8% accounted for through 10 generations.  Randy Seaver reported that at the 7g level he has accounted for 56%!  (He has a larger percentage of early New England heritage than I do.)

The furthest my HEGWER / RICHARDSON line goes is 6 lines all stopping at the 6th generation.  CARR / CAUSIER has one line that makes it to the 10th generation, which I think is pretty spiffy given that they are my most recent immigrants.  PORTER / DAVISON has several lines well past 10 generations and finding all of their lines to at least 10 seems very realistic.  KEATING / DOOLEY are great-grandparents and I sincerely doubt that I will ever find parents for either of them, but I will keep trying!

I'll use the "SURNAMES" blog page that I started a bit ago to keep track of how these numbers go.  Let me know if that Blogger page is interesting to you!  May you all have great success getting to 10 generations!

2010 Genealogy Resolutions

I have never ever made written resolutions before, so this is really an experiment! Many of these are dreams, but perhaps I can get a bit closer to achieving them if I write them down.... In no particular order:

1. Find the missing CAUSIER-HUGHES children

2. Find the parents of the Lucy WAIT who married Asahel DAVISON circa 1792 , possibly Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Vermont

3. Research land and probate records in Knox County, Ohio for info on & verification of the SHAW & MILLER lines that lead to the Isabel SHAW who married John RICHARDSON in Morgan County, Missouri in 1849

4. Attend the reunion of descendants of Amos RICHARDSON in Morgan County, Missouri in June, 2010

5. Go to Salt Lake City for research in the Family History Library

6. Write/phone the Del Norte Cemetery in Rio Grande County, Colorado to see who is buried in the plot for which I have a bill of sale / deed to Charles HEGWER

7. Find the John NORRIS/Morris? of Staten Island or Stratford CT? who has a daughter Hannah who married Ashbel PORTER in North Branford, Connecticut in 1762

8. Arrange for a headstone at the unmarked grave of Celim PORTER [10 May 1913 - 18 Jun 1913] at Cavalry Cemetery in Los Angeles. Celim was the son of L Willis PORTER and his first wife, Josephine Slater, who died barely a month after her only child and is buried about 20 yards away.

9. Work on the TO DO piles of research to input or analyze. If I can't eliminate the piles, I'd be happy if it's down to just one pile!

10. Get all my cemetery photos into findagrave.com

11. Visit at least 2 local genealogy libraries that I have never been to: Pomona Public Library, Carlsbad Public Library, Biola University, CSU Fullerton, and Claremont University

12. Investigate the HEGWERs who died in San Bernardino County; go out there and see death certificates?

Well, well ... an even dozen ... it looks like I'll have a busy year!

May you have a GREAT year and may your greatest genealogy problem be solved in 2010!

PS: Whoops! I forgot to say that I resolve to have made at least 20 new blogs in 2010! One down, 19 to go!