Begin with 'Craft'

A Google Chrome Extension for AncestryDNA

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:33:00 +0000

I was browsing Ancestry.com's DNA message boards the other day, when I saw a really interesting post. A user of AncestryDNA was working on a Google Chrome extension to help fill in part of the features gap that is (in my opinion) a huge problem with Ancestry.com's autosomal DNA test.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with extensions, it's a little piece of code that you can download and attach to the Google Chrome web browser that modifies web pages. In this case, the code adds a search function and the ability to download match lists and different data from your matches. The only hitch is that you have to view each match individually to allow the extension to log the data.

What I'm most excited about is the ability to search your matches by names or surnames. Take a look at the new search function that this extension adds:

You can see a search box at the top of the screen with some search options. You can search by username or surnames. In this example, I've searched for matches who have the surname 'Waters' in their family trees. I have a results list of 10 matches. Amazing! (Actually, what's amazing is that Ancesty.com doesn't already offer this feature).

So, how do you get this awesome tool? Email Jeff at jsnavely@cox.net. He will email you the extension and installation instructions. Have fun!

Happy Dances Lead To Head Wounds

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:21:00 +0000

I didn't have to work today, so I slept in a little and then decided to go to the Georgia Archive. It was an interesting and somewhat fruitful trip.

First off, I left my flash drive at home. This is not the first time I've done this! Since I realized this 45 minutes after leaving the house, I had to stop at CVS to get a new one. Then, when I got to the Archive, all of the "good" (aka, electronic) microfilm readers were taken. But it was close to noon by then, when the archive clears out a little as people break for lunch.

Indeed, this is what happened and I soon found myself at one of the good readers with a bunch of microfilm. I had a few records to find that I had already researched using online indexes, so I was quickly doing a happy dance. I then set about to research my McCurley and Shiflet lines.... and came up empty.

After a while of feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere I decided to switch over to my Alexander line. I've traced this line back to my 4x Great Grandfather, George Alexander, but had gotten stuck. I decided to look up all the wills in Elbert County, Georgia, for men named Alexander who died in a time period before my 4x Great Grandfather was 50 years old. This resulted in only four men. I then checked the listed children in the wills for sons named George. This isn't full-proof (in fact there are numerous ways that this might not work at all), but it was my best strategy and it gave me one result: William Alexander. He died in 1854 and his will mentioned a son named George. After doing some at-home research, I think that this could be my guy. More on that in a later post.

By this point it was about 1pm. One of the employees made an announcement that, due to demand, they were setting up sign-in sheets for the good microfilm readers and asked that anyone who had been at one for more than an hour make room for other patrons. I'd been at mine for an hour and a half, so I gathered up my things and moved to a hand crank machine. I was the only person who moved. Guy next to me and ladies across from me who'd been there before me? They didn't even pause. Good folks all around...

Standing at my downgraded machine, I went looking for a variety of records for ancestors who decided to up and move house in their later years. Mostly, these are men who I can't find death records for, but online trees list as died in some random seeming location. I had luck with one record: the will of John Cash, my 6x Great Grandfather. As I was happily adjusting my machine to get photos of the record: THWAP! I slammed (yes, slammed) the side of my head into the microfilm reader. Ouch! But yay...

A short time later was able to get back on an electronic reader and I did a little more research before heading home. All together it was a pretty good trip, even if a little painful.

HBO's Family Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:06:00 +0000

Thanks to my sister's HBO Go subscription, I was able to watch the first episode of Family Tree. I found it to be an amusing show, though it's probably not for everyone.

First off, it's on HBO and it's british, so there is some adult language and sexual humor (I'd rate it a strong PG13 at the very least).

Although it's not a genealogy show, much of the show dealt with a family history theme. The main character, Tom, is having a Sunday dinner with his family and learns that his Great-Aunt has died. She's left him a trunk, seemingly full of junk. When Tom starts to sort through the trunk he quickly finds an old photograph of a man in a military dress uniform. Intrigued, he calls his father, who suggests that it is Tom's Great-Grandfather, Harry. From there, Tom spends the rest of the show seeking help in uncovering more about the photo and his grandfather.

Tom looks for a resemblance between the man in the photo
and himself, with a glove draped on his head.

I was a little surprised by the format of the show, and how it felt a little like an episode of Who Do You Think You Are. It's filmed as a mockumentary with "interviews," as well as with regular sitcom style scenes (think The Office). Tom calls relatives to ask questions about the photo, he consults experts, they meet in a cafe to discuss their discoveries. Does this not sound like an episode of WDYTYA to you?

There were certainly non-family-history related portions of the show, but even some of those tied into family history in off-the-wall sort of ways ("How far back do you go back? How many ancestors away do you go? Like to sort of dinosaurs times?"). Other aspects of the show were much like any other sitcom. Since this was the first episode, much of it was taken up with introducing the characters. The show is a comedy, and it's a very British comedy. There's a lot of off-the-wall banter between very kooky characters and seemingly pointless banter.

Overall, I enjoyed the show and will continue to watch it. I would recommend it to others, but would understand if it's not for everyone.

Connecting With Civil War Ancestors Through Battle Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:27:00 +0000

Last week was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville, a Civil War Battle fought in Virginia. I know, from reviewing service records and researching regiment information, that my ancestors, Nathan Hyler and Frank Leaphart, fought at Chancellorsville with South Carolina's 15th Infantry Regiment, Company C.

So I know that they were there, but what does that really mean? Many of the battles fought in the Civil War were very large, involving troops from all over the country. Where were my ancestors? I'm a visual person, so when my google searching brought me to CivilWar.org's battle maps, I was able to really connect with and better understand what role my ancestors played in the battle.

Take for example, this map of the Battle of Chancellorsville. It's only a small piece of this map, which shows geographical features, modern day roads and historic troop movements. I can see the 15th at the back of Kershaw's Brigade, moving parallel to VA State Highway 3. If I were to visit Chancellorsville National Battlefield Park, I would be able to locate the exact location where my ancestors fought.

Different battles have different maps. Some are contemporary to the time period, some have different levels of details, some represent specific times during the battle, or some have special features such as 360° views. But all of the ones I've viewed have had maps like the one above, which I find the most helpful. The maps can be found by browsing and searching from the maps page, or from the specific battlefield page. If you've signed up for a free account, you can download copies of the maps in PDF form. I recommend doing this, because you can't zoom on the website.

From now on, when I visit a Civil War Battlefield where my ancestors fought, I plan to take a copy of one of these maps with me. Finding that personal connection to history is what genealogy is all about to me, and these maps bring me one step closer to my ancestors.

Where'd My AncestryDNA Leaf Hints Go?

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:54:00 +0000

I logged in today to check my AncestryDNA matches (my autosomal DNA test from Ancestry.com). I glanced over my most recent, un-viewed matches first, but didn't see anything promising. Next I filtered my matches by those that have shaky leaf hints. I went to scroll down the page, looking for new matches. Boy was I surprised when my scrolling almost immediately brought me to the end of the page.

I would estimate that 2/3 of my leaf hint matches are gone.

When I first got started with AncestryDNA I used the function that allowed you to "star" your matches to keep track of those with whom I had found a connection. I could then filter my matches by those that I had stared. Once Ancestry allowed users to filter by leaf hints, I stopped doing that and started adding stars to matches that did have ancestral hints, but did not have leaf hints (ongoing bug, no resolution in sight!). Organization is key. So now that my leaf hints are gone, it means that I do not have a way to find my missing matches without sorting through 88 pages of matches and opening each one. And I never made a list of my AncestryDNA matches like I do with my ftDNA and 23andMe matches, because there is no search function!

I was never 100% happy with AncestryDNA's autosomal test, but now I'm about fed up. There are so many basic functions missing from this product and it is beyond buggy. Yes, it's still in Beta, but they haven't fixed the known issues and have released very few new features compared to what has been requested.

I sent feedback to Ancestry.com in two ways: their feedback form and twitter. I got a quick response from my twitter feedback that it was known issue and to send an email to support@ancestry.com. I would recommend others check their matches and send an email if they see the same issue.

I hope that this issue is fixed soon, but given my experience with AncestryDNA so far, I'm not holding my breath.

Civil War Profile: Nathan W Hyler

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:31:00 +0000

The following is a profile of one of my Civil War ancestors. What was their life like before, during and after the war? Where did their sympathies lie? How did they feel about the war?

_____

Before
In 1860, my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Nathan Washington Hyler, was living Dutch Fork, Lexington County, South Carolina. He had married Elizabeth Meetze some five years prior and they had two sons: Rufus Barnett and Henry D. In the 1860 Census, the family's surname was enumerated as "Hoyler."

Nathan was a farmer, like his father before him. According to the 1860 Agricultural Census, he had 90 acres of land valued at $1,000. He had one horse and five pigs, valued at $100; he produced wheat, corn, cotton, peas, beans, potatoes and hay. Nathan is enumerated directly before his father, Gabriel, whose farm was three times larger. Gabriel had more livestock and grew more crops. He was also a slave owner, as shown in the 1860 Slave Census, while Nathan did not appear to have owned slaves. Gabriel owned five slaves: a female, aged 70; males aged 67, 48, 35 and 35.

During
On 7 Apr 1862, Nathan enlisted as a private in Company C of South Carolina's 15th Infantry Regiment, shortly before that regiment was transferred into the Army of Northern Virginia. Nathan was 26 years old and was joining the war almost a year after it had begun. I imagine that he initially delayed joining because he had a family to support (which now included my Great-Great Grandfather, John Willis). Once it became evident that the war wasn't going to be a quick skirmish, he probably joined due to a feeling of patriotic duty, societal pressure or for the money.

Nathan quickly felt the true impact of war: he was shot in the leg at Sharpsburg (aka Antietam), only five months after joining the army. Due to his injury, he was placed in the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond Virginia, then able to spend time at home with his family. Nathan returned to his regiment in time to fight as part of Kershaw's Brigade at Gettysburg in July of 1863. The Brigade soon found themselves in Georgia, fighting at Chickamauga, where Nathan was once again wounded. This time his wounds must have been more severe. He was initially sent home on wounded furlough, but "overstayed" his leave and, by February of 1864, he was in the hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. He didn't leave the hospital until April. After leaving the hospital, he was "detached as a guard" to Greenville, South Carolina. It's likely that he wasn't fit to rejoin the war - did he lose his leg?

After
In 1870, Nathan was again enumerated in Dutch Fork, SC, with his family. He then owned 50 acres, apparently having lost or sold 40 acres since the 1860 Census. His land had also dropped dramatically in value and was worth only $175. The farm was home to one mule, one cow, one "other cattle," and seven pigs. The farm was producing wheat, corn, cotton, wool, peas, potatoes, butter, hay, and molasses.

It doesn't seem that Nathan had been dramatically impacted after the war, until we see the 1880 Census. The southern economy had gone through a downturn which apparently hurt the Hyler family. From the 1880 Agricultural Census, we see that Nathan "rents for shares of products" on 22 acres. He was no longer a land owner. Nathan's farm was home to one cow and 11 pigs and he is growing corn, oats and wheat. With less land, Nathan's farm was much less productive.

In 1896 an article in The State gives a list of Civil War pension seekers. Among them is Nathan Hyler. In order to seek a pension, Nathan would have been indigent or disabled. He was 61 years old. Unfortunately, copies of these pension records are not available, so I don't have details on his situation.

Nathan died in 1903 and it does not appear that he ever owned land again.

Family Tree DNA Pricing Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:18:00 +0000

Family Tree DNA has recently been offering sales prices for National DNA day, while at the same time indicating that they would be permanently lowering prices. Now, ftDNA has announced some of those lowered prices, as well as information on temporary "price rollbacks." Read about the updates bellow:

"With the end of the DNA Day promotion, we (Bennett and Max), considered how to continue offering the best prices, yet keep control in the lab to avoid delays from high volume. Since demand is directly related to prices, we decided to implement a temporary price rollback whenever lab capacity allows us to do so.

Despite an extremely successful sale, we believe that with our increased lab capacity, we are able to continue offering reduced prices on several tests. While the prices are not as low as they were for the DNA Day promotion, you will notice that these temporary reductions are extremely attractive, and should be a real incentive to anyone that did not take advantage of the sale to order now, while the prices are reduced. With this system in place, prices may go up on different tests at any time based on lab volume.

Additionally, on April 1st when we permanently reduced the price of the Y-DNA12 to $49, we mentioned that our R&D team was working towards a price reduction for the equivalent mtDNA basic test. Good news! Not only did we manage to achieve this goal, but we did it for the mtDNAPlus test that covers both HVR1 and HVR2. Therefore, we're discontinuing the HVR1-only test. Our basic mtDNA test will now be the mtDNAPlus (HVR1+2) at the $49 price point! We hope that with the basic Y-DNA and mtDNA tests very reasonably priced, a whole new group of people will be tempted to begin their own DNA experience and increase the size of your projects!"

I'm excited to see lower prices from my favorite DNA testing company.

Ancestry iPhone Update: Left-to-Right Pedigree

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:42:00 +0000

Users of smartphones have all had this happen: your phone notifies you that one of your apps has a update available. You go ahead and run the update, then open the app to find out that the "update" is more like a "downgrade." It's now less user-friendly, missing a feature you loved or now full of bugs.

This happened to me some time ago with the Ancestry.com app. I really liked the app and would use it on my phone while at the Archive to quickly navigate my family tree. But then they released an update. For some reason, they seemed to think it was a good idea to eliminate the left-to-right pedigree and provide only a top-to-bottom pedigree. I can't describe how frustrating I found this, so let me show you. Ok, and tell you a little.

Say I'm doing some research on my Great-Great Grandparents, William and Frances Barfield. Then, I want to navigate to my Great-Grandmother, Ledora Barfield. This is what I see on my iphone:

I have to navigate over two screens to get to the descendent I want. Not fun on a tiny little screen! Mainly this is because all of the relatives of each descendant are shown on the pedigree and there is no way to get rid of them. Moving around the tree was suddenly much more time consuming.

Thankfully, Ancestry released a new update on their iPhone app that fixed this problem. Left-to-right pedigrees are back! Take a look at this single screenshot and tell me it's not much better for navigation:

A New Respect

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:43:00 +0000

Maybe your grandmother was known for her quilting or your grandfather for his fishing. Or vice versa. And then one day, you decide to try your hand to your ancestor's hobby. Then, at the end of the day, you end up with a brand new respect for what they could accomplish.

That was my experience yesterday, when I tried my hand at baking and decorating a cake for my sister's baby shower. It took four hours! Before I got started, I hadn't really understood what I'd gotten myself into. Normally when I bake a cake I get some cake mix and a tub of icing and I'm done. This was a lot more complicated.

The cake was easy, but the icing was made from a mix, with dye added to create the different colors. Then it was put into a piping bag, each one with a plastic spacer which would hold the metal tips. After getting all the icing prepped (including a trip to the store for my icing an dye colors), I was ready to be done. When I finally started icing the cake, I had to work on my technique and it was never perfect. After a while of constantly squeezing the piping bag, I found it hard to open my hand!

Eventually, after four hours of work, the cake was done and I had a new respect for the cakes my Grandmama used to make for us when we were kids. And she would do two or even three in a day!

The Annoyance of Misleading Collection Titles

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:36:00 +0000

It happens often, yet it's a disappointing surprise every time: you see a new data collection show up online at FamilySearch or Ancestry.com and you get excited. Ancestry has added "Georgia, Deed Indexes, 1927-1979." This is going to be great! Click, type in a surname, click... No results. Ok, let me try some other names. No results. What? I scroll down some to the "About" section and I see it:

"This is a collection of deed indexes from Troup County, Georgia, for the years 1927-1979"

WHAT? Seriously? There are 159 counties in Georgia and this collection contains deeds from only one of them, yet it's titled for the entire state. It only represents 0.62% of the state; talk about a misleading title.

This happens a lot, though not usually to this extreme. Take another Georgia collection for example: "Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944." It has records for 81 of Georgia's 159 counties, only 50% of the counties in the state are in the collection. Also, the years for many of the counties are much more limited than the dates given in the title. Take a look at the screenshot to the right. Do you think the title is really accurate?

If a researcher isn't looking at the details of the collection, they might think the record they're looking for doesn't exist. Ancestry.com sticks these details at the bottom of the page, under the search box. FamilySearch is both better and worse. They put a notice at the top, but they don't give as detailed a list of the contents.

I've got a pretty simple solution for Ancestry, FamilySearch and other genealogy companies: add "Select" to the title. In situations such as these, in which there are entire counties missing, the title should reflect this. This would be a signal to researchers to check the fine print. This might result in a large amount of the collections having "Select" in the title, but it would be much less misleading.

Another great feature would be a note to indicate whether or not more records are pending, like they did with the 1940 census. I know it would be more work, but if the Georgia Deeds collection is eventually intended to represent all 159 counties, a list of "coming soon" counties could be added. Or they could create an icon (an hour-glass, under construction) to indicate the collection is growing.

For me, it's about being honest in naming collections. Every time this happens, I'm disappointed. I suppose I should know better, and in the end I really do, but that doesn't stop me from being frustrated by misleading collection titles.

Upgrades at Gedmatch.com

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:29:00 +0000

I saw on Facebook today where Stephanie, fellow blogger and DNA cousin, commented about improvements to Gedmatch.com. I just checked it out and all I can say is Yay! The site went down recently due to server problems, and and it isn't fully back up yet, but there is already one major improvement.

Previously, you uploaded your raw data files from Family Tree DNA, 23andMe and, very recently, AncestryDNA. You received a kit number for each upload, and could plug that number into the different tools to get results. The system wasn't very efficient and I had a long list of numbers to keep track of.

With the upgrades, Gedmatch now requires users to set up accounts. When you set up an account using the same email address you used when you originally uploaded your kits, all of those kits are automatically added to your account. Now, when you go to run a report, such as Admixture, you still have to type in your kit number - but now they are listed on your main login page for you. I would love to see another upgrade that puts your kit numbers into a drop-down list for more efficiency. They do say that the creation of accounts will allow them to "add some new functionality," so I'm looking forward to the future.

Gedmatch is not currently fully functioning, due to the server errors, but I'm really excited about this upgrade. I think it's a good indicator of where Gedmatch is headed: a more user friendly site that's working to make great improvements.

The Many Marriages of Amanda Barfield

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:24:00 +0000

A year or so ago I got in contact with a "new" cousin, Johnny. He had a lot of information on his grandmother, Amanda Barfield, who was my 3x Great-Aunt. His family knew that her maiden name was Barfield, her mother was Sarah, she had a sister, Emma S, and a brother, William L (my Great-Great Grandfather). He was able to provide information on Amanda that I didn't know, but he also had holes in his knowledge.

The confusion with Amanda is that when she married David Lee Rich in 1911, her surname was Benton. I was able to find a 1910 census record for Mandy Benton who worked as a servant for the Coleman family. By this time she was already a widow, so we still didn't know who Mr Benton was and I could not find their marriage record.

When we met for the first time at the Barfield Family Reunion this past Saturday, Johnny was able to tell me that the Rich family was connected to the Coleman family, which is probably how Amanda and David met. As he said, "David just brought Amanda home" after the death of his first wife, and no one really knew where she came from.

After the reunion, I started doing some more research. I don't know if it was luck or new records being online, but I've finally got Amanda figured out. Turns out, I couldn't find a marriage record between a Mr Benton and an Amanda Barfield because Benton was Amanda's second marriage! She had been married three times in quick succession.

I had seen a marriage between a JW Benton and a Mandy Wells in 1905, but I was looking for Barfield, so I moved on. But then I saw a record for Maud Barfield and a William Wells in 1904. Maud...? But the names Benton, Wells, and Barfield all together? And Amanda's sister had married a Wells.... It made me wonder. I clicked on the link for Maud Barfield and sure enough, someone had mis-transcribed Mandy to Maud (I don't know how, it was pretty clear)!

So here's Amanda's timeline:
• 1900 - living with mother, Sarah, in sister Emma Barfield Well's home in Glascock County, GA
• 1904 - marriage of Miss Mandy Barfield and William Wells in Glascock County, GA
• 1905 - marriage of Mrs Mandy Wells and J W Benton in Glascock County, GA
• 1910 - living with Coleman family as a widowed servant in Glascock County, GA
• 1911 - marriage of Amanda Benton to D L Rich

I still don't know who William Wells or J W Benton really were, but at least I have their names. There are no death records in Georgia for this time, so it might be difficult to learn more about them. I think it very likely that William Wells was related to Amanda's brother-in-law, John Wells, so that's a place to start. Yay!

The 2013 Barfield Family Reunion

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:52:00 +0000

We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather for this year's Barfield Family Reunion. Descendants of Sarah Barfield (1851-1936) met at the Savannah Rapids Park in Augusta, Georgia, last Saturday for our second family reunion. The first reunion, which was in the fall of 2011, had a little less than 30 attendees. This year we had a little more than 40!

Last year's reunion was attended only by descendants of Sarah Barfield's son, William, and his wife, Frances Boatright. This year I was excited to see descendants of Sarah's daughter, Amanda, so the focused moved back a generation to Sarah Barfield.

To that effect, I made name tags with Sarah's photo and a spot to list your relationship to her. So mine read "3x Great Grandmother." I was surprised to learn how many people didn't know who Sarah Barfield was. I took to saying, "You know who William Barfield and Granny Frances were to you, right? Ok, now go back a generation and that was Sarah Barfield." It did not help that there were also three different Sarah's in attendance (or SAY-rah in the southern vernacular).

In part, we organized the reunion using a Facebook group. It allowed me to share information with a large group of people all at once and share photos. During the reunion I posted photos of the attendees and those who could not attend were able to "follow along at home." One of the great things about the group is that I can share things on Facebook with people who aren't my "friends," but it's still a controlled environment.

Like we had done at the last reunion, we took a number of group photos. One of all of the descendants and then photos by family group. For example, William and Frances had nine children. Their daughter, Thelma, had four children, all of whom attended. We took their photo. Click. Then we added their spouses. Click. Then we took the spouses out and added kids and grandkids. Click. Then we added the spouses back of all the kids and grandkids. Click. It took a bit, but in the end it really helps to learn who everyone is.

If you are a descendant of Sarah Barfield and her children Josephine, William, Emma Susan or Amanda we would love to have you attend the next reunion. Please contact me at valeriesfamilytree@gmail.com or on Facebook.

Here are some photos from the reunion, starting with a photo of (almost) all of the blood descendants of William and Frances Barfield:

I Used To Play Cello

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

I was going through a pile of old clothes today and came across this shirt:

This shirt is from Richards Middle School where I played cello in orchestra. Originally I wanted to play viola and my sister wanted to play bass, but my parents could only afford one instrument. We met in the middle and picked the cello.

I don't remember being very good at it, but I did have fun. We played things like the theme from The Muppet Show and Forest Gump, as well as Christmas songs and the perennial school classic: Pomp and Circumstance. We also got to watch movies like the Sound of Music and Mr Holland's Opus and went on field trips to watch other orchestras perform. And of course, we did concerts. I don't remember how many we did, but probably between two and four a year.

After sixth grade we ditched the blue shirts and wore white button ups and black dress pants. We stopped playing when we entered high school and I couldn't even begin to try and play anything now. It was a great experience though, and I'm glad I got the chance to do it.

Here's the sixth grade orchestra photo from my yearbook. I'm on the second to the back row, all the way to the right and my sister is directly in front of me.

Results of February's Family History Writing Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:09:00 +0000

I can't believe it, but it's been over two months since I last posted anything here! It's been busy for me, with a birthday, a vacation, work, planning baby showers and family reunions, the start of baseball season, and other hobbies. I haven't done much in the way of genealogy, since my Ancestry.com and Genealogy Bank memberships expired and FamilySearch is often to buggy to use properly and I haven't gotten any road trips in.

But I did get one thing done: I finished and published my Family History Writing Challenge project! I finished my Albea Family History book, which I wrote using Blub.com's BookSmart program. My goal was to write an overview of one family line, including as many documents as I could. You can see a few of the pages below, which include census and marriage records, as well as cemetery photos. I also included birth and death certificates, deeds, wills, voter registration, draft cards and photographs. In the end, I covered seven generations in 78 pages. I did this, in part, because I love the original documents, but also as a way to cite my sources without... citing my sources.

I love how the book turned out. The quality is fantastic; my book feels sturdy and tight and the print quality is great. I tried to make sure that my photos and documents were bright, with even contrast. Just because it looks good on screen, doesn't mean it will turn out well in print! But in the case of this book, everything turned out well.

The cost set me back a little, but wasn't prohibitive. This book was created as a Standard Landscape, 10x8 inches. I had a variety of options for publishing my book: will the cover be a hardcover with imagewrap, hardcover with dust jacket or softcover; will the pages be matte, lustre, standard or an upgraded lustre? What color will the end sheets be? Do I want an extra copy of the book in PDF?

The cheapest option would have been a softcover with standard pages and would have cost $31.59 + shipping. However, I had a coupon to save 25% (they send out lots of coupons!), so I decided to upgrade. I chose the ImageWrap with Lustre paper, which cost me $51.21. I also sprang for the PDF copy for $4.99. Shipping cost $7.99. After my 25% coupon, my book ended up costing me $51.39.

I'm very happy with the end result and highly recommend using Blurb to publish your family history book.

Unexpected Side Effects

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:52:00 +0000

Last week my cousin Anne sent out an email regarding an upcoming Barfield Family Reunion. Our last/first reunion was held back in the fall of 2011 and this upcoming one had been loosely scheduled for this spring or early summer. I suggested that we start a private Facebook group to help organize the reunion, which Anne thought was a good idea. Turns out it's been a great idea - and not just for reunion planning!

I created the group, Barfield Family Reunion, and invited a few family members who I was already friends with on Facebook. I knew that there were more relatives on Facebook, so I encouraged everyone to invite any other relatives that they were friends with on the site. I originally invited 8 people to the group. There are now 44 members!

One of the first things I did when I created the group was to add a photo of the last reunion. From there, others started adding old photos of our ancestors and their descendants. Some of these photos have already made the rounds to some of us via email, but now everyone will have a chance to see them. There are also a number of photos that I haven't seen before that I've been able to add to my collection.

Although we haven't quite used the group to finalize any reunion plans, it has given people a chance to get in touch with other family members, many that they haven't seen in years. I anticipate that the group will eventually help us with reunion planning, but until then it's been beneficial in other ways.

FHWC: Words vs Images

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:16:00 +0000

I've been making good progress toward finishing my Albea family book as part of the Family History Writing Challenge. I've gotten some writing done for another generation and done a good amount of formatting. But as I've been working, I've been wondering if I have too little text and too many images. My book is currently 76 pages long, which is the exact same number of images that I have in the book. This makes me wonder if I have too many images.

Here's my concept: each generation gets a genealogy sketch, about 1,000 - 2,000 words. This usually focuses on the father of the family, since I'm fallowing a paternal line. The subsequent pages spotlight individual documents, such as census, court, or marriage records, as well as grave stone photos or whatever else I might have. If needed, I'll have a paragraph or two explaining the document and what I learned from it. I want to include as many images as possible for a couple of reasons: (1) they're cool, (2) so that I can cite my sources by including my sources.

Here's an (unfinished) example. It shows a 1920 census page and a mortgage deed. I explain a bit about each record. In other instances, I don't explain anything about a record if I've already talked about it in the genealogy sketch.

I wonder if I have enough writing in this book, or am relying too much on the images? I know a lot about these ancestors and I wonder if that is affecting my book. Do I need to write more and explain more about the documents, or is that redundant when I've included images of the document? Is using an image in place of words a cop out?

FHWC: Day One - Why Haven't I Done This Already?

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:38:00 +0000

Yesterday was the first day of the Family History Writing Challenge. As I previously wrote, my goal is to complete my Albea Family book. I have started this book twice, but have never finished it. As I got restarted yesterday, I couldn't help but think about why I'd never finished, as well as the benefits of writing a family history book.

The main reason I haven't finished this book is fear of inaccuracy. What if something in the content is wrong? Did I come to an incorrect conclusion? Is there some stupid typo that I'm missing? Have I made a mistake that is about to be put into print forever? I think we're all scared of this. We know there is no reassurance that the book will be 100% accurate.

Heck, I've found big mistakes before. When I first started my Albea Family book, I realized that I'd miss-attributed census records to my 6x Great Grandfather that actually belonged to his son. I found this because I was writing the book. When you have to write out a narrative, you have to think about what you're writing, often in a different way that when you first found the "fact" and decided that it was "true." When a fact or document doesn't fit with the rest of your narrative, you are more likely to notice it than when it's just a note in a family file.

You are also more likely to notice the holes in your research by writing out a narrative. Maybe you assumed a fact, but when you went to write it out and cite the source, you realized you didn't have a source. You maybe you went to write about an ancestors occupation, but realized that you only knew he was a "farmer." But what did he farm? How prosperous was he? Did he employ people or was he himself employed?

As for the typos, there are a few options. You could hire some one to proof read or edit your book. This depends on what you intend your book to be. If it's your life's work and you hope to see it in libraries one day, this is certainly an option. I don't have such lofty aspirations for the book I'm currently working on. I'll read over it multiple times, perhaps read the content aloud to make sure that the sentences all make sense (for example, I had to re-read this sentence three times before I realized I'd use "allowed" instead of "aloud.") I might have a family member review it. But I know it probably won't be perfect - just as close as I can get it.

In the end, I just have to trust in my research and trust in myself. I'm not going to rush, but I am going to stop procrastinating. My book won't be perfect, but it will be done. I will have accomplished my goal and will have a finished product to be proud of.

Can I Finish It?

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:57:00 +0000

I have signed up for The Family History Writing Challenge, which begins tomorrow. In this challenge, genealogists are encouraged to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard) and write their family histories. Not more procrastinating!

If you'd like to participate, you can sign up to received daily emails, which will include encouraging tips and advice, and sign up for the message boards, to chat with other participants. With these tools, hopefully many of us will find the motivation to start and finish a writing project.

For myself, I want to finish my Albea Family book. I started a version of this book a few years ago, and then started over last year. I've got a great start, but I just haven't been able to finish. I've been using Blurb to write my book. I really like Blurb, because they have so many options and allow me to be flexible in deciding what type of book to make. I can choose to write a basic, traditional book, or I can create a book that combines text and photos, in a variety of sizes, including ebooks. My particular book will be a Standard Landscape (10x8 inches), which will contain as many photos and copies of documents as possible. In a way, I won't be citing my sources, so much as including them all in the book.

For me, the challenge is the actual writing. I've already formatted much of the book, including census and estate records, as well as photographs of people and places. What I need to do is actually write the content. I will do a sketch of each of my Albea ancestors and their families, back to my 6x Great Grandfather, Joseph Alby.

I don't have a word count goal yet, which is something that I might want to create. I have no idea how many words the book will be, or how many I can write in a day. Coming up with a goal would help keep me writing. Maybe somewhere between 500 and 1,000 words a day, minimum five days a week. Or maybe a goal to spend two hours a day, five days a week on the book. Ultimately, my goal is to finish this book and to order a copy by February 29th.

I wish everyone else good luck with their writing goals this month.

Here are a few screenshots of what I have so far:

My Day with StoryCorps

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:37:00 +0000

Today was a very exciting day, with my first visit to StoryCorps. When the Atlanta location moved to the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead (north Atlanta), I'd talked my mom into going and letting me interview her. I'd set up the appointment a few weeks ago and by last night I'd gotten pretty nervous about it.

Mom and I went out to lunch and then headed into Atlanta. We arrived about an hour an a half early and spent some time in the exhibits at the Atlanta History Center before heading over to the StoryCorps office at McElreath Hall. I've been here before, to research at the Kenan Research Library, so I had a pretty good idea of where I was going.

We arrived at StoryCorps about 15 minutes early, as the website advised. We were greeted by Stephanie, who was extremely nice. She gave us some paperwork to fill out, mostly contact information, and chatted with us before going into the recording room. She made sure we knew a little bit about the mission of StoryCorps and how our recording might be used in the future: stored at the Library of Congress and possibly used on the radio. If we do end up on the radio, StoryCorps will notify us. We also had the option of opting out of sharing all together and simply taking home a copy of the recording, with all other copies destroyed.

Once settled at the microphones, Stephanie explained the process: first, a sound check and a reminder to face the microphones when talking (which also had Mom and I facing each other). The recording would start with me, as I introduced myself, giving the date, location and the name of my interviewee; then my mom would do the same. At that point I would ask my first question and we would talk for 40 minutes. Stephanie would remain in the room and signal us when there were 10 and 5 minutes remaining, then give the "wrap up" signal when time was up. If she felt it necessary, Stephanie would also ask questions.

I had given Mom a list of questions that I planned to ask a few weeks ago, so that she would feel more prepared to answer them. We had talked a little bit about each topic, though not enough to make our conversation sound rehearsed or prevent her from giving me any new stories.

We talked about memories from mom's childhood, from the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crises and John F Kennedy's assassination, to women's changing roles in society, to the Vietnam War. For the most part, the experience ran very smoothly as we went from topic to topic. I forgot what additional questions I wanted to ask near the end, but came up with a new topic after a moment. I think I was nervous about running over time and my brain kind of stopped for a minute. Stephanie only asked a question once, at the very end, to ask about what sort of activities and social events mom took part in as a child. It was a great question and mom had an

interesting answer that I appreciated hearing. When we were done, Stephanie complimented mom on her answers, saying that she gave great details without needing to be prompted. I thought mom did an awesome job!

As a copy of our interview was burned onto a CD, our photos were taken and then we signed a release form. In a few weeks we'll be emailed a unique interview number for our recording at the Library of Congress. If we're ever in DC, we'll be able to listen to our story at the LoC. And while the StoryCorps experience is free, everyone is encouraged to make a donation, which we did. As an added bonus, we also received free admission to the Atlanta History Center. We'd already paid for our visit today, so we received a free invitation for another day.

All together, our visit to StoryCorps Atlanta was a great experience. I'm really glad that Mom and I did this, and I would encourage others to do it too.

Frances "Tootsie" Albea Clary, 1924-2013

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:25:00 +0000

My Great-Aunt Tootsie (Frances Ninola Albea Clary) passed away yesterday. I remember her as a happy, upbeat woman, well loved by her family. She grew up in mill villages in Greenwood and Greenville, South Carolina. As a young teen, she was in a car accident that resulted in her being pronounced dead and credited her mother's prayers with her survival. She married her husband, Doyle, only two weeks after they met and just before he went into the army for World War II. She celebrated the end of the war with her husband in Downtown Atlanta. She was active in her church and devoted to her community there.

Here is her obituary, from the Thomas McAfee Funeral Home website:

"Frances A. Clary, 88, of Greenville, died Thursday, January 24, 2013. Mrs. Clary was a member of Brandon Baptist Church. She served as a Sunday School Teacher, GA leader, WMU, Director and Treasurer Of Joy Group.
Surviving are two daughters, Linda Pannell, and Tracey Ligon and husband, Richard; a son, Ray Clary and wife, Sandra; eleven grandchildren; fourteen great grandchildren; 8 great-great grandchildren; and a sister, Marie Wingard.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Doyle Lloyd Clary. Visitation will be held Sunday, January 27, 2013 from 1:30 p.m. until 2:45 p.m. at Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Northwest. The funeral service will follow in the Chapel at 3:00 p.m. Burial will be in Graceland Cemetery West.”

WikiTree Upgrades Its Gedcom Upload Features

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:22:00 +0000

A few months ago, I wrote a review of WikiTree, detailing The How and The Why. The "Why" hasn't changed: WikiTree is still great cousin bate. In fact, since writing that blog post, a unknown cousin found the page on my 3x Great-Grandfather, Richard T Smith, and sent me a photo of him!

The "How" on the other hand, has changed some. When I wrote that post, I said that although you could add your tree via Gedcom upload, I recommended against it (except in the case of a few generations at a time). The reason for this was to prevent accidental duplication of individuals in the WikiTree database. WikiTree's purpose is to create one giant family tree; if you share an ancestor with another user, you should both share access to the profile and edit it together.

I have to take that back now, as WikiTree has recently introduced a great new feature: Gedcom Comparisons. Now, when you upload your Gedcom file to WikiTree, you can automatically find matches between your tree and the WikiTree database. Your matches are presented in a table and you can compare each match in a side-by-side comparison view. If you do find matches, you can connect your tree with the ancestors already online and contact your newfound cousin!

If you've hesitated to try WikiTree before, this new feature is a great reason to try it out. For more information on getting started, check out the press release at GeneaPress.

Found: Portrait of Tillie and Albert Stockmyer

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:30:00 +0000

I picked up this cabinet card at an antique store in Lawrenceville, Georgia for $8. The photo was taken in Frankfort, Indiana and the back of the card indicates that this is a photo of Tillie and Albert Stockmyer.

The first thing I did, was try and date the photo. Based on their clothes and hair (especially Tillie's), I thought that the photo was probably taken in the mid to late 1890s. With this theory, I searched the 1900 census in Frankford for the couple.

I found Albert and Tillie, whose full name appears to be Cratilla. With such distinctive names, I managed to track the couple fairly easily. Here's their timeline:

• Dec 1858 - Albert Stockmyer born in Ohio to Frederick and Elizabeth Stockmyer
• Jun 1869 - Cratilla Swenager born in Indiana
• Jul 1890 - Albert and Tillie married in Drake County, Ohio
• 1900 Census - Albert and Tillie in Frankfort, Clinton, Indiana
• 1905 City Directory - Albert and Tillie in Frankfort, Clinton, Indiana
• 1910 Census - Tillie in Frankfort, Clinton, Indiana, listed as Divorced
• 1930 Census - Tillie in Frankfort, Clinton, Indiana, listed as Widowed
• 1940 Census - Tillie in Frankfort, Clinton, Indiana, listed as Widowed

I haven't found Albert after after the 1905 city directory listing. It appears that the couple divorced and did not have any children. But perhaps they have nieces or nephews out there that would be interested in the photo. If you are a relative and would like to have the original photo, please contact me.

Willis Craft: Postmaster

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:24:00 +0000

Ancestry.com has a relatively new database, "Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971." I came across it as a hint for another relative, and then started searching for other relatives. I already had a newspaper clipping that said that my 4x Great Grandfather, Willis Craft, had been postmaster. I wanted to see if the information was backed up in this database.

The newspaper clipping above is dated 1851, but the only result I could find in the Postmasters database showed that Willis became Postmaster of Craftsville in 1858 (after leaving his position as State House Representative). His predecessor, Kelly Sullivan took over in 1854. Perhaps Willis had been postmaster before that?

Unfortunately, I had trouble searching the database. When I searched for results in Elbert County, Georgia, I came up with "no matches." That's strange, since the above listing is for Craftsville, Elbert, Georgia. And other search by location turned up results, such as Lincoln County, Georgia. There seems to be a problem with Elbert County - and probably other random locations as well.

I ended up browsing pages to find the previous years for Elbert County, and did eventually find what I was looking for. Willis Craft first became Postmaster in February of 1851, as indicated by the newspaper article.

This entry had been mis-transcribed, which is why I couldn't find it by a name search. I should have been able to find it by location though. For a database that was created based on location, it's a pretty big deal that the location search doesn't work properly.

Signed Up For StoryCorps

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie Craft) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:21:00 +0000

I've posted before about StoryCorps, which is "an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives." The organization has permanent locations in Atlanta and San Francisco, as well as a mobile recording booth that is currently in Santa Fe, NM.

The Atlanta location recently moved from their location at the WABE (an NPR affiliate) radio station to McElreath Hall at the Atlanta History Center. I've been to the History Center a number of times and done research at the Kenan Research Center at McElreath Hall, so I thought that this would be the push I needed to sign up. I can tour the museum and grounds in the morning and record an interview in the afternoon.

I convinced my mom to let me interview her and have signed us up for an appointment on January 29th. Interview times are limited to certain hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays, though the Atlanta location currently only has Tuesday times open. Interviews are technically free, though a minimum donation of $25 is suggested.

I've done some audio recordings with my mom before, using a digital recorder or my iPhone. The StoryCorps appointment is going to be a very different experience. We'll be in a professional recording booth with a facilitator, who will take notes and may or may not ask questions during the interview. At the end of the interview, I'll receive a copy on CD, StoryCorps will keep a copy and they will send a copy to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Our photos will also be taken and copies kept with our story at the LOC.

I want to ask my mom about social and cultural events and experiences from her youth. We have three weeks before the appointment, which she wants to use to prep. I'm going to work on a topic list and give it to her in the next few days, so that she'll feel more prepared during the appointment. I'm very excited to try out StoryCorps. Who knows, maybe I'll end up interviewing a few more relatives in the future?