American Genealogy: Clues and Steps in the Ancestor Search

Digitized Newspapers for Wales

2013-04-20T21:00:00.003-07:00

Here it is in --digitized newspapers for Welsh hstory. In beta form now, we can only expect the website to improve. See what your Welsh ancestors may have done--in the courts, in the mines, in business, in the Eisteddfodd. It's all very interesting!
See Welsh Newspapers Online beta

Digital Newspapers free 1800s-1900s

2013-04-19T20:36:00.001-07:00

The Library of Congress has digitized many U.S. newspapers. The access is free and the search engine is excellent. Check it out and find some ancestors in the news!
See: Library of Congress.

Why is Gedmatch not Working?

2013-04-17T21:09:00.001-07:00

I checked my stats today and found this question had been posed in a search leading to my blog.

It is a good question. Today Gedmatch has posted that there have been malfunctions that have affected two of the servers it uses. It will take awhile to get the service back up and running, and it some data will have been lost in the process.

Gedmatch is a wonderful website with amazing utilities for those of us looking at DNA to use. It isn't a business at this point, but rather a free service, and those who track the DNA companies know that some of them have had their big IT kafuffles as well.

Everything is new and dynamic, and technology can cause as many problems as it can deliver answers.

My suggestion is that we consumers must be patient--we have no other choice when the websites are down anyway--and to strike when the iron is hot! If and when the site is working, upload your data, make comparisons, check out all the possible utilities and print out some results to contemplate.

Five years ago the DNA landscape was much more bland. Now we have glitches--and the luxury of complaining about sites being down now and then.

New York Census 1875 searchable

2013-03-30T13:27:00.002-07:00

Familysearch.org has recently made the New York census for 1875 available. It is searchable, and very useful. One of the benefits of this census is that it lists the county of birth for the inhabitants. It is also helpful in showing where people were between the 1870 and 1880 censuses. A lot can change in a decade, so these five-year breakdowns of residency are great for research.

Find your ethnic ancestry

2013-03-28T20:58:00.001-07:00

Or my preferred title: Admix Uutilities are so Interesting!

It is no longer terribly expensive to get your autosomal DNA tested. Using it to find your cousin matches and thus, at least you hope, your distant ancestor who has been hiding behind a brick wall is still a big challenge. Sometimes the clues will get you closer, and usually they won't, so far. Eventually there will be a much larger database and the connections will be easy to make.

But what is easy, and rewarding right now is the admix!
While the testing company might not provide much in the way of ethnic ancestry, once you download your raw data (simple and quick) and load it up to gedmatch (a free website) and enter it into the multitude of admix utilities you will see beautiful pie charts or bar charts with your ancestry broken down into ethnic components. It is really a kick to see, and there are more options all the time.

The most recent Eurogenes breakdown (Eurogens K36) includes such classifications as Iberian, Basque, Arabian, Eastern European, Italian, Armenian, and more (ultimately 36 reference populations).

Did your British Ancestors eat better than you do today?

2013-03-28T11:44:00.002-07:00

How did your ancestors in England eat in decades and centuries past?

Surprising results of a study of the diet of mid-Victorian residents of England show that they had an excellent diet and as a result, good health. In the early to mid-1800's, people ate very well in terms of eating food that contributed to good health. That, then and now, seems to be nutrient-dense food.

For various reasons, the mid-Victorians consumed many calories in comparison to the number consumed by present-day Americans, but their calories came from sources that were very rich in nutrients, including many fruits and vegetables. They didn't consume "empty" calories the way they are consumed today. The Victorian diet is said to resemble the Mediterranean diet, which has recently received recognition for its value in maintaining health.

Some of the hallmarks of the Victorian diet which would be easy to emulate are beans, vegetables, fruits, meat and fish, and few sweets.

An excellent overview of the study results can be found at NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672390/.

Take a look at how it appears your British ancestors fared. Where did they live? How long did they live? And take a very close look at those who lived in the early to mid-1800s. They may have had a diet that will be a model to follow in the 21st century.

Now available: 1855 New York Census online

2013-02-01T11:34:00.002-08:00

Familysearch.org has now put the 1855 census records for New York State online. The database is searchable by name, and you can see the scanned records. It is helpful for tracking families between the 1850 and 1860 censuses, and has the added bonus that individuals recorded in the census have provided the county of their birth.

Joshua Barton of Liberty, Sullivan, New York: who was his wife?

2013-01-25T14:45:00.004-08:00

Joshua Barton of Sullivan County, New York, and his wife Sarah conveyed land to Robert M. Weasmer, Alonzo Weasmer, and to W. L. Martin. in 1859 as recorded in the county deed records. These records are referred to in later newspaper records. W.L Martin and his wife Eliza Jane later conveyed the land to John Young. The deed transfers are documented in the Monticello, New York Republican in 1912 (viewable in digital form on Old Fulton Postcards)

Sarah, wife of Joshua Barton, is identified as Sarah Acker by Law Voge in his records of the Barton family. Joshua Barton was born in about 1792 and Sarah was born in about 1796 in Westchester. Sarah has been identified as a sister of Alonzo and Robert Weasmer in some research of the Barton family, but this appears to be erroneous. A genealogist who viewed the land records indicated that this was the relationship. The interpretation has been passed on, as often happens.

Alonzo Weasmer was born in about 1830, and can be traced through the census. His siblings were born within the same decade, with a younger brother born in 1840. Alonzo and Robert Weasmer's father, Walter, was born in 1805. Sarah cannot possibly be the sister of the Weasmer sons. She would be older than her father and too much older than her brothers to be their sister.

Robert Weasmer did marry a Lora Martin in Sullivan County in 1858 (see transcription of Windham Journal records as transcribed on rootsweb), which may be where the idea of a sister relationship came from.

If Sarah is an Acker, as identified by Voge, who are her parents? There seem to be some Barton/Acker connections identified by Voge but not completely spelled out. Understanding the connections could illuminate and inform research on both the Barton and the Acker lines.

Small picture: The hope here is that someone will add some information or ideas on these people of the past.
Big picture: The main point is that the researcher needs to look at all clues, and to get as close to the actual source records as possible.

Civil War Carte de Visite id'd!

2013-01-16T21:07:00.001-08:00

A Carte de Visite in a family photo album shows a man in Civil War uniform.The name on the back is W. Pyle, and the photograph was taken in Cincinnati, all good clues.

I was fortunate to find that a similar Carte de Visite of the same individual was for sale online, with the additional information that this was a Lieutenant General in the Union Army, and that the picture was taken in July of 1868, about six months before he died. I tried to find a Lieutenant General with a first name beginning with W, and last name of Pyle, who lived in Ohio. I was unsuccessful.

It is always good to let tough challenges in genealogy take a rest, and then go back to them with an open mind. Today I thought--his name might be George Washington Pyle, and he might have gone by Washington. George Washington was a very common first name.

Bingo! --George Washington Pyle, born in 1846, attended a military academy and was a second lieutenant in the Union Army of the Civil War. He died in December of 1868 of consumption, a common affliction. His service is documented in the National Parks Soldiers and Sailors System, and his biography appears online on other websites.

I don't yet know why my family would have had his picture, but biographies of his mother reveal that she was involved in the Underground Railroad, which was an important interest of my ancestors. The Pyle family appears to be of Quaker origins in Pennsylvania, and W. Pyle's mother's heritage is of New Hampshire.

Creative ways to use indexes for Familysearch record browsing

2012-12-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

Familysearch.org has put many wills and related records (administration, orphan court, etc.) online, and while some are indexed, many have a link which suggests "Browse through... Images." In the ellipses will be a huge number, usually in the thousands or hundreds of thousands. This seems at first intimidating. and the researcher might be inclined to stop right there. Who could stand to browse through each of the thousands of records in order to find the one that is relevant?

But it is usually a prettier picture than that. First, clicking on that link usually takes you to a county list. Then you can click on the county of interest, which certainly narrows down the number of records. Within the list of records may be a wills index. It is almost always alphabetical. You can find the name of your ancestor, note the will book and page, and then move on to find the link for that particular will book. The page described in the index is not the same page number used by Familysearch.org in its indexing, so you need to make a few guesses, wait until those pages load, and page back and forth a bit until you find the manuscript page in question. The page in the will index listed as 100 might be 80 as indexed by Familysearch, but you will quickly catch on to looking at the numbers in the corners of the scanned manuscript for the original page numbers. It is a very tedious process, but it is very rewarding, as you will see the entire scanned will and all additional paperwork with notes by witnesses as recorded.

And don't forget to scroll down on the counties page. If you assume all the options are on the page in front of you, you may be very wrong.

Now, sometimes, there are even better indexes, and I will tell you about one of them. Pennsylvania Genweb Archives for Bucks County and for a few other counties has lists of will abstracts and indexes of the abstracts. The numbers given to the abstracts in the indexes correspond to the actual will books and pages. So if it says that my ancestor is in will book 4, page 203, for example, I don't need to consult the scanned index on Familysearch.org. I can go straight to the will book, and find that manuscript page. Again, it won't be the same page as indexed by Familysearch, so I still have to guess and turn the pages online. It still takes a bit of time, but is a much more streamlined process, and the information of who has wills and where is much more accessible, I have found it very worthwhile, and enjoyed reading through several wills which I found relevant to my research.

Yes, there are other indexes, too. For New York wills, try those at Sampubco. The wills are nicely listed by county and will book and page. You can order the will from Sampubco, and for many of the wills you can see a scanned image on Familysearch.com.

Good stuff at Familysearch.org for New York research!

2012-12-13T20:29:00.001-08:00

Update 12/23: It is a great resource, but why does it so often, after all the work the researcher puts in matching the indexing information to the page of the will or land record--not a quick task--tell the researcher to "try again later," or just spin indefinitely? What can we do to get it to be an efficient search effort? The scans are truly fantastic and it is great to have access, but very frustrating when that access just falls away.

Familysearch.org has put online some lovely scans for counties in New York. Working with the scanned info is time-consuming, but I am loving it.

Probate records were put online a few weeks ago, and by working with the index and then with the other microfilmed images we can all see many wills and probate records. Be sure to see the indexes. Then you can find the correct page in the will or probate records. Say it says your ancestor's name for will book 18, page 240. You find the scan of will book 18, then you plug in guesses for the page. Maybe you start with 100 and find that that is a bit short of the scanned page referred to. Keep trying, and you will get it. And there you go. You've got a will you wanted to see and then you can go on to others.

Even more recently, land records were put online. Again, going to each county you are interested in, looking at indexes, and then looking at the actual records, you will find very good information. Number one, you will see who was alive in that place at that time, and secondly, land exchanges were often between relatives, which provides a great clue for genealogy research.

Going through this process is time-consuming, and sometimes the website fails, but we now all have access to information that formerly we would have had to order as microfilms and view at a Family History Center, or order from town clerks or other sources as vital records.

If you are watching a slow-moving show on t.v., this is a perfect multi-tasking complement to that .

And I suggest, when you find a gem of information that you haven't seen online, share it with the rest of us.

Gedmatch admix utilities are going strong!

2012-12-09T17:31:00.001-08:00

The admix utilities (where you see your proposed ancestral populations in color graphics) at Gedmatch.com are continuing to grow and amaze. They work very efficiently with the data that the DNA tester provides.It is very simple to do, and the process is guided the whole way. You download your files from your testing company quickly and neatly, and then load them up into Gedmatch just as easily, and then the results are ready for you to see. There are several admix programs you can look at, and some of them link to the Oracle population analysis, which gives you predicted populations for your ancestry. It is all in the process of refinement and development, so don't be expecting firm conclusions about your heritage, but as you compare one program against the other, and compare that to what you know about your ancestry, you can project some likely possibilities for ancestry. It is quick, easy, and a lot of fun to play around with. I highly recommend trying it out if you have that autosomal DNA data to upload.

In response to the challenge of ...Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - 100 Word Challenge - Grandparents

2012-11-18T17:42:00.001-08:00

Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - 100 Word Challenge - Grandparents

Grandparents are important because they are really all that a genealogist needs in order to succeed in tracking someone's ancestors. We don't need any information about the descendants but we do need the birth dates and places of those grandparents. Once they are found in the census, all of their ancestors can be found (theoretically at least!). This principle applies especially to autosomal DNA matches, who are usually living and who may wish to have their privacy protected. All we researchers need are their grandparents! The information gleaned provides a gateway to the places and times of their own ancestors.

Creative searching for the Diabo family of the Mohawk tribe

2012-11-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

I had some good luck in my search for the Diebo family of Canada and New York. The person I was searching for was Joseph Diebo or Diabo (as I found out through the 1915 New York Census--thank goodness for those in-between State censuses). He does not appear, at least not together with his wife and children, on the 1920 or subsequent census records. His children can be identified by the last name Deibo or Diebo.

Although he stated on that census that he was an alien and had been in the U.S. for ten years, I found him listed in the 1900 census in a school in Seneca, Erie, New York for Catholic Indian boys. It pays to check for people in times and places that might work, even if there is a statement to the contrary! I could tell it was the same person because in 1915 he has family members living with him who also appear in the 1900 census. He was identified as Indian on that census, with 1/8 white ancestry.

I looked then for the brothers of Joseph, and found a scholarly write-up on line of his brother Paul, who had challenged deportation from the U.S. to Canada in the 1920's. The article gave the names of the parents of Paul and of Joseph: James Diabo and Therese Montour. Further research on those names revealed that the family came from Sault St. Louis, and Caughnawaga in Canada.

I was surprised to find this much information on families with Native American ancestry, and was pleased to see that there were a number of websites listing marriages, graves, and family lines of the Mohawk tribe in that area. I found a nicely transcribed census record of the Indians in Canada in 1901, and learned that "Diabo" was sometimes written "Dailleboust." Of course--sounds similar!

The research wasn't easy at first, but I kept telling myself that there was always one more place to look, and it was a quick look at familysearch.com that gave me the clue that led to all the others--that 1915 New York census record.

Ancestry.com new records

2012-10-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

New records added to ancestry.com include many for New Zealand, a Florida Marriage collection, and Pennsylvania, Oyer and Terminer Court Papers. The latter is easy to search by name of the ancestor, and the scanned images are very readable due to excellent handwriting. I found an ancestor who had been subpoenaed to testify in a report of a break-in, and would love to search these records further. It is wonderful to see such records online. They will most certainly help verify family tree information and will add to the stories we have of our ancestors.

Free indexed letters testamentary in Jefferson County, NY

2012-10-30T20:14:00.001-07:00

Amazingly free, transcribed for the Jefferson County, New York, USGenweb, are the letters testamentary for the early 1800s. It is an excellent companion to the book I mentioned in my last post, which has will abstracts for the same county from 1830-1850. Thanks to those who were willing to transcribe and post, I am sure there will be some breakthroughs in family trees. The Jefferson County Genweb site is one of the best I have seen. It is easily searchable, and continually adds new records.

Jefferson County, New York Will Absracts

2012-10-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Many will abstracts for counties in New York are available at NEHGS. One of the counties that is not included is Jefferson. I was pretty interested to find that a book of will abstracts for Jefferson County from 1830 to 1850 has been published by the Jefferson County New York Genealogical Society and is and is available for purchase from them. Will abstracts can be very brief and relatively uninformative, or they can be very informative, naming a mother, a grandchild, a nephew, land purchases, and so on. I've enjoyed perusing the will abstracts that I have read. They can be relied on as pretty factual. If someone names a daughter or stepon in a will, that person is very likely a daughter or stepson to the person who wrote the will. The abstracts often mention relatives in other States, and often include the town in which the relative dwells. These are major clues in genealogy research. The will abstracts are indexed by name, and the book includes maps of the county and a diagram showing how cities changed their names. If your interest is in Jefferson County, NY genealogy, this is a good book to see, and if you can find a similar book (online or hard copy) for any area, it will probably prove to be very useful. You may see names that you have not seen in census searches.

The website for the historical society mentioned above is Jefferson County New York Historical Society

Minnesota marriage records

2012-10-17T16:06:00.001-07:00

An excellent resource for marriages in Minnesota is the Minnesota Official Marriage System (link below). It is free to search. You can enter names of bride or groom or both. The search is quick and easy and should lead to helpful information for family trees with any branches in that State.

Minnesota Marriage System

Gedmatch is back!

2012-10-10T22:13:00.001-07:00

Finally gedmatch has posted an update to the financial situation and the server situation. And many of the utilities (including triangulation) are back, except they may not work for you just as yet. I tried, and got the reply that user zzzzz was not recognized. I know the website is going through some glitches, and a new announcement on the homepage says as much, so I will wait for a bit to expect success with attempts to upload my recent matches.

It appears that Gedmatch is coming close to its fundraising goal to raise enough to be its own server.

It really looks like it is on its way back.

Update Oct 17: Good news! Triangulation utility worked fine today, and loaded more quickly than in the past.

Update Nov. 14--everything is functioning very well and pages load more quickly than in the past. Nice to see it is all in order.

The more people who load up their info, the more we all will have to work with!

Success in Family Finder testing

2012-10-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

What I have been hoping to find for a very long time has happened, and I hope it will happen again. I'm looking to find ancestors I don't know are mine through DNA testing (at FTDNA). If I can find two matches (through autosomal testing) who have a common ancestor, that is a clue that I may also have that ancestor. It finally happened and I discovered it through a technique that I thought would pay off way earlier--but I'm happy it finally did. I plug in all of the information from the gedcoms of my matches, and extend any lines that I'm able to--and leave it to percolate. I hope to see those names again, and today, in one instance I did. I plugged in names newly submitted by a relatively close match, and low and behold, I already had those names entered in my huge family tree. I checked to see who the "descendant" of this line was, and it was another match. Intrigued, I checked the chromosome browser to compare matching segments, and both matches matched perfectly to one another. Without a doubt, their ancestors in common, a couple who married in the 1600's, are also my ancestors. Now the big challenge is to find my descendant line. In the meantime, I'm learning all I can about these new ancestors.

This is not only what I've been looking for, but it is what is going to be happening over and over as databases increase, and as matches begin to submit info online.

The indexing and posting race for USA and UK records

2012-10-07T19:54:00.001-07:00

Well, technically they are not in a race or any sort of competition. But in my eyes they are, and it is great fun. At least once a week I look at the "card catalog" for ancestry.com to see the recent additions. And I then cross-check those lovely results with familysearch.org (scroll down on the main page to see your country of interest--I usually check on the U.S. and the U.K.). Recent additions are highlighted. Some of the additions are "browseable." which is fine if you are very motivated to sit through image after image (sometimes I am!). Other additions are indexed, and easily searchable. Today I am impressed to find searchable records from Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is an amazing searchable collection. Today familysearch.org wins, but it is often a very close race. Join in and let me know what you find in the new database additions. Some of these records will be put online for the very first time, or will be made searchable for the very first time.It is all good and a win/win!

Jasper Lisney in the Queen's Larder

2012-10-03T12:48:00.002-07:00

Some ancestors have names that are so unusual that if they have been documented at all, they can be tracked. There is an amazing array of documents and ancient books now online, and some have great info on ancestors, easily found through a search engine.

Lisney is a pretty unusual name to begin with, and is generally found to belong to one family which can be traced to Surrey, England. Jasper Lisney is the name that appears most often in documents online. The other family members appear here and there, and making connections is challenging. There were undoubtedly more than one Lisney by the name of Jasper. But I was a little surprised to find a Jasper Lisney listed in the Queen's Larder in the 1680's. He, or another of his name, also worked in the King's Privy Kitchen.

If you have relatives who worked for the King and Queen in London in the ancient times, see the many online books which provide their names, years of service, and more. The link below sends you to just one such example of an online resource.

Online book:

A Collection of ordinances and regulations for the government of the royal household, made in divers reigns from King Edward III to King William and Queen Mary. Edited by John Nichols in 1780.
(Google eBook)

There is always one more place to look

2012-10-02T21:26:00.003-07:00

I tell myself this all the time. As long as the name I am looking for has only been known to me for a few weeks, there have to be more sources to check out before saying I cannot find a darn thing.

I usually start with the census records. Those records can lead to public family trees, which provide clues, not facts, to further ancestors. Next source that I check is familysearch. They update constantly and have many records which are easily searchable. But it is good to bear in mind that both census records sources and familysearch can be searched in various ways. My favorites are to look for the card catalog on ancestry.com and the recent sources on familysearch (scroll down on the main page). I might want to search birth records in a particular state. If I search those, I may come up with more precise records than by using a general search of the entire site. I'll find some of those spelling variations that might not show up outside the narrower context.

Next--I might look at google books, which often has names and places not searchable on the regular search engine. Then I might go back to the web and look for the last name and date of birth or death, the last name+early settler+name of town. Or first and last name+bio. And so on. if the person I am searching for has a very common name, I try to find a sibling or close relative with an unusual first name. I search them--hey--same family!! Same ancestors.

I look for land records, and I look in the State Genweb archives. I look for information on the spouse. Sometimes the spouse is a cousin, or close family friend. Or the spouse may have been tracked by genealogists already. If so, the collateral info on the person you are interested in is readily available.

If the generations are recent, I look at the many websites which show a person's name, location, and family. They actually tell you to whom the person is related.

Findagrave is just great.

In some locations there are digitized newspapers which can be accessed for free. I don't consider a search of ancestors from California or Northern New York complete without looking through the excellent collections there (see previous posts for info).

Don't forget that there may be State census records that haven't yet been indexed at ancestry.com. Familysearch has quite a few, and so does the US Genweb Census Project. Even more may be found in State records. Keep searching and you will find what is available. Most records can be accessed for free. If you want to access Heritage Quest, you can probably do so with a library card, and it might be possible to get online access from your home to the records. I had to travel to a neighboring county to get a card in a library with such access, which in my State I am entitled to do.

There is more...will update now and then!

And there is always one more place to look. When you find your dead end, remember that!

Facebook apps and genealogy companies

2012-09-28T12:12:00.002-07:00

Ancestry.com and Facebook app

I hear that Ancestry.com has acquired the app "We're Related" used on Facebook. Pretty interesting. It is a utility that will allow the living descendants of ancestors who occupy branches of family trees to find each other as distant cousins. This is a way to connect social networking to the hobby of genealogy, and may have a lot of potential.

Living descendants can give each other helpful information about ancestors, and can encourage each other to do just a bit more research to break down those brick walls. The conversation about the past is one of the reasons the hobby of genealogy is booming.

In addition, those who pursue genetic matches always have to begin with the living match, and need to find an ancestor in common from there.By making the connection to the living match fun, social, and appealing, as it may be on a social network website, it may all become a bit easier to begin the conversations that will help identify common ancestors.

Also published on my Genealogy Trends blog

Following the Morman paper trails

2012-09-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Family records say that the girl, who of course was adopted in the first place (one of the fun bumps in the road we encounter in trying to find ancestors), married at about age 15. The marriage took place in approximately 1895 in New Hampshire, but vital records searches for the marriage reveal nothing. A search on the husband's name shows that he married another woman, and the census shows that this woman is "widowed" and raising children. Confusing! Might there be multiple marriages going on? Yes, and the network of such marriages within the extended family continues. A search for a biography of the husband and of the wife i.e. (the one with the documented marriage, but who shows as "widowed") shows that they are both of the Morman faith, and back in the day such multiple marriages did happen. Tracking the families is challenging. The biographies are just clues, like any others, and need to be verified or contradicted with census or vital record info. Finding the children and their correct parents is challenging, but knowing that there are multiple spouses, possibly living at the same time, and with offspring, is helpful information. Verify, verify, verify, and don't stop being skeptical until everything adds up.