American Genealogy: Clues and Steps in the Ancestor Search

Entertaining Podcasts for Genealogy fans

2016-04-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who eat up genealogy talk and the newest results of DNA and document research tangents, this podcast may suit you well. It features well- known experts (including those from "Who do You Think You Are" and NEHGS) in a folksy discussion of matters genealogical. It is produced by Extreme Genes: Family History Radio, and while providing a lot of up to date information seems to take itself not all too seriously, allowing for fun in the mix and for a wide range of genealogy knowledge in the audience, from beginner to expert. Take a listen or visit the website.

Link: Podcast of Extreme Genes

Gedmatch, a website I have often recommended, gets a nice mention too.

Set up a Walking History Tour in your Town

2016-04-10T18:49:00.002-07:00

It is not too difficult to create a historical walking tour in your town, and generate some interest in the history of the area. Every place has some history--so see if you can find some good landmarks all easily reached in a walking tour that will take an hour or so. To learn more about the history of the area you live in, you can talk to the historians and archivists at the local and county historical societies. A great source of historical information about buildings, streets, and agricultural and park history can often be found in old photos. These can be found more and more often online, but if they are not there, they may be held at the historical societies or they may be published in books about your area.

Once you have determined your landmarks and their great stories to be shared on the tour, make a simple map of the tour, including all the destinations. On the day of the tour you may want to ask the walkers to find interesting, funny, or strange things that you may place near the landmarks, or that may already be there to be viewed. In that sense, it can become a treasure hunt.

If possible, ask for a volunteer or two to man the landmarks and to explain some of the history when walkers arrive. If the volunteer has personal ties to the landmark, or personal knowledge of its history, this can make the visit very meaningful to the walkers.

Of course you will want to follow up with photos and a written report, which can appear in a local newspaper or on a historical society website.

This should be a great event for everyone, generating interest in the past, present, and future of the town and its landmarks.

Don't forget to involve people in the know about the town and its history, and don't forget to get any permissions and permits you might need, and of course to publicize the event.

Charley Parkhurst: California stagedriving man or woman?

2016-02-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

It is always interesting when the records are inaccurate. In the case of Charley Parkhurst, the US Census record of 1870 provides the identity of this California resident as male, which is what Charley apparently liked to convey. She was, however, female. Choosing to get by as a man, she was able to take on a typical male profession and to vote. Listed in this record as a farmer, she drove stagecoach in the Santa Cruz area for years. Her grave is in the pioneer cemetery in Watsonville.

Apparently she was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire or Sharon, Vermont, as Charlotte Durkee Parkhurst, possibly daughter of Ebenezer Parkhurst and, according to the FindAGrave write-up, Sarah Morehouse. Sarah died a few years after Charlotte's birth. Until a birth record shows up, however, this is just one possibility for her parentage.

There are a variety of legends about how Charlotte was abandoned to an orphanage. Charlotte moved around as a young woman, and then came West.

The census record (click to enlarge):

The discovery in 1880 that she was female:

Census image from ancestry.com. Newspaper article from California Digital Newspaper Collection.

Now Levi's Stadium, once Spanish Land Grant

2016-01-22T19:38:00.002-08:00

Now it is an exciting venue for football, and for a great halftime show. This is now, and what was then?
Someone lived there before…..

West of the former Santa Clara Alms house, between Guadalupe and Coyote creeks, on land formerly the Ulistac Nature Area, and before that Rincon de los Esteros, is a small but recently culturally important location once situated on a land grant given to Ignacio Alviso in Alta California days. The land grant was claimed by several parties as was de rigueur for a large Spanish Rancho. Later the location in question was set pretty much on the former Santa Cruz Division Railroad track…Francisco Berryessa lived there in 1880 (see census record) on land he claimed in 1852.

This land is the location for Levis Stadium, the site of the 2016 Super Bowl in Santa Clara. Cleats will tread where early ranchers, farmers, and train passengers once worked and played.

Historical maps tell the whole geographical story:

http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/

Enter any location that interests you--for the stadium you can enter
4900 Marie P DeBartolo Way, Santa Clara, CA 95054.

Census image from Ancestry.com 1880 U.S. Census record.

The Oregon Trail first-hand

2015-10-01T19:26:00.002-07:00

It was a hard day:

"The hardest day we have had The wind blew a perfect gale all day & the dust flew in clouds & no water to cook with or for the Horses"...

so wrote Fleury Fayette Keith in longhand as he began his trek to cross the Plains in May of 1850... and yes it is a strange name--and that is another story!

It was a journey we readers can only imagine. After walking about 20 miles a day every day, he arrived in Weaverville, California on August 31st.

If you fly across the country you may well take the route that covers the Oregon Trail, and if you look closely, you can see the landmarks encountered by the travelers, including the important and long Platte River. The best and most interesting sources of information on the routes and the hardships and rewards can be found in original diaries.

Look to the following resources for the stories in the original, and sometimes in the original manuscript...these are really stories of the individual in the context of history in the happening...poignant and fascinating.

Recommended websites are:

American Memory Library of Congress: Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters 1846-1869.

Trails of Hope, a digital collection of diaries of gold rush adventurers, is an excellent resource for understanding the physical and mental experiences of the Argonauts as they trekked westward. The digitized collection has the images of the original diaries scanned and also has transcriptions. The collection is held in the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University. There are also interactive maps and illustrations, so you can follow the diarists along their journey, and see just where they encountered buffalo, salt ponds, graves of fallen travelers, and all manner of difficulties. All of this can be found at http://overlandtrails.lib.byu.edu/about.html. It is inspiring and fascinating, even if you have no connection to anyone on the trails.

There you will find the story of F.F. Keith who traveled from Jefferson County, New York to California in 1850, documenting the howling of the wolves, the treacherous crossings of rivers, the amazing geographical landmarks, crossing the Sierras having abandoned the wagons and seeing big trees for the first time.
http://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/Diaries/id/1179

Other good websites for Oregon Trail diaries:

Paper Trail (The Oregon-California Trails Association)

The Overland Trail http://www.over-land.com/)

Who created the Thomas Brothers Maps?

2015-03-29T21:21:00.002-07:00

The Thomas Brothers maps are very useful for finding directions, and in turn finding directions can be very useful in genealogy. To turn all of that around, what might be the genealogical background of George Coupland Thomas of the Thomas Brothers?

He and his brothers Gilbert and Leonard created the Thomas Brothers Maps and guides which were very popular in California before the internet began to help us out with directions. According to Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times travel writer, "They made old-fashioned folding maps obsolete by developing page-by-page gridded maps bound in a book." See her article of 2002 online at http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/05/travel/tr-spano05. Spano describes how the Thomas Brothers maps went digital. But the company has been around a long time. Many California residents may remember consulting the handy hard-copy soft-cover books for detailed street map information.

According to my research, George Coupland Thomas, born in England, died in Alameda County in 1955. His father, Richard Coupland Fleming Thomas, was born in 1841 in Tintern, Wales, and died in 1924 in Alameda County, California. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Alameda.

George's mother was Hannah Louisa Thomas, born in 1850 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England. Her parents were George Dermott Thomas, born 1824 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, and Hannah Mollard, of Warwickshire, England. Richard Coupland Fleming Thomas's parents were William Heard Thomas and Mary Ann Georgiana Coupland (see the naming pattern?). Parents for William Heard Thomas and for George Demott Thomas were William Heard Thomas Sr. and Mary Georgiana Dermott. Result--cousins of some sort--you tell me what kind! William Heard Thomas was, predictably, son of William Thomas and Elizabeth Heard. Let no name be left uninherited. William Heard Thomas Jr. was born in Clifton, Gloucestershire, England. My initial interest in this family is through their connection to the Brodribb families, of whom actor Henry (John Brodribb) Irving is best known.
Thomas was at that time an insurance agent in Bristol. But NOW I am interested in the fact that the brothers settled in Alameda County, California. Tracing their lives since their arrival in California has been fascinating. As noted in my hiking blog, one of the brothers, Gilbert, who owned a company called Blue Print, ventured with a buddy from East Oakland, probably his own neighborhood at the time up to the summit of Mt. Diablo and then back to East Oakland. Yes, that took a long time, but was completed in one full day.

How this family traveled! In a matter of decades, they covered the distance from England to Wales to Alameda County, California, where they produced useful maps for California residents. Next challenge: why did they choose the San Francisco Bay area as a place to settle?

Letters from Van Dieman's Land

2015-03-18T16:23:00.001-07:00

Above: a page showing Benjamin Wait listed as a convict, with a life sentence, and noting his ship and place of origin (Upper Canada) from Tasmanian Colonial Convict, Passenger and Land Records. Various collections (30 series). Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Hobart, Tasmania as available online at ancestry.com.

I read with interest the post on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog about the Patriot War of 1837 (a futile attempt on the part of Americans to "help" settled British-Canadians revolt against the British government) and about those New York rebels who were captured by the British and sent to Australia--specifically Tasmania, at that time called Van Dieman's Land. Many of those northern New Yorkers were pardoned and made it back to their home country, while a few remained in Australia. Near the top of the list displayed at the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog of those men transported to Van Dieman's Land aboard the ship the Marquis of Hastings is the name Benjamin Wait.

For those interested in the story of one man who remained in Australia (Ira Polley), see my blog post titled Australian Descendants of Jefferson County, New York settlers.

I happen to have (handed down to me over the ages) the book written by Benjamin Wait during his imprisonment. The book includes the letters and exhaustive efforts of his wife (including travel abroad) to get him released. It is a wonderful small brown book published in 1843 and it tells firsthand a fascinating story.

Wait, with a few other convicts escaped and returned to New York.

Fortunately for all who might be interested in the story, you won't have to ask me to borrow the book--a scanned version of the text can be found at archive.org. See the text at archive.org.

What speed bumps (pun intended--see photo) can you encounter in your own language as you rush through research?

2015-03-16T21:41:00.002-07:00

We all take it for granted that we speak our own language and perhaps one or two or a half or so more. We can get along in our own country and maybe a few others. That works.

But we may get complacent and forget that research demands that we remain flexible about language usage in the context of time and place, because it is indeed dynamic, often culture-oriented, and ever-changing.
Even for those working in English only--
What are the words you need to know to research the British of 1860? The Welsh or Australians of 1890? If you read the American census records, do you know what a cordwainer is?

And what about the Canadians of 2015?

A "sleeping policeman" is a speed bump.

Your British ancestors (or their relatives) in the Old Bailey (British Court)

2015-02-05T22:57:00.001-08:00

You've heard of The Old Bailey. There is a website: The proceedings of Old Bailey: London's Central Criminal Court, 1674-1913. Chances are, if you have an ancestral name that might have flitted through London during those years you may have a distant relative whose case was tried in the Old Bailey. It may not be an ancestor you can easily identify, but just seeing that that last name with which you are so familiar is there in the prison can be oh so fun. The transcripts of the cases are there, easy to find and read, and all very entertaining.

Just for example, if you put in the surname Ninnes you find the abstract of the record for William Ninnes, including his crime (stealing 12 postage stamps from his master) and his punishment (18 months in prison). An easily clickable graphic takes you to a scan of the original record from the 1800's.

The website is very easy to use and to search: Old Bailey of London. Enjoy!

Spanish California genealogy research

2015-01-15T18:53:00.002-08:00

For families of Spanish-American heritage who may have resided in or near the missions up to 1850, I recommend the following: Mission records as gleaned and annotated by the Huntington Early California Population Project (see: http://www.huntington.org/information/ecppmain.htm, and as gleaned and annotated by Dorothy Mutnick in her books on the families of the missions. The Early California Population Project records are accessible online, and the database has scans for many of its records, which allows the researcher to see the words as written by the scribe at the time. These records go back to the late 1700s. The database has even made connections between records for individuals, so that a marriage record may be linked to a death record for the same person. Most of the information written in Spanish has been translated or transcribed so that it is easy to understand the content. A third database which can be helpful is Los Californianos (http://www.loscalifornianos.org/), a website devoted to the history and genealogy of the early hispanic settlers of Alta California. Using all three, you can build a family history for the early Spanish-Californian residents of California.

Prison records--pictures and all

2014-12-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

Ancestry.com is posting more and more prison records. They can be very useful for working on your family tree, but are also entertaining in their own right. Just take a relatively unusual name on your tree and enter it--see what the relatives or distant cousins might have been up to. The search is easy and the records very interesting--sometimes with pictures.

Records recently available are:

New York, Sing Sing Prison Admission Registers, 1865-1939

California, Prison and Correctional Records, 1851-1950

Prudence Crandall and Edward S. Abdy: Civil Rights in Connecticut in the 1830’s

2014-07-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

This essay was written for a class in American history. This topic was chosen as one that fits with the author's interest in the life of Prudence Crandall.

Edward S. Abdy recorded and commented on his observations of race relations in the United States in the 1830’s. Writing for a large audience, he had his work published in 1835. As a visitor from England, he was not a product of the culture he was describing, and thus had a somewhat distanced perspective of events. He published his observations in the 1830’s under the title A Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States. It is a journal with entries marked by dates, written firsthand by the author. Volume one of this three volume work provides readers with many details of the difficulties and challenges which faced Prudence Crandall in her efforts to set up a school for black girls in Canterbury, Connecticut. Abdy provides many observations of American culture and government in his journal, and it is well worth reading. My particular interest is in his descriptions of the efforts of Prudence Crandall and the reactions of the townspeople of Canterbury.

Crandall encountered extreme opposition in the traditionally peaceful town of Canterbury, Connecticut where she lived. The opposition escalated into violence. Her school was attacked, and Crandall was denied access to local shops. Her family and students were denied access to church services (Abdy, Chapter 6). Some of Abdy’s comments are based on first-hand observations of events, while other comments are based on conversations, sometimes with a person who has observed an event, and sometimes with a person who has read or heard of the event. Abdy spoke with a number of people involved in the situation, and was able to report the observations of various people and groups as a result. Abdy does not pretend to have objective opinions about the topics he reported on, and in fact he advocates for the rights of Prudence Crandall and her husband Calvin Philleo by explaining their rights, as he understands them, to town officials.

My access to this primary source is by reading through the filter of a digitized version, which has preserved the words, but not the page numbers, nor all of the publisher information, from the original text. My surrogate primary source is the transcription of the text of A Journal of a Residence and tour in the United States (Abdy) as accessed on the website maintained by Hal Morris, “Tales of the Early Republic: A History Resource and an Experiment in Hypertext Style.”

Although Abdy was a visitor to the United States, which makes his perspective as an outsider objective in certain ways (he was not U.S. citizen, he was not a product of U.S. culture, and he was not a neighbor to anyone he described) he was subjective in ways that can be seen in his editorial remarks. In his journal he often comments on the inequality that he sees between black and white Americans. Such comments make it clear that he is completely against and appalled by the inequality and injustice he sees, and that he would not support the view of those who wished to suppress the rights of black people. At the time of his writing, some Americans shared his views of equality, and many, of course, did not. Slavery had not yet been outlawed in Connecticut. As we read his works today, we now are inclined to agree with Abdy, and to sympathize with his outrage at inequality. We have benefited from the changes in law, society, and outlook that have evolved in the United States since the 1830’s. His words and style suggest that he wishes to influence his readers. It appears that he wants the reader to think about civil rights, and to be aware of injustice. He provides enough detail and passion in his writing that the reader may be swayed to look at civil rights issues and to act in such a way as to promote equality.

Demonstrating that he is not an impartial journalist, but a writer with an interest in advancing equality, Abdy tells in his journal of how he himself approached town officials in Canterbury on behalf of Crandall and her school. He was able to speak to a selectman, Mr. Bacon. Abdy asked what sort of measures would be taken to prosecute the townspeople who had damaged the school. Mr. Bacon responded that nothing had been done, nor would it be done, for no formal complaint had been made. Abdy points out that Philleo had attempted to speak to the town clerk, but the town clerk refused to hear the complaint. As Abdy pursues the matter, Bacon tells him that Crandall had broken a State law. This is a very interesting and ironic aspect of the story, because as Abdy points to Bacon, this law was passed after Crandall had opened her school, and as a matter of fact was passed in consequence of the school having been opened to girls of color (Abdy, Chapter 6).

Abdy describes Crandall’s personal response to the new law:

They had, however, miscalculated the temperament of their victim. She set both her oppressors and their ex-post-facto statute at defiance. She persisted in keeping her school. She was prosecuted; and declining, by the advice of her lawyer, to give bail, she was sent to prison, and confined (not intentionally it was afterwards stated) in the very room which a murderer had just quitted (Abdy, Chapter 6).

Abdy describes the trial of Prudence Crandall in a tone which is highly critical of the unfair treatment she was shown by the justice system:

Miss Crandall's trial came on at Brooklyn in August. Judge Eaton, who tried her, was one of the committee of the legislature that drew up the law under which she was indicted. He charged the jury three times to convict her; and evinced throughout a marked spirit of hostility against her. Five of the jury were for her, and seven against her each time. As they could not agree, she was discharged. The second trial ought to have taken place in December following before the same judge; but, in October, she was indicted under a new writ, and brought before Judge Daggett, who was well known, both for his attachment to the colonization cause, and for the active part he had taken against a projected college for colored young men at Newhaven, the University of which, it was alleged, would be injured by its establishment. It was not likely, therefore, that the question at issue would meet with an impartial and unbiassed consideration in that quarter. The prisoner was convicted; and appealed, from the sentence, to the Court of Errors, where the original proceedings were quashed on the ground of an alleged informality — a very convenient loop-hole to creep out at (Abdy, Chapter 6).

Edward Abdy’s views and attitudes towards those he spoke with may have been at times subjective rather than objective due to his relationships with these persons. He had many acquaintances and friendships with Americans, and this may have affected his choices in what to write and about whom to write it, in addition to having affected his interest in supporting certain individuals with his words or actions.

He explains the beginnings of the boarding school for girls of color, the first of its kind in Connecticut. She had originally set up a school for young women, and had “admitted, as a scholar, the daughter of a respectable neighbor, whose quarterings were unfortunately not of the pure European tinge” (Abdy, Chaper 6). Soon after this, Crandall admitted another young woman of color, who asked to enroll at the school. The white parents of the other girls began to withdraw their own daughters from the school, “annoyed at the ‘violation of the established order of things’, ” and in response, and after consultation with Reverend May, Prudence “changed her white school into a colored school."( Abdy, Chapter 6)

Abdy spoke personally to Calvin Philleo, who married Crandall (Abdy, Chapter 6) in the midst of her difficulties with the Canterbury townspeople, and also spoke to Crandall herself. At one point, Abdy describes the conversation between Philleo and the town clerk of Canterbury, Andrew T. Judson. Philleo wanted to complain about the damage that was done to the school. Although the conversation is described in dialogue form, using quotation marks, as Abdy himself says, “…the following conversation, as well as my informant can remember the words, took place.” (Abdy, Chapter 6). The reported dialogue which follows may be close to accurate, as it was remembered by Philleo, and recorded by Abdy. The gist of the conversation itself is clear. Philleo attempted to speak to the town clerk, and was refused (Abdy, Chapter 6). Abdy also reports a firsthand conversation with Crandall on the topic of her interest in leaving for England, fearful for her safety in Connecticut (Abdy, Chapter 6).

Instead, Crandall left for Illinois, where she lived near relatives in a farming community and continued her abolitionist work. She later moved to Kansas. The Connecticut government eventually acknowledged that it had wronged her, and provided her with a small financial compensation (National Womens’ History Musem).
In 1995 the State recognized her as its State Heroine. Her house in Canterbury was declared a National Landmark in 1991 (CT.gov).

The events in Canterbury surrounding Prudence Crandall’s school took place over the span of a few years. The significance of her actions in her time and for Americans today is remarkable. Abdy’s journal is an excellent record which sheds light on the events as he perceived them. The journal and the insights of its writer offer contemporary readers and excellent view into an important moment in the past. Readers of this text have the opportunity to ponder Prudence Crandall's actions, Edward Abdy's work as a journalist, and the implications for their time and for ours.

Works Cited:

Abdy, Edward S. A Journal of Residence and Tour in the United States of North America. J. Murray. London: 1835. Reprint of the original. Tales of the Early Republic. Hal Morris' Home Page. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://jmisc.net/>.

"African American Historic Places - Beth L. Savage, National Register of Historic Places." Google Books. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://books.google.com/books?id=wjZIkchWX5AC>.

"CT.gov: "The State Heroine." CT.gov Portal. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ct.gov/ctportal/cwp/view.asp?a=885>.

"Education & Resources." National Women's History Museum - NWHM. Web. 05 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/prudence-crandall/>.

"Miss Crandall in Prison.” New-Hampshire Sentinel 1833-07-18 Vol. XXV Issue 29, page 2. Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876. New England Genealogic Historical Society (online). November 27, 2005. <http://infoweb.newsbank.com>.

Image source: http://www.ct.gov/cct/cwp/view.asp?a=2127&q=302260

Also posted to my business website blog

Don't have that genealogy database subscription? Here's what you do.

2014-07-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

What genealogy databases do you access or would you like to access? Historical newspaper databases? Newspapers.com? Major genealogy databases with access to census records, vital records and more? Ancestry.com? HeritageQuest? Without breaking your budget, you can most likely get access to many databases without subscribing to them.

Two excellent resources for access to databases are Family History Centers and public libraries.

Family History Centers may provide access to many databases at no cost. The computers are all set up for you to use. You will also probably be able to download the data to your own flash drive, or make photocopies, or scans. I had all of those options open to me at my last visit to a Family History Center, and having forgotten my flash drive, I simply "clipped" articles from historical newspapers and had them sent to my email, where I can download them to my own computer files. It was a breeze.

Public libraries often have subscriptions to genealogy databases and/or historical newspapers. If your county library doesn't offer these, you may be able to acquire a library card for another county in your State. Databases might be available from remote locations, provided you enter the card number, or you may have to visit the library to use a computer there to get access.

For some researchers, from the novice genealogists to the advanced masters of historical data, it may be worthwhile to consider options which broaden access to databases without adding cost to every new search. And you might even have the chance to share a smile and rub elbows with others passionate about searching the documents of the past..

Easy trick for merging identities on Family Tree Maker

2014-05-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

Ever see names kind of stack up in the index of Family Tree Maker? Then you take a look and see that some are duplicates--same person listed several times. You want to see all relationships possible--all the children of all these parents.

Example: You've listed Joe Martin as father of Jeremiah Martin. Elsewhere you have him as father of Lisette Martin. You want to see all siblings listed under the same father (Joe), which you have suddenly noticed is the same for both kids. This is very helpful in any genetic matching or in family tree matching. Maximum info=maximum results with minimum effort.

Ordinary merges take time and attention to details such as birth and death dates.

Simpler is this method-choose a special letter, such as "t" to temporarily attach to the ends of the names of the mergers. Appelman becomes Appelmant temporarily. His merge also becomes Appelmant. You merge the two Applemants, without having to sort them out from any other Appelmans in your file. Once they have merged, you remove the "t" ending and voila--a quick merge. Very useful with common names such as David Johnson or Sarah Brown.

Using Gedmatch "one to many"

2014-05-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

For autosomal DNA matching, Gedmatch offers a feature which allows you to see where your autosomal DNA matches others who upload their results. Gedmatch takes uploads from ancestry.com, FTDNA, and from 23andme, so even if you only test with one company, as many do, you can see many matches to your DNA segments from people who tested with the other companies.

It is very easy to use this feature, and it is worth checking back every few weeks for the new matches which are uploaded. The moniker and email for the match are sometimes helpful, yet ofttimes not helpful at all--really attempts by the test subject to obfuscate his or her identity. The best scenario, and it is occurring more and more often, is that the match has uploaded a gedcom, which is worth way more than a name. After all, we researchers are looking for the match's grandparents and beyond. It is genetic history that is of interest in this game.

If a match seems useful, ways to look further are to check the match's list of matches (click on "L"). The individual that you match may not list his or her name, but may have a match within one or two generations who has done so. That is quite valuable, and worth working with to find clues to creating the tree for the match (an important step in finding the common ancestor). Another step is to find the chromosome segment where you match, and then to find the others who match (triangulation), which is another feature on gedmatch, and discussed elsewhere on this blog.

You will probably also want to click on A, which shows you the chromosome segment where you match the other tester. You can make a note of this segment and then check for matches elsewhere on gedmatch or on HIRsearch to that particular segment. Because the segment match may be on either side of your ancestry (paternal or maternal), the fact that it matches a third party may not reflect a true match. It could be coincidental, and the match may be to the parent who would not match the second party and yourself. This is where triangulation is of great help, because gedmatch will show you where your matching segments of chromosome overlap with more than one other match, and the information on the utility will even indicate for you that this is likely an indication of shared ancestry.

Now what can you do with shared ancestry? Ideally the people you match with have more information on their ancestry than you do, and you can see who might be the common ancestor, or at least the direction that the ancestry will have to be. Less ideally, you may have more information to work with. Geography, names, anything can be helpful. You should note all of the information you receive (a good place to do it is on a digital family tree--easily revised) so that it can come in handy when you get more information, which is likely to happen given the recent surge in autosomal testing.

Don't forget that if you get intrigued by a chromosome segment that you can easily see matches who also share that segment by uploading your data to HIRsearch.

The gedmatch.com site has many features. It may take awhile to tackle all of them. I do recommend trying this one, and taking the time to figure it out. It is one you are likely to return to and to find useful as you try to establish your genetic ancestry, which, as we all know, may just not quite match the family history you have on paper.

Gedmatch no longer down! (updated March 24)

2014-03-22T20:48:00.001-07:00

Update March 24: Gedmatch is up and running again!

Yes, just as we got used to gedmatch.com being there and adding new features right and left, we were met with the recurring server failure notice. It is unexpected even though it happens often, and what a blow it is at this time. The new features were making chromosome segment comparison easy and fun, and changes were almost moving too fast. As before, my advice is to be patient, just as we are with receiving matches from the companies we are subscribed to, and once gedmatch is up and running again, just be sure to take advantage of the features there for your most interesting genealogical problems. For those who have been in this for awhile, finding matches, using utilities, and so on, you know that it has been a very up and down process with many long detours and stops along the way. If you are new to all of this, be glad of the many options we have. And while you are waiting, be sure to check out HIRsearch and promethease--both interesting and fun to use.

With all of the options out there, those who are working hard at finding common ancestors should be finding at least a few previously unknown ancestors out there. Let me know if you have done so or if you are narrowing down those names and places!

Triangulation of chromosome segments--Amazing new feature at Gedmatch.com

2014-02-21T12:46:00.002-08:00

This is a very useful feature, and one that will really save time when trying to understand how your match matches you and others by chromosome segments. It is very simple--all you have to enter on the utility is your kit number. Your closest matches for each chromosome appear, and the matching segments are color coded to indicate where you match, where matches match each other and not you, and best of all, where there is a three-way match, where two matches match each other AND you. As noted on the utility: "This indicates ancestry." What an amazing utility to work with. This is exactly what autosomal DNA testing is all about. You don't have to break your brain seeking out segments, measuring them, and comparing them to potential matches. It is done for you in a flash.
Even better--while the comparisons show the kit numbers which match you, all you have to do to find out who the person (or pseudonym) is behind the match is to hover your cursor over the
number.

Gedmatch.com has taken an important step towards the future. Imagine a time when we will be finding matches with little effort, and that means extending our family trees with certainty. Slowly but surely we are getting closer to that experience.

Genealogy Researchers can find tiny cemeteries with google maps

2014-02-21T08:08:00.003-08:00

It's one thing for locals to give directions to a cemetery (whether online or in person) and often quite another thing for far-away visitors to find the gravestones. If you plan to visit a tiny cemetery out in the rural countryside in an area you are unfamiliar with, you will probably want to be armed with more than a street map. As I learned, street names are not always the same on a sign as they are designated on a map. Some roads seem to have no names. Some arrows point in nebulous directions.

You will want to avoid the long and often circular drives with all passengers peering out the windows for sights of a little cemetery. To be sure that you can find the place, plan ahead with the new google maps. You can locate the general area of the cemetery via the maps, by using the information you have at hand and and then can use the google earth feature to get a bird's eye view and plan just how you will get there and where you can park your car. Yes, you can actual see the headstones--not close enough to read, but close enough to see where they are.

See this example of Bishop Cemetery in rural Henderson, New York: Bishop Cemetery.
I was able to find this cemetery before there were google maps, but only with great difficulty.

You can also use the google maps views to see where the cemetery was for purposes of comparing it to where old farms, roads, and structures once stood.

A new plus on the new google maps is an easy-to-use coordinates feature. You click on the part of the map view that interests you, and the coordinates appear just under the left side search box.

Famous and ...Notorious Relatives

2013-09-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

Are you related to anyone famous? How about notorious? Got a black sheep in the family? A mystery? Maybe there is a story somewhere in the family history that is just a little bigger than life, worth repeating, sharing, and savoring.

Maybe you've found it, and maybe you've found many such figures and their stories.

And maybe that story is out there waiting to be found.

Think about where, when, why, and how to find them.

First you find out who is in your tree, and then you find out what has been left to learn about that person.

The more you use search engines on their names, the better your chance at finding their interesting bios.

Great stuff to add to the notes in the family tree and to pass along to relatives, both close and distant.

You may have some of those early American ancestors linked to or themselves the early members of local or federal governments. Many of those early Americans were involved in some way, whether in the formation of early militias, or serving on town or county juries, or as town clerks, or perhaps as governing officials, even on the federal level. In that case, you will find that the digging for historical gems is relatively simple. Finding more and more details may take more dedicated attention, and possibly the expertise of a genealogist, but the surface details can easily be found by anyone .

Or...it maybe that the story is not so much about fame or infamy, but rather about the nuances of settling in a new area and encountering the challenges of the frontier.

Examples can easily be found--for starters, if you've got any ancestors from the wild west, there you go... and the east was not that much less wild at times.

Search for the ancestor's name with any combination of the following--locations where he/she settled, dates of birth or death, occupation (pony express) or name of company or town....and keep going!

Just found some great info on distant relative William Augustus Brown, myself. For years I only had the information of his name and a note that he had been murdered in 1853 (California was a baby in the nation at that time) in Stockton. But things are different now, and the story of his life is easily expanded. Search engines now provide so much info in various forms that I know he ran a pony express (and I can see examples of the stamp he put on the letters). He's neither notorious nor particularly famous, but he was a victim of a wild west shooting. The story is good, and remains contemporary, as even the auction house Christie's offers some of his stamped envelopes for auction.

Photo from Western Cover Society:

Update 2015: the name of the murderer and the entire narrative of the murder have been uncovered in old newspaper articles.

Find those great stories about the family history, and make sure to keep looking for the best details and the tie-ins to the growth of the country or the current culture and economy.

See an example of Pony express covers for sale at Western Cover Society. Use search engines to see more examples of covers and stamps. They are all interesting.

Reenactments are a great source of historical information

2013-08-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

The re-enactors of historical battles are a sort of mise-en-abime resource for researchers to learn from. Initially, as you stroll the battlefield and see the men and women in period dress, you take in the visual sense of what once existed in history.

You may have a chance to speak to one or more of the re-enactors, and learn about the authenticity of the clothes he or she wears, the food he or she is eating, and so on. You might meet a British spy, or an officer's wife, as I did. They all have stories, and the character they represent informs their appearance in the re-enactment. If the officer happens to die on the battlefield, I learned, his wife has to find another officer to marry, or she will not be traveling to the next battle re-enactment, as only a certain number can go along.

You might learn that the buttons on a jacket might be authentic, while the cloth they are attached to is a reasonable reproduction. The swords of some of the re-enactors may be authentic, owned by those who fought in battle while those of others are not. In any case, they must have been produced, or represent what was produced, from a time either preceding or of the time of the battle in question. They can't be later models.

If you have a chance to speak and listen to the stories of how the re-enactors got their materials, that alone will be informative. What was the original color of the metal in the sword? How did that change over time? How long did it take to load the guns? Who were the fighters--trained military or local residents? What were some of the strategies and how did they lead to failure or success?

Attending a battle re-enactment is not only informative, but also stimulating. You might end up with more questions than answers, both about how re-enactments are created, and and also about how they reflect historical events.

They are an excellent resource for learning about the history of a place and time from the viewpoint of the individual. The images below are from the bicentennial re-enactment of the Battle of Sackets Harbor in the war of 1812, a re-enactment that was of major historical value and which took place in a beautiful, serene location. The re-enactment could have attracted more interest but seems to have been a pearl viewed by a small and fortunate audience. See the description of the economic and political issues here (NY Times article) :
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/nyregion/war-of-1812-bicentennial-disorganized-in-new-york-state.html?_r=0

Images of War of 1812 Sackets Harbor Battle Re-enactment

Digitized marriage records, county histories and more at HathiTrust

2013-06-04T13:59:00.001-07:00

The HathiTrust Digital Library is an excellent repository of information on books, many of which are digitized and readable on the website, while others, under copyright restrictions, cannot be read but can be searched for terms and names. The website is a result of a partnership between a number of institutions and organizations working together to preserve cultural information.

I found many easily accessed records of marriages and births for New York and for other States as well. There are also county histories and interesting records of jail censuses, agricultural reports, and political actions.

This is an excellent resource to check into when you are looking for that one more place to find your ancestors and their histories.

There is no charge to readers.

See HathiTrust to learn more and to begin the search there!

Gedmatch --subjective view--June 2013

2013-05-31T21:29:00.002-07:00

Many of the hits on my blog are looking for information on Gedmatch.

Here is my brief subjective review of how things are at Gedmatch--many of the wonderful utilities, including triangulation and chromosome browser are on hold--but they should be back at some time, and will be amazingly helpful to researchers of all levels and abilities.

Of the utilities currently available, I find the one-to- many matches utility to be the most helpful, especially since there are at least three companies from which people can upload their results.
I have to say, that although this is great, and allows us to see comparisons between FTDNA, 23andme, and ancestry.com, this is often just a lead to nowhere.

The frustrating aspect is that the aliases used by those tested are often very effective in hiding who has been tested. If an email has been provided it can be a clue, or it can be used to try to contact the person tested, but often this effort is futile. It is understandable that every tester wants to protect their privacy--but the result of the protection is that comparison is impossible or very difficult. As I have said before, what researchers want is information about the ancestors. Perhaps Gedmatch could provide a way for testers to give that information, as does Ftdna, which allows gedcoms, but only starting at least 100 years out from the present.

The person being tested is not, or should not be, of interest, unless living cousin connections are desired.

Main point--I'm sure Gedmatch will recover all of the utilities--just a matter of time and it will be working again. Like many dna-related websites, keeping it up and running well can be a challenge for many reasons, so if you find something working--use it--strike while the iron is hot!

Australian Descendants of Jefferson County, New York settlers

2013-05-28T20:18:00.001-07:00

One narrative of the research links between DNA results, the Patriot War, and New York ancestry.

Sometimes one thing leads to another in genealogy research, usually seemingly with reason, at least for awhile. Then it turns out that the connections weren't the ones we were looking for, or maybe they are, but we can't prove it yet. But...we always get a good story, and therein lies much satisfaction.

This story started with a speculation on a chromosome match spotted on Gedmatch. It appeared that there would be a Northern New York connection worth defining. Long story short, through pursuing the ancestry of the match, I found the name of Ira Polley, born about 1816 in Lyme, Jefferson, New York.

All names connected to the DNA match were from an area of Tasmania. All of the names, not just some. Considering that I was looking for a connection to Northern New York ancestry, how could that be? Well, the Patriot War resulted in Northern New Yorkers being sent to Tasmania--"Van Diemen's Land." When I looked up the names of those transported to Tasmania, I found that only one name matched--the very same last name of the person for whom I had found an online tree--Polley. The man "transported" (taken as war captive) was named Ira Polley.

Now the big question was whether Ira Polley had met a fate of death at sea or elsewhere, as did many who were transported, whether he was pardoned and returned to New York (again, like many others), or if by chance he had stayed in Australia.

Strangely enough (or not so strangely, given the DNA matching), he is one of the very few who stayed--one of four--he was actually eventually pardoned, and got as far as Hawaii before returning to Australia. There is no explanation as to why he chose to stay, but stay he did, and he married twice and had many children. His descendants are now numerous.

Before the brief war waged against England in Canada, he had been living in Lyme, Jefferson County, New York. Although many researchers say that his father was John Polley, who also lived in Jefferson County, his death information in Australia names his father as William Polley. Other documents show that Ira Polley of Australia was born in New York, while the son of John Polley named Ira was born in Connecticut. It does appear that William Polley, also of Connecticut, but who moved early to New York, is indeed father of Ira. William Polley died in 1852 in Russia, Herkimer County, New York, not far from Lyme. He does not mention Ira in his will, however, and I cannot be sure he is the father without more documentation.

Sir George Arthur, of Upper Canada at the time of the Patriot War ordered the transportation of captives to Australia. Ira Polley named one of his sons George Arthur Polley. See the following website for details on this and on various captives in the online article "American Patriots Political Prisoners in Van Diemen's Land": leatherwoodonline

The story that I was able to piece together (beginning with a DNA clue) gave me more knowledge of, and interest in, the Patriot War of the late 1830's, and of the lives of those who begin as captives and continue as citizens of a different land and culture.

Digitized Newspapers for Wales

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

Here it is --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.