Stories of a Canadian Family

Trying out FamilySearch's Family Tree

2013-04-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Note: I work for WikiTree, but this blog is my personal space and any opinions expressed here are not the official opinions of WikiTree. I am not paid to blog here. Obviously I have a bit of a bias caused by my undying love for WikiTree, but I have tried to keep an open mind when trying out new things.

After hearing a whole lot about Family Tree while at RootsTech, I decided to try it out. I figured I at least should have more experience with which to answer people who ask me "Why should I use WikiTree when Family Tree does the same thing?" (Spoiler alert: The answer is "Because they don't do the same thing.")

One of my great grandparents was already in the tree, so I started by adding just enough of my tree to connect to him.

Positive first impressions at this point include the fact that a whole line of my tree, from my great grandfather all the way back to my immigrant ancestor, was already on the site. Also, the graphical tree that you can drag around and expand pieces of is really nice.

Negative first impressions include the fact that the immigrant ancestor had all kinds of incorrect parents and spouses attached to him, and there are duplicates coming out of my ears. (To be fair, that family was just as bad on WikiTree before I got my hands on it. But people keep talking about how Family Tree is "source-based", and therefore more accurate, and I'm just not seeing it.) Also, I don't really like how couples are grouped into one box in the pedigree chart. It means that when I look at my pedigree, only half of it is used, because the other half is reserved for my husband.

So, I started merging duplicates. It's what I do best, after all! Right away I ran into problems. Some of my 2x great grandparents' daughters were duplicated, with one copy of each being male. I quickly learned that you can't merge a male and a female. You also can't change the gender. Or delete a person. So, all you can do is disconnect the incorrect person from the tree, and leave it to float around forever, with no accurate information in it. I don't much like the thought of that.

The processes of editing and merging are pretty nice. When editing, you're asked to provide a reason why you think your info is true, which I quite like. When merging, you select data to save from the person that will be deleted, and it slides over to the other side, clearly showing you what will be kept. There's an annoying issue where some people cannot be merged, but apparently that will become less common when New FamilySearch is gone. In the meantime, it means there are duplicates out there that we can't do anything about.

Overall, I think once the kinks are worked out Family Tree will be a pretty good collaborative tree. But keep in mind that that's all it is. There is nothing but the bare bones here. There are no biographies. There are no pages for cemeteries, towns, buildings, etc. Right now, it appears that you can't even add photos. This is strictly names, dates, places, and relationships.

So, while I will try to improve the pages for my ancestors on Family Tree, because I hate to see mistakes in my tree anywhere, it's not something that will absorb a lot of my time. For me, there's a lot more to genealogy than raw data, so I prefer sites/apps that allow for that richer content.

Giving Bloglovin' a try!

2013-04-07T18:28:00.003-05:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm trying out various Google Reader alternatives as I prepare for its untimely demise. Bloglovin' seems to be popular amongst the bloggers I follow, so I've signed up there. It seems promising so far!

Going to Rootstech!

2013-03-20T18:34:00.000-05:00

It's time for Rootstech!! It starts tomorrow, and I'm currently in Salt Lake City, excited for a few days of all genealogy all the time! I'll be working at the WikiTree booth, along with WikiTreer-in-Chief Chris Whitten, and two of the site's power users, Ed Burke and Mike Gabbard.

If you're at Rootstech, come by the WikiTree booth and say hello! :)

The Never-Ending Search for Sarah Jane Elson's Marriage Record

2013-03-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

You may have heard me complain about Sarah Jane Elson. My matrilineal great-great-great-great grandmother is both my favourite and my least favourite person to research. I'm rather obsessed with my maternal line, and the fact that Sarah Jane has been a brick wall for me for the last year has been very frustrating. It's really taught me how little I know about genealogical research. In all my other lines, I've been able to get by with the basic census records and vital records, mostly available for free online. Rarely have I ever had to look at a microfilm. But with Sarah Jane, it's become apparent that I need to expand my research horizons.

Some googling led me to learn that marriages in Ontario between 1858 and 1869 are recorded in county marriage registers. It's quite likely that Sarah Jane Elson and Henry Prince were married during this time. (It was definitely after 1852 and before 1861. They had their first child in 1861, when Sarah Jane was about 22.) These records are available to order to any FamilySearch Centre. So, for the first time, I have a reason to go to a FamilySearch Centre! How exciting! I'm kind of embarassed as a genealogist that I haven't been yet. :)

So I'm going to order the microfilm for the Middlesex County marriage registers. Sarah Jane shows up in censuses in that county both before and after marrying Henry, so it's pretty likely that that's where they would have been married.

It's only $8 (plus possible taxes) for me to get these microfilm records for at least two months, which is pretty awesome. And now that I'm working irregular hours, rather than business hours, I'll probably have more chances to get to the FamilySearch Centre during its very limited hours.

Once my order arrives, and I get a chance to take a look, I'll write more about my visit to the FamilySearch Centre, and about my continued search for this elusive marriage record! Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday - Emmeline Cockroft

2012-12-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Emmeline Cockroft (abt. 1883 - 1921) was the first wife of my great grandfather, Herbert Jackson. After her death, Herbert married my great grandmother, Janet Aspinall.

A jump across the pond!

2012-12-10T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have been able to trace another branch of my family back to Europe! That's always so exciting! For a long time now, my 4x great grandparents, Henry Prince and Sarah Jane Elson, have been a big brick wall for me. Alas, Sarah Jane's origins remain elusive, but I've made a lot of progress on Henry!

Previously, I only had records from after Henry and Sarah Jane were married. I did have an 1852 census record that looked promising, but I couldn't be sure that it was him. He was the right age, and had parents named Joseph and Elizabeth, but those are pretty common names, so I wasn't confident.

Then, in response to one of my usual queries looking for their marriage record, someone posted a transcription of an 1841 England census record. There were enough common family members for me to be sure that this one matched the 1852 record. But again, that didn't tell me if these records were for my Henry Prince.

To try to fill in the gap, I went to the library to use Ancestry Library Edition to check the 1861 Canadian census. I found this record. It shows Henry Prince married to Sarah, proving that this is my Henry. But again, no sure way to connect it to the earlier records.

At this point, I made a very smart decision: I went back over what I had! Always a good idea! And that's when I found the answer. In the 1881 census, there's another Prince living with Henry, Sarah Jane, and their children: James. He's 33, exactly the right age to be Henry's brother James from the 1852 census. With everything else lining up so nicely, this was the bit of evidence that brought my confidence to the point where I strongly believe that the Henry Prince in those earlier records is in fact my ancestor.

So, that 1841 England census record is quite exciting! At that time, Henry was living in Bramshaw, Wiltshire (Bramshaw used to be split between Wiltshire and Hampshire; it is now completely in Hampshire.), which is also where he was born. This is far from most of my other English ancestors, almost all of whom originated in West Yorkshire, in Huddersfield and the surrounding areas. So I have another county to explore! And by explore I mean research because who can afford a trip to England? :)

December To Dos

2012-12-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile (a year!) since I wrote a to do post, so I thought I'd bring them back! One of my weaknesses is my inability to actually plan my research (I go with the flow!), so I should probably work on that. Here's what I'd like to get done this month:

Start scanning my Cockroft family album. I haven't prioritised this one since the people in it aren't related to me (they're from my great grandfather's first wife's family), but recently I was contacted on WikiTree by someone in that family, so I'd like to send her some pictures!
Write a blog post about my progress on Henry Prince, my 4x great grandfather.
Finally finish my post about the Romeo and Juliette in my family, which I keep starting and not finishing for some reason.
Order the mtFullSequence DNA test from Family Tree DNA! I'm so excited to do this! A series of blog posts will follow, probably in January.
Catch up on my genealogy blog reading in my Google Reader, which I've let get way out of hand!

What are you hoping to accomplish this month? Let me know in the comments!

I can't tell you my maiden name!

2012-08-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm loving this unexpected side effect of having conversations with more of my fellow genealogists: they say things that I think are really weird, and suddenly I have a blog post idea! :) Today's thing-I-think-is-weird is people's reluctance to divulge their maiden names.

This has come up when I'm telling people about WikiTree, because your WikiTree ID is based on your maiden name. Some people use X or something similarly anonymous, but most people just put in their last name at birth. So the minimum info you're asked for when signing up is your first name, last name at birth, and email address.

The response to that has sometimes been: "You want my last name at birth? That makes me uncomfortable...", to which my response is a puzzled look. There are several reasons why this makes no sense to me, which I will now explain:

1) Just about all men, and an increasing number of women, have the same last name from birth to death. They have no "maiden name". My last name is Lavoie, it's been Lavoie since the day I was born, and it will be Lavoie until the day I die. It wouldn't be very practical, therefore, for me to hide that name from you. This is true for the majority of people. So why is it that people who choose to change their last names when they get married suddenly need to keep their old names a secret?

2) Even people who don't have public online trees often write publicly about their ancestors. I hate to tell you this, but even if you hide your parents' names, if I can see all your grandparents' names, I can probably guess your maiden name. And your mom's, for that matter.

3) This is perhaps the most important reason. If you, in this day and age, are using your maiden name or your mom's maiden name as a password for anything of any importance, please stop, now. That is not secure. You are just begging for identity theft.

Have I missed anything? If there's another reason why you keep your maiden name a secret, I'd love to know what it is! Because it's a total mystery to me!

Me and WikiTree

2012-08-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to write this post for so long! As you have probably gathered from other posts I've written recently, I now work for WikiTree. Since February, I have been WikiTree's User Group Coordinator. (I'm even on the Contact Us page! Check it out!)

This change came about because I had recently become really active in the user groups, and on WikiTree in general. I had started the Acadian Ancestors User Group. I was getting involved in every way possible. And now I'm even more involved! I even got to help represent WikiTree at a genealogy conference. Awesome!

Now, the main reason I wanted to write this post was to clarify one thing: this blog is still my personal genealogy blog. I am not paid to blog here. Part of my job is blogging once a month on the WikiTree blog, but this blog is all me. I'm telling you this so that I can continue to post about WikiTree and not be seen as a marketing person. If I gush about how much I love WikiTree, it's because I do, and I was writing those posts long before I started working for the site!

In future posts I'll give more details about what exactly I do on WikiTree. And as usual, if you want an invitation to the site, let me know!

Happy blogiversary to me!

2012-08-12T11:26:00.001-05:00

It's my blogiversary!! :) One year ago today, I posted my very first post on Stories of a Canadian Family. It was just a list of my known surnames up to 5 generations, and since I hadn't even told anyone about my blog yet, I wasn't expecting anyone to see it until I'd posted a couple times and then spread the word. But somehow, Geneabloggers instantly tracked me down! Barely an hour after I'd posted for the first time, I'd been added to Geneabloggers, and people had started welcoming me to the community!

Now, it's a year and 74 posts later, and my humble personal genealogy blog has people who actually read it and comment on it, despite the fact that I'm not always the most regular poster in the world. :)

So, thank you Geneabloggers, and thank you everyone who's reading this, or has read any of my other posts over the last year. You guys are awesome. Here's to many more years of researching and blogging fun!

It's mine; all mine!

2012-06-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

Sharing is nice.

Recently, I've been thinking about why we do genealogy. Through a lot of conversations lately with other genealogists, I've begun to realise that we don't all do it for the same reasons. Specifically, I'm interested in how altruistic our motivations are, or aren't!

I think most people want their genealogical research passed down to their descendants. No one wants all their hard work to die with them, right? But what about people other than your direct descendants?

I tend to think of my genealogy as something I want to add to a greater whole. Yes, I want my descendants and other future and current relatives to have it, but I also want it to be out there for the world to see. Imagine if everyone's genealogy was easily accessible; think how much work could be saved!

Of course, it's only really helpful if it's correct and properly sourced. That actually makes me want to share my genealogy even more! All the error-filled trees out there in books and on the net just keep multiplying, because people find them and use them as sources. So my thinking is, every correct, sourced tree that's out there is countering that. If someone finds my correct tree, maybe they'll use that instead of the spurious ones.

One topic that I think really brings out people's levels of altruism in genealogy is one place studies. When I get on this topic I tend to complain about how no one does one place studies in Canada and the US (they're really big in the UK). Recently, someone suggested to me that it's because people are less tied to places here, unlike in the UK where some families have been in the same parish for generations. Therefore, a one place study won't be as useful in one person's genealogy.

The thing is, in my opinion, one place studies aren't about helping myself with my own genealogy. They're about making a contribution to the body of genealogical resources, that will be useful to everyone who's family ever lived in that place.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you put your genealogy out there for the world to see, or do you hide it away on your hard drive or in a private online tree? Do you stick to your own family, or do research that can benefit even people you're not related to? And I want reasons! Let's get a discussion going!

My first genealogy conference: SCGS Jamboree 2012

2012-06-13T11:48:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I was in Burbank, California, for SCGS Jamboree 2012. Travelling so far was exhausting, but so worth it! First of all, I finally got to meet the rest of the WikiTree team (I'm just realising now that I never actually wrote on this blog about how I now work for WikiTree... well now you know!): Chris Whitten (the founder of WikiTree), Tami Osmer (developer of the Relatively Curious Internet Genealogy Toolbar), Elyse Doerflinger (who writes Elyse's Genealogy Blog), and Thomas MacEntee (whom you probably know from GeneaBloggers). It was very cool to meet people (in person!) that I exchange emails with all the time. You really get a better look at people's personalities that way.

Left to right: Tami, Elyse, me, Chris, and Thomas

I spent most of the weekend sitting at the WikiTree table in the vendor hall, talking to people about the site and trying to get people who seemed like they'd be great contributors to sign up. In the process, I had a lot of awesome conversations about the wiki concept, the importance of citing your sources, and a bunch of other things. I also heard a lot of people's genealogy stories, and, in the case of people who were not comfortable signing up for WikiTree, got some insight into the generation of genealogists who did not grow up with the internet, and consequently often have a totally different perspective of online genealogy tools.

I also got to meet some other bloggers, which was exciting, as well as lots of vendors. And I bought some books, and some software, and a decorative fan chart (reviews of all these things to come!).

Overall, the weekend was super fun, and also really inspiring. I feel like I have all these ideas now and can't wait to work on them! This is true for my personal genealogy, as well as for WikiTree. For example, while I was at the conference, I started categorising all my WikiTree profiles by city/town, and this has turned into a potentially huge project! More about that to come, as well!

So, other than the actual flying across the continent part (which was exhausting, uncomfortable, and resulted in me losing my water bottle and breaking my favourite sunglasses), I had a great trip, and can't wait until my next genealogy conference!

See you at SCGS Jamboree 2012!

2012-06-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'm going to my first genealogy conference! This weekend is the SCGS Jamboree 2012 conference, in Burbank, California, and I'm going to be there, spending most of my time at the WikiTree booth.

Geneabloggers compiled a list of bloggers who will be at the conference here. Some of them are ones that I follow, and I'm so excited to meet them! So if you're going to the conference, please let me know, and stop by the WikiTree booth when you're there, as I'll be there a lot of the time. I'd love to meet you. :) I can even give you one of my fancy-schmancy new business cards!

Slight progress on Sarah Jane Elson

2012-05-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

Henry Prince and Sarah Jane Elson are my 4x great grandparents, and I can't seem to get any further back than them, particularly on Sarah's side. So, I'm trying to find ways of gaining any bits of information about them I can, in hopes of one day having a breakthrough. So today, I focused on a woman named Mary, who I believe is Sarah's mother.

I have two censuses records for Sarah Jane Elson: 1871 and 1881. In the 1881 census, there's a 75 year old woman named Mary Elson living with Henry and Sarah and their family. It's very likely that this is Sarah's mother. Today, it occured to me that she is not living with Henry and Sarah in the 1871 census, so I decided to search for her there.

When I searched the 1871 census for Mary Elson, I found this person, who is about the right age. She is a widow, living with the Flint family (the wife's name is Ann). So I searched FamilySearch.org for Ann Elson with a spouse whose last name is Flint (because I couldn't quite make out his first name). Right away, I got a birth record for a girl whose parents are Perney Flint (which definitely appears to match the census record!) and Ann Elson. So, if this Mary Elson is Sarah Jane Elson's mother, Ann would most likely be her sister. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a marriage record for either of the Elson girls, which might provide the names of the parents.

For some time, I've also had an 1852 census record sitting around that might be Sarah Jane and her family. It's starting to look more promising now. Her mother is Mary Elson, and she has a sister named Ann. One major downside to the 1852 census, is that it doesn't separate family groups, and doesn't state relationships between family members. The Elsons are listed right after a man named Thomas Gooderham, who is around the same age as Mary. So, he could be her husband, Sarah's father, but that would mean that for some reason the children were given their mother's name. Or, he could just be the guy next door, and Mary is a single mother. (She's awfully young to be a widow, but it is certainly possible.)

Update: I looked at the original image, and Mary Elson has a W in the residence field, which most likely means she was a widow, despite being only 29 years old. So Thomas Gooderham is probably unrelated. Imagine being 29 and widowed, with 4 children! :(

More to come on these two, since they frustrate me so!

Wordless Wednesday - Unknown Cutie Pie

2012-05-02T07:43:00.001-05:00

So far unidentified little girl looking adorable and classy. This is from my grandma's old pictures, and was in an album with pictures mainly from around 1950.

Drouin Collection free for a few days!

2012-04-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

Ancestry.ca has opened up the Drouin Collection for free searching for a few days! It's already started. I can't seem to find an end date, but when I heard about it I think it was some time next week. You can search this collection here.

I've already taken advantage of this to do some searching that I would normally do at the library in the comfort of my own home, with wireless way faster than the library's! You can see my progress on Domitilde Perras' tree. I already had her parents, but I found their marriage record, which opened the door to her grandparents: André Perras, Charlotte Doyon, Ignace Dupuis, and Osithe Barbeau.

The Drouin Collection is great for slowly and steadily inching your way back in your Quebec lines. And the records are in French, but they follow a formula, so it's easy to learn to read them without knowing a lot of French (though knowing how dates are written out is essential).

In other Ancestry related news, from now until Sunday (the 22nd), you can get a 30 day free trial! The free trial is normally only 14 days. You don't need to sign up for a paying membership after. I've always wanted to give the free trial a shot, and this seems like the perfect time. Hopefully I can fit a lot into that month!

Louis Lavoie and Marguerite Richard - Research Plan

2012-04-09T15:44:00.001-05:00

Lately I really feel like my research isn't going anywhere (hence the decrease in the frequency of my writing). I think I need a plan. So, I'm going to try to develop a method of recording what I know and determining where I need to go from here to fill in the blanks.

I'm starting with my paternal grandparents (my grandparents that aren't living). Because this is pretty recent, there aren't a lot of public records concerning them, so I probably already have most of them. Mostly I think I'll need to talk to my aunts and uncles.

My paternal grandparents' tombstone. Located at the
St. Boniface Roman Catholic Cemetery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

What I know and what I don't know:

Louis Jacques Lavoie was born on September 16, 1916. This is from my dad's memory, so I'd love to have a birth record to confirm it. The year is confirmed by his tombstone. He was born in Quebec City. I don't have a source cited for this. It might be from his obituary. I'll have to look at the obituary again to be sure.

Clemence Wilhelmina Marguerite Richard was born on September 19, 1915. This date is also from my dad's memory. The year is confirmed by her tombstone, and is consistent with her age in the 1916 census. I also don't have a record that has her full name. Sometimes I think my dad just added the Wilhelmina to be funny. She was born in Sainte-Anne, Manitoba. This is in her obituary, and that's also where she was living in the 1916 census.

Marguerite soon moved to St. Francois Xavier. Her obituary says that she lived there as a young child. At some point she moved to Winnipeg.

Louis fought in WWII.

At some point Louis moved to Manitoba (straight to Winnipeg?).
Louis and Marguerite married, probably in Winnipeg. I have no sources at all for this, but it seems to follow from what I do know about their lives.

Louis died on August 16, 1976, in Winnipeg. This date is from my dad's memory, so I'd like further confirmation, but the year is confirmed by his tombstone.

Marguerite died on November 5, 1999. This is in her obituary, and also I can confirm at least the approximate date from my own memory; I was in grade 6 and it was shortly before Christmas.

What I can check now:

Check with my aunts and uncles to see if any of them have any birth, marriage, or death records related to my grandparents. Also find out what they know first- and second-hand.

I'm sure I copied out (by hand; I didn't have a flash drive on me!) Louis' obituary, but now I can't seem to find it. So I need to get back to the library (with a flash drive!) and download it. That might give me a source for some things.

Since he was a Canadian who fought in WWII, the Legion Magazine would have published something about Louis' death in the Last Post. The online database currently only goes back to 1985, but I'm sure if I contacted them I could get the information.

Records I'll want in the future, when they're available:

Both of my paternal grandparents should be in the 1921 Canadian census, which will be made available in 2013.

Marguerite was born in Manitoba, so her birth record will be available in 2015. I don't know where one can look up vital records for Quebec, or when they become available; does anyone know?

So that's my plan! I definitely think that was a worthwhile exercise (though it took me forever!). Please let me know if you see anything missing!

Happy 1940 US Census day!

2012-04-02T14:29:00.001-05:00

It's here! This is obviously more exciting for those of you who are American, who may be searching for your parents or grandparents in the census, but I'm still happy to trace a couple lines of distant cousins a little further. :)

You can access the census here: http://1940census.archives.gov/ Just so you know, it's a bit slow right now. Apparently way more people were prepared to search the 1940 census than the servers can handle. So if you (like me) did not spend time leading up to this release making a list of people to look up, no worries. You're probably better off waiting a bit for things to simmer down, anyways!

Happy searching!

Your opinions! I want them!

2012-03-27T11:42:00.001-05:00

It's spring cleaning time! And I see no reason for my blogs to be excluded from this time-honoured tradition. Therefore, I've put together a short survey, in hopes of getting some feedback from my readers on what could use some cleaning up around here. It's totally anonymous, and basically asks your opinions on the blog's content and appearance, but there's room for you to comment on whatever you like.

So, if you'd be so kind, I'd love it if you could take a few moments to give me your comments and constructive criticism. The survey is here. (I tried to embed it, but it was too big.) Please and thank you! Oh, also, all the questions are optional, so you don't even have to do the whole thing if you don't want to. Every little bit helps!

Ann Beaumont - Brick wall smashed!

2012-03-22T18:57:00.001-05:00

Ann Beaumont was my 3x great grandmother. She was an exciting name to discover, because this revealed the origin of the name Beaumont, which runs in my mom's family. Ann had a son named Beaumont Jackson, Beaumont's grandson (my grandpa) has the middle name Beaumont, and my uncle has the same name as my grandpa, including the middle name Beaumont. So it was very cool to learn that that came from the last name of my great great great grandmother!

What I knew about her as of this morning was this: She was born in about 1841. On January 1, 1860, she married John Jackson in Kirkheaton, West Yorkshire. They had a son named Beaumont, who moved to Manitoba. Eventually Ann also moved to Manitoba (between 1911 and 1916, I think).

Today I discovered the site Beaumont Family History, which specifically says it studies the Beaumonts of Yorkshire! I was so excited! So, I sent them an email telling them what I knew about Ann Beaumont. Within a few hours I got an email back from Diana Beaumont, telling me that Ann lived in an area they hadn't covered in detail yet, but still giving me two census records, which give me the names of her parents, and 4 siblings. She also provided the exact dates of birth and baptism. I nearly fainted with joy.

So, here's what I know now: Ann was born on February 5, 1841, and baptised in Kirkheaton on May 16, 1842. Her parents were John Beaumont, a surgeon, and Mary (ooh, looks like I've got another brick wall to chip away at!). In the 1841 census, they lived in the household of Joshua and Ellenor Inman, on Stafford Hill (perhaps this street; check out that street view: beautiful!). Next door was a 60 year old John Beaumont, who could possibly be Ann's grandfather. Here's what the censuses contain:

1841 Kirkheaton Census, HO 107/1278/3

At Stafford hill

Joshua Inman 40 farmer

Ellenor Inman 40

John Beaumont 30 surgeon

Mary Beaumont 30

Ann Beaumont 4 months

John Beaumont 60 farmer

Charles Stancliffe 25 cow dealer

Joseph Beaumont 7

1851 Kirkheaton Census, HO 107/2294

At Hill Side #123 on schedule

John Beaumont H 43 surgeon Kirkheaton

Mary Beaumont W 43 Kirkheaton

Tom W Beaumont S 14 scholar Kirkheaton

Ann Beaumont D 10 scholar Kirkheaton

Maria Beaumont D 8 scholar Kirkheaton

Alfred Beaumont S 5 scholar Kirkheaton

Ada Beaumont D 3 Kirkheaton

This is so exciting! I'm not very good at working with UK records, but at the very least I can take this information to the library and search the Ancestry database, and hopefully find even more details.

I'm so grateful for the genealogy community! I only hope I can be this helpful on someone else's brick wall one of these days! :)

Wordless Wednesday - Four Generations

2012-02-29T07:30:00.000-06:00

This picture contains four generations of my grandmother's family! On the left is Nils (Nelson) Pehrsson, my great great great grandfather. Beside him (back row) is his daughter, my great great grandmother, Alice Mary Peterson. Beside her is her daughter, my great grandmother, Mildred Grace Watts. In the front is Mildred's eldest daughter, my grandma's sister, Dorothy Angus.

Preserving my childhood memories

2012-02-24T08:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I was looking for a picture of myself from elementary school to scan. So I pulled out my old School Days Treasures book, a book which has way more stuff in it than it was ever meant to hold, so it's bursting at the seams, and is consequently really hard to browse through.

As I did this, it occurred to me to that I should be scanning this stuff. That my overstuffed collection of school work, school photos, report cards, certificates, etc., probably won't last forever, but that I could still keep it forever on a tiny little flash drive (or two; backups are important!).

So I can add that to my list of massive scanning projects! After I finish my grandma's photos, I'd like to do all my School Days Treasures stuff, and eventually all my photos from my pre-digital camera days.

And then there's my dad's collection of pictures. I'm afraid to even fathom how big a job that will be. Not only did my parents take about a gazillion pictures when my sister and I were kids, but my dad also inherited his mother's photo collection. So it'll be a while before I'm short of things to scan! :)

For now, enjoy this cute picture of a grade 4 me, when I was finally starting to grow into my two front teeth!

What I've been up to

2012-02-17T11:48:00.000-06:00

I've been suffering from a bit of writer's block of late. But I'm still here! Just a bit quieter than usual... So I thought I'd give a quick update on what I've been up to lately.

I've been working on my one place study of St. François Xavier. I haven't gotten a whole lot done on that yet, since I only have Saturday mornings to work on it, and one Saturday a little trip to the emergency room took up my whole day and sort of ruined my plans. But other than that I've worked on it every Saturday, and another researcher there gave me the idea of photographing the pages I'm transcribing, so I can work on them at home. I don't have a professional camera, just a little digital one, but it's worth a shot! If I can take pictures that are as easy to read as the paper copies, then that could really speed up my work on this project! So I'll be trying that out this weekend.

I've also started on a website for the one place study. I got some space at Freepages (did you know you can get free web space there for genealogy?!), and so far I've put hardly anything on it, and it's very plain and ugly. But eventually it will be pretty and full of information! You can visit my Freepages here.

Other than that, I've mostly been working on my Acadian ancestors on WikiTree. Not doing a whole lot of research, just merging profiles and starting to add some sources (pretty much just the censuses). Soon I plan to add sources from Stephen A. White, because it turns out that a copy of his Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes (basically the Bible of Acadian genealogy, and rather hard to find) is at the St. Boniface Historical Society! So sometime soon I'll be making time to flip excitedly through that. :-)

I got photo albums!!

2012-02-10T21:14:00.000-06:00

Yay! I just went on a shopping spree at Michael's, and the most exciting part of today's haul is two great big acid-free, lignin-free photo albums! They were a whopping $30 each on sale, but each one holds 400 4x6in. pictures! Which means that all the pictures I've scanned so far would fit in one and not even fill it.

So, I'm going to start moving the photos I've already scanned into a new album. Then, I'll get back to my scanning (which has been neglected lately since it didn't feel worth the effort when I didn't have these new albums to move the pictures into yet), and as I scan I'll move those photos into the new albums. Then I can toss those awful magnetic photo albums and my grandma's photos can avoid disintegration for a while longer! :)

Me right now, admiring my fancy new albums:

Rating My Genealogical Maturity - 2012

2012-01-31T13:35:00.001-06:00

Through a recent blog post on Tonia's Roots I have found the Genealogical Maturity Model on The Ancestry Insider. While I don't agree with everything on it, I think it will be useful to help me identify areas of my genealogical work that could use some improvement.

So, here's my assessment as of right now, leaving out the Conclusion Trees section, which I find unpleasantly elitist (and apparently I'm not alone in that):

Sources

#	Level	Sources	Check
1.	Entry	Typically relies on compiled genealogies.
2.	Emerging	Mostly relies on compiled genealogies and online sources.
3.	Practicing	Uses a limited number of record types and repositories. Mostly relies on online and microfilmed sources.	x
4.	Proficient	Uses a wide variety of record types. Often contacts record custodians to obtain copies of high-quality sources.
5.	Stellar	Insightfully pursues research at multiple, targeted repositories, making use of a plethora of records and record types. "Burned counties" are not roadblocks.

The number of record types I use is increasing all the time, but I still don't use much that isn't available online. The parish records I'm looking at now for my One Place Study are probably the first offline records I've used.

Citations

#	Level	Citations	Check
1.	Entry	Captures URLs for online sources and citations for published sources.	x
2.	Emerging	Increasingly captures necessary information for manuscript sources.
3.	Practicing	Typically produces complete source citations.
4.	Proficient	Gives complete and accurate source citations including provenance and quality assessment.
5.	Stellar	Overcomes limitations of genealogical software to create well organized, industry standard reference notes and source lists.

OK, I admit it. Most of my citations are just links to the record online. I really should work on this.

Information

#	Level	Information	Check
1.	Entry	Typically does not realize the need to judge information quality and has no basis for doing so.
2.	Emerging	Emerging realization that information quality differs. Muddles evaluation by thinking of primary/secondary sources instead of primary/secondary information, leading to muddled evaluation when sources contain both.
3.	Practicing	Judges information by source type, informant knowledge, and record timing. Applies "primary/secondary" to information instead of sources.	x
4.	Proficient	Additionally, learns history necessary to recognize and evaluate all explicit information in a source.
5.	Stellar	Additionally, utilizes implicit information in a source. Finds information in cases like illegitimacy that stump most researchers.

Evidence

#	Level	Evidence	Check
1.	Entry	Limited understanding of evidence and the role it plays. Typically ignores conflicting evidence.
2.	Emerging	Captures direct, supporting evidence and increasingly depends upon it.
3.	Practicing	Additionally, captures directly conflicting evidence.
4.	Proficient	Additionally, recognizes and captures indirect, supporting evidence.	x
5.	Stellar	Additionally, recognizes and captures indirect, conflicting evidence.

Conclusions

#	Level	Conclusions	Check
1.	Entry	In the absence of analysis, reaches conclusions by instinct.
2.	Emerging	Learning to evaluate the quality of sources, information, and evidence. Emerging ability to resolve minor discrepancies.
3.	Practicing	Additionally, resolves conflicting evidence or uses it to disprove prevalent opinion. Usually applies correct identity to persons mentioned in sources.	x
4.	Proficient	Additionally, when necessary creates soundly reasoned, coherently documented conclusions utilizing direct and indirect evidence.
5.	Stellar	Additionally: Publishes clear and convincing conclusions. Teaches and inspires others.

Overall Level

Category	Level
Sources	3
Citations	1
Information	3
Evidence	4
Conclusions	3
AVERAGE	2.8

So, just under Practicing. Not quite the result I was hoping for! Obviously, citations are what I need to work on the most. So as a next step, I think I'll look up what citation formats are standard in the genealogical community, and start applying them to my citations on WikiTree. That, and my New Year's resolutions...