Archive for October, 2010

Surname Forum Activity
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MANLEY John Logan Lukas 2001 2002 our little manley man

DebbraWalker photographed this gravestone in the Hemet Cemetery, San Bernardino, Riverside Co, CA. Feel free to use this picture for your personal records. This is one of the 214,208 cemetery photos free at http://teafor2.com .

If you know more about this person please reply here,instead of contacting me because this is most likely not my family.
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Surname Forum Activity
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News from around the web.
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To the anonymous person who took the time to note that in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, the “S. W. Staddard” living in Edmunds, Idaho, should actually be “S. W. Stoddard,” thank you.

We just launched an update to the 1910 U.S. census that includes new images and an improved index. The updated index combines a new index keyed from the new images with our old index and user suggestions. This provides more alternate names and increases your chances of finding your ancestor.

For example, after our update, the #1 result when I search the 1910 census for a Sheldon W. Stoddard living in Idaho is S. W. Staddard—the inadvertent alias for my grandfather. Last week, before the update, S. W. Staddard was nowhere near the top of the results list.

I’ve keyed a few records for the World Archives Project, and I’ve passed copies of images around the office here trying to decipher a name or a number, and I’m a great believer in a second and third pair of eyes. I can also tell you that your odds of getting a name right go way up when you know what the answer ought to be. Those faint lines seem to fill in, letters fatten out or straighten up, and the image seems clearer, legible—obvious.

That’s what both parts up this update to the 1910 census are about. First, we’re swapping out old images for new (here’s the new Sheldon):

But even better are the observations from those extra sets of eyes. Sometimes it just takes a fresh look, or maybe more experience with faded ink or antique handwriting, but the best eyes often belong to those who have more clues to bring to the puzzle. I don’t expect any indexer would just happen to know that S. W. Staddard was actually my grandfather Stoddard. But when somebody looking at the record knows that Sheldon William Stoddard was married to Maude, who was about 22 in 1910, and had a young son named Kenneth and lived in Edmunds, Idaho—when research moves a question beyond guesswork to a pretty sound conclusion—well, that’s the real power those extra eyes bring. A couple of folks even corrected the erroneous “E” given as a middle initial to my grandmother, Mable Christina (with a “C”) Hemsley.

There is one bit of glass-half-full news about the 1910 update: we have all the new images up, but the index is coming in two parts. We’re releasing these states now: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas. Look for the other states in 2011. If you’re like me, that means full-speed-ahead on the maternal side, while the paternals will just have to wait. But we figured why hold up the half that’s ready to go.

So if someone in your tree has turned up missing in 1910, give the census another look. Maybe your AWOL ancestor just needed the eyes of someone who knew the answer to bring them to light.

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Join the experts from Ancestry.com and the New England Historical and Genealogical Society this Saturday for Boston Family History Day. Get answers to your research questions, attend a full day of how-to classes, and get hands-on tips for taking your family history further than ever before. Pre-register for the event (just $38 for the day) through Tuesday night or register at the door day of show. Learn more at www.familyhistoryday.com.

See you there.

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We’ve got a host of announcements in this week’s roundup:

• If you can’t find your ancestors in the 1910
  US census on subscription site Ancestry.com, you might want to give it another
  try. Ancestry.com has updated the collection with new images and an improved index
  that includes more alternate names. The updated index combines the old index with
  a new one keyed from the new images. Read
  more on the Ancestry.com blog.
  

• BackupMyTree, the free genealogy file back-up
  service that debuted
  last month, has added support for Reunion for Mac. Although the BackupMyTree
  software still works with only Windows, users of any operating system can manually
  upload files—now including Reunion files—through their web browser. Next week, BackupMyTree
  will add support for The Master Genealogist software, as well as a feature that allows
  users to include and exclude files in bulk.

• Genetic genealogy testing company GeneTree is offering
  two new services designed to help you maximize your genetic genealogy testing efforts.
  If you buy a DNA Makeover report ($14.95), GeneTree staff will translate your
  Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA results from another lab into a GeneTree profile.
  For the Family Tree Diagnostic Service (also $14.95), a GeneTree consultant
  will review your family tree to find relatives you should consider having tested and
  what tests they should take to help you achieve your research objectives.

• Leland Meitzler, organizer of the Salt
  Lake Christmas Tour annual research trip to Salt Lake City, announced that
  genealogy technology and social networking expert Thomas
  MacEntee will present eight classes during this year’s tour. A few topics are
  Building a Research Toolbox, Facebook for Genealogists, Build a Genealogy Blog, and
  Twitter: It Isn’t Just “What I Had For Breakfast” Anymore. The tour takes place Dec.
  5 through 11, and you
  can register here. 

• The Pennsylvania
  State Archives will close from Monday, Oct. 18 through Feb. 3 of next year
  for renovations. The $250,000 project will expand and modernize the lobby and public
  research areas. (Plans are still in place, though, to eventually replace the facility,
  which has water leaks and lacks environmental controls and fire suppression system.)
  Staff will continue to respond to telephone, e-mail and postal inquiries during the
  closure. You can download
  the press release as a PDF from the archives’ website.
  

• Remember to register for
  our free, beginner-oriented 10 Steps to Discover Your Roots webinar, taking
  place tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 16) at 2 pm Eastern Time. You’ll get a confirmation
  e-mail with a link to log in and instructions on how to participate in the webinar.
  (I suggest logging in several minutes ahead of time in case your computer needs to
  make any updates to watch the webinar.)

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Are you (or is someone you know) somewhere near the starting line of a genealogy journey?
Especially for you, we’ve put together a 132-page getting-started “bookazine” guide
called Discover
Your Roots.

Articles cover everything you need to know when you begin your family history search:

• filling out forms
• calculating cousin relationships
• myths to avoid
• choosing genealogy software
• using popular websites
• researching at the library, courthouse and cemetery
• using genetic genealogy

… and more. (You can see
the whole list of articles at ShopFamilyTree.com.)

The guide also has a starter kit of 14 essential genealogy forms, plus a decorative,
fold-out family tree you can fill in and frame. Even better, your purchase includes
several money-saving bonuses:

• a seven-day free membership to Family Tree Magazine Plus
• a seven-day free trial to genealogy records site Archives.com
• $25 off a Family Tree University course
• 15 percent off a purchase at ShopFamilyTree.com

See page 1 of Discover
Your Roots for details on redeeming these discounts.

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This just in: the October 2010 Family Tree Magazine podcast is now available
for listening! Here’s what host Lisa Louise Cooke has in store for you in this episode:

• Allison Stacy, Family Tree Magazine’s publisher and editorial director, fills
  you in on Family History Month events

• Genealogy expert James M. Beidler provides history and research tips from his article
  “Trace Your Scots-Irish Roots” in the December
  2010 Family Tree Magazine. 

• Get started paring down your collection of papers with tips from online editor Grace
  Dobush on what to keep and what to toss.

• Lisa and I talk about Ancestry.com’s acquisition of iArchives, Footnote.com’s parent
  company, and some questions genealogists are asking.

• Researcher and author Lisa A. Alzo gives you tips for exploring your ancestor’s international
  origins from her Family Tree University class Tracing
  Immigrants: How to Research Your Family’s American Arrivals.
  

You can listen to the Family Tree Magazine Podcast in iTunes and on
FamilyTreeMagazine.com. You can get
the show notes on our website, too.

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Ancestry.com’s Anastasia Tyler and The Journey Takers author Leslie Albrecht
Huber appeared
on “Good Morning America” today to talk about Ancestry.com’s most recent celebrity
roots announcement: President Barack Obama is 10th cousins on his mother’s side with
two of his biggest political critics, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

As Huber says in the clip, if you can trace your roots to colonial New England, you’re
likely related to all kinds of well-known people. Although most genealogists realize
10th cousins isn’t a big deal (it means the most recent common ancestor is a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent),
it’s fun to see genealogy make an appearance in the national media.

You
can watch the video on the “Good Morning America” website.

Read
the Ancestry.com announcement about the Obama-Palin and Obama-Limbaugh connections
here.

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Thanks to everyone who entered our drawing
for Family Tree Magazine’s 2011 desktop calendars, both here on the blog and on
Facebook.

Congratulations to the winners! Here are their names and their genealogy to-do list
items:

• Peter Scarborough, proud soon-to-be owner of the 2011
  Family Tree Magazine Genealogy Desktop Calendar: My goal for 2011 is break a brick
  wall in my wife’s family by finding the surname of her great-great-great-grandmother.
  This has eluded us for many years.

• Marisa, proud soon-to-be owner of the 2011
  Civil War Desk Calendar: My goal is to get old photographs scanned! I want to
  keep copies in their corresponding “people” folders and also add them online so far
  away family members can enjoy them.

• Rebecca Morgan Kinnie, proud soon-to-be owner of the 2011
  Grave Humor Desk Calendar: I want to determine if my great-great-grandfather actually
  died while fighting in the Civil War, or if he deserted. This would explain why he
  was named the father of my great-grandfather, who was born eight years after he supposedly
  died!

Peter, Marisa and Rebecca, please e-mail
us your mailing address by next Tuesday, Oct. 19, so we can send your calendar.

If you’re not Peter, Marisa or Rebecca and you want your own calendar, you can use
the discount code HISTORY10 to get 10 percent off the calendars at ShopFamilyTree.com.