More...

More...

More...

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.

I am in the 7th great-grandmothers, up to number 591, but I don't know her name. So it's on to number 593: Hannah LAWRENCE (1662-after 1726). [Note: the earlier great-grandmothers and 7th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts].

My ancestral line back through two American generations of this LAWRENCE family line is:

1. Randall J. Seaver (1943-living)

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

18. Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)
19. Sophia Newton (1834-1923)

36. Zachariah Hildreth (1783-1857)
37. Hannah Sawtell (1789-1857)

74. Josiah Sawtell (1768-1847)
75. Hannah Smith (1768-1827)

148. Ephraim Sawtell (1735-about 1800)
149. Abigail Stone (1736-before 1800)

296. Hezekiah Sawtell (1703-1779)
297. Joanna Wilson (1701-1786)

592. Obadiah Sawtell, born 14 September 1648 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 20 March 1740/41 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of 1184. Richard Sawtell and 1185. Elizabeth. He married about 1680 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
593. Hannah Lawrence, born 24 March 1661/62 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died after 1726 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Obadiah Sawtell and Hannah Lawrence are:
* Nathaniel Sawtell (1681-1742) married 1710 Sarah Higginson (1682-1750)
* Elnathan Sawtell (1683-1717) married 1709 Martha Landon (1683-1748)
* Ephraim Sawtell (1685-1768) married 1713 (1) Abigail Farnsworth (1687-1753); married 1755
* Josiah Sawtell (1687-1690)
* Helphzabeth Sawtell (1689-????), married 1706 Hannah Foster (1681-????).
* Esther Sawtell (1690-????), married 1710 Samuel Bowers (1685-????).
* Josiah Sawtell (1691-1752), married 1713 (1) Lydia Phelps (1688-1717); married 1718 (2) Lydia Nutting (1686-1756).
* Zachariah Sawtell (1693-1730)
* Hannah Sawtell (1695-1749), married 1719 Stephen Holder (1687-1757)
* Abigail Sawtell (1697-1787) married 1716 Joseph Parker (1689-1753)
* Mary Sawtell (1699-1766), married 1718 Benjamin Parker (1691-1769)
* Obadiah Sawtell (1701-1749), married 1721 Rachel Parker (1698-????).
* Hezekiah Sawtell (1703-1779), married 1723 Joanna Wilson (1701-1786)

1186. George Lawrence, born 1637 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 21 March 1708/09 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. He married 29 September 1657 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States.
1187. Elizabeth Crispe, born 08 January 1636/37 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; died 28 May 1681 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of 2374. Benjamin Crispe and 2375. Bridget.

Children of George Lawrence and Elizabeth Crispe are:
* Elizabeth Lawrence (1659-????); married 1681 Thomas Whitney (1656-????)
* Judith Lawrence (1660-1713), married 1681 John Stearns (1657-1722)
* Hannah Lawrence (1662-after 1726), married 1680 Obadiah Sawtell (1648-1741)
* John Lawrence (1664-1674)
* Benjamin Lawrence (1666-1733), married 1689 (1) Mary Clough (1669-1695); married 1696 Anna --?-- (1668-1716); married 1716 Elizabeth Coolidge (1671-1718); married 1719 (4) Elizabeth Bennett (1663-1738).
* Daniel Lawrence (1666-1743), married 1689 (1) Sarah Counts (1670-1694); married 1695 Hannah Mason (1665-1721); married 1722 Maud Russell (1676-????).
* George Lawrence (1668-1736), married 1696 Mary Hemenway (1674-1741).
* Sarah Lawrence (1671-????), married 1691 Thomas Rider.
* Mary Lawrence (1671-????), married 1689 (1) John Earl (????-1704); married 1704 Michael Flagg (1651-1711)
* Martha Lawrence (1680-1708), married 1697 John Dix (1672-1726)
* Grace Lawrence (1680-1758), married 1698 John Edes (1680-1721).

Information about the George Lawrence family was obtained from:

* Henry Bond, M.D., Family Memorials: Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown & Co., 1855)

* Emily W. Leavitt, "Descendants of George Lawrence," New England Historic Genealogical Register, Volume 46, number 2 (April 1892), page 149.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver



More...

If you use Google - for any reason - but especially for searching for your ancestors, today's webinar by Lisa Louise Cooke is a must-watch. In fact, I personally feel this may be one of the more important classes you...

More...

This week's helpful and interesting, and sometimes challenging, reader comments (and my brilliant repartee) include:

1) On Dear Randy - How Do I Research My German Ancestors? (posted 21 May 2013):

* Annick commented: "You gave very good advice to Dieter. I am in the same boat, but I am from France with NO one on this side of the pond either. My family doesn't really want to cooperate, so I had to fend for myself. I have found lots of leads on Geneanet (great suggestion), I have searched for blogs like yours in French for tips and tricks on how to research in France over the internet, I have gone to each of the "departements" official sites where I know I have ancestors and searched in their on line records (I am sure the Lander in Germany has some too), I have a world subscription at Ancestry.com which was very disappointing (over $300 for a total of 25 documents with no hope of finding more), I have paid for a membership in the genealogical society of the department where I have the most ancestors and plan on doing it again in another where I have found some leads (advise I got from numerous American genealogy blogs). And I have downloaded loads of great French Google books for FREE to improve my knowledge of my country's history to allow me to place my folks in the proper context. I am learning so much about the past, if not so much about my family, but this makes me happy anyway and it certainly gives a workout to my brain."

* bgwiehle offered: "Your correspondent has 3 major advantages: he knows the language (which helps immensely with older texts and handwriting), he has lived and was schooled in Germany (will be familiar with German geography, history and civil procedures), and he is now in the US (some record-access restrictions in Germany are not applied when looking at the same records in the USA, esp. FamilySearch microfilms).

"Hopefully he has contacts and will find someone with knowledge of his family's origins a couple of generations back. Without a starting place, finding records will be like looking for the proverbial needle. There have been MAJOR population movements in the last 150 years that complicate people's origins in Germany - from the late industrial revolution to the two World Wars to the end of the Iron Curtain and more recent times. Assuming from his query for German ancestors that his family is not Polish, Russian, Turkish, etc. within recent memory (or obvious surname), they might still have been displaced from some other region in Europe.

"Most of the resources you mentioned will be helpful to orient a beginner genealogist. Once past that point, they focus on English-speaking, usually US, descendants of the German immigrants. Even in Crista Cowan's talk on German research last week, the focus was on searching all the US records first - censuses, then naturalizations, then passenger lists, and finally in Germany itself, maybe. Not helpful to Dieter, the new immigrant himself.

"Correction to your point 3): It should not be necessary to subscribe to the World Deluxe subscription at Ancestry.com if only German records are needed - subscribe at the German site, Ancestry.de


"A MAJOR German website that was omitted from your blog post, is GenWiki [http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Hauptseite], which has its own mailing lists, family trees (Ortsfamilienbücher & Gedbas), links to regional genealogical societies and many, many other resources. Many of the sub-domains have multiple language options."


* Ernie Thode said: "I would also suggest the metasearch site
http://meta.genealogy.net/ to get 10 different databases at once, including, among other things, Ortsfamilienbücher (local heritage books), submitted family research, and directories (Adressbücher). This is the metasearch site for the GenWiki that bwiehle mentions, kind of a one-stop shopping site. This is available in both German and English."


* Gary Fredericksen noted: "Great suggestions. I would like to suggest two additional basic sources - 1) Google "Genealogy Research Germany (or any other country) and 2) review what is on Cyndislist. Both of these give good starting places in addition to what you gave."


* Jeff Hodge said: "I just want to point out one of the FamilySearch instructional videos (Randy's list #2). On the second page of that link is a couple of excellent courses in German handwriting. It really helped me with some Bible records figuring out person's names, dates, places, and terms (marriage, etc)."


* Anonymous commented: "If one lives in San Diego County, the San Diego Genealogy Society has a German interest group that meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month, 1:00 at the Family History Center in Mission Valley. Next meeting is June 19. Also Ancestry.com just posted a new video on YouTube about German research."


* Bobbie offered: "I have found good connections on http://www.genealogienetz.de/genealogy.html and http://www.geneanet.org

"There are a number of German genealogy groups in the US, that may be of some help."


My comments: THANK YOU all (and I'm sure that Dieter thanks you too!) for all of the great suggestions and commentary. What a wonderful example of crowd sourcing when the geneablogger has no clue... I completely forgot about Cindy's List! One thing I tried to do for my list was to make it as generic as possible - for most of the items on my list, you could plug in another country in place of "Germany" and get a decent start on researching in that country.


2) On Ancestry.com Changes Search Results Page Format (16 May 2013):




* Nancy Marty noted: "At the moment, I'm frustrated with Ancestry.com's new search format. I had saved a census record several months ago and wanted to go back to see the page before and after it. When I entered the person's name for that census year, it first told me there were too many results to list. Then I added the city, etc. and it couldn't find any results! When I looked closely at my saved document, I noticed the name, Schaufert, didn't have the 'c' in it. Previously, Ancestry would have included that in the results. I had to spell it the same way for it to be included in the results. I checked and nowhere did I have an exact box checked. And the new format didn't give me a column on the right with suggestions of other records for this person. I loved that! So far, I can't say I like the new format and the results of the searches I've done tonight."


My comment: I think that you could have found your previously found record by going to the Shoebox on the Ancestry home page and clicking the "Downloaded and printed records" tab. A "Best Practice" might be to save every record you want to keep to the Shoebox. It's just one more click and could save you lots of time searching for it again.


I don't believe that Ancestry has changed the search algorithms recently, only the search box on the home page. The "Search" tab fields and settings are "sticky," meaning they are set the way you had them the last time you used them. It's possible that your earlier search used settings somewhat different than when you tried recently.


* Sharon said: "The only way I use Ancestry.com is with 'old search.'"


* Diva Donna commented: "I'd been able, thru some huge luck, save a search from the really old search page that I continued to use. I've hated every new search they've come up with.
Now, the only link I had saved, won't bring back that old page, & this new one is worse then the last! It was so much easier for me to find people in the old search!"


My comment: "Old Search" is still there, and still works well, at least on the standard Ancestry site (perhaps not on the Ancestry Library Edition site). You have to go to the "Search" tab, and in the upper right-hand corner, just below the menu ribbon, in very small print, is the "Go to Old Search" link. The "Old Search" home page even has an "Exact matches only" check box.


My guess is (and I have no inside information about this) that Ancestry will eventually discard "Old Search" and everyone will have to use "New Search" (which will then be the next "Old Search" when another search algorithm set is introduced). I don't see any benefit to the current "Old Search" and use the "New Search" with all of its' bells and whistles to find my ancestors.


3) On Surname Saturday - WHEELER (England > Colonial Massachusetts) (18 May 2013):


* T asked: "How do you make the name collage? I would love to do this as a wall hanging for my family."


My response: I did the name collage on http://www.wordle.net. I made the different name sizes by putting 5 entries for some, down to one entry for others.


4) On Amanuensis Monday - Probate Records of Moses Barber (1652-1733) of South Kingstown, R.I. (16 April 2012):


* Susan Cline asked: "Here's a question for all you knowledgeable people. Daughter of Moses Barber and Susannah West was Dinah Barber who married Edward Wilcox in 1716. Born was Martha Wilcox abt 1722 in Westerly, RI. She married Daniel Burdick, 1746 in Stonington, CT. Died in No. Stonington 1815. No record of birth in Westerly Town Hall. No record of marriage in Stonington, and no record of death in North Stonington. Not mentioned in her father's will. Does anyone know anything about Martha Wilcox Burdick? Need for Mayflower connection to George Soule."


My comment: Perhaps someone will read your question and have an answer. Unfortunately, the "Silver Book" for George Soule (#3 in the Mayflower Families Through Five Generations series) doesn't carry the Moses Barber/Susannah West descendants forward.


5) Thank you to all of my readers, and especially to those that make comments on my posts that are helpful, interesting and challenging. I learn a lot from them!


The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/05/...ul-and_24.html


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver




More...

The 2013 Genealogy Jamboree is just around the corner, June 7th to 9th, at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank, 2500 Hollywood Way, Burbank. The Family History and DNA conference is held on Thursday, June 6.

The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree blog has several announcements today:

* Jamboree: Class Selection Survey Now Available

* Free Webinar on June 1 - Sneak Peek at Jamboree

* #SCGS2013 Genealogy Jamboree App Now Available!

* Jamboree: Ancestry Will Scan Your Documents FREE! #SCGS2013

Today, May 24th, is the last day for Jamboree Registration and for reservations for special event breakfasts, lunches and dinners. It ends at midnight PDT, 24 May.

Walk-in registration will open at 7:00 a.m. for the DNA conference on June 6. Walk-in registration for Jamboree will be open at 12:00 noon Friday and at 8:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Registrations are available for each day, and for the three-day Jamboree.

To register online:
DNA and Family History Conference
SCGS Current and New Members
SCGS Nonmembers

Here are some screen shots of the 2013 Jamboree App:

1) The Dashboard:



There are icons for My Schedule, Exhibitors, Maps, Classes, Speakers, Show Documents, Photo Gallery, Videos, Twitter, Friends, Attendees, Downloads, Facebook, LinkedIn and SCGS Library.

I don't have any classes on My Schedule yet, so i'll show that later.

The only Map available to date is a local street map. I expect that a map of the classrooms and the exhibit hall will be added.

There are several Show documents available.

There are no entries yet in the Photo Gallery, Videos, Friends, or Downloads areas yet.

2) The "Exhibitors" icon leads to an alphabetical list of exhibitors:



Clicking on one of them reveals contact information about each exhibitor:


I can click on the "Visited" button after I visit Denise at her booth.

3) The "Classes" icon on the Dashboard leads me to a choice between "Browse by Day" or "Browse by Track:"


I chose "Browse by Day" and went to Friday, and saw the list of classes available by time, class number, presenter, and class title:


Clicking on a Class, more information is provided:


One interesting item I don't recall seeing is the "Class Notes" button on the class item above - I can tap right into the class notes area o my iPhone or Samsung tablet.

However, the class location is not provided yet. I hope that it will be!

4) I added information to My Profile (in the "Friends" or "Attendee" icon, I can't recall!), and was soon added to the list of "Attendees:"


What's missing? There's no "Official Bloggers" list this year, but if bloggers highlight their posts on Twitter they should be found by Jamboree attendees with the App.

The 2013 Jamboree App seems to be updated on a regular basis.

I need to add the "My Schedule" items (I filled out the class schedule survey this week) and then I'll post the classes that I hope to attend each day. I also need to add the App to my tablet.

The SCGS Genealogy Jamboree starts two weeks from today - I sure hope to see many Genea-Musings readers and genea-bloggers there! I'm really looking forward to it. Linda and I will come on Thursday afternoon on the Amtrak train, and return on Sunday evening to San Diego. I am not attending the Family History and DNA Conference on Thursday.

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/05/...s-and-app.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

More...

More...

I asked for reader comments in When Will Legacy Family Tree Version 8 be Available? (posted 20 May 2013) and received several email and several blog comment responses. They included:

1) Bobbie (in comments) offered: "Many of us still have to create written genealogies from our data. I've got a huge one to do. I use Legacy Family Tree because it provides real footnotes that will renumber and can be moved as I edit the text. However what won't change is the numbering system. I want the ability to stop following lines by removing the individuals and have the genealogy renumber itself. Is that too much to ask?"

My comment: An example of what Bobbie would like to have would be useful.

2) Jasia said: "I'm not much interested in Legacy version 8. What I'm interested in is a mobile app from Legacy that runs on Android!"

My comment: And I would like a FREE one that runs on both Android and iOS.

3) Sholom offered several ideas in email:

* The ability to calculate non-direct blood relations are terrific! But there is no option to print out such a relation that makes any sense.


My comment: Sholom illustrates his first point with an example from his database: "Donald Alvey Wallace [752]: John Thomas Van Hart [128637]'s 1st cousin twice removed's husband's 1st cousin 6 times removed's husband's wife's husband's 6th great-grandnephew." The report goes up and down several lines in one straight line list of relationships. The bottom line for me is, that the two persons are not related by blood assuming the research is complete and correct.

* The option to include "old style" or "new style" dates

* The keyword "say" before a date (was born "say 1750"); the keyword "probably" before a date; handling the keyword "between" in a better manner for dates.

My comment: I would like to be able to type the word "say" rather than "about" for a date, since that seems to be the modern terminology for a date guess in the periodical and book literature (e.g., NGSQ, NEHGR, TAG).


Legacy seems to allow some words for dates - about, between, probably, possibly, maybe, after - but not others. "Say" changes to "Est" and "estimated reverts to "Est".

* Handling counties that change jurisdiction better. E.g., Eaton (now Wyoming) County, Pennsylvania -- the program gacks and tells me "there is no such county named 'Eaton (now Wyoming)' in Pennsylvania.

* Is there any reason why "tags" are limited to 10?

* The ability to footnote a date of birth (or any event), and place of that event, separately. There are times when I have one source for the date, and another source for the place.


My comment: I totally agree, and highly recommend that this be included.


4) My own ideas and suggestions:


* It appears to me that Legacy does not have a Description field for places that could be used for cemeteries, hospitals, addresses, etc. It also "loses" those descriptions when it imports a GEDCOM file with descriptions.


* Legacy creates Evidence! Explained quality sources pretty well. I hope that they "sign on" to the FHISO effort to standardize data transfer between software programs, online trees, and other sites.


* It appears to me that Legacy checks only County creation dates, and doesn't check Territory/Province/State creation and change dates, or Country name changes (e.g., German states before 1871). There are towns that have changed names also. I don't know how best to implement this, but it's one of the problems that I'm bothered about, since I've chosen to use modern geolocations which include modern names of towns, cities, counties, states, provinces, countries, etc.


I don't think I want to be entering my colonial place names like Sholom suggests - my classic one is Raby (now Brookline), no county (now Hillsborough), Province of New Hampshire (now New Hampshire), British America (now United States). Perhaps the software companies can add a table of some sort for each location that has a list of the correct jurisdictions between two dates, and then pick the correct jurisdiction to print based on the event date. An alternative would be to permit users to add historical jurisdictions and then link them to a modern place name and location. My stopgap is to note the record repository and historical jurisdiction in my notes.


* It is difficult to find out how to create and print some reports. For instance, a Relationship Chart that shows how two persons are related can be created by going to Tools > Relationship Calculator > select two persons to create chart > select Print button to see the chart. That works, but it is not in the Reports menu. The directions are in the Help menu.


* I would love to see the capability to create a book or a report (with an index and table of contents) with embedded word processor Field codes. That way, the user could edit the resulting report or book (e.g., do what Bobbie wanted - eliminate extraneous families from the work) and the table of contents and index would adjust in the word processor.


* The Research Guidance features needs to be updated. For instance, in the Preliminary Survey list, there are only six Lineage-Linked databases listed, and none of them are newer than ten years old. In the Suggested Sources, many more resources are now online (e.g., the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915).


* The Source, Information and Evidence Quality should be added to the Source Detail box following the Evidence! Explained guidelines. However, I really like the Surety Level feature and wouldn't want to see that disappear.


* I would like to see color coding of family lines, and have them be available in reports and charts. I would also like to see more use of color on the standard charts - e.g., the pedigree chart.


* Synchronize with FamilySearch Family Tree such that names, dates, places, events, sources, notes, images, etc. can be added easily.


4) We don't want much, do we? The fact is that Legacy Family Tree has so many features that it is almost impossible for an advanced user to remember them all, and it's impossible for a new or casual user to remember them all. The Help button is my friend.


If readers want to contribute more suggestions to Legacy Family Tree for Version 8, please add them to comments to this post and I'll add them to the wish list above.


The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/05/...ly-tree-8.html


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver



More...

More...