Motivation Monday: Let's Change the World, One Document at a Time

Remember the old slogans used in the past to start a movement?  Remember "Feed The World" or "Yes, We Can"?  Perhaps, now is the time to start changing the world of genealogy in how items are placed online.

Recently, I wrote about finding a new cousin only to see his family tree was what I had worked on with other cousins.  If you missed it, read it at http://genitalesga.blogspot.com/2012/08/thankful-thursday-seek-and-ye-shall.html . 

Have you ever wanted to reach out and strangle all the family seekers who just clone the information they see online?  I know I have.  I've been known to email folks who have taken my information or my writings and asked them to please, pretty please source their information.  Some have taken the hint and others have just ignored my pleas.

Many sites online do say they haven't documented the information found.  To me, that is like buying a house or car unseen.  How many people willingly do that? 

In writing the post on Seek and Ye Shall Find, Maybe, I was pleased to see the comments sent on this subject.  (A big thank you to those who sent them.)  One of the comments from Katherine suggested Ancestry and those other sites ask for sources.

I love the idea, but I'm not sure how it could work or if they are really interested in documentation.  It would be a big project for all family researchers to source the information.  Perhaps, there could be a separate tier for those genealogy buffs who are true researchers and document their information.  Maybe something like Family Trees Plus or Sourced Trees.  It shouldn't be too difficult to program a section for documentation or sources, especially for the old pictures.

Perhaps, we should start a ground movement to those sites who have genealogy information, like Ancestry or Find a Grave,  to create a separate tier.  Thoughts, anyone?

Ahh, genealogy.  As for me, I will look at the information placed online by others, but will only include it in my information if it has been sourced.  Or better yet, only if I can trace their sources.  Just call it being curious, or is it the scientist in me?

©2012 AS Eldredge

Thankful Thursday: Seek and Ye Shall Find, Maybe

Ever remember playing hide and seek as a child?  It appears to me that genealogy and searching for our beloved of old are similar to that favorite childhood game. Yesterday, after writing the post on Uncle Charles, I found the name of one of his children online.  There wasn't much information given other than the name and approximate year of death.  Holding my breath, I emailed the owner of the private tree and asked if she was the one for whom I was searching.

The reply came back later, and she was.  After eagerly accepting the invitation to view the private tree, I saw no new documentation.  I added a few pictures and obits to the tree and asked for any documentation.

My newly found cousin has informed me he received the maiden name of a grandma from his grandma which led him to the family tree that I assisted in putting together with another cousin.  And then, I see information which also appears to have come from yet another cousin who I assisted with her research.

While I am sure this is my guy, I am also disappointed not to have unearthed any more documentation.

So, I am thankful to make another connection to my great grandmother through her brother, but strangely disappointed that the research used is my own.

This seems to be a recurrent issue in the world of genealogy.  Family seekers sniff out the information on the internet without going through the extra work of documenting it on their own.  Of course, my big irk is when I see blogs I have written placed as comments on other people's trees with no acknowledgement as to the origin of the data.

Be a great family seeker.  Look at the internet information and use that to begin your search.  Use the information to go back and document everything you can.  Help fill in the gaps.  Make the corrections.  Credit the folks who provide information by using their url and name.  Love knowing you have family members to discover.

Ahh, genealogy.  Got to wonder how many people just clone the information and just don't care.  As for me, I try to document everything and love making connections to family of the past.  Who knows when a favorite recipe or story of old will come to light?  I have been fortunate over the years to have heard stories from cousins about my direct bloodline that help bring them to life.  That is my goal and the willingness to share stories of the shared past makes me thankful everyday.

©AS Eldredge 2012

Madness Monday: Decorating the Tree with Borrowed Ornaments and Nuts

The holidays are here and our memories and houses are aglow with the traditions of our ancestors.  What do you do when an over eager family seeker decides to go nuts and publish undocumented lines as your blood?

Recently, a very nice lady contacted me through a documented cousin of mine and asked for some information on the family.  While she and I share no blood, her grandchild does have several drops of my blood flowing in his little veins.  The lady was excited to try and find information on the family so she could put a book together for the little guy.  Super, I thought.

Until I saw what she decided to publish.  She apparently looked at one census and found the name of a young lady (my great grandma) in question in a family and adopted that family as hers.  Arrrggghhh.  Another fairy tale!

She did not seek to try and verify the family as the right family for the young lady in question.  In fact, she chose the wrong family with the same surname living in the next county as mine.  Nope.  Sorry.  Wrong.

I sent her an email and suggested she look at the documentation for the family she chose as mine to see if she was really right.  When I was a newbie, I had looked at that family and found evidence they were not mine.  I used wills, family photos, family Bibles and land deeds to support what I found.

Unfortunately, that didn't set well with her fairy tale and she decided to ignore me.  Now, there's another line that will go on thinking they have blood they don't.

This is not uncommon as Ancestry allows anyone to post anything without documentation.  As I have said before, Ancestry trees are just fluff unless you can put some meat on those bones.

A professional genealogy buddy of mine recently commented on this very subject as another avid genealogy buff lamented on fact vs. fiction in trees.  With her kind permission, I have included her thoughts on the subject......

Being a professional genealogist,  I have dealt with this type of situation and it can be very touchy. You  do not want to discourage an exchange of genealogical information that  may be beneficial to you but, at the same time, you do not want to have your hard-earned research used in a errant way by
someone else.

Below is a list of suggestions to help weigh the merit of sharing your genealogical research with someone you don't really know.

    1. As  the requester, I feel the asking party must prove how they are     
related to me and I have to be satisfied that they are correct.  If  I have any
doubt of their motives, I discontinue contact.
    2. I do my own basic research on what they provide to see if I feel it is
correct.  Request a few of specific source/citations or a few copies of
original documents and see if you can  find that information yourself.  If     
they refuse or are not willing to provide a little bit of specific
documentation, I  discontinue contact.  If I find definite evidence that the     
requester is barking up the wrong tree, I will gladly send what I find     
source/citation, documents and all, so hopefully, they will take that and     
continue down the correct path.
    3. Put a copyright disclaimer on any information you send to someone
else.  This provides you with some protection if your research is used     
erroneously for profit without going through the proper procedures.  Many times
a copyright disclaimer will make the receiving party think twice about
using your information without your permission.
    4. Sometimes you have to be blunt.  If you feel the person's research
is wrong and they insist they are part of your tree, inform them of the
discrepancies you see in a generalized fashion, i.e. I do not have record
of my ancestor being in Ohio during that time frame or this ancestor  would
only have been 10 years old at that time so she is probably not the     
mother.  Ask them to prove you wrong.  If they are a true genealogist,
they will appreciate the truth.  And if it proves to be your missing link,
you will benefit.  But again,  use caution.   Make sure you see  good,
sound genealogy methods and documentation in their research.  If not, steer
clear.
    5. If someone tries to publish a genealogical work without
source/citations and original documents, no  editor worth their salt is
going to touch their project.  If they self-publish for profit and you  have
used the copyright disclaimer on your research, you could have an attorney go
after them.  If they self-publish for their own use, there isn't much
you can do.
    6. My final point is to be careful what genealogical information you
supply to someone else, even if you are related.  DO NOT ever give out or     
post personal information on living individuals.  There are persons out there
that have been victims of identity theft because an unaware relative posted
their personal information on the Internet in a family tree.

Hope this helps,
Pam Nixon

Whispers From The Past
Family History Research Service
Westland, PA  15378-0008



Ahh, genealogy.  Sometimes, you just have some nuts on the tree with your beautiful ornaments.

©2010 AS Eldredge

Ancestry Day in Atlanta Scheduled for September 18 at National Archives

The following is a blurb sent out by Ancestry.com and by the Afro-American Genealogy Society, Metro Atlanta Chapter.  Looks like it could be a fun day!

Saturday, September 18, 2010
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA South East Region),
5780 Jonesboro Road; Morrow, GA 30260

9:00am–4:00pm (doors open 8:30)
$10.00 Registration includes a box lunch at noon.

Free parking, seating is limited.

Presentations:    - Getting the Most from your Ancestry.com Membership
- Online Member Trees: Ancestry's Powerful Tool Keeps Getting Better
- Ancestry World Archives Project and You
- African American Collection at Ancestry
- Southern Claims Commission Records (Presented by Reginald Washington from the National Archives - Washington, DC)

Have you seen recent TV shows focusing on family history? If so, you may be wondering how you can get started on your own family history. Or you may be a long time user of Ancestry.com and are wondering how to get more from your membership. Register today to attend our Ancestry Day in Atlanta and learn about the premier family history website from a true insider.

Sponsored by: The Afro-American Genealogical Society Inc., Metro Atlanta Chapter (www.rootsweb.com/~gaaahgs) in partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) South East Region (www.archives.gov/southeast/) are excited to host Ancestry.com at this event!

Your presenter, Lisa Arnold is a content manager for Ancestry.com and has been involved in genealogical research, teaching, and lecturing for more than 15 years. She holds a B.S. in Family History from Brigham Young University and is currently a Master's Degree candidate at the University of Limerick. From the Philadelphia area originally, she is the former Director of the Family History Center in Valley Forge, PA, and author of "Finding Your Quaker Ancestors". Lisa is the Chapter Coordinator for her local chapter for the Association of Professional Genealogists and is the proud grandmother of 5 (and counting!).

--

Ahh, genealogy.  Live the life.  Love the life.

First African American in Georgia to be Inducted into National Society Sons of the American Revolution

Last winter, some 200 Americans gathered for the first Sons of the American Revolution Grave Marking for a black man in Georgia.  Black men and women did provide service to the colonies during the time of the colonies' quest for freedom from England.  If I recall correctly, some 20,000 black men served during that time.  Some were slaves who served in the place of their owners.  Others were slaves who were promised their freedom if they fought.  Still, others were free black men who chose to fight. 

Click here to read more of the grave marking for Austin Dabney.

It is more of a task for the descendants of black patriots to prove the early lineage lines due to a lack of documentation.  Michael Henderson's patriot was a French National who had a relationship with a former slave in Louisiana.

Ahh, Creole genealogy.  Now there's a fun look into different bloodlines. 

The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com. 

The following announcement was written by the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution:

Atlanta, GA (June 15, 2010) -- On Tuesday, June 29th at 11:30 a.m., history will be made as the first African American in the state of Georgia will be inducted into the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution (NSSAR). In a ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol, Lieutenant Commander Michael Nolden Henderson, a retired U.S. Naval Officer and graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, will be acknowledged by induction into the Button Gwinnett Chapter, the Georgia Society SAR for his efforts in tracing his Louisiana Creole ancestry to an American Revolutionary War patriot.

Michael N. Henderson, USN Retired

Henderson, a native of New Orleans, La. who currently lives in metro-Atlanta, discovered his unique lineage while researching his French ancestry. His fourth generation great-grandfather, Mathieu Devaux, a French National, served as a militiaman under the command of the Spanish Governor General Bernardo de Galvez, who led troops in several major battles in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. Devaux had a relationship with his former slave, Agnes Mathieu, in Spanish Colonial Louisiana. Henderson is descendent from one of their seven children, all of whom were born free prior to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Henderson first learned of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution in 2006 when Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, discovered his own ancestral link to the Revolutionary War and one year later was himself inducted into the national lineage organization.

"I'm the first in my family to pursue membership in the NSSAR, so the process was especially detailed for me," says Henderson, who had to compile birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as other documents from the 1700s and 1800s to prove his connection to Devaux. "It was truly a labor of love and it's an honor to have my family tied to an American Revolutionary War patriot. I'm proud to be an example to others that they too can be a part of the narrative of America's history."

The story of Henderson's fourth generation great-grandparents and their connection to General Galvez is the subject of an upcoming segment on the PBS series "The History Detectives."

Sweden Family History Soon to be Part of Ancestry.com

The following press release caught my attention.  Since I spend so much time searching in Sweden, I find this of immense interest.  Perhaps, you will as well.

Ancestry.com to Acquire Sweden's Genline.se

Leading Swedish Family History website

26 million pages of family history records, 16th-20th century


Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se.
Total consideration for Genline is approximately US $6.7 million, to be paid in cash at closing. The offer has been accepted by Genline’s Board of Directors but remains subject to approval of Genline Holding AB’s public shareholders and other ordinary course closing conditions.

Genline expects to provide proxy materials to shareholders immediately and hold a Special Meeting of Stockholders shortly to vote on the transaction. Genline trades on the Stockholm exchange AktiTorget under the ticker symbol GENL.

Upon completion of the transaction, Genline will join Ancestry.com’s family of nine web properties globally, which together serve more than 1.2 million subscribers and host over five billion historical records and 17 million family trees containing 1.7 billion profiles.

Genline currently has more than 17,000 paying members with access to 26 million pages of digitized Swedish church records spanning more than 400 years from the 16th to the 20th century.

Josh Hanna, SVP and General Manager, International, Ancestry.com Inc., comments: “The Genline.se transaction, our first international acquisition, represents an exciting opportunity for Ancestry.com to access Sweden’s avid family history community and to provide Ancestry.com subscribers of Swedish heritage in the U.S. and other markets with access to important historical content.

"For Genline members, the millions of US and Canadian records with Swedish relevance will provide many new opportunities to discover North American ancestors."

Mikko Ollinen, Genline AB Managing Director, comments: "We are delighted that Ancestry.com sees the potential of Genline. Together we look forward to continuing to grow our business in Sweden and to making new and exciting historical records, both local and international, available to our members."

Ancestry.com expects to acquire all shares of Genline AB for approximately 53 million Swedish kronor with an adjustment for net working capital. Based on a June 11, 2010 exchange rate of SEK7.94 to US$1.00, the net purchase amount approximates US$6.7 million
Genline’s 2009 reported revenue was $2.4 million. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings release on April 29, 2010.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "appears," "may," "designed," "expect," "intend," "focus," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "should," or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements describing our subscriber base, our activities to enhance subscribers' experience and our business outlook. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements.
Factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and our ability to execute on our business strategy include those listed under the caption "Risk Factors" of the Ancestry.com Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.
We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

"Ancestry": A Poem Published Almost 100 Years Ago

While continuing on my journey in to the past with old Pittsburgh newspapers, my attention was directed to the following poem. Enjoy.

Ancestry
Author Unknown

I was proud of the distinguished ancestry;
Of lineage I made a fad-
Of course, I only read of them,
Knew not even good or bad.
I thought of how William the Conqueror
Brought the head of my house from France:
Ormonde, the duke, whose name I bear,
Who came to Ireland by chance.

What joy if I could discover
That some forbear of mine
Had bravely fought the Caracen
On the fields of Palestine:
But this is a practical age,
And my children, with look intent,
Say, "Pa, you had better forget it-
It'll never bring you a cent."

Just below the poem is the following which is sure to bring a smile to your face:

She Keeps Tab All Right

"I wonder if your sister realizes, Johnny, that during the last three months I have spent many dollars in sweets on her?"
"I'm sure she does Mr Sweetly; that's why she's not letting on she's engaged to Mr. Bigger."- New York Mail

Source: The Pittsburgh Press, Apr 29, 1912

Old newspapers are such a kick- for a smile, genealogy or even just a glimpse into a long ago way of life.