Steve's Genealogy Blog

The final session I attended at Jamboree 2007 was a panel discussion on Publishing Your Family History with experts Jim McNamara, Loretto (Lou) Dennis Szucs, and Tom Underhill.

Jim McNamara has a background in technical writing and is the British Isles Family History Society – USA Newsletter editor.

Lou Szucs at Jamboree 2007

Loretto (Lou) Dennis Szucs is executive editor and vice president of community relations for Ancestry.com. Some of Lou’s publications are The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy (co-editor Sandra Luebking), They Became Americans, Chicago and Cook County Sources, A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches (with Sandra Luebking), and Finding Answers in U.S. Census Records (with Matt Wright) . 

Tom Underhill is publisher and senior designer at Creative Continuum, a company that designs and publishes short-run books.

Since the format of this session was a panel discussion, the information exchanged consisted of answers to questions from the audience. Q = Question, A = Answer, C = Comment.

Q:  I’ve already written everything. What is my next step?
A:  Decide who your audience will be – who will want to read what you’ve written? Self-publish if the audience will be small.

Q:  But I don’t want to self publish. I want to start at the top.
A:  Most royalty agents don’t want to risk publishing if they can’t make money on the venture. A smaller publisher will give you full control over your book. You will still own the copyright and control, and you can always go to a larger publisher later on.

Q:  Might there not be academic presses that would be interested? Where can I publish my ancestor’s Civil War Diary?
A:  Go to a genealogy society in the area where your ancestor lived. Submit a smaller article to a military magazine first – this may launch an opportunity for a larger article. GuterbergPress.org is a way to self-publish, but you’ll be giving your work away.

Q:  How do I start to write my Family History?
A:  Take a life history writing class. Get a lot of criticism. Go to the Southern California Genealogical Society writer’s group and have them criticize your writing.

C: Think about what made your ancestors’ lives different. What was everyday life like? Read historical fiction to see how other authors paint the setting. Use all five senses when writing. Write about saddling the horse, opening the door. Describe emotions.

Q:  My grandfather wrote a book that is out of print. What can I do with it?
A:  Find out if the book is still under copyright. If it is, you will need the permission of the heirs – the people who now own the copyright – to reprint it. If the book is out of copyright, you can just reprint it.

Q:  How many copies should I print?
A:  Find out where the breakpoint is for cost. It may be less expensive to print the number of copies you need plus 25 extra than it will cost if you print a number of copies and then have to print 3 more.

C:  Nobody is publishing their information. More people should publish and deposit their family history in the Family History Library. If the book needs to be revised later, the author can always print a new edition. The value of loose papers is much less than that of a published book.

Q:  What should I write about? Why would anyone want to read what I’ve written?
A:  I would read what you write because nobody else has your experiences. In two generations, what you write will be ancient history. Wouldn’t you love to have a family history published by your ancestors?

Q:  What’s your impression of print-on-demand services like Lulu?
A:  Books from print-on-demand services are as good as the person who designs the book. Paperback books will not be archival quality.

Q: Â How should I publish transcriptions of county records?
A:  A book version of transcriptions is designed to last, even if most people want a searchable digital form.

Q:  How do people find these family histories?
A:  Publishers promote books to suitable groups.

C:  Don’t trust everything to electronic media. It’s better to save to paper to ensure longevity.

Q:  What advice can you give for indexing a family history?
A:  In an index, more detail is better. An index entry for “Smith, John, marriage”, or “Smith, John, career” is more useful than just “Smith, John”. An entry such as “Smith, John, born 1824” is more useful than just “Smith, John” when many people have the same name. Highlight what you want to index in the text. Don’t trust the computer to index itself.

Q: Â What about citing sources?
A:  Most people don’t read the sources, although sources help to prove the accuracy of the material and may help others find addition information.

C:  Include maps of the time period. Show how things have changed. Draw maps and tell stories.

C:  Some publishers will design, scan, and manage your book. Some require you to do everything on your own.

Q:  I like to write fiction. How can I get my book published?
A:  There are many examples of people who self-published their book, and then the book was picked up by a major publishing house. If you sell 1000 copies of a self-published book, you stand a better chance of being picked up by a major publishing house than if you sell only a few copies.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Suzanne Russo Adams, AG®, the Professional Services Desk Manager for the Generations Network, presented a lecture on “Getting the Most from Ancestry.com”, based on George Morgan’s recently published book The Official Guide to Ancestry.com.

Suzanne Russo Adams at Jamboree 2007

George’s book was certainly popular at Jamboree. The folks at the Ancestry.com booth sold all the copies they brought with them and were directing those looking to buy the book to other vendors.

Suzanne explained that her talk would discuss the purpose of the website, how you can effectively use the site, the location of search tips and a tutorial, and the strengths and limitations of the website and its search engine.

The Ancestry.com Home Page and What’s New?

Upon opening the Home Page of the site, the researcher is presented with a set of search boxes that can be used to search the site. To the right of the search boxes, under the heading “What’s New on Ancestry.com” is a listing of the most recently added content, and within that box is a link to “What Else is New?” Clicking on that link brings the researcher to a whole lot more information on new databases, articles, and enhancements to the site.

Searching Ancestry.com 

There are several ways to search Ancestry.com, depending on what you want to find. For help with search options, one can click on “Search Tips” (found under the “Search” tab) or go to “Help” and type in “Search”.

To search the entire site for a specified name, one can use a Global Search. Ancestry separated the Global Search on the Home Page into four tabs in order to provide specialized search fields for particular records. When searching Historical Records, available search fields are: First & Middle Name(s), Last Name, Birth Year, Birth Country, Death Year, and Death Country. When searching Photos & Maps, available search fields change to Keywords, Country, and Year Range. Specialized search fields for particular record groups makes a lot of sense.

Ranked Searches

Unless the “Exact Match” box is checked, Ancestry.com will perform a Ranked Search, which searches for close matches. Ancestry uses a name authority dictionary to find close matches for both first and last names. In this way, if a researcher enters “Joseph” in the search box, a Ranked Search may be able to find people entered with the first name “Joe” as well as those entered as “Joseph”.

Ancestry ranks names first, and ranks dates and places as a lower priority.

Exact Searches 

Exact Match Searching allows the researcher to specify which search terms must match the index exactly. At the bottom of the search results page is a set of search boxes that allows one to refine the search. By clicking the “Exact Matches Only” check box, only those results that match the search terms exactly will be displayed. The only exception to this exact match feature is a choice to search an exact surname or a set of Soundex matches. Clicking the “Advanced Search” link allows the researcher to specify which search terms must be an exact match and which search terms can be close matches (ranked search, see below).

One item of note when searching Census records is that the birthplace is indexed only by Head of Household.

When searching, the researcher need not enter every piece of information in the search boxes. Sometimes less information will yield better search results.

Alternate Spellings 

When viewing search results, a triangle will sometimes appear next to a name in a Census Record. This triangle indicates that Ancestry.com entered an alternate spelling in the index, because the Census Records were first indexed by Head of Household and again by all names. Sometimes the indexes resulting from these two indexing operations led to different spellings of the names. Both spellings are included in the index. If a user has added a spelling correction, a cartoon “talk balloon” with a yellow plus sign will appear.

As an example, my grandfather’s record in the 1920 US Federal Census shows three spellings: Kostanty Pudgealkoski, Kostanty Niedzialkoski, and Kostanty Pudzealkoski. The first spelling was apparently entered when the census was indexed by Head of Household. The second spelling is the correction I entered when I saw that his name was badly transcribed, and is annotated with a “talk balloon” with a plus sign. The third spelling was apparently generated when the census was transcribed as an every name index, and is annotated with a yellow triangle.

The incorrect transcriptions unfortunately remain attached to the record, and the first incorrect transcription will be the name that appears in the search results. This means that someone searching for Kostanty Niedzialkoski will have to click on Kostanty Pudgealkoski in order to see the correct spelling. In this case, I doubt most people searching for my grandfather would be able to find him in the census, since Pudgealkoski is so far off from the correct spelling. The Ancestry.com transcribers mistook a curlicue at the upper right end of the letter “N” for a “P”.

Wildcard Searches

Another search strategy is to use wildcards to search for names. The asterisk symbol * replaces from 0-6 characters and the question mark symbol ? replaces a single character. When using wildcards, the researcher must specify at least three letters before using a wildcard.

Wildcards can be used for years, too. A search for 187* will search all years for the entire decade from 1870-1879.

Making Corrections and Adding Comments

If a researcher finds an incorrectly indexed record, a missing image, or wishes to add a comment to a record, the Comments and Corrections link allows the researcher to correct misspelled names, add alternate spellings, add a comment, or report a problem with an image. Corrections may take up to 3 months to appear, depending on when the next regularly scheduled update takes place. The original transcriptions will not be removed, but the corrections become searchable by all users . 

Users of Ancestry.com can upload or directly enter their family trees on the site, and link records to the individuals in their family tree. Owners of these trees can edit or delete the trees as they find new information and correct errors . Owners of these trees can specify whether the trees are public or private. If they wish, tree owners can also invite family members to view the trees and can also assign privileges of Guest, Contributor, or Editor to these invited family members, allowing these trees to become a family or community project.

Other Features 

The Ancestry Community permits interactions with other users through Message Boards, Member Directories, and Member Connections.

The Ancestry Learning Center includes many articles, columns, instructions, and excerpts from Ancestry books and magazines.

The Ancestry Store provides an online shopping solution for those who wish to purchase genealogy-related books, CDs, maps, photographs, and gifts.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Susan Kitchens attended the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree as an exhibitor, showing attendees how to record oral family histories using digital tools.

Susan Kitchens and Her Mother at Jamboree 2007

Susan is a prolific blogger who maintains at least three blogs: family oral history using digital tools, 2020 Hindsight, and AuntiAlias & Associates.

One of Susan’s recent blog articles from 13 Jun 2007 talks about an exercise to spot the fake smile. I tried to spot the fake smiles and came up with a score of 10 out of 20 correct. That means I did no better than I would have done by randomly guessing. Susan, herself, scored 17 correct, and Jasia of Creative Gene scored 16 correct.

I’ve been reading Susan’s blogs for a while and if there’s anyone who is qualified to demonstrate how to use digital tools to record oral family history, it’s Susan.

Back in March, I read Susan’s blog entitled Have a video iPod? Get a Belkin TuneTalk. I’d been thinking for a while about buying an iPod so I could listen to podcasts without having to burn the podcast to CD, but I couldn’t justify the purchase just to listen to podcasts more conveniently. After reading Susan’s article, I suddenly had another reason to get an iPod.

When I visit my family, I often interview them about their lives and those of their ancestors. Up until now, I’ve just scribbled everything down in longhand, hoping I recorded everything accurately. I’ve thought about buying a digital audio recorder, but the ones in which I’m most interested are rather pricey. I’ve thought about buying a digital video camera, but I’m not crazy about lugging a digital video camera around with me as I’m flying from coast to coast and from house to house as I visit relatives.

An iPod accessorized with a Belkin TuneTalk seems to be a great option for me. I could carry the iPod and TuneTalk with me in my pocket, and it would always ready for me to use wherever I am.

And so, I recently purchased an iPod Video and, today, I purchased a Belkin TuneTalk. I’ll play with it a bit in the next couple of weeks so I’ll be able to use it confidently during my trip to visit family on the East Coast in July. I also bought a DLO TransPod so I can listen to the content on my iPod through the stereo in my car. So far, everything seems to be working well.

But I’m supposed to be writing about Susan Kitchens, here, not about myself!

Susan is gracious, gregarious, knowledgeable, and genuinely helpful. I was able to speak with her for a while at Jamboree, although she was so busy with the mobs of people at her booth that I actually spent more time talking to her mother!

Susan showed people at her booth the Belkin TuneTalk, but she didn’t have an iPod Video with which to demonstrate. Luckily, I had my iPod Video with me, so I offered the iPod to Susan to demonstrate TuneTalk. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the recording. The TuneTalk records in stereo, can be used with any line-level input such as an external amplified microphone, and has an auto-gain switch to optimize most recording situations. The auto-gain switch should be turned off when using an external amplified microphone or when recording in loud situations.

Susan pointed out that the TuneTalk employs omni directional microphones, and so is not ideal in an environment with a lot of background noise, such as a trade show. Indeed, while the quality of the recording was excellent, I could hear not only Susan and the woman she was interviewing, but I could also hear the voices of everyone else nearby.

Susan also demonstrated recording oral family history using a different setup with directional microphones, in which case the voices of the interviewer and the person being interviewed are isolated from the ambient noise. Quite nice!

Well, I’m now all set to start recording oral family histories in July. Thanks for your advice and help with this, Susan! And it was great to meet you and your Mom!

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

The last lecture I attended in the morning at Jamboree 2007 was “Finding the Women in Your Pedigree” presented by Leland Meitzler.

Leland Meitzler at Jamboree 2007

I was a few minutes late getting to Leland Meitzler’s lecture and couldn’t find an empty chair in the lecture hall. Nonetheless, I found a couple of square feet of empty floor space and enjoyed the lecture from there.

Leland talked about 23 sources to find the women in your pedigree.

1. Marriage records, including marriage applications, marriage licenses, marriage bonds, marriage returns, marriage certificates, and permissions to marry. These records will often list the maiden name of the bride and, if the bride is underage, a marriage consent will list the name of a parent with the parent’s signature.
2. The Family Bible will often be full of maiden names. The most difficult part of researching the Family Bible is finding out who owns the Bible. Typically, the person who has possession of the Bible was often the person who got their hands on it first.
3. Death Certificates are a relatively new invention, and frequently provide maiden names. Unfortunately, the person who provided the maiden name for a death certificate sometimes wasn’t a very good source for the name.
4. Federal Census Records may provide useful information on maiden names if in-laws were living with the family. Sometimes the same in-law will be listed in the census with more than one family, providing information on the maiden name for multiple daughters.
5. State Census Records may provide more information than Federal Census Records since the State Census asked different questions than the Federal Census did. State Census Records may show if a couple was married in the last year and may even provide maiden names.
6. The International Genealogy Index is a source for maiden names, but should be used with caution, since the reliability of user-provided information is sometimes questionable.
7. Cemeteries can show a variety of family relationships. Look at who is buried in the family plot and who is buried nearby.
8. Birth Indexes may provide the maiden name of the mother.
9. State Specific Indexes and Collections such as the Barbour Collection and the Ricker Collection can be a very useful source of maiden names.
10. Surname Files found in nearly every library with a genealogy collection should not be overlooked.
11. Historical Society Questionnaires are another source for maiden names.
12. Obituaries and Death Notices frequently provide the maiden name for deceased women, but may also provide the names of siblings, parents, and other survivors.
13. Cards of Thanks can be a rich source of names, since they often provide the names of everyone who attended a funeral.
14. D.A.R. Lineage Papers and Books are a great source of names for those who can trace their ancestry back to the American Revolution.
15. Funeral Home Records can be a great source of names, especially because funeral homes often have a close association with cemeteries and courthouses.
16. Death Registers in the town hall provide a source of information that frequently precedes Death Certificates required by the state.
17. State Hospitals are often reluctant to release information, but a request from a direct descendant looking for information for medical reasons and the signature of a medical doctor may open doors.
18. Church Membership Records are another useful source of names for tracing the women in your family.
19. Church Marriage Records, like civil registrations of marriage are some of the best sources of maiden names.
20. Church Birth Records may directly provide the maiden names of the mother. The Godparents or witnesses may also be related to the mother and may provide clues to the mother’s maiden name.
21. Pension Files and Bounty Land Files are possibly an unexpected source of information about female ancestors. Sometimes laws changed after a pensioner had died, and so descendants applied for the pension. Women had to provide a lot of genealogical information for her claim. The widow had to provide proof of marriage.
22. Deeds may show family relationships and maiden names.
23. Social Security Applications provide the maiden name of a woman even when the SSDI lists only the married name.

Leland recommended Christina Schaefer’s book for more information (the citation below was automatically generated according to the Chicago Manual of Style at Worldcat.org):

Schaefer, Christina K. 1999. The hidden half of the family: a sourcebook for women’s genealogy. Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Pub. Co.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Drew Smith of the Genealogy Guys Podcast presented a lecture on “What’s My Next Step? The Organized Genealogist” on Sunday morning. When Drew previously presented this talk for a Jewish organization, he titled it “Doing Genealogy without the Guilt”.

Drew Smith at Jamboree 2007

All too often, we find ourselves guilty of having unaswered e-mail, obtaining the same information more than once, being unsure of where we are in our research, and having piles of unfiled papers and unentered data. Reasons we are guilty range from depending too much on our limited human memory, to not having a view of the big picture, to lacking a plan, and to lacking a system to keep ourselves on track.

Drew presented ten ideas on how to keep ourselves organized:

1. Look at everything you already do to stay organized, identify what is already working, and apply those techniques to other parts of your life.
2. Identify your workspace, organize that space, even if you have to make messes elsewhere, and continue to organize and push out further.
3. Identify your activities and group together everything you need to perform those activities.
4. Items you use frequently should be within reach, while those items you use less frequently should be further away.
5. Locate the items you need where you can see them. Use transparent containers, standup file organizers, and wall calendars. Items that are out of sight are frequently out of mind.
6. Identify your goals for the year, break them up into manageable pieces, and make them visible. Review your goals at the beginning of each year.
7. A project is anything that takes more than one step. Decide what your next step is on each of your projects and make a list of these steps to form a “To Do” list.
8. Keep a folder for reminders of phone calls, emails, and orders for which you are waiting. Assign a date to these things and put them on your “To Do” list.
9. Put all incoming materials in a single location. Keep the wastebasket handy.
10. Organize your tasks according to where you need to be to perform those tasks. Check your “To Do” list so you can accomplish tasks for a single location at the same time.

Drew recommended three books for organizational techniques (citations for these books were automatically generated according to the Chicago Manual of Style at http://www.worldcat.org):

Allen, David. 2001. Getting things done: the art of stress-free productivity. New York: Viking.

 

Morgenstern, Julie. 2004. Organizing from the inside out: the foolproof system for organizing your home, your office, and your life. New York: Henry Holt.

Morgenstern, Julie. 2004. Time management from the inside out: the foolproof system for taking control of your schedule–and your life. New York: Henry Holt/Owl Books.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Now that Jamboree 2077 is over, I’m back in San Francisco. Today was another busy day, and I attended five lectures, the first one beginning at 7:30 AM and the last ending at 4 PM.

Creating Hope

I was pleased to be able to meet Schelly Talalay Dardashti who presented a breakfast lecture entitled “Creating Hope”. Schelly is a native New Yorker who now resides in Tel Aviv. She is currently in the United States visiting relatives, attending conferences and giving lectures.

When Schelly proposed to write a column on genealogy for the Jerusalem Post, her editor told her “Who wants to read about dead people?” Nonetheless, Schelly wrote her column “It’s All Relative” from 1999-2005 and now works as a freelance writer . Several of her recent articles including, “Never give up the hope of finding family”, “A tale of three women – and a lost family”, and “Cutting-edge genealogy” can be found online.

When approached to write a blog, she reminded her editor that she was over 20 years old. In its brief existence, Shelly’s Tracing the Tribe has become an enormously popular blog that targets those studying Jewish genealogy yet is relevant to all genealogists.

Schelly described her first forays into genealogy in 1989 when her daughter came home with an assignment to fill in a sheet with information up to her great-grandparents. Schelly noted that her own ancestry included origins in Belarus, with anecdotal evidence that the family arrived in Belarus from Spain, an unusual migration, indeed. Her husband’s family was Persian, where there were no written records.

Despite these obstacles, Schelly set out with her daughter to study those records she could find and, after looking at so many microfilms in their quest to discover their family history, her daughter now claims that looking at microfilms makes her dizzy. Through her research, Schelly has traced both her own ancestry and her husband’s ancestry through Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Iran, and other countries back to about 1740.

Schelly wrote an article for the JTA entitled “Ashkenazi or Sephardi? DNA Unites Jewish Families, but Raises Questions” in which she discusses the DNA evidence for a group of Litvaks and Galizianers who all genetically match Sephardi and Catholics from Spain and Puerto Rico. As Schelly described the groups, if a Litvak and a Galizianer cross the street to avoid each other, it’s a good day, and so the connection was unexpected.

Other information provided by Schelly is that Sephardic genealogy is relatively new, and DNA analysis of Sephardic Jews in Colorado has shown that these people carry the Ashkenazi breast cancer gene BRCA1.

Many Sicilians may have Jewish ancestry since Jews once comprised a large population in Sicily. Although Jews were expelled from Sicily in 1493, many stayed, and so many present-day Sicilians have Jewish ancestry.

Schelly also told a story of a Catholic in Canada who thought that his mother may have been a “hidden child”, delivered by Jews to a Catholic family shortly before the entire Jewish population of that village was removed to concentration camps by the Nazis. Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed a connection to Ashkenazi Jews.

In another story, Schelly explained that the Cohanim gene is carried by less than 1% of non-Jews, since the gene tracks with the Jewish priestly line who didn’t marry non-Jews. A full 30% of the residents of one town carried this gene, although the residents did not identify as Jewish.

As Schelly put it, DNA provides a spark to us to get where we’re going. When you know where you’re from, you know better where you’re going.

Jewish genealogical resources mentioned in Schelly’s talk include: Yad Vashem – the Central Database of Shoah Victims, the Istanbul Jewish Genealogy Project, the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, the Israeli Telephone Company (for which Stephen Morse once provided a portal in English), Litvak on JewishGen, Gesher Galicia, and the general JewishGen website.

When asked why genealogists are so nice, Schelly replied that you have to be nice to everyone, because you don’t know who will have the next piece of the puzzle on which you’re working.

Later this week, I’ll post more about the other Sunday lectures.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

The second day of Jamboree 2007 is over, and what a busy day it was! I was up at 6:45 AM to get ready for the first event of the day. I thought I was on vacation this weekend!!??!!

When I registered for Jamboree 2007, I also joined the Southern California Genealogical Society. I suppose that means that this weekend I’m blogging not only for myself, but also for one of the societies to which I belong!

Effective Society Management

The first event this morning was a panel discussion on Effective Society Management over breakfast. Jana Sloan Broglin, Cath Trindle, and Drew Smith answered questions from the audience on Society Management.

The first question asked “How do you find free speakers for your local society?” The panel reminded the audience that you often get what you pay for, although universities, high schools, law firms, local authors, reporters, other local societies in the area, and society members are good sources of local speakers.

Another question was “How do you get people to volunteer”. The panel advised the audience not to beg people to volunteer, but to show members how they are the best choices for the job, make them feel special, ask them what the like to do, and observe those who show up regularly to meetings, since those members are likely to be more reliable than those who don’t regularly attend society functions.

The panel answered several other questions, though space doesn’t allow me to go into more detail here.

Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins

Lou Szucs began her talk on Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins by asking if anyone in the audience had witnessed a naturalization ceremony. What did naturalization mean to those being naturalized? Often, naturalization is an emotional event for those becoming citizens.

The biggest problem in finding naturalization records is finding the court in which the records are  maintained. Often, the Certificate of Citizenship was very valuable to the naturalized citizen and may have survived through the years in the hands of family members.

Declarations of Intention and Petitions for Naturalization have been microfilmed for some courts throughout the country. The microfilms may be found in the Family History Library or in State Archives. In some areas, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) indexed the naturalization records.

Lou, who lives in the Chicago area, described an example of where the original naturalization records burned in the Great Chicago fire. In that case, she found a document where an applicant reregistered for naturalization, stating “Through no fault of mine, the city of Chicago burned…”

Sometimes, religious records can provide clues to the ethnic origins of ancestors. In one example, Lou explained how she researched an ancestor in the religious records, didn’t find the person for who she searched, but she found records for the siblings of the individual. Using those records, she was able to trace the ancestor to Ireland, and was able to trace the family back further in time using Griffith’s Valuation.

2007 Update on the Use of DNA in Tracing Your Ancestry

Bennett Greenspan, president of Family Tree DNA, discussed the latest information on Tracing Ancestry Using DNA.

Using markers on the Y chromosome, men can trace their paternal ancestry (father-to-father-to-father-etc) directly. Using mitochondrial DNA markers, both men and women can trace their maternal ancestry (mother-to-mother-to-mother-etc).

Family Tree DNA has over 4000 surname projects and hundreds of geographic projects. Each participant can join up to 6 projects. As long as people have signed releases, participants receive reports showing the names and addresses of those people whose DNA matches their own.

Y DNA can point you in the direction of your ancestral migratory path. Mitochondrial DNA results can also point you in the direction of your ancestral migratory path, but also provide evidence for deep relationships or haplogroups.

Family Tree DNA has a relationship with National Geographic. Family Tree DNA has sold 93,000 test kits directly, and National Geographic has sold 208,000 test kits.

Hanging Y Chromosome Data on Your Family Tree

Diahan Southard, a molecular biologist with Relative Genetics, presented a cogent talk on using Y chromosomal DNA in genealogical research.

Diahan showed how analysis of Y chromosomal DNA can be used to sort out questionable family relationships. In particular, she showed how analysis of Y DNA enabled Relative Genetics to sort out family relationships in the Ethington family.

A four step process was used to understand these relationships, using the DNA analysis of several family members.

1. Evaluate the data table. To determine if two individuals hare a common ancestor, simply count how many times the two individuals have different values for the same marker.
2. Visualize the results with a cladogram (haplocation diagram). A cladogram first separates the group of individuals into genetic lineages that includes individuals with no more than four differences from anyone else in the group. For each lineage determine the most common allele at each marker – this is the modal haplotype. Represent each lineage with a circle and connect lineages (circles) with lines to represent a single difference between two lineages.
3. Find the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) by carefully analyzing the mutations observed among the individuals in the study.
4. Compare the genetics data with the genealogical data to determine if the family relationships derived by traditional genealogy are correct.

This is certainly a difficult concept to describe in a limited amount of space here, but it was astonishing to see how analysis of the DNA of a number of individuals who are theoretically related can clearly identify relationships (or lack thereof) even if the traditional genealogical records are ambiguous or conflicting.

Genealogy Resources in the California History Room

Catherine Hanson-Tracy described the Genealogy Resources in the California History Room at the California State Library in Sacramento.

The California State Library has an online catalog that includes a number of genealogically relevant resources including:

• Books: County and local histories, biographies, diaries, guidebooks, cookbooks, novels, business and institutional histories.
• Newspapers: 1846 to the present, more than 2200 titles, at least one major newspaper from every county, over 140,000 microfilm reels.
• Magazines and Journals: more than 4,000 titles, 1856 to the present, scholarly and popular, historical society periodicals.
• Maps: more than 5,000 items, originals and microfiche copies, early city and county maps, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.
• Manuscripts: Personal correspondence, organization records, business records, more than 700 processed collections.
• Pictorial Resources: Over 125,000 photographs, albums, and portfolios, postcards, letter sheets, lithographs, online picture catalog (with an emphasis on Southern California), and a lot of stereographs.
• Ephemera: Posters, promotional brochures, menus, campaign literature, advertisements. Print-on-demand copies of some of these ephemera can be obtained through Zazzle.com.
• Unique Indexes and Files: California Information File, San Francisco Newspaper Index, Biographical Card File, Biographical Information File.
• Directories: City Directories as early as the 1850s, Telephone Directories 1899- Present, originals and microfilm copies.
• Great Registers of Voters: 1866-1944, providing name, address, age, occupation of voters, arranged by county.
• Vital Records Indexes: California marriage and death indexes, Nevada marriage and divorce indexes.
• Census Records: California Federal Census Records, California State Census Records for 1852.

The location of the library is 900 N Street, Room 200, Sacramento, CA. The library is open Monday through Friday, 9:30 AM – 4 PM.

The California State Library supports Research at a Distance with an online catalog, website, online archive, interlibrary loan, and assistance by email or phone.

The California Gold Rush

I have little knowledge of the California Gold Rush, and I’ve never found any connection of the California Gold Rush with my family history. Nonetheless, I decided to attend this lecture by Chuck Knuthson to provide myself with some background on the Gold Rush, primarily to learn more of the local history (I didn’t grow up in California, so even though I’ve lived here for 18 years, my knowledge of local and state history is woefully lacking).

In 1769, California’s first Mission and Presidio were established in San Diego.

For 200 years Europeans thought California was an island, and most early inhabitants arrived by sea.

In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, a war that ended in February 1848, shortly after gold was discovered in California. Mexico ceded more than half its territory, including California, to the United States.

In 1850, California achieved statehood and, notably, entered the union as a free state, rather than a slave state.

On 24 Jan 1848, James Marshall was building a sawmill on the American River for John Sutter, and discovered gold at Cullumah (now Coloma). In May 1848, a merchant named Samuel Brannan stocked up his store with mining supplies, and then ran through the streets of San Francisco waving a bottle of gold dust and crying, “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!” By the summer of that year, there were 2,000 miners at Coloma, and by 1849 there were 10,000 miners.

Early prospectors were called “Forty-Niners” because they arrived in California in 1849. In 1850, 90% of the people in California were men.

When researching records from the Gold Rush, one should apply the same techniques as one generally applies to American Records, tracing ancestry from the present to the past. Some records specific to the Gold Rush include Mining Claims (sometimes called Placer and Quartz Claims), water rights, and mineral rights.

Footnote.com

In the evening, I attended an update on Footnote.com hosted by Beau Sharbrough.

Beau gave a tour of the Footnote.com website, reviewing the organization of the site, the content provided, and the plans for the future.

To be brief here (it’s getting very late and I have to be up again at 6:45 AM), I was impressed by the ambitious goals for Footnote.com and look forward to seeing new content in the coming months.

One clear advantage of the subscription structure Footnote.com has established is that one can examine a low resolution image and the metadata for the image without subscribing. One can purchase a single image at a time, a monthly subscription to all images, or an annual subscription to all images. This pricing structure means that you don’t have to purchase anything until you know there is a document of interest, and you don’t have to commit to a long subscription term.

Look for great new content on Footnote.com in the coming months!

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

The first day of Jamboree 2007 is over and I thoroughly enjoyed my day. I met several old friends and made a few new ones.

State and Territorial Censuses and Substitutes 

The first presentation I attended was on State and Territorial Censuses and Substitutes by Bill Dollarhide. Bill discussed sources that describe the various state censuses available and mentioned a book by Henry J. Dubester, one by Ann S . Lainhart, The Source, The Red Book, and The Genealogy Bulletin. Each of these is good for a particular purpose, and each has its weaknesses.

One of the points that Bill Dollarhide made several times during his talk was that genealogy is in the county courthouse, and the census records can get you to the right courthouse.

Bill pointed out that many census records were lost. Most of the 1890 US Federal Census was lost in a fire, but other census records, such as the 1790-1810 records for Georgia, the 1790 census for Kentucky, and the 1790-1820 records for New Jersey are also missing.

Most states conducted a state census at some time, and the state censuses frequently asked more questions than did the federal censuses. Ancestry.com has started to post digital images of the state census records online.

When census records are not available, other records may be able to substitute for the census. The 1860-1993 Arizona Obituary Card Index, the Florida 1845 election returns, and the 1862-1866 Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for New Hampshire are just some of the available records.

Reverse Genealogy: Finding Your Lost Loved Ones

The second presentation I attended was entitled Reverse Genealogy: Finding Your Lost Loved Ones and was presented by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak . Some reasons one may have to trace relationships forward, rather than backward in time include finding homes for orphan heirlooms, finding missing kin or friends, attracting reunion attendees, finding DNA study participants, and locating of returning family photos and Bibles.

Two different strategies can work to trace families forward in time: Help them find you (Broadcast) and Go find them (Seeking).

Broadcast strategies include posting on message boards and mailing lists, websites, email campaigns, photobases such as DeadFred and AncientFaces. Seeking strategies include adopting a surround and conquer mentality to first find clusters of associated people and then home in on the relevant individuals; starting with the most recently born, those with the most unusual names, and/or a male; going backwards in time in order to come forward; and following the trail of the deceased to find the living.

Megan has evaluated the value of resources to study Reverse Genealogy and mentioned that the relative rank of these resources changes with time. Currently, she ranks the resources as follows

1. Census indexes
2. Online phone directories
3. Online lineage collections
4. Online newspaper collections
5. Social Security Death Index
6. Online state vital records
7. Search engines (such as Google)
8. Other sources such as FindAGrave.com and Interment.net

Bring ‘Em Back to Life – Creating an Ancestor Profile

Drew Smith presented Bring ‘Em Back to Life – Creating an Ancestor Profile. Drew discussed a process to understand our ancestors as real people who lived full lives, rather than just disconnected pieces of information.

Creating a profile of our ancestors can help us to identify how much information we have, identify the quality of our sources, identify gaps in our research, place events in the lives of our ancestors in chronological order, understand why our ancestors may have made certain decisions during their lives, and form the basis for biographies of our ancestors.

To do this, we should locate our ancestors at every possible point in time through census records, land records, tax records, court records, estate records, and religious records. We should learn about other people in our ancestors’ lives, study historical events that may have influenced our ancestors, and study the personal events in our ancestors lives that may have influenced them.

One online resource for placing our ancestors in historical perspective is OurTimeLines.com.

I look forward to tomorrow – an even busier day!

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

I just have time for a short post this morning. I’m off to the 38th Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree and Resource Expo in Burbank for three days of genealogy seminars.

I just installed a wireless network card on my notebook computer just in case the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel has wireless available. The wireless network I installed in my house seems to be working, and all is well with the world.

Friday’s sessions at the Jamboree include a number of well-known speakers. There are several lectures scheduled concurrently, but after much thought, I decided to attend the following:

• Bill Dollarhide – Alternatives to the US Census
• Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak – Reverse Genealogy: Techniques for Finding Your Lost Loved Ones
• George G. Morgan – Bring ’em Back to Life: Developing an Ancestor Profile

After all these lectures, I’ll be at the Conference Banquet listening to Leland Meitzler talk about The End of Life.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko