UpFront with NGS: July 2012

31 July 2012

Census Mistakes

Image associated with original blog post

The census is such an important tool to our research and yet all too often, researchers rely on it maybe a little too much! As with ANY document (even those we consider primary ones) there can be errors! A post by Bill Dollarhide on Leland Meitzler’s GenealogyBlog gives us a sense of some of what can go wrong with a census record.

Dollarhide’s Rule #9: An 1850 census record showing twelve children in a family proves only that your ancestors did not believe in birth control.

Census records provide researchers a primary source of genealogical evidence. The fact that names of people and relationships are listed in certain census schedules is all that is needed to make them our most important sources for finding our ancestors. But, too often, genealogies are prepared just from census records and no other source.

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Nevertheless, census records are widely used by genealogists to prepare a record of one’s ancestry. But, census records, unfortunately, are prone to errors. If so, what information can you trust? And, if all you have as evidence of a family is what you have found in a census record, have you really proven anything?

Read the full post for the various ways that census records can be “wrong” or “inconsistent” and what that can mean for your own research.

What are some of the "biggest" or "most humorous" mistakes you have found in a census record? How did you discover them?

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30 July 2012

Getting the Next Generation Involved in Genealogy Societies

Those of us very involved with genealogy are also often very involved in a genealogy society! If we are involved with a genealogy society, at some point or another we have probably been an officer, chaired a committee or volunteered at an event. And, if you belong to the “typical” society of today, you are faced with a dwindling and “graying” membership and scratching your head trying to figure out how to get “new members!”

Elyse Doerflinger, 22, has been involved in genealogy research for 10 years and has created a video (just under 12 minutes) where she talks about involving the “Next Generation” (those under say 35) in genealogy. She provides some really sound advice that applies not only to getting the “Next Generation” involved in genealogy societies and in genealogy research itself.

Do check out her video and also read the comments posted below it on her website.

Has your society taken any particular steps to encourage the “Next Generation” to participate in your local society? Or, conversely, has your society learned the “hard way” what not to do as far as getting and retaining new members, especially the “Next Generation?”

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27 July 2012

New Voices of Genealogy Release: Mary McCampbell Bell, CG

From guest editor, Arlene V. Jennings

The 100^th birthday celebration for the NGSQ continues. Join us this month for a chat with the delightful Mary McCampbell Bell in “Becoming a Genealogist.” Mary shares stories about her inspiration, her learning, her teachers, and the joy and strains her passion for genealogy brought to her marriage.

A future episode with Mary will describe her experiences as a much-appreciated teacher of land platting at national conferences, Samford University’s Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, and the Genealogical Institute of Texas. In it she talks about the influence of one of her teaching colleagues, Birdie Holsclaw, whose posthumous article on land platting, co-authored with Karen Mauer Green, appears in the June issue of the NGSQ. Another segment will tell a poignant story of a family tragedy and the healing that followed.

The video was produced by award winning filmmakers Kate Geis and Allen Moore from an interview by Melinde Lutz Byrne, CG, FASG, co-editor of the NGSQ.

Mary McCampbell Bell, CG, “Becoming a Genealogist,” is now playing for all NGS members at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org. Just log on and follow the link from the home page.

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26 July 2012

DNA enlivens effort to save past

It is always exciting to hear about someone’s success using DNA testing to make “connection” both to family and places!

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) recently published such an article with the subheading “Woman finds she has connection to Orange county historical site.”

CHAPEL HILL -- Sitting at a table at the Outback Steakhouse in Suwanee, Ga., Ernest Dollar insisted on making a brief speech before presenting the envelope – with such a flourish that his wife asked him whether he really had to be so dramatic – to Deardra Green-Campbell.

“Ernie made a big production out of it,” said Green-Campbell, an economic development consultant in Atlanta. “But the truth was, it was a very emotional moment for me.”

Inside the envelope were the results of a DNA analysis comparing her family’s genetic makeup with that of the Hogan family, among the first to settle in Orange County.

The conclusion: a strong indication that Green-Campbell was descended from Harriet Hogan – a slave of Thomas Lloyd Hogan – and William Johnston Hogan, the slave-owner’s white son...

Read the full article.

When looking for a link to the article, I found a companion piece “Woman visits Orange County home of her enslaved ancestor.”

CHAPEL HILL -- Deardra Green-Campbell stood for the first time Wednesday in the home of her enslaved ancestor.

Dirt and cobwebs covered the floor from years of neglect, and the original horsehair plaster crumbled off the wall in chunks.

In the midst of remnants from her family’s past, Green-Campbell broke down with emotion. Tears streamed down her face, and she collapsed into her son’s arms.

“There’s no place I can be or step in this house that she has not touched,” Green-Campbell said. “It’s just overwhelming.”

Read the full article.

Such a priceless journey for this individual and her family.

Tell us of a priceless journey taken by you based on DNA results!

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Bye bye Babel: Breaking language barriers online

Source for image

Thanks to Dear Myrtle (Pat Richley-Erickson) for posting a link on her FB page to the referenced article!

Eventually we all come across an article that is written in a language other than our native language that we desperately would like to know the contents of!

In the genealogical community and elsewhere, those who don’t speak the “native language” of the article, often skip articles not written in their native language and so are missing out on some great and possible vital information about their non-US-born ancestors!

You don’t need to do that! There are many online translation sites like Babelfish, Google Translate, and Bing Translator with others being created and/or improved that make it so very easy for you to get a “rough” translation of the webpage or document’s content or email.

For example, you are surfing using Google Chrome and come across a non-English website. Google Chrome will ask you if you would like for it to translate the page – I typically say “heck yes,” please translate it for me! This has opened the way to so many neat databases (including those found in the various non-US editions of Ancestry).

And, have you not contacted a non-US archive or researcher or genealogy society because you don’t know the native language? Again, I have used online translation tools to craft e-mails and posts for non-English-speaking individuals.

Are they the best-written and grammatically wonderful queries? Of course not! And, do they get the gist of my question across and have I received responses to those queries? Yes. I had a whole dialogue with someone in France where he wrote in “online translated” English and I wrote in “online translated” French and that worked out just fine, though, there definitely were some “funny” turns of phrase

The original article mentioned by Dear Myrtle states ...

According to the translation firm Smartling, native English speakers only represented 27% of the total Internet population in 2011. Yet, 56% of online pages are English-only. So how do we break language barriers online? Well, here are a few tools that can help you browse content in a language you don’t speak – pages of course, but also video and even speech.

Read the full article to learn about some neat translation tools to both allow you to read material you come across and also how you might make your material available by posting and/or creating it in a language more like that spoken by your ancestors than yourself!

Have you recently and successfully communicated with a non-English individual about your genealogy research via e-mail, web post? or successfully navigated a non-English database? Please share your successes and help encourage more of us to not let a little matter of "language" stop us in our pursuit of genealogical valuable material!

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25 July 2012

Using Reverse Genealogy to Overcome Brick Walls

Original Image from Blog Post

Sometimes it’s the seemingly littlest “tips” that have the biggest impact on our genealogical research! This post from last year on Family Tree Magazine’s blog about “Reverse Genealogy” reminds us a technique that many genealogy researchers overlook and shouldn’t!

It’s easy to get tunnel vision when researching an ancestor. But your research is best served by considering your focus ancestor as part of a community. (Emily Anne Croom, author of the best selling genealogy guide Unpuzzling Your Past, call this "cluster genealogy.")

Not only is your great-grandfather a member of his nuclear family, but also of an extended family. When you do reverse genealogy, you go a step beyond him and then research forward, broadening your search to his relatives and even friends. Any of the folks in your ancestor’s “cluster” could have provided him with housing, worked for him, asked him to witness a document or attended his funeral...

Read the full blog post

On a related note, there is a YouTube video of Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak talking about “Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living.”

Have you had a “Reverse Genealogy” success? If so, please share!

Editor’s Note: There is an ongoing course, Reverse Genealogy: Working Forward to Break Down Brick Walls offered by Family Tree University for those interested in pursuing this concept further.

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24 July 2012

Why can’t we all just get along?

Genealogical records access!

Upfront with NGS (and elsewhere) have often posted bits and pieces about access to vital records and we have all probably read or heard tales of trying to access cemeteries located on “private or church lands,” gaining access to records held privately or by church or religious archives, etc.

As genealogists, we are ALWAYS seeking access to records! Earlier this month, the IrishTimes.com posted a piece about the situation in Ireland where records are increasingly becoming more available to researchers and yet the “challenges” Irish researchers still face due to conflicts over ownership issues etc.

by JOHN GRENHAM

I recently had a long conversation with a veteran member of the Irish Family History Foundation, the umbrella group for the heritage centres behind the biggest Irish genealogy website, rootsireland.ie. The sense of outrage and persecution felt by IFHF members is extraordinary. It is largely directed at the Irish public service –civil servants, National Archives, National Library and others. And I had to tell him that, as far as I knew, the feelings were reciprocated, and just as intensely...

Read the complete post.

This situation is NOT unique to Ireland! What current “turf wars” do you feel are most hindering “our” access to material of value to our genealogical research?

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23 July 2012

Why tech can't break the hold on paper

BBC piece that gives a fascinating glimpse into digitizing material – the time and cost and also the benefits ...

The promise we can all go paperless has been around for years so why is it that despite email, smartphones and computers we are all still so dependent on pen and paper?

LJ Rich explores why paper has such staying power in our hi-tech age.

The above video starts with a discussion about the UK Archives and the “cost” and “process” of going paperless. There is also a related piece Is the paperless office possible? that explores this further.

And, Dick Eastman, of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter has long been a proponent of going “paperless.”

What are your thoughts? Will we eventually be a paperless society? Is that good, bad, or not matter as far as genealogical research?

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20 July 2012

Do you have a British Convict sent to Australia in your family tree?

For most of us, the answer is probably NO.

And, given any English heritage, you “might” have a distant cousin who was!

The State Library of Queensland (Australia) has made available The British Convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database which has been compiled from the British Home Office (HO) records. It includes details for over 123 000 of the estimated 160 000 convicts transported to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries - names, term of years, transport ships and more. More detailed information is available about this convict database. You can also find out about the creation and launch of the database.

Is there a British Convict in your ancestral tree? Do share.

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19 July 2012

Rockdale Township woman dives into family history in creating historic quilt

Image from the original article

If only I was creative! Creating photo montages and published genealogies with images are about as creative as I have gotten and so I am always fascinated to read about the “neat” things that others have created to “honor” their ancestors, like Jill Meszaros.

Jill Meszaros thought of her ancestors when she decided to try her hand at making a historic quilt.

Meszaros, of Rockdale Township, near Cambridge Springs, said she imagined what life must have been like for her great-great-great-great-grandparents when they spent parts of seven years apart in the 1810s.

She said she also researched the methods and styles of quiltmaking at the time.

The result of her efforts is a 30-by-70-inch "whole cloth" blue quilt, adorned with the tree of life, that earned Meszaros the viewers' choice runner-up in the Great Lakes Seaway Trail's War of 1812 Quilt Challenge in mid-March...

Read the full article and learn the research Jill did and the “connection” she made to her ancestors through her quilt.

Have you or someone you know created something “neat” to honor your ancestors? It would be wonderful to do a subsequent post with images of hand-crafted items honoring our ancestors. Please send any submissions to [email protected]. Please do send an image and a short statement “about” the special item.

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18 July 2012

For the first time, Rhode Island opens adoption records

Rhode Island is making adoption records available for the first time to adults 25 years or older.

A state law adopted in September, 2011 has recently taken effect, and on Monday [2 July 2012], Governor Lincoln Chafee ceremoniously handed birth records to four adoptees, as dozens more looked on at an auditorium at the Rhode Island Department of Health.

17 July 2012

NGS Announces New Course by Dr. Thomas Shawker: Genetic Genealogy, The Basics

Arlington, VA, 17 July 2012: The National Genealogical Society proudly announces the release of its newest American Genealogy Studies course, Genetic Genealogy, The Basics, developed by Dr. Thomas H. Shawker.

Thomas H. Shawker, MD, is a physician with the National Institutes of Health, a nationally recognized lecturer on genetics, and chairman of the NGS Genetic Genealogy Committee. In 2004 he authored the NGS book, Unlocking Your Genetic History.

Now, Dr. Shawker shares his medical expertise in the six-lesson self-paced course Genetic Genealogy, the Basics. Topics covered in the course include

· the structure of the DNA molecule, how it is organized, how it replicates, and how it functions;

· human chromosomes and how the Y chromosome is inherited;

· the two types of DNA markers used in genetic genealogy;

· haplotypes and haplogroups;

· evaluation of a Y chromosome surname project and a discussion on how to evaluate the test results of the participants; and

· the structure of the mitochondrial DNA molecule, how it is inherited, and how it can be used in genealogy.

The course is designed for independent study. Students check their work with an answer key that immediately follows each self-test. Genetic Genealogy, The Basics is available on a PC- or MAC-compatible CD in a PDF format. The tuition is $45.00 for members and $70.00 for non-members. For further information, or to purchase the course, visit the NGS website at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org and click on the Educational Courses tab.

Please visit the course web page at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/genetic_genealogy for more information.

NGS American Genealogy Studies courses are designed for both beginners and established genealogists who want the convenience of completing their genealogical studies at their own pace in their own home.

Other available courses include:

• American Genealogy: Home Study Course

• Using Federal Population Census Schedules in Genealogical Research

• Introduction to Civil War Research

• Introduction to Religious Records

• Social Security Sleuthing

• Special Federal Census Schedules

• Transcribing, Extracting, and Abstracting Genealogical Records

• Working with Deeds

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists.

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