Ancestry Day

Yesterday I attended the Ancestry Day sponsored by the  Historical Society of Pennsylvania and Ancestry.com. You can Try Ancestry.com and get 14 Days FREE!

The event was held in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.  I thought it well worth the admission charge and the trip.  (I live about an hour away.)  Juliana Smith and Lisa Arnold of Ancestry.com gave excellent talks on what is available on Ancestry.com and how to best use it.  Several speakers discussed the holding of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and how to use those. I learned quite a bit and look forward to using it.  And then of course it was good to be in a room with several hundred genealogists.

 I have been using Ancestry for several years and still learned more about it. I would guess a newcomer to Ancestry would learn quite a bit too.  I am a new member of Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  So it was good getting on overview of some of their holdings.

Thomas Allingham Sracreeghan, Killasnet Parish, Co. Leitrim, Ireland

I've been trying to figure out this family.  Ruth Allingham is my 2nd great grandmother and I know many of her descendants but certainly not all of them.  Her father Thomas would be my third great.


Thomas Allingham was born in about 1798 and was a farmer in Sracreeghan, Killasnet Parish, Co. Leitrim, Ireland. This part of the parish seems to also have been called Glencar or Glenlough. He had 3 children that we know of but I think there must have been more. Elizabeth Allingham was born about 1826 and married John McBrien around 1861. Ruth Allingham was probably born in the 1830s and her marriage to Matthew Greer is discussed on my Greer page . John Allingham was born in 1861 and by 1883 had moved to Miltown Malbay, Co Clare (some records spell it Milltown Malbay).

Thomas Allingham died on 2 Aug 1883 at age 85 and was a widower. His son John was present at his death in Sracreeghan (or Sracreghan). John's residence is given as   Milltown Malbay, Co Clare on the death certificate.

What I do not know is if there were more than 3 children. I also do not know if all 3 of the known children had the same mother.

John Allingham was a constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), later a Sergeant in the RIC, and then a Clerk of the Petty Sessions. He married Sarah Martin of Dublin (while a constable) and they had at least 6 children (Florence Elizabeth, Robert Carson, Annie E., Eveline Mary, Dorinda Jane, and Edward Victor). Robert Carson Allingham and Edward Victor Allingham were casualties of WWI.

As of now, I think John Allingham enlisted in the RIC in 1879 in Leitrim, was promoted to Sergeant by 1893, and retired from the RIC in 1904. In 1904 he was elected Clerk of the Petty Sessions in Miltown Malbay. Census records show his family in Miltown Malbay, Clare in 1901 and 1911.

A good source for Allingham information is RalphInLA's Allingham pages. More information about John Allingham is on his Find A Grave Memorial.

I would like to hear from anyone who might have information on any of these Allinghams.

More about volunteer indexing

A few weeks back I wrote about volunteer indexing at Family Search. Family Search provides a wonderful free resource to the genealogy community by providing free access to many of the records held by the LDS. By the way, here is my post earlier this month.

Now that I've done a few sets of records. I can tell you a bit more about my experience. As I said then you can do it at home on your computer. It involves installing a small program from FamilySearch and that it easy to do. They start you off with some small batches of fairly simple records. You download an image of the records to be indexed.

Then when you are ready, you get to choose from a variety of projects with various levels of difficulty assigned. So far I've stuck to beginner records and there are several ongoing projects at that level. They are not hard but sometimes the handwriting is difficult to decipher. If you consider a batch too difficult or unclear, you can return it.

My understanding is that 2 indexers do each record and if they disagree, a third more experienced indexer looks at the record. So I don't worry that if I am wrong on something, the index will be wrong. My work is checked one way or another.

Last week I looked at 1871 English census records and at WW1 draft registration records.

This is a great way to contribute a little bit of time to make it better for all of us in the genealogy community.

Indexing at FamilySearch

I decided to do it. For several years now, I've been using FamilySearch. It has been great. I've found census record, births and baptisms, and much more. I have had a paid subscription to Ancestry off and on over the past few years and that has been great too.

But FamilySearch is free and I appreciate it. While on the site looking at all those free records (and there are more each year), I noticed they were looking for volunteers to index. No time commitment. You don't have to say whether you can work an hour per week or 10 hours per week. You don't have to go somewhere to see the records. You can do as much or as little as you like and do it from home.

So next time you are at FamilySearch.org looking at those free records, notice the Menu across the top of the page. Look for the item that says "Indexing" and pick it to learn about the indexing projects going on and how to be a volunteer.

It's easy and painless and your chance to pay-back all the volunteers who have helped index the records you use.