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.

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.

Archibald Greer - Occupation

I was looking at Matthew Greer's Marriage certificate which I wrote about yesterday. And I was trying to read his father's occupation. Here is a the part of the marriage certificate that has that:>

It looks like Rank on Professor Farmer. So does that mean he is a Professor and a Farmer or a Professor of Farming. Or perhaps it says he is a Professional Farmer. If so, how does that differ from an ordinary farmer (see Thomas Allinghams's entry).

If anyone wants to see the whole certificate, here it is. Because my scanner was smaller than the paper,it is in 2 overlapping pages. Oddly, the last column is not supposed to be occupation but that seems to be what is there.

Any suggestions welcome.

Matthew GREER of Sligo, Ireland - son of Archibald GREER

Matthew GREER was probably born in Scotland around 1816. The first we know of him was having a child in Scotland. But he later lived in Ireland and it is certainly possible that these Greers were living in Ireland but Matthew had moved to Scotland for some reason and then moved back.

William GREER was born c 1849 in Scotland according to his death certificate. William's mother was Jane BURKARD and his father was Matthew GREER.

Next thing I know, Matthew is a widower, living in Sligo, Ireland and getting married again. (I assume that Jane had died but there certainly are other possibilities.)

On 23 Feb 1854, he married Ruth ALLINGHAM of Glencar in the parish church of Glenlough, Co Leitrim. He is listed as a shoemaker on the certificate. His residence is Sligo. He is listed as a widower. His father is listed as Archibald GREER. Ruth's father is Thomas ALLINGHAM a farmer in Glencar. Glencar lake straddles the Sligo / Leitrim border. It is close to the road from Sligo to Manorhamilton.

Unfortunately the marriage certificate just listed both Matthew and Ruth as being of full age. So I have nothing that indicates when Ruth was born. And only an estimate of Matthew's birth year from his a death certificate.

I have a death certificate for Matthew who died 29 Jan 1875 which gives his age as 58. On the certificate his residence is Ballinode, Sligo and his occupation is letter carrier. Both that residence and occupation are also found in birth certificates of his children.

The known children and birth dates are: John (c 1860), Jane or Jennie (c 1861), Elizabeth or Lizzie (16 Oct 1862), Letitia (27 April 1866), Sarah (30 March 1868), Ruth (14 Jan 1870), Rebecca (29 Aug 1872) Matthew (24 Sept 1874).

I’d love to hear from anyone who think they may be connected to this family or has answers for either of these questions:

1. Leticia’s 1866 birth certificate gives place of residence as Ballinode Cottage in the Parish of Calry. Has anyone heard of Ballinode cottage?

2. The child Matthew birth certificate shows a residence of Rath Quarter, Sligo but the death cert of the father is 4 months later and shows a residence of Ballinode. Looking at a map of Sligo it looks like these 2 places are close together but not the same.
Is it more likely that: they lived in Ballinode for the births from 1866-1872, moved to Rath Quarter for the 1874 birth and then back to Ballinode; OR the places were very close together and Ballinode and Rath Quarter may have been used for the same place?

Still Learning? see my Irish Genealogy Tips

Irish Genealogy Tips
These tips just point you in the direction of some good resources. In your case some may be helpful and some not so helpful.

1. Maybe someone has already done a good bit of work on your family but you don’t know it. Perhaps a third or fourth cousin you don’t know. Or there might be some people searching the same surname who are not closely related but may have some advice. One way to check that out is my  Irish surnames page

2. There are also mailing lists where you get emails on a topic which could be a surname or interest such as Irish genealogy or even as local as Co Limerick genealogy. Maillists work by sending a copy of each message to posted to all subscribers. Some lists are very small and some are large.
Generally on lists, it is good practice to subscribe and then just read messages for a week or 2 before you post. Get a feel for the list. And read the welcome message you get when subscibing. List owners often describe the type things that are allowed and not allowed on their lists. Mail lists are a very powerful way to get your message in front of many people who may be able to help. Make a good first impression. Learn the types of things that are unacceptable on the list, how people ask questions, etc.
Many lists are hosted by Rootsweb. You may want to check out the Rootsweb Maillists. There are 2 search boxes and you can search the archives for a name or term of interest. Or search for a maillist (Find a mailing list) by keyword. The keyword Ireland pulls up about 200 mailing lists out of the 30,000 or so lists at Rootsweb.

3. There are also many websites with good information.  See the web version of this for a list

4. This relates to all above. Let others know the names you are searching and the questions you have. Maybe you’ll find someone or someone will find you and they may know more (or less). The real power of the internet is not the records you’ll find online. There are some but not that many. It is the person-to-person sharing that goes on. It may be on very general matters or very specific but it only happens when people know about each other. Participate in a maillist list if you want. Also leave queries and register your surname interested when you can. You might want to explore Rootsweb. They have a very large web site with all sorts of resources. They are the online home of many genealogical societies (including the IGSI) and host many mail lists. And among many things you will find the the world’s largest surname interest list.

5. There is an amazing amount of information on the internet, most of it free. Just look at my search page for more information on searching options.

Most all of it’s a hobby (although it borders on obsession in many cases) so enjoy it.

Jack

Surname variations

Improper spellings and recordings of surnames are frequent. The results can be confusing and misleading. Although this is a common problem in Genealogy, and Irish Genealogy, I'll give an example for my name (Reidy) which may be more or less confusing than some.In various family records I've seen the name spelt as Reidy, Riedy and Ready. 

For example, READY is a common spelling variant of REIDY (derived from O'Riada) but it may also be used for REDDY (derived from O'Rodaigh). If you know something of the geographic origins of the family, that may help sort things out in a specific case as the O'Riada are a Dalcassian sept found mainly in the west of Ireland whereas the O'Rodaigh are based in Kilkenny. REEDY may be just a spelling variant but is often derived from Mac Riada (in Donegal) or Mac Conriada (in Derry). More details (and a fuller and more accurate explanation) can be found in MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland. Other surnames also seem to be mixed up with REIDY. To say the least, the situation is very confusing
To add an international dimension to the problem, there are similar or identical names with non-Irish origins. You will find several German/Swiss families named REIDY, RIEDY, or REEDY.

Emma Cash from Allegheny, PA

I'm trying to find out more about Emma Cash who we think was born in Allegheny, PA in about 1867. I believe that is now part of Pittsburgh. Her mother was Ellen Gow (probably from Ireland) and her father was Charles Cash (probably from Germany). She and Ellen Cash are listed in the Federal census for 1860 and 1870 in Westmoreland Co PA.

free access to genealogical and historical records

I just heard of free access to a lot of records for the next few days. I've already signed up and they don't seem to ask for much (your email address, name, telephone number, and a password). The offer was described in some detail in Randy's Genea-Musings at:
http://www.geneamusings.com/2009/08/worldvitalrecordscom-free-for-three.htm

Sign up for this if you have time to check out the free records at WorldVitalRecords.com between Aug 11 and 13.

FamilySearch - Cecil County Maryland

Wow! I am very impressed with the Family Search Pilot. Genealogy heaven you might say. Look it over - Federal Census, State Census, and more records. Limited now but the project is growing. I've just checked out American stuff because that's where I'm looking right now but they also seem to have many international records you can search.

A few days ago I noticed the Maryland, Cecil County Probate Records on the site. Since my wife has Frazer ancestors from Cecil county, I just started with a search by surname which turned up several records I wanted to look at. I read the will of her ggggrandmother, Emily Frazer. I did have a problem with 1 record so I emailed and heard back within a day. I was doubly impressed. Not only a chance to look at some very old ancestral stuff, but when I had a problem with one record (Emily's grandson), I emailed support and heard back the next day. Very impressive website and impressive support. Now to look at my Bouldens, Evans, and Scotts in that county.

Check it out:
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=home

Genealogy By Village

I just ran across any interesting website for genealogy. My initial finding was due to looking for something new for Irish (specifically limerick) Genealogy but this is useful for all villages in the UK and Ireland. The site is the CuriousFox http://www.curiousfox.com/. There is a function (near the top of the page) that allows you to search for locations or browse to the location of interest and see who is searching what names in that area. The site is supported by a modest subscription but you are welcome to look for free.

Improve your genealogy queries

I see genealogical queries in many places that could be much improved. You want to give enough information that someone working on the same family would recognize it and read the query. After all, what is the point unless you get potential relatives to read it.

A good title gets attention. For example if I was researching Emma MacKenzie who lived in New York around 1890 to 1920, I'd be very like to read a query that was entitled "Emma MacKenzie, New York, 1895" than something simply called "MacKenzie family". Gives enough in the title to make it interesting enough that your potential relatives will read it. People are busy and are unlikely to read further unless they have reason to believe your query is worth a bit of their time.

Try to keep it to the point. You can share details by email when someone writes you. Any given name unless it's really odd will most likely occur several times in an area so be sure to include facts like spouse, children and approximate dates. Remember that the potential relative that reads this may know either more or less than you do. Don't make the query so long that people give up before getting to the essential facts.