Keeping Track - Part 1

Not all genealogy buffs use genealogy software. That has become rather apparent to me this past week. For example, one friend of over 35 years called to discuss our rather close line through Nathaniel Foote of Connecticut. (We are 9th cousins, twice removed.) She has been doing genealogy for a very long time, and is a DAR member, and she doesn't use genealogy software.  In our long telephone conversation from Kansas to Massachusetts, we verbally over her line. I'm sure there are many others out there who are like her, who have written their lineage on pieces of paper. And two days later, I have been in contact with the person who left a comment to my blog Tombstone Tuesday - Van Woert. He is new to genealogy, and he doesn't use genealogy software.  How do they keep track?

So how are these genealogy friends going to keep track of everything, without software? I sure hope not like I did when I first began! About eight years ago, I taught a number of beginner genealogy classes. And beginner it was. No software was used by the students. So I devised a method that they could use to keep track of their ancestors. The page below is one of the two methods I came up with.


In the locations where I have ancestors, I have listed the states in alphabetical order, then the county, then town/city. Within the towns, I then listed my surnames in alphabetical order, followed by their spouse and what personal event occurred there, such as birth-marriage-death, with the dates. I entered all my surnames this way, and kept the pages in a binder. For years, I would bring the binder to libraries. Why? It was the easiest way to see what families I had in each state and in each county. Many genealogy libraries have books shelved by state, and then county, so this method made it a breeze to go down an isle (say Vermont) and see those I have for that certain area (Vermont).


If your library doesn't have open stacks, but instead, you need a staff member to get your books (closed stacks), you first have to use a card catalog or an online catalog to see what is available. An example, search Massachusetts, then Middlesex County, then Andover to see what the library has in their holding.  Having all your states and towns typed and printed out, makes it easier to go down your list against the catalog.


I do not use this system any more; I have way too many names, towns, towns, counties and states. However, if somebody is just beginning out, I think this is a easy and free method. Of course, this only pertains to locations. What if they don't have a computer, a person can easily hand write everything.  My form for names will be shown tomorrow. The example below was done in MS Word, but you can now use Google Docs or any other document software. (Further down, is the page in a pdf.)


ESSEX COUNTY
ANDOVER  (all the below had residency in Andover)


William Ballard / Grace Berwick—He died July 10, 1689. She died April 27, 1694.
Joseph Ballard / Rebeckah Rea—He born abt. 1645, married Nov. 15, 1692, and died Sept. 29, 1722. She died Feb. 11, 1739
Josiah Ballard / Mary Chandler—He born June 22, 1699, married Aug. 7, 1721, and died Dec. 26, 1780. She born March 8, 1701 and died April 3, 1779.
Josiah Ballard / Sarah Carter—He born August 14, 1721.
Simon Bradstreet / Anne Dudley—She died September 16, 1672.
Thomas Carter / Ruth Phelps—They married Dec. 25, 1706. She born June 1, 1684.
Thomas Chandler / Hannah Brewer—She born Oct. 25, 1630. He died Jan. 15, 1702 and died Oct. 25, 1717.
Thomas Chandler / Mary Peters—He born Oct. 9, 1664. They married May 22, 1686. She died July 21, 1753.
Andrew Peters / Mercy Beamsley—They married 1659 poss. here. or Ipswich. She died Nov. 5, 1726. He died Dec. 4, 1713.
Edward Phelps / Elizabeth Adams—They married 1651 here or Newbury. She died May 4, 1718 here or Lancaster.
Edward Phelps / Ruth Andrews—They married March 9, 1682.
Maj. Nathaniel Wade / Mercy Bradstreet—They married Oct. 31, 1672. She born 1647.

President Bill Clinton, Photos one Morning on a Walk by the White House

William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton

President Clinton going back to the White House after a jog.  It was a warm but very cloudy day.

Got a huge hug, and then I pulled out my camera for these pictures.  We met at a walkway intersection. I probably saw him 15 times at various locations during my days working in DC.

Note:  Little security, but this was 1994.

Bill Clinton information from Wikipedia.

Trying to Help a Friend

Boott Mills, Lowell

When my friend Joyce wrote me the other day, to see if I could check out a surname from whatever sources I could, I thought, hum, this is going to take a while and I'll do it after dinner. Well, of course, we never wait, we all want to check these things out immediately. It took five seconds, and I had a wealth of information for her.  Why is this sentimental to me?  It is because I love the history of Lowell, and unfortunately I don't have any ancestors from this city I now live in.  To be able to help an old friend in hopes of her finding a connection between the GALUSHA and her CARTY lines was right up my alley.  It has been so much fun, and I felt I had to write about it.

A little background.  Joyce and I met through another genealogy related site four years ago, and at one time, we discovered we had our ancestors living in Missisquoi Co., Quebec, Canada.  She knew I lived in Lowell, Massachusetts, so when she found out that her ancestor had connections to the GALUSHA family and there were some letters possibly in a Museum or Historical Society in Lowell, she asked for my help.  Later I discovered she already had copies of the transcriptions, not the originals.  All the originals were donated to the Lowell National Historical Park (NPS), just a few miles from where I live.  If you click on the NPS site, you can see how the collection was arranged.  These are important papers, and at some point, I hope to go to the National Park Service and see if I can see an original letter.

From the above NPS site is a listing of Galusha Family Relationships

The Galusha Family Collection (1820 - 1900), describes a group of letters and other items collected by J. Lynwood Smith of South Hero, Vermont, and donated to Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.  To me, these letters are important for several reasons.  Among them, they show a glimpse of life in Lowell, during the Industrial Revolution, a true family genealogy preserved for their family and for all historians interested in this era.  I especially enjoyed seeing names of locations familiar to me.

A transcribed letter follows, however, there are many listed, and can be viewed at: Galusha Family Letters and the Names in the letters and topics of interest - spreadsheet is useful in following the family.

"WRITTEN BY AMY MELENDA GALUSHA1

TO HER PARENTS REV. WILLIAM AND POLLY GALUSHA
Lowell Oct 9 1851

Dear Parents

I received your letter and was glad that you were doing so well as you are I hope that you will not freeze to death this winter if you cannot get into the new house try to fix up the old one so that you can live in it comfortably as possible do not be discouraged for the Lord will take care of you I wish that you would write how much you owe Erastas Bard and I will try to send you the money fore I suppose if he is sick that his family will need it I shall send you ten now and will send you then more if it is necesary when I am paid I am a going to get me one dress and a cloak which will be enough for the winter I have hired a seat in the Methodist Church with Christopher and Viola C. has experianced religeon since he came here and has united with the Worthen Street M E Church on probation he is very much engaged in religeon he likes here very much and so does Viola she says she would give anything if her Father could but hear Mr Colyar preach for he would not know how to contain himself I do think myself that he is the smartest Methodist preacher that ever I heard preach why Eldar Meeker could not hold a candle to him I do not know as I shall hire a seat after this quarter which will continue till the first of January although C and V are very anxious that I should it is very pleasant wether here this fall Viola says she is not sorry that she has come and thinks she shall stay a year very contedly she was rather homesick at first but I have not heard any more of that since C. came he is very attentive and sits her up evry Sunday night. on the whole I think he is a very good little fellow I begin to like him better than I used to when we went to school together. Viola has got so that she can run four looms quite decently Mr Cooper says that she gets along remarkbly well she makes about two dolers per week I never learned a girl with so little trouble as I did her she is very smart and will make a first rate weaver Oh how lonesome I shall be shen she is gone home. I hope that Arvilla will learn as easy as she did I hope that you will not let Arvilla race around with ... this winter I think it is bad enough for her to go with boys of her own age I hope that Lele will go with her himself it will look much better than the other way but I must stop and get a light tell Lele that if he will kill gray squirrils enough to make me a boa I will five him five dollars
Charles Miner is married 
John French and Rhoda called to see us to night they are well Rhoda had not heard of Janes wedding she thinks that Jane has done first rate she was very much displeased to think they tried to sheviree her Mrs Burgess is going to california and John says he shall go in the spring I believe that I should rather be in Janes place than Rhodas. I pity her but you must not say a word. tell Janette when you see her that she ought to write to Rhoda for she feels rather bad. give my love to H and L and aunt Fany and Nancy and aunt Olive and all the folks. do not let Sall see nor hear from this letter if you can heple it I guess you will laugh when you see how I have written help just as I used to say it what I was a little baby O how many little things will take place to bring back the memory of the past “Memory thou restless spirit why break my rest.” I cannot live one hour without thinking of the happy days when I knew no care when the voice of my parents was my
only guide and a Mothers bosem was the only recpticle for my childish griefs. I have been more homesick since I came back this time that I have been before since the first summer that I was in the place but that is almost done with I hope I do not think that I shall come home again till I come for good and all I wonder how you stood through the day after I came away I thought that you would cry after we were gone for all you braved it out better than I did but you was so afraid you should appear like Aunt Irena that you did not shed a tear until I was gone but if you got along without all day you did better than I did Viola and I have laughed a great many times over what pa said when he came down stairs that night after we had such a tremenoeous uprore as bad as ever they had at Ephesus about the godess Diana I cannot help thinking how ridicolously I was treated in my own Fathers house by some of my relation but never mind them we can live without them and shall probably have to give my best respects to all the friends and neighbors who shall enquire for me Lucina Ganes went from here the next week after we come down she could not get work to suite her and she went to Springfield she has writen to us once since she left she was sewing then and was expecting a chance in the mill soon it was just as I expected almost a thing imposible to get a place for a new hand in the mill I was glad that there did not any more girls come with me but Lucina did not blame me or at least she said she did not I tried all that week to get her a place and Ann Fay tried her best to get her in but did not succeed but I shall write for Arvilla when I want her tell Lele he must write to me and let me know how he gets along with the house


Amy Galusha"

Seeing President Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter

The above was taken by me when he was in Boxboro, Massachusetts four months after winning the Presidential election. There was a lot of news about his prior visit, first to a Clinton, MA church for a town hall meeting in the evening of March 15th and the next day at the Sheraton Boxboro motel. My sister hoped to see him, so we drove 40 minutes to get there and joined a small gathering of people. Once inside the great hall, everybody began chanting his name. I managed to get very close, but the press had the clout to get in front of me. I remember they had to get a chair for him. I think it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to meet the public before his official meeting.

Sorry about the blur, but I was a bit nervous. Later that year, I was working in Washington, DC, a block away from the White House and I saw him a few times at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree.

The below photo is by a professional and was used in the local paper.

Photos taken on March 16, 1977 in Boxboro, Massachusetts

Tombstone Tuesday - Solomon and Hephzibah Prentice

Old Burying Ground, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Below are stones of my ancestors.  They were my 7th great-grandparents.

Solomon Prentice

Born:  September 23, 1646, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Died:  July 24, 1719, Cambridge, Massachusetts

(Much better photo at Find-A-Grave

His wife, Hephzibah Dunton

Born:  About 1653

Died:  January 15, 1741/42, Cambridge, Massachusetts

You can see the footstone (above) behind the headstone.

Cemetery is across the street from Harvard University.

Looking Forward

Photo by Joe Beine and used with permission.

I absolutely love the above photo and thought others would like seeing it as well.  It caught my eye when he posted it to facebook.  For other great photos, please view his site at Flicker.

My plans for February are not as aggressive as they were for January.  I'll write an article about the Barbour Collection, Connecticut researchers might like this, and reports about two lectures, on different days, I hope to attend, as long as the weather cooperates.  My first topics to write about when I began blogging in October, may finally get written as well.  Nothing too long or complex, but I hope entertaining.


A few people seemed to enjoy my last Wordless Wednesday with the photo of Ansel Adams.  For the month of February I will post photos of celebrities and/or various autographs.  Two presidents, a football player and a singer.


I am going to devote time entering photos into Find-A-Grave.  It needs to get done.  The process takes a long time, because I need to scan the photos, write cemetery information on the back, enter the information into the site, as well as put the photo into my Family Tree Maker.


Since the Winter Olympics will be on television for about two weeks, I will be spending a lot of time watching the events; therefore I will be cutting back on the posts.


I was hoping I was related to Scott Brown, the new Senator from Massachusetts, but I haven't found a connection yet.  However, Princess Diana and I share the same common American ancestor, and I think I will do a post about that.


Randy's Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, wasn't so fun for me.  I struggled to make the Ancestral Calendar of Birthdays (now changed from January to February).  If an entire name is in All Caps, it is a direct ancestor of mine.  Now, I hope I can remember how to do it for March, but if I do, this will be a part of Looking Forward every month.  Randy thanks for the information.  But, I need to work more with it, since it didn't pick up everybody born in February.

Looking Back

There is good news and not so good.  First, The Happy 101 Award was given to me by the following six people. Thank you to each of you.  Please visit these blogs and then follow them, if you don't already. Each is among the very best.

Bill West at West in New England
Dr. Bill Smith at Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories
Amanda Acquard at A Tale of Two Ancestors
Jenna Mills at Desperately Seeking Surnames
Heather Rojo at  Nutfield Genealogy
Travis LeMaster at TJLGenes: Preserving Our Family History

When Randy Seaver mentioned John Newmark's blog at Transylvanian Dutch on January 15th, I decided to read a few of his blogs before deciding to follow him.  In one post, he had a newspaper article from St. Louis dated 1917.  That is the same city and year that my great-grandfather, Yates Adams was either murdered or committed suicide of which I wrote about in the Monday Madness- A Suicide or a Murder blog.  Right after I posted my blog, Apple of Apple's Tree wrote a comment, "I would look to see if there are any St Louis papers you can access online. An account written where the death occurred may have more information."  Well, it took 11 years for me to try and solve this, so I got the nerve to write John Newmark personally and inquired if he had any suggestions for me.  (Ha, did he ever.) I told him about my ancestor's death in 1917 in St. Louis, exactly the same location and year that his blog pertained to. After hitting send, I went and got a drink, came back and there was a pdf of a newspaper article about my great-grandfather's death.  11 years vs. 17 minutes, what can I say?  But...that information contained some differing information from my original newspaper article.  Now I am trying to find yet a third newspaper article from Battle Creek, Michigan.  Thanks Apple for your comment and John for the newspaper article.

Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy and I are  distant cousins through the Balch line. Also, Midge Frazel at Granite in my Blood and I seem to share quite a few surnames from Connecticut.

Bill West of West in New England and Gini Webb of Ginisology  spent quite a bit of time helping me with two different problems.  Bill tried to find the book, The Culture Club, about the Boston Athenaeum. We couldn't find it around here, so Bill, I finally ordered it from Amazon. Gini helped me for a long time assisting me in trying to post my blog to fb.  I still haven't been able to do it.  But on Jan. 29th, David Allen Lambert of NEHGS posted one for me, and I was pretty happy and very surprised.  That was the day before the big story about the relationship between President Obama and Scott Brown (new MA senator) appeared in the news, of which David was one of the two researchers.

I was in a genealogy mode this past week.  Went to the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library (NEHGS) this week and had a nice long talk with David Dearborn, librarian and then I called Eric Grundset, librarian at the DAR in Washington.  Neither blogs or are on face book.  And, both men were at the same ALA meeting this month as our own Amanda Acquard, of A Tale of Two Ancestors!

Thanks go to Apple for mentioning my blog articles about Cemetery Research in her Weekly Rewind post. It was nice being listed with Steve Danko's blog, as he is a pal of four years.

Now the sad news.  Another suggestion from Apple at Apple's Tree pertained to a November blog in which I mentioned I had donated a very large DAR membership certificate belonging to my ancestor, dated 1901. She suggested I contact the DAR. At long last, I made the call and spoke with the archivist, and we corresponded 10 times!  One of the last things she wrote was, "The other certificate from you that I came across in the accession records was number 90-275, a certificate given to those who attended the NSDAR Centennial dinner." At least I now know...it is missing!

The Amazing Eliza Bishop and Her Book -- Surname Saturday

 Eliza Bishop was a young single woman who died at the age of 36, and buried in a cemetery plot all alone, all relatives in another state. She made a large contribution to society, so there is a fair amount of information about her. And locating her cemetery and grave were easy, as there are three different books and a town produced sheet that listed her burial site and death information (listed below). You can get very, very lucky sometimes. If you search and search, you can often find many sources with the information you are looking for. Always a good thing, until they conflict.


The small book, Memoir of Miss Eliza Bishop (listed in WorldCat.org) was published after her death. I grabbed the little leather bound book after my grandfather's death, and was always interested in this young woman. Not until I got into genealogy did I try to place her in the family, visited her grave and donated my book (see photo) to the Westfield Library, in Westfield, Massachusetts. Her parents and other family members are buried in Connecticut, see I Did Everything Right, but Couldn't Take a Photo!


Eliza's name appears in the below books and a pamphlet:


1.  Tombstone Inscriptions of the Older Cemeteries of Westfield, Massachusetts (Mass. DAR, 1946)  (Inscription given.)


2.  A List of Gravestones in the Mechanic Street Cemetery, Westfield, Massachusetts (Westfield Athenaeum, 1939)  (Inscription given.)

3.  Mechanic Street Cemetery, Alphabetical List by Family (Walter Ayers, Dir. of Parks, 1995) A detailed map with block number by all names, made it easy to find the monument.


4.  Bridgman, Thomas, transcribed by, Inscriptions of the Grave Stones in the Grave Yards of Northampton, and of Other Towns in the Valley, (Northampton, Mass., Pub. by Hopkins, Bridgman & Co. : 1850). Pg. 152. (See below.)

Eliza was my first cousin, 4 times removed.  And no, I don't have a photo.  My husband remembers I ran out of film.

 Last chapter

 

 

Many books have been published just with cemetery information, not just the names, and Lot number, but dates and inscriptions.  Examples of some books I've used are below.  And some don't even have the word "cemetery" in the title  So if you do a google search, also try a variant of that word, like Burial, Inscriptions and Tombstones.


Whitcomb, Esther K., Inscriptions from Burial Grounds of the Nashaway Towns: Lancaster, Harvard, (+6 more towns), (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1989).


Dunkle, Robert J., and Ann S. Lainhart, Inscriptions and Records of The Old Cemeteries of Boston, (NEHGS, Boston: 2000).


Derby, Perly, Inscriptions from the Charter Street Burial Ground, Salem, MA, (Essex Institute of Historical Collections, Vol. 13, 1877).


District of Columbia Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, Inscriptions from Tombstones in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.


N.S.D.A.R., Cemetery Records and Tombstone Inscriptions, Kalamazoo Co., Michigan, (1959).

Ahnentafel for ELIZA BISHOP

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #4 Inter-Library Loan

My local library is shown at the left and you can read about it in  Challenge #1. In Challenge #4 our assignment is to, "Learn about your local public library’s inter-library loan (ILL) policy. Pick a genealogy-related book that you want to read that is not in your library’s collection. Ask the librarian how to request the book from another library. Find the different library systems from which you can request books through your own library, as this can dramatically increase the number of genealogy books to which you have access. If you have a genealogy blog, write about your experience with requesting items through your library’s ILL service."

I don't want to be fired because I didn't follow Amy's instructions exactly.  However, there just isn't time or the need for me to get a genealogy book, just for the sake of this challenge.  It is mid-winter which means snow, ice and cold in Massachusetts.  In addition, I have been told processing inter-library loans (ILL) is a very expensive process to deal with; a lot of wrapping, packing and mailing is involved.  Fortunately, they haven't begun to charge patrons, but it may be a reality someday, I heard $5 per request.

Our library belongs to the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. along with quite a few other libraries (my guess is 30 towns).  That means, if I want a book that isn't in my library but is in one of the other libraries, I can get it rather quickly if it isn't checked out, otherwise, I am on a waiting list.  First, before I even think about ordering a book through ILL, I always check www.worldcat.org to see what libraries have it. Sometimes, you may determine it might not even be available to your library or it just isn't worth the time and effort, if the book is across the country.

In June of 2009, I did a guest blog for Cheryl Palmer Cutting Back on Spending, in which I discuss inter-library loans and Worldcat.

At my library, the inter-library loan requests are processed differently. The order request is sent to another library, where all the requests from the entire consortium are processed. In the past, I have ordered and received two books using this method. One book had to be used at the library under our librarian's eyes. The other I was able to check out.

The books I got were:
1. The Van den Berghs in America by Stockman, R. Grunwell and B. Grunwell, (Lynchburg, VA: Pub. Robert L. Grunwell, 1994) from the Jones Library, Lynchburg, VA and,
2.  Molson, The Birth of a Business Empire by Hunter, Douglas, (Canada: Penguin Books, 2001) it came from Univ. of Maine.

Cemeteries And More #2

Part two of my cemetery series covers more ideas about contacting a cemetery or Historical Society, and then a section about maps. If you live a distance from the cemetery, you want to be armed with the most information available prior to the trek. I like to know some of the history and the exact entrance to the grounds as well as the hours.

Not all cemeteries are privately run, some are abandoned, some are run by the town, some by the government.  Each has their own set of rules and what they share with the public.  Many will freely provide all their records on your ancestor, others charge a steep fee (like Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC).  Often you can find a volunteer to do some of the leg work for you.  In the past, if I received something from them, I always wrote a thank-you and enclosed a small token of $10. Always pay them in some way, either dollars or stamps, because you never know if you will need their service again, and they will remember you.  If their work is exceptional and they are employed, write a thank you letter, so it can go in the employee's human resources file (I did that once and even brought the administrative assistant a box of chocolates.)

The next time I need information; I will either call or email a request.  Personally, I like calling best.  Do it mid day, never just before closing.  I'll explain exactly what I am looking for, get right to the point.  Sometimes I'll have a check-list, so I don't forget to ask something.  Often on the phone, I get a little nervous or side tracked, then the call isn't completed in full. I would still do that, especially if it is a Historical Society (those people can be so nice)

A great source for locating historical societies is the book, The Genealogist's Address Book by Elizabeth P. Bentley.  The new 6th edition was published in 2009 and has 809 pages.  I used to own a copy, and referred to it frequently, mine didn't even have email addresses, it was that old.  A page snippet from the new book is below.

I was very lucky when I wrote to the Colchester Historical Society in Connecticut, because a volunteer drew up a perfect map showing where my ancestors were buried. This map is something I have been wanting to share for a long time.  What I received was 14" x 17" in size!

Sometimes a larger cemetery will have a pamphlet with a map inside. What a blessing, when I discovered my ancestor listed on the map! Locating him could not have been easier.

My ancestor is # 59

Example of a pamphlet.