Monday Madness -- Asking for Help#1

I have so many difficulties when it comes to computer related issues. Nothing has been easy. The computer is ok, it is doing the little fun things pertaining to blogs. For example, it took an hour to try to get the March birthdays report posted, but it still isn't right. I did it with a version of FTM and then RM4. After all that time, I've decided to beg for help. This isn't my first attempt with the below project, I tried it last month too. The report is now saved in pdf format on the desktop and in my documents folder. But there was no way to get it on to the blog.

So, what you are seeing is a printed copy which I scanned. There must be an easier way.

I am hoping somebody takes pity on a much older person, and offers help. I hate to warn you, but if I get help, I may use this tactic again in the future! Like really soon. I've already made a new label for Instructions.

In the past, one person offered help without me asking.  So I would like to publically  thank Apple.  There are others that I asked; they are Dru, Gini and Cheryl. Last thing, I plan on doing this report every month, and possibly for deaths...you will be so tired of seeing it.  Thank you for any help.

Looking Back on February 2010

Valentine's Day came and went, as did the figure skating at the Olympics, and soon life will be back to normal.  Genealogy research, blogging, and trying hard to have a more rounded life are in store. A few things I wanted to share are below.  And I will begin with a quick tour of the Missisquoi Museum and Historical Society in Stanbridge East, Quebec, Canada. I have mentioned this Historical Society in my My Favorite Historical Society is on a Stamp blog.  P.S. It is also on a post card, which I will show another time.

It was a big step for me to add something to the side on my blog.  When I asked Lindalee of Flipside if I could copy her image of the Dove of Peace, she said yes.  (Picture is at the left.)  But it was a week or more before I gathered the nerve to make a change to my home page.

While looking at blogs at a leisurely pace, I was quite surprised to see a post of mine in the Friday, December 18, 2009 issue of Shades of the Departed.  A very belated "Thank you" goes to Footnote Maven and the individual who submitted my article. My article was The Best Christmas Gift -- DAR and genealogy related, of course. Thank you again.  It always pays to read everything, even if you don't submit anything.

The day I posted my Tuesday Tombstone posting for two generations of Van Woerts buried in Oneonta, New York, I received a nice comment and email from a Van Woert cousin. Always very nice to make a connection like that.

Last month, I mentioned I was going to work on my photos, which meant scanning and copying to Find-A-Grave.  I started off with a bang, and then the Olympics came on. However, I managed to do over 100 scans and will try to finish up in March.

Once again, Randy Seaver and I are cousins, this time through our Gates line.  Update, found out yesterday, that we also shared the Sawtell line. And, Kathleen Brandt of a3genealogy was kind to do a Follow Friday, highlighting my above Gates article. Thank you Kathleen.

In closing, I have decided not to continue with my Looking Forward blog, mainly because I haven't given March any thought!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How would I spend $20,000 from Ancestry?

For Saturday, February 27, 2010, Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun  pertains to the contest Ancestry.com is offering everybody to participate in.

Randy states, "Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) If you won grand prize in the Ancestry.com Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes of $20,000 for genealogy travel to places of your choice, where would you go?
2) Tell us of your dream genealogy trip using the prize money in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook."
 
My answer was pretty much formed the minute I entered the contest.

While the desire to return to England is somewhere in the back of my mind, I realistically think I would travel around the United States, and Quebec, Canada instead. The furthest I would go will be determined by any new information obtained through the consults. But, since my family has been in the United States before 1800, I would think it would be one of the states.

There is only one library, the Newberry Library in Chicago I really want to visit. Three generations of Pooles were from Evanston, Illinois, and I would love to see where my grandparents were buried. From Chicago, I would go via train to Salt Lake City for five days of research.

A trip to Washington, DC to revisit the roots of my great-grandparents, and do research at my old stomping grounds, the DAR library.


A 4 or 5 day trip around Connecticut, and a completely different trip for Massachusetts, both times staying at bed and breakfast inns and visiting cemeteries, the area, homesteads and seeing the land. In addition, a return mini trip to Quebec, Canada, with stops in Vermont and New Hampshire, visiting areas of my ancestors. During the entire trips, I would be praying for great weather. It is pretty easy to get carried away here, but I think I would also like to go to New Jersey and New York to trace my Ten Eyck line from New Amsterdam, to New Jersey to Albany, NY. That would also require several days at libraries in Albany and Cooperstown.

Depending on the restrictions for spending the 20,000, I would like to purchase a new computer during the trip and a camera as well. If Ancestry.com allows it, I would like to attend one or two genealogy conferences within the year. Not knowing how much time I have to spend the money, it is hard to say when or where I would go, and could my husband attend as well, since this is his hobby too.

A few donations will be made to my favorite Historical or Genealogical Societies, I might even become a lifetime member.

So, let’s see, budget wise, it would cost about:

The four mini-trips by car would be about $12,000.
The trip to the Chicago area and Salt Lake City, about $4,000.
The week in DC, about $2,000.
$2,500 for camera and Apple laptop. If these aren’t covered by the award, I would extend some of the trips for a few days longer. And eat well!

Well, if I am over my budget, I would do them all, and pay the difference out-of-pocket. And, share everything with the blogging community. No, maybe not, I wouldn’t want anybody to be jealous.

Farnham and the Connecticut Barbour Collection

Any researcher doing Connecticut genealogy research, especially prior to around 1850 has probably heard of the Barbour Collection. They are the Vital Records for Connecticut.  Over the years, I have found my ancestor, JOANNAH RUTTY, wife of HENRY FARNHAM listed in two different sources, and both correctly named the Barbour Collection.

In an attempt to explain, I will show copies of the two sources for the above individual. When I first began researching this line, I used the Barbour Collection at the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Library (NEHGS). This collection consists of about 110 maroon bound books, one for a town or city in Connecticut, but not all towns are in this series (photos taken at NEHGS).

Within these books, the surnames are in alphabetical order, then the names, indicating whether it is a birth, marriage or death, and followed by the volume and page number.  Unfortunately, when I first began sourcing this name and using the book for Killingworth, Connecticut, I just used the page number (Pg. 31) from the book as the source. The page I used is shown below, and Joannah's name has an arrow by it.

So imagine my dismay when a new series of the Barbour Collection was published, about eight years ago, not all at once, but one or two books at a time.  These blue books are set up the same way as the original maroon ones, but may contain more than one town.  I think there are 52 books in all. 

They are much smaller and easier to read. Surnames are in bold and all-capped, everything is cleaner, no crossed out typo errors. However happy I was to see these new books, imagine my surprise when I realized my past sourced entries weren't agreeing with the new books. Not only did I now have a huge number of Killingworth sources incorrect, but I probably had thousands for the entire state! My new JOANNAH FARNHAM'S death is now on page 34 not 31. And, there was a correction to her death date, no longer was it August 22, 1689, it was now August 11. The death date was easy to change, but not for all the incorrect page numbers. 

What did I do about all the thousands of incorrect page numbers?  I did what I should have done in the very beginning.  Instead of the page number, I manually went back and put in the volume and page number for that record. This is another hard lesson I learned, don't assume that the page number is always going to be the same for records.  Another publication may come along with pretty much identical bits of information.  So please don't be like me, but think ahead, and try to find out where the original information was obtained from and  try to use that.

In closing, I was going to discuss the background of the Barbour Collection, but already this is too long. However, here is a photo of the original record; I obtained from the town hall in Killingworth. You can clearly see that Joanna Farnham died on 11th Day of August 1689 (the tape is under her name).

Tombstone Tuesday -- Before and After for Schramling or Scramlin

Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got this photo from, I've had it for over 11 years, and the minute I saw it, I knew I had to locate the tombstone of my ancestor. That was no easy task until I met my friend Sandy in 2001.

Without a cemetery name, I wasn't sure where to begin, so I turned to a message board for Oneonta, New York, and fortunately received a reply from Sandy, who knew where it was. I spent far more time worrying about how I was going to find the cemetery than it took to connect with her. Our corresponding took place during March, and with snow on the ground in upstate New York, she had to wait until it melted before she could go and see it again.  And, I had to wait.  Before long, she made a quick trip and reported back to me with the details.

Once summer came, my husband and I took a weekend research trip to Cooperstown, Canajoharie, Fonda, and Oneonta, New York. We met Sandy in Oneonta, who took us to two cemeteries, where my ancestors were buried.  The first is the of Henry Scrambling.  My photos show a very hidden cemetery, within a grove of trees, I would never have found it, without help.

Henry Schramling was my 5th great-grandfather.

Born:  Bef. 1745, Canajoharie, Montgomery Co., New York

Died:  Bet. February 24, 1808 - June 22, 1810, Oneonta, Otsego Co., New York

This is the same family I wrote about in November, in my Scrambled Eggs post.  Even in the original cemetery photo, somebody wrote the surname as Schramling AND Scramlin.

The 5 photos below were taken by my cousin, Susie Hull on March 6, 2016.

The cemetery as shown by Google Earth.

A DAR Chapter named after my Ancestor

When I worked at the DAR, I had access to many books, including one which was kept in the Human Resources room, for applicants to look at.  After I began doing my research, I decided to look at the book, and saw an article about the Hannah Woodruff DAR Chapter in Southington, Connecticut.  During that time, I was working on research on her line,  oh what joy.  Fortunately, I thought to make copies of a few pages from the book, so now, fast forward to a few weeks ago.  While surfing around, I found the book online, digitized by our friend, Google!

The Hannah Woodruff Chapter was organized on June 25, 1897 and the Charter was dated November 30, 1897.  From the Chapter Site is the following statement:
"It was the unanimous decision of the organizing committee to name the chapter for Hannah Woodruff, a granddaughter of Samuel Woodruff, the first white settler of Southington. Hannah Woodruff married Asahel Newell, by whom she had eight children.  Shortly after her husband's death she married Daniel Sloper, a widower with five children, and they soon had a son. This was Hannah's family when her husband, Captain Daniel Sloper, led the Southington company to the Revolutionary War accompanied by her three sons, Solomon, Asahel, and Mark Newell, and two of her husband's sons, Daniel and Ezekiel Sloper.  Thus, Hannah Woodruff saw six men of her family go off to serve in the Revolutionary Army, leaving her to care for the remaining nine children of their combined families. She certainly was a true patriot and heroine of the American Revolution."

Hannah was my 5th great-grandmother.

On Tuesday, March 2, 2010, I will be posting her tombstone photos for Tombstone Tuesday; however, I'm showing the plaque at the back of her stone (see 1st picture).  Unfortunately, her stone is completely washed out and almost unreadable, fortunately, the 1901 book mentioned herein, showed the tombstone and transcription.
Chapter sketches, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution By Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution  1901, 531 pages.  Pg. 305-314  (great index, and search box to check out  Connecticut names).

Visiting the Boston Athenaeum where my 2nd great-grandfather worked

These beautiful red, leather doors greeted me as I was about to enter the Library where my great, great-grandfather worked.  For many years, I've known that he was one of the first librarians of the Boston Athenaeum, but whenever I went to the city, it was always to go to the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Library (NEHGS), and not the Athenaeum.  When the Boston Globe newspaper had an article about changes at the Boston Athenaeum, I thought I finally needed to go and visit it.  Then, a new book Culture Club: The Curious History of the Boston Athenaeum by Katherine Wolff was published and I knew I had to get the book.  Even better, the author was going to give a free lecture to discuss her book and I knew exactly when I was going for my visit, to see the Athenaeum and hear a lecture the same day!  I even managed to get to NEHGS in the afternoon.

Arrangements were made for me to have a tour of the 2nd floor to see where my ancestor, William Frederick Poole would have worked. My tour was given by the archivist who was wonderful, and guided me around and showed me several things, especially things that would have been there between 1856-1869. It was fun putting myself back in that time era. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed, but just imagine "a wide array of newspapers and artwork, too, with paintings by Gilbert Stuart and John Singer Sargent and sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Houdon." Lots of sitting rooms, 500 newspapers and periodicals, lovely rugs, children's Library, and peace and quiet.

Wikipedia has a lot of information about the Library, pictures, and mention of my ancestor.  

My Poole lineage began in Massachusetts in 1632, but my father was born in Evanston, Illinois. And, Evanston was also the death location of William Frederick Poole. Not until I began doing genealogy did I learn of their early Massachusetts roots, and that was a wonderful surprise.

William Pabodie and Elisabeth Alden

William Pabodie

Born:  1616 England

Died:  December 13, 1707 at Little Compton, Newport Co., Rhode Island

His wife was Elisabeth Alden, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens.  Her gravestone photos were among the first I posted. William's tombstone is next to Elisabeth's (the large monument).

They were my 9th great-grandparents.

They are both buried at the Old Commons Cemetery, Little Compton, Newport Co., Rhode Island

Skating to Some Memories

My mother only cried once in front of me. It was like yesterday. She had just heard a radio report, similar to the statement from the site of the U. S. Figure Skating organization, "On February 15, 1961, Sabena Flight 548, traveling from New York to Brussels, crashed in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium, claiming the lives of all 72 passengers on board. Included were all 18 members of the 1961 U.S. World Figure Skating Team plus 16 of their friends, family, and coaches en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia."

We loved to watch figure skating on TV, and even ice skated together on the frozen pond behind my Lexington, MA elementary school. At that time, we would skate after school and on weekends. This was the era of the great Tenley Albright* who lived in the Boston area, and I think that might have fueled her interest in skating and through osmosis, the love of figure skating passed down to me. My goal for many years was to be a figure skater, ha. But, how I loved it. And years, many years later, even out of high school, my then-boyfriend, now husband, and I would go skating every Sunday evening at an indoor rink in Billerica, MA. (This was between 1969-71) And when we were done with our skating, we watched a young skating couple practice after us, during their private ice time, their father was with them and we always watched...how could we not. They went on to win the Olympic Silver in 1984 in the Pairs competition.  Thanks Peter and Kitty Carruthers.  Robert and I went to several figure skating shows in the DC area.

The first Olympic figure skater I saw was Peggy Fleming in an ice show at the Boston Garden in 1971. I went with my sister and her husband, Ralph.

My boyfriend, then husband, Bill, and I went to the annual Figure Skating program at Harvard in the fall of 70 and 71. We saw, Tenley Albright, Janet Lynn (see note), Julie Holmes, John Misha Petkevich, a world champion in 1971 and 1972, and other skaters. I remember getting lots of autographs as well. (Note for Janet Lynn. She was a U.S. Champion five times, a World medalist two times, and the 1972 Olympic bronze medalist.)

Peter and Kitty Carruthers, siblings.

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of UK.

Won the Gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.

They skated to Ravel's Bolero. You should watch this.

Scott Hamilton

World Champion from 1981-1984

Olympic Gold in 1984

Russian married pairs, Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila

They won two Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1968 I saw them in DC in December 1984. Their Swan Lake routine was like watching ballet.

Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia

World Champions in 1979. I saw them in DC in December 1984.

The last figure skater I saw was Nancy Kerrigan who performed in an Ice Show at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell around 1998. I had a first-row seat with my husband Bill because of my connection to previously working there and I knew the right people. Nancy won the 1984 Olympic silver medal.

---------------

Information about the 1961 skating team members who died is located at Find-A-Grave and Wikipedia.  If you watch the Winter Olympics this week and happen to catch the figure skaters, please think of those who died in the crash.

*  I decided to include information found on the internet about Tenley Albright.  So many accomplishments. How could I not admire her?

"Tenley Albright began skating at eight in Massachusetts, after seeing Gretchen Merrill perform at an ice show. Soon after she committed to rigorous training, encouraged by her coach Maribel Vinson Owen, Albright contracted polio (poliomyelitis) in September 1946. She used her ice skating to regain strength after the attack, and in early 1947, she won her first major competition. By age 13, she had won her first national title, the U.S. Ladies Novice championship.
     Albright was not expected to win a berth on the 1952 Olympic figure skating team, but she did -- and then won the silver medal at Oslo, the highest rank for an American woman skater since 1924. A month after the Olympics she won her first of five consecutive U.S. national championships.
     In 1953, Tenley Albright not only won the "triple crown" (U.S., North American, and World titles) but also entered Radcliffe College as a premed student. In 1956, in the first Olympics televised around the world, she won the gold medal despite a serious injury to her ankle and competition from Carol Heiss. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
     Albright retired from competition in 1957. She graduated from Radcliffe that year, despite taking time off for her skating practice, and she entered Harvard Medical School, one of only 6 women out of 130 in her class. Albright became a surgeon, joining her father's practice in Boston. She retired from medicine in the 1990s."

Surname Saturday - VAN WOERT - Keeping Track - Part 2

Yesterday, in Keeping Track - Part 1, I explained one method used to keep track of my surnames and where they were living during their births, marriages and deaths.  My second method is just a listing of the surnames, as explained and shown below.

This is a way to keep everybody in your direct lines straight, meaning in the correct direct line surname sequence. My list is in alphabetical order with the oldest family line being first.  For example, I have six people by the name of Daniels, my six Stephen Daniels to be exact. How am I going to remember who was married to whom, and the dates.  It was while working on his line that I decided to devise this list.  At that time, I didn't have a laptop to bring to the library, so it was either rely on my memory, print out scads of family group sheets, or bring a one page printout of a Word document.  To print out my entire listing runs 52 pages (done in 2003), so I would simply cut and page, and carry just a few pages.

I thought it appropriate to use the example of my Van Woert line for Surname Saturday, since I just connected with a new cousin this week.  He found me, the day I posted cemetery pictures for our family on Tuesday Tombstone!  Both our lines left Oneonta, New York and settled in Battle Creek, Michigan.

This method is great for when you are looking at books with genealogies (family histories). If you were in the section that that began with "V"  in a library and found a book on Van Woert, check out the index to see if you have any of the names below. (At the bottom, is the copy I gave the students.)

VAN WOERT (all have the surname of Van Woert)
Teunis Jacobsesn (Abt. 1634--) married April 19, 1650 Sara Denys (Abt. 1629--)
Jacob Teunisse (1651-July 18, 1730) married Annatje Lookerman (--July 31, 1742)
Jacob (Bapt. Oct. 30, 1698-1765) married Oct. 17, 1723 Hendrikje Ooothout (Bapt. April 9, 1699-April 21, 1764)
Jacob (Bapt. Jan. 8, 1723/24--) married Elizabeth Fort (Bapt. April 23, 1727-May 30, 1756)
Jacob (July 7, 1754-June 27, 1843) married March 30, 1777 Sarah Van Ness (Bapt. March 15,  1754-April 22, 1832)
John (Dec. 21, 1781-Jan. 5, 1870) married Lany / Magdalane Young (May 31, 1784-March 31, 1849) Also married Nancy Hess Scrambling (1781-April 1873)
Sarah (Aug. 17, 1813-Feb. 18, 1863) married Jacob Scrambling (1810 – April 9, 1886)