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2015 Do Over

12/29/2014

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I have been MIA from this blog for over 1 1/2 years.  Life has been busy!  We added a new generation to the family, moved into a new home, and am in the process of setting up a farming business.  I have many goals in life, and one of them is to be a professional genealogist, on top of being a farmer.  Part of this is due to my passion for both, but also because I know that in the short winter months, when the farm is slow, I can still bring in an income to support myself.  And what's better than earning a living at what you love to do?  Nothing in my mind.

My genealogy has always been quite the chaotic mess.  I am one of those people who tends to go off on "rabbit trails".  I may be looking at records for one person, but something catches my eye for someone else....and off I go in another direction.  I want to change that.  It goes against my nature to do so, but it is needed.  I need to create a set procedure for myself to follow in my research and inputting the results into a program or my paper files, until it becomes second nature.

Thomas MacEntee recently announced a "Genealogy Do-Over".  I will be following along, as best I can, to redo my entire family tree.  Yep, completely!  I am setting aside my current GEDCOM, and starting fresh.  I will keep my documents handy, so that I can pull them as I work through the new tree, but in an orderly way.

My files, both paper and digital, look much like my brain....scattered.  I have notes written on post its, scrap pieces of paper, etc.  Recently I spent two whole days taking every single piece of paper I had, and sorted it by surname.  They will stay filed like that until they are needed for a particular person.

I will also be doing this with my digital files.  I have items saved on my laptop and various files from backups, on my external hard drive...many of them duplicates.  I will set up a main "holding folder" on my computer, with surname folders within that.  I will then drop all those miscellaneous files in there to be used in my do-over.  If I cannot find where I got the digital file from, then I MUST go back to research it again, so that I can provide a proper source citation.

I love my digital files, and my computer, but for me to analyze information properly, I need to have paper in front of me.  Because of this, my first step to get ready for this do-over, is to set up a filing system.  I have one plastic file box for each of my four main lines.  I am using the color coding system created by Mary E. V. Hill.  I really like the idea, and I think it will keep me more organized.  To begin with, I will only be creating files for myself, my parents, and my grandparents.  Once I have documented everything I can for them, I will then move onto the next generation in each line.  I am determined to do the same steps that I have done for some pro-bono work I did for friends. 

All of this will be going on while I am going through Dear Myrtle's MGP study group (archived on YouTube here).  I bought my book with the intention of following along with the first study group she did, but life got in the way.  Thank goodness she archives her stuff with Google Hangouts. Now I can work through it at my pace, and still ask questions in the community on Google+.  Dear Myrtle has held two study groups so far on this book, and eventually I will go through both.  I think I will gain a lot of information by doing both, because different people are involved in each study group.  You can never have enough input.

So, for the genealogy do-over, my ultimate goals are:

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-Set up a working system for filing, with clear instructions for finding information that will be useable by anyone who comes after me.
    -Obtain actual documents for as many of my direct ancestors as possible, to back up my research.  I have had a list of documents I want to get, but haven't had the budget for various reasons.  I am going to set aside some money each month to work towards this goal, one record at a time.
    -Set up proper research logs and analyzing procedures so that I stop missing vital information until many years down the road.
    -Have a set procedure for what I do with the information I find...step by step, how do I deal with it before I add it to my tree, so that I am not making as many mistakes and my results are verifiable.
    -Set up a schedule of sorts, so that even in the summer months, when I am busy with the farm, I can still work on the genealogy, and not have it be a seasonal thing.  Even if that time is just spent reviewing information already found and writing reports, or continuing education.

Increase my skills, to work towards offering professional services
    -Learn to properly use a research log
    -Learn to cite sources properly, so my research can be backed up with obvious facts
    -Learn to use my software to it's full potential.  Currently I am using Family Tree Builder from My Heritage.
    -Continue doing pro-bono cases to perfect my processes, skills, etc.

I will do my best to update this blog once a week to show the progress I am making.  If you would like to follow along with Thomas' do-over, you can find his Facebook group here, and his blog posts related to it here.



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On Vacation

5/5/2013

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I will be on vacation for the next 3 weeks, as I go home to NH to welcome the next generation into the family.  My daughter is due to have Jack Everett Bateman on May 11th.
I will check in here and answer any comments, or questions, but will not be doing blog posts in that time period.
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Learning Log

4/22/2013

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Jill Ball, over at the blog Geniaus, has a great set up as far as keeping track of what she has learned, what webinars or conferences she has attended.  I really like the idea, and I hope she doesn't mind if I borrow it.  You can read more about her log here.  I am inspired to keep a better record of all that I learn....which is daily.

So, I have added a tab at the top for my "Learning Log" and will be adding items to it shortly.  I have a bunch of webinars I have watched (with notes on my laptop), as well as Youtube videos, books I am working my way through, as well as other learning items (handouts, blog posts etc).  When available I will provide a link to the source, so that if you are interested in checking it out too, you will be able to.

Yeah for self education!!!
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Tripping Over Clues

4/15/2013

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Last Friday I watched a video from Crista Cowen, on Ancestry's live stream.  If you have never watched their videos, I highly recommend them.  I have learned a great deal about searching more wisely on Ancestry, especially when it comes to the card catalog.

In this particular video, she made a statement at the beginning that really hit me.  Basically (and I am paraphrasing here), we create our own brick walls sometimes by tripping over clues that we already have.

Case in point for me:

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My step-cousin, Frank, shared this photo with me several years ago.  I was stoked to have something about my Great Great Grandfather Borsey, since at the time, we didn't know much.  But I tucked it away in my files, and didn't think much more of it until last week, when I decided to look at it again.  And there were some glaring clues that I had tripped over for sure!

On the first line it says "Transportation of remains from Eastview".  I had assumed that was a cemetery in Westchester County, NY.  So off to Find A Grave.
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When I did a search for it, in the Westchester area of NY, this is the result I got.  Hmmmm.

Once I click on that link, there was a rather long description:

"Cemetery notes and/or description:
In 1824, New York State legislated that each county had to establish an institution for the care of the poor. So Westchester County purchased 110 acres of farmland in East Tarrytown / Knapp's Corners, and built what is now known as the Westchester County Alms House. The Alms House opened up in 1828. Knapp's Corners later became known as 'East View', the name of a 350-acre estate purchased by James Butler in 1893. East View (or Eastview) is considered to be a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, NY.

The County Alms House was actually a complex of buildings. It included a main building to accomodate the 'inmates', a laundry house, a tramp house, stables, & outhouses. It also had a small plot of land set aside for a cemetery (the 'County Alms House Cemetery'). I believe in 1914 the Alms House in Eastview was closed for use as the 'poor house', & that it was converted into a hospital for a short period of time (the 'Westchester County Hospital').

The County Alms House Cemetery was used to bury the poor of the county. It also included persons whose identities were unknown. Many of the cemetery burials were for people from the Alms House, local hospitals, nursing homes, & penitentiary.

The Westchester County Historical Society has old maps of the Alms House complex. On a 1901 map of Eastview, NY you can see the cemetery listed as the 'County House Cemetery.' It was also referred to as the 'County Alms House Cemetery'. This cemetery was used for close to 100 years (c.1827-c.1920).

After 1920, a new cemetery was built for the poor of Westchester County. This cemetery was called 'Potter's Field' and it was built on the 'Grasslands' complex in Valhalla, NY. The burials for this cemetery can be found on the FindAGrave website. There is a cemetery map which was created with all the occupants of the Potter's Field cemetery - it is available at the Westchester County Archives.

In 1935, the land where the County Alms House Cemetery was located was given over to make way for the construction of the Saw Mill River Parkway. Instead of disturbing any of the existing graves, the cemetery in Eastview was covered over with 20 feet of dirt and the Parkway was then built over it. This old cemetery would've been located somewhere around the present-day vicinity of Exit 23 off of the Saw Mill River Parkway." (you can find it at this link.
Well........So then back to the paper.  About half way down is this: "Cemetery Charges at St Mary's Cemetery".  Off to Find A Grave again to search.  There are five St. Mary's cemeteries in the Westchester area.  A search of all five comes up empty for a William Borsey.  But, that doesn't mean  he isn't in one.  I am going to next email to each one, asking for information, and a map.  I suspect he is either in the one in Yonkers, or Rye Brook.  The others are extremely small, and it's unlikely he would be there.

I look at this paper, and my first thought was..."gee, it didn't cost much to bury someone back then".  But I also had to put it into perspective:  My Great Grandparents had only been married two years at the time, and the cost of a funeral for a young couple just starting out must have been a huge burden.  Especially back then, when wages were pennies a day, compared today.

Always take time to go back over your research, and make sure you look at it with new eyes.  Don't just assume you know what that random scrap of history says.  Really stop and look at it, absorb it.
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Tech Tuesday - Hathi Trust 

4/9/2013

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I just learned about this fabulous resource yesterday.  I am a geek when it comes to digital forms of old books, and use Google Books a lot.  Some how though, I had never heard of this until now.  From their website:

"The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions in digital form, preserving them securely to be accessed and used today, and in future generations."

I haven't fully explored all the options yet, but just a cursory search for Westchester County, New York brings up a wealth of information.


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I will definitely be using this for a resource in my future research.  I love old books, and while I would much  rather have a paper copy to hold in my hands, this is the next best thing.  Thank you to the Roots Tech community for pointing this out to me (I found it in one of the handouts from online).
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Organization and Hard Work

3/28/2013

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I have been so neglectful of not only this blog, but my genealogy work in general.  I think most genealogists go through this, whether it is a hobby, or they do it professionally.  Their own family tree gets neglected from time to time.

I mentioned before that I want to change some things on the blog, to make it easier to share the information I collect on my various family lines.  The plan I have is to upload a pdf version of a family group sheet for each family.  But to do this, I need to get my files and information I have stored, put into decent organization.  That will take a bit of hard work.  But I am up for the challenge.

I appreciate everyone's patience on this.

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New Year Clean Up

1/8/2013

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Please bear with me as I do some much needed clean up and tweaks to this site to make it more user friendly and make it easier for the information to be found in search engines.


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Cyndi's List Under Attack

11/5/2012

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I just found out this morning about the attack on Cyndi's List, and it's amazing owner.  Apparently, someone has stolen ALL of her content, that she has always offered for free to users, and has put it in their own "paid" site.  You can read Cyndi's original Facebook post concerning this here.

I am no expert on copyright laws, but I do know that this is beyond wrong, and morally reprehensible.  To steal from someone, who has selflessly given of her time and resources to help others out in their genealogical research just leaves me speechless.  It breaks my heart and angers me at the same time.

Please, take a moment to visit Cyndi's List, and on the upper right hand corner of her main page is a donate button.  Take a moment to give what you can to help her fight this.  She deserves our support after all she has given the genealogy community over the years.
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Working Without Ancestry

10/14/2012

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Because of budget issues this month, I had to suspend my Ancestry account.  I knew it was coming, so I downloaded my updated GEDCOM (we had recently added a lot to the Bateman family line).  I was puttering around online the other day, not looking for anything in particular, and came across S. Well Genealogy blog via Geneabloggers (I read this daily).  I now owe Susan a huge thank you!

In her post "Wisdom Wednesday: Websites for Village Histories", she provided a link to a free site that gives historical information about villages in the UK.  Following this link, I found the information for Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, UK which is where my Ede family came from, according to what I have found so far.

I typed Wednesfield into the search box on this site, and it gave me a short little history on the area.


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It became clear that Wednesfield is a fairly small township, within a larger area.  Not unlike where I grew up in New Hampshire, where we lived in a little village that was actually part of a larger town.  Scrolling down a bit, I found a link to Wolverhampton, and followed that.

This brought me to a page listing various resources.


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Scanning through these categories gave me some information about the area, but also brought up some questions.  There were so many different churches in the area...which one did my Ede family belong to?  I had no idea of their religious affiliation, except that I knew my grandmother was raised Methodist.  These categories provided mostly statistics on the area.  Not really what I was looking for.

I went back to the main page, and on the left hand column was a link for "Related Websites"...have to follow that and see what is available.


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The Gen Uki site caught my interest, so I popped over there, and I didn't initially find what I wanted on the main page, so I clicked the link at the top for the Stafforshire County Page.  This brought up a page with links to various resources for the area.

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And this is where my trail ends for explaining step by step how I got the information.....I can't remember what I clicked on that got me where I wanted to be.  And no, I didn't keep track, in my excitement, of each URL for each click I followed.  I will have to go through the history of my browser and see if I can follow the trail more specifically.

Anyway....I eventually ended up at Wolverhampton History.  This site provided not only historical information, but pdf indexes.  I began checking each one, looking for any Ede family name that was remotely familiar.  And I found it:



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On page 342, of the "Wolverhampton St. Peter's Baptisms 1813-1875 A-Ed"  I found my GGGrandfather, Joseph Ede.  Further research in the other indexes for St. Peter's also found most of Edgar and Esther's other children, and even a listing for Edgar and Esther's marriage.  I have contacted the appropriate records department, and will be ordering copies of each of these records as the budget allows.

A quick jump over to Wikipedia, and this is what I found on St. Peter's:


"St Peter's Collegiate Church is located on the highest and the oldest developed site in central Wolverhampton, England.[1] For many centuries it was a chapel royal, and from 1480 a royal peculiar, independent of the Diocese of Lichfield and even the Province of Canterbury. The collegiate church was central to the development of the town of Wolverhampton, much of which belonged to its dean. Until the 18th century, it was the only church in Wolverhampton and the control of the college extended far into the surrounding area, with dependent chapels in several towns and villages of southern Staffordshire.

Fully integrated into the diocesan structure since 1848, today St Peter's is part of the Anglican Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade I listed building, much of which is Perpendicular in style, dating from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest. Although it is not a cathedral, it has a strong choral foundation with the Music at St Peter's in keeping with English Cathedral tradition. The Father Willis organ is of particular note: a campaign to raise £270,000 for its restoration was launched in 2008.[2]
" (courtesy of Wikipedia: St. Peter's Collegiate Church)



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Photo courtesy of Wikipedia: St. Peter's Collegiate Church

That is one amazing church!  Maybe someday I will get to visit in person, and see this, as well as where they lived and worked.


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Kids and Genealogy

10/1/2012

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Son looking at family tree
Son looking at large family tree
The other day while working on some genealogy for a friend, my 16 year old asked if there were any "developments" in his father's genealogy.  I was honest, and admitted that I hadn't really worked on that side of the family in quite some time.

I corrupted all three of my children young, with my love of history.  But my 16 year old seems to be the one who is into genealogy as much as I am.  He loves to find out about amazing, and sometimes nutty people in our family tree.

So, I took a break from what I was working on, and we jumped into Ancestry to work on the Bateman/Keene side of the family.  We actually managed to add quite a bit of information.
  I use MyHeritage software on my desktop, so after adding the updated GEDCOM, we took a look at what the tree would look like if I printed it out using our home printer.  "Wow, that would be cool to print!" said my son.  I agreed and looked at the number of pages it would take.....54.

For some reason, this morning I decided to do it.  I have added a few more people since then, and it ended up being 72 pages.  It takes up nearly one whole wall of my bedroom and took three of us to hang it.  It is only held up with scotch tape, and I sleep on an air mattress at the moment right below it, so it may well end up on top of me eventually, but for now it works.

I have always shared what I find with my kids.....I want them to know where they come from.  But this year we are trying to incorporate some of the family into our homeschooling.  We just recently studied the Puritan period, and we have Deacon John Blanchard in our family who was in that area during that time period.  My hope was to find some of his sermons to see where he stood on major issues of the day, but unfortunately I didn't.  But being able to put our own family in the various time periods is amazing to my children.  It makes history and learning a little more exciting.

And on the nutty side of things....you can read about the "Seige" of Cedar Island in 1896.  The kid's roots on their dad's side of the family go all the way back to the very beginning settlements on the Isles of Shoals, and we found this story funny as all get out.

Do you involve your children in your research?


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