Saturday Night Genealogy Fun-- Ellen's Questions - Part I

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings posted 20 questions on her blog this week - see Even More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You (posted 27 June). 

2)  We will do these five at a time - Questions 1 to 5 tonight.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.


1.  Which ancestor had the most children? It can be a couple or a single person.

My great-grandfather, George Pearson (1892-had 9 children with Gursie Gable my great-grandmother. (1896-1963


2.  How many years have you been working on your genealogy/family history?

I started in Oct-Dec 2016, so I'm haven't been doing genealogy for a long time. 

3.  Do you collaborate with other genealogists on your family history?

No.

4.  Have you hired a professional genealogist to work on your family history? Even if it was just a small branch of the family.

No. I thought about hiring a genealogist to try to find my ancestors pension file, but never went through with it. I will stick to finding records on my own.

5.  If you have family heirlooms what’s your plan for their future? 

Sadly, I don't. If I do in the coming years, then I will save them.

Google Books for Genealogy

If you are looking for free online historical books to use, Google Books is the way to go.


What is Google Books?

Google Books is generally a digital archive of books, newspapers, encyclopedias, etc.  You can even view most of them for free.

Using Google Books

Go to https://books.google.com/

You can search for a specific family history book, an ancestor, a locality, or a particular place. 



In the example below, I searched my 3rd great-grandfather with the location he lived in most of his life. Use quotations around names or variations of them.

   I see a few results of my ancestor. In the second result, it says a "Snippet view", which means only a tiny section of the book will be shown highlighted with the keywords you have used to find it.



The 1st result it says "Preview" so, the book is available to read.  Some pages of some books might not be in the preview.




When some books aren't available to view you can use WorldCat. WorldCat is mainly an online catalog, of books, DVDs, and biographies that have historical information that you have been looking for.

Type in the name of the book that wasn't available on Google Books.

 Enter your zip code in the field. After entering your zip code, the nearest location(s) that carry the book will be shown by the number of miles away from you. You find libraries and/or universities that have the book that you want by doing an interlibrary loan with your local public library.


Google Books is a useful tool to utilize in your genealogy search. You might find something you didn't know before by using Google Books.


Share what you have found on Google Books in the comments below.

(c) Copyright Lacie P. All Rights Reserved.

My Eight Surnames

After reading Lisa Gorrell's post about her surnames, I decided I wanted to try it out too.



My Surnames:

Pearson
Gable
Harlan
McDaniel
Armstead
Barton
Rogers
Rogers


The 2 Rogers surnames my maternal great-grandmother, Lela Rogers married Earnest Rogers. They are not cousins from what I know of.




(c) Copyright Lacie P 2019 All Rights Reserved.

DNA Circles Are going Away

Ancestry is replacing DNA Circles with ThruLines. DNA Circles will be removed in less than 2 weeks. I found out after watching Larry Jones's video yesterday.

Update: His video is no longer available to the public.

For some Ancestry users, DNA circles helped them break down brick walls that they have had for years. Personally, I have not ever had a DNA Circle since I have gotten my DNA results (Apr 2017), so I am not sure if the tool is useful.

 In Larry Jones's video, he explains that his DNA circles show 32 matches related through his common ancestor and he matches 2 of them. ThruLines shows descendants from his common ancestor all the way to him. He matches 13 for ThurLines and 2 for DNA Circles. 

 In the past, I heard that people have lost some of their DNA circles, and have never gotten them back. Maybe that's why Ancestry is removing them? Maybe some Ancestry customers have complained about the product, for example not updating their circles.

The tool seems to be beneficial to others. I would think it would be sad to see it go. Spread the word to other fellow genealogists. Comment on Larry's video, hopeful Ancestry will listen. 

What do you think? Do you think Ancestry should keep DNA Circles or remove them? What have been your experiences with DNA Circles?

(c) Copyright Lacie P. 2019

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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Ancestor Life Sketch Tweets

It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 

                     

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Gail Dever in a blog post suggested writing a life sketch tweet with no more than 280 characters for a specific ancestor.  

2)  For this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, write two or more life sketch tweets with no more than 280 characters for your ancestors.

3)  Share them with us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook.  Please link to your post in a comment to this post.

1. Fletcher Pearson (1919-1986) was born in Calhoun County, MS, and died in Flint, Michigan.  He had 2 children (from what I know). He served in World War II from 1941-1945.

2. Oscar Barton (1832-1933) was born in Union, NY, and died in Tioga County in 1933, at the age of 101 years old. He was a drummer in the 26th US Regiment Colored Infantry with Vanessa Williams's ancestor, David Carll. His drum is now in Tioga County Historical Society.

3. Susie Massa Kenny (1881-1919) was born in VA and died in Richmond, VA. She had 7 children and married Charles White Armstead from March 24, 1904, until her death in 1919.

4. Clara L. Scott (born Barton) (1904-1998) was born in New York and died in Binghamton, NY. She was adopted by her aunt Mary E. Scott- after her parents separated. (I'm not sure why). Her 2 brothers were going to The Susquehanna Valley Home in Binghamton until they were 18.

5. Lela R. Rogers (1918-1984) was born in Marion, AL, and died in Gadsden, AL. She was married on May 1, 1938, to Earnest Rogers until her death in 1984. Lela had 2 brain tumors. The first one she survived, the 2nd she died. Earnest remarried in 1988 until his death in 1990.

Thanks, Randy for this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. 😊


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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 23-Namesake

This weeks theme for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is about Namesake. I have quite a number of ancestors with the same name. Here are all the list top first names in my tree.



Mary

I have 9 ancestors with the name Mary in my tree.

Mary Armstrong 
Mary Loretta Baker 
Mary Barton
Mary Elizabeth Barton 
Mary B Barnes 
Mary Gable 
Mary Kenny 
Mary Pearson 
Mary Ann Pearson 
Mary 




George

I have 9 ancestors named George in my tree.
George Armstrong 
George Baker
George Baker 
George Baker
George F Odell 
George 
George 
George Allen Pearson 
George W Pearson 



Ann/Anna

 I have 7 ancestors with the name variations of Ann in my tree.

Annette Armstead 
Anna Baker
Anna B Brown
Ann Burns
Ann Gray
Anna Mc Daniel
Anna Reaves