Numbers- Saturday Challenge

Your mission this week from Randy Seaver, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  If you have your family tree research in a Genealogy Management Program (GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure out how to find how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database (hint:  the Help button is your friend!)

2)  Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.

There are over 100,000 people in my database. Well over. I use the database program to store research in progress. I also collect any and all collateral that I come across that I can easily throw in there for future reference or research.

The database shows 1809 places listed. Some of them aren’t actually places, but rather phrases that have been plopped into that space. A frequent one is “young” for a person that we don’t know when they died, but that it was as a youngster. Occasionally a marriage has a designation of what number of marriage is for that couple- whether second wife or third husband or such.

Sources total 1674 of which three quarters is probably decent sources. Others are temporary sources that either haven’t been properly wrote up yet or they are rather generic, such as “found on an Ancestry database, needs verification.” These latter ones are definitely a work in progress.

Glad this is short! My morning class is about to start! 

I'm in the library next door learning about legal resources!

Wordless Wednesday- Erie Canal Village Rome

From over ten years ago, it closed shortly thereafter.

Peterboro

If you're looking for some Civil War fun, hop over to the New York History blog to read about Peterboro. Every year they have a weekend in June that is everything Civil War. The 12th US Co A Infantry will set up encampment as usual on the village Green. All are welcome with a $8 admission charge. This is a fun weekend of reenactment that isn't far away if you live in the Syracuse area.

Details about the weekend can be found here:

http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2016/06/07/24th-peterboro-civil-war-weekend-set/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewYorkHistory+%28New+York+History%29

I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal

“I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal,

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal…”

This is the opening lines of a popular folk song about the canal that ran across New York State from well, as the song goes: Al-Bany to Buf- a –low.

363 miles long with 36 locks, it opened in 1825, was enlarged 1834 and 1862. Finally it became the New York State Barge Canal in 1918. Boring facts. But what about the life of the people who lived along the canal and hauled those barges back and forth? That is the interesting stuff. Fortunately, for those that would like to learn more about it, many people wrote about canal life.

Although fictional there are a number of books that tell the stories of what it was like living near and on the Erie Canal. Here is a sampling of some of the classic books:

Adult Reading Level Books:

The Boyds of Black River: A Family Chronicle by Walter D. Edmonds.

            The Black River was also part of a canal that fed off of the Erie.

Canal Town by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Mostly Canallers by Walter D. Edmonds

Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds

Grandfather Stories by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Not about the canal itself, this tells about Adams growing up in Auburn and Rochester. His grandfather who lived in Rochester was involved with the canal.

Young Adult Books

The Erie Canal by Samuel Hopkins Adams

The Treasure in The Trunk by Helen Fuller Orton

Greatest Find May 2016- Saturday Challenge

Randy Seaver is away this week, but he sent the following challenge to us in his Genea Musings blog:

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:

1)  I am away at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree this weekend, having too much fun (I hope!).

2)  What was your best genealogy "research find" in May 2016?  It could be a record, it could be a photograph, etc.  Whatever you judge to be your "best."

Most of my work in May has been collecting information from some published sources and getting them arranged properly in my database along with a little bit of work with documenting gravestones on Find A Grave.

While at the New York State Library in Albany at the first of the month, I did look in one book, which gave me no information on my family. However, one line from that book might have been the greatest find for me. Published by a historical society that has done much research in the area (part of Columbia County, New York), their opinion of the records helps support conclusions I have come to:

“Very few descendants of the early settlers are still found in the area and because of the loss of early records it is impossible to tell where they lived…” [1]

 

Page 70

One of those apparent early settlers is a man named Ebenezer Wooster and his family. This quote offers up a good explanation of why we can find him in early census records and little else in the area. Other mentions of early settlers on this page state they came from Milford, Connecticut. Ebenezer came from one side or the other of the Housatonic River, having appeared in both the towns of Milford and Stratford.

It is just a few lines on one page of a book and they don’t even mention my family’s name. However, this further supports some theories that I have been developing on the family and helps complete the explanation of lack of records on them. Therefore, it is probably the greatest find of May 2016 for me.

---

[1] Roeliff Jansen Historical Society, A history of the Roeliff Jansen area : Ancram-Copake-Gallatin-Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York, ([Place of publication not identified] : Roeliff Jansen Historical Society, 1975.), p. 70.

Alabama's On My Mind

The state of Alabama is once again on my mind. Those that have been reading this blog since the beginning may remember my earlier post "Of Magnolias and Education". My concluding sentences from that post were: "Was that drive south in June worth it? Well, let’s just say I’m hoping that come next June, my car will once again be pointing towards Alabama"

 

By The original uploader was Lissoy at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Spyder_Monkey using CommonsHelper., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5075456

The car was at the dealer's this week and had an oil change and a quick once over. The maps are printed- we're old-fashioned and don't own a GPS. I registered this morning for the ProGen get together on Sunday evening. The neighbors have been told we'll be gone. The bags just need to be packed and then a week from tomorrow the car once again points south!

This year I will be taking Advanced Library Research: Law Libraries and Government Documents and Rich will be taking Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis. Despite my years working in a law library, I have had little chance to do actual research in legal records. So, this coming week I will be trying to make sure I know what I'm doing with legal records and that I have the proper terminology down pat. Wish me luck!

This will be the last year that IGHR is at Samford University, but if you haven't registered don't fear you've missed your chance. Next year it will move to The Georgia Center’s UGA Hotel & Conference Center July 23-28, 2017.

So, stay tuned. Posts may be a bit short and distracted over the next couple weeks, but they will appear and there will be at least one update during IGHR itself!

 

New York State Databases- Free!

Here's another of those free promotional offers. They seem to be a lot of them lately!

http://www.americanancestors.org/New-York

Boston, home town of the NEHGS

For the month of June, American Ancestors-- that's the New England Historical Genealogical Society's website-- is offering anybody that doesn't already belong a chance to register for free and access their databases pertaining to New York information.

NEHGS has been expanding into New York research in recent years. It makes sense as many of the early settlers in New York came from New England. Many of their researchers are well versed in New York state research and their holdings are getting larger and larger.

If you don't already belong, but have some New York State ancestors, this would be a good chance to sample some of their offerings!