Cemetery Walk: Trinity UC Cemetery (V 3) Beeton Ontario Canada

Join Olive Tree Genealogy and Ancestors At Rest on a Cemetery Walk of Trinity United Church Cemetery in Beeton, Tecumseth Township, Simcoe County Ontario.

I have uploaded the third and last video of this Cemetery to the Olive Tree Genealogy YouTube Channel to join my other Cemetery Walk videos.



Search for more death records at Archives.com

EasyBib: An iPhone App Review

I'm using an iPhone App called EasyBib and I'm really liking it. This app allows you to scan a bar code on a book using your iPhone. The bar code is then converted to a bibliographic citation!

You can choose from MLA, Chicago/Turabian or APA styles. After your citation is ready you simply email it to yourself.

I'm using EasyBib to quickly and easily format citations for the history and genealogy books I review here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog. Not only does it save me typing everything out, it ensures that I've cited the book correctly and in a consistent format.

A friend mentioned that she plans to use EasyBib to scan the books she writes and publishes. I am planning on spending a day scanning the genealogy and history books in my own personal library. Then I can email those citations to myself, and click on the Save To EasyBib link that is automatically inserted into the email. That link takes me to the EasyBib website where I can save all my citations in a list, then choose from several options for the list:

I can export my citations to WORD or Google Docs
I can copy and paste them
I can email them

I can also sort my list of  citations alphabetically, by date, by tag (keywords which I  add manually) or by  source.

I am also able to print my list of citations, or save to GoogleDocs or Save for later on the website.

One caveat - many of the genealogy books that I've purchased for my personal reference library do not have bar codes.  However I can manually enter the ISBN number and EasyBib searches for the book. If it is not found, I can enter the title, author and publisher plus date of publication  on the EasyBib website and it is formatted for me correctly.

EasyBib is free from the App Store.

Ask an Archivist Day on Twitter

#AskArchivists on Twitter

On 9 June 2011, The National Archives will be taking part in #AskArchivists Day alongside archives from around the world.

On the day, you can use your Twitter account to ask us about our collection, online resources and how to research at The National Archives. We'll also be answering questions about archival practice and advice, conservation, digital preservation and web archiving.

To keep up to date with the plans for #AskArchivists, follow @uknatarchives on Twitter

NEHGS Tour Through Ireland & Irish History

Programs and Events from NEHGS

A Tour Through Ireland and Irish History

July 5, 2011 5:00PM - July 15, 2011 5:00PM

Ireland

Please join NEHGS as we explore our Irish immigrant ancestors’ native land, the rolling hills of Ireland. We will discover spectacular scenery, and enjoy legendary Irish hospitality in internationally renowned hotels and restaurants and elegant private homes.

Please e-mail education@nehgs.org if you wish to be placed on a waiting list for the event.

To learn more about upcoming events, programs, and tours, visit AmericanAncestors.org/Event to register online or download a registration form. Please mail your registration form to:



NEHGS, Education & Tours

Attn: Joshua Taylor

99-101 Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116-3007

For more information call 1-888-296-3447, or e-mail education@nehgs.org

I Spy With My Genealogy Eye...

I admit it. I have been brainwashing my grandchildren since birth. I tell genealogy stories constantly. I choose  ancestors with stories that I hope will excite them or enthrall them or make them curious. I repeat the same stories as many times as my grandkids want to hear them.

It's amazing what they remember, and what they love to hear.  Every year on their annual summer visits to our farm they beg me for the same stories over and over.  

"Tell us the story again about our ancestor who walked Niagara Falls on a tightrope" 

"Gramma tell us about our ancestor who fought in the War of 1812" 

"Gramma which ancestor was it who was killed by a fish? Tell that story again!" (Doubters, this is a true story. I have a newspaper clipping of the tragic yet bizarre fish incident in which my great grandfather's cousin was killed by a sturgeon)

My living room is full of ancestor photos in antique frames (I just counted and there are 20 in our cathedral style living room. That doesn't include those on the staircase, in the loft and other rooms of the house). Every year we play "Name the Ancestor" with the grandchildren over the age of 10. This is a little game where they try to name our ancestors on the wall, including their relationship to each person.

Winner is the child who gets the most names correct and can give the correct relationship (example: That's my Great great grandma Ruth).


For those who think there shouldn't be winners versus losers, I'll let you in on a secret - children love competitions. They love to win. The grandchild who doesn't come first will almost certainly try harder next time or listen more attentively when I talk about each ancestor.

Did you notice I said we only play this as a competition with the children over age 10? Children over the age of 10 understand winning and not winning. They don't cry when they don't win. With the younger children I make it like the game "I Spy." Only my version is called "I Spy With My Genealogy Eye".  Notice that we don't spy with our "little" eye, we spy with our "genealogy" eye!

My 6 year old grandson loves this game. He  takes his turn with "I spy with my genealogy eye, an ancestor who is Gramma Ollie's Grandma" (I'm Gramma Ollie) Then the rest of us have to point to the correct person in the photos.

Even my 3 year old grandson tries to play but he doesn't quite get it yet. His version goes like this "I spying with my all-a-gee eye, something like a lady in a dress"  But that's okay because as soon as one of us in the game picks the right "lady in a dress" I make sure I name the person they chose. 


"Oh that's Grandma Ruth! Good going, you chose Grandma Ruth with your genealogy eye"

Yes it's called brainwashing. Being a parrot. Repeating what you want your grandchildren to remember. If their attention span can handle it, I add a bit along the lines of "Grandma Ruth was my grandmother. She's your great-grandmother" I've usually lost them by this time but some of it will sink in.

I also prompt them with sentences like "Okay it's your turn. Use your genealogy eye to choose an ancestor for the rest of us to guess" I know. I'm shameless when it comes to my determination to turn at least ONE of my 13 grandkids into a genealogist!

Somebody has to take my 10 filing cabinet drawers of genealogy documents and my stacks of unsorted genealogy papers at some point in time... 


And so I brainwash my grandchildren with stories and games like "I Spy With My Genealogy Eye." Fingers crossed that one will  pick up the torch and carry on.

NEHGS Weekend Research Trip to Albany, New York

NEHGS

Weekend Research Trip to Albany, New York

July 13, 2011 3:00PM - July 17, 2011 11:00AM

Albany, New York

Join NEHGS as we explore the vast resources of the New York State Archives. The weekend includes individual consultations, lectures, and a group dinner.

To learn more about upcoming events, programs, and tours, visit AmericanAncestors.org/Event to register online or download a registration form. Please mail your registration form to:



NEHGS, Education & Tours

Attn: Joshua Taylor

99-101 Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116-3007

For more information call 1-888-296-3447, or e-mail education@nehgs.org

Using eBay to Find Genealogy Items

I use eBay a lot to look for ephemera with a connection to my ancestors. I've written a few blog posts about some of my great genealogy finds and interested readers have asked me for advice on using eBay successfully.

It can be  overwhelming when you search for something on eBay using the name of the city or village where your ancestor lived, and you get hundreds of hits. How do you narrow your search results? There are two ways to do this that I am aware of.

Let's use the search term Guelph That's the city where my parents were born and where my dad's ancestors settled in the 1860s. So I'm always on the hunt for some bit of ephemera that might involve an ancestor or provide me with some interesting background on the places they lived or worked.

394 Results!

If I type "Guelph" into the eBay search engine i get 394 results. That's a lot to look through! I can narrow my results though by choosing a category from the left side panel. I know I don't want any of the results in the "Sports" categories so I've elminated 174 of the hits already. "Collectibles" is probably more what I'm looking for so I've only got 132 results to look at. I could narrow that even further with the sub-categories within "Collectibles" if I wanted to. So that is one search method. Do a broad search and then narrow the results.

SEARCHING WITHIN CATEGORIES

You might also want to search within a specific category such as "Collectibles" rather than the entire eBay website.  I don't like to do this as I find I miss items if a seller doesn't put the item in the category I think it will be found.

SEARCHING WITHIN ITEM DESCRIPTIONS

If I search within titles (the default search) and am not finding what I want, I will often include my search to the item description. That is easily done by ticking the radio checkbox under the green Search button. This allows for a seller not using the word Guelph in her item title but using it in the description. For example I once bid on and won a beautiful 1930s watercolour of a river and bridge in Guelph. The word Guelph was not in the title but it was in the item description.

ADVANCED SEARCH

Advanced Search on eBay

There's another search method that you might prefer. eBay has an Advanced Search option. To use it, click on the word "advanced" to the right of the green search box in the generic search engine top of the page. You now have a long list of choices (options) for searching. I've shown a few here in this graphic.

Now you can choose from specific items, or buyers or from an eBay store. Those choices are fairly intuitive on how to use them so I won't go into detail here.




DROP-DOWN LIST OF CRITERIA CHOICES
Let's discuss the choices of criteria you can choose in the drop down list. Let's pretend you wanted to find yearbooks for Guelph. You might enter your keywords Guelph, yearbook

All words, any order: Search in titles containing all the words you've listed, in any order. The titles would have to contain both your keywords.

Any words, any order: Search in titles containing any of the words you've listed, in any order. This would result in hits for any title containing the word yearbook or Guelph So you would get a lot of hits that didn't apply such as "Toronto yearbook" or "Fair Dinkum Yearbook"

Exact words, exact order: As this choice says, you are searching in titles containing the exact keywords in the exact order you gave them. in this search, you would get results if the title contained "Guelph yearbook 1932" but not if the title was "Yearbook Guelph 1932"

Exact words, any order: This would give you results for a title "Yearbook Guelph 1932"

EXCLUDING KEYWORDS

You can also EXCLUDE words from your search. So I could use Guelph as a keyword but exclude the word sports or hockey or baseball. Perhaps I definitely don't want a Guelph souvenir spoon. I can exclude the word spoon.

BOOLEAN SEARCH OPERATORS

This is another option for searching. Using the generic search box at the top of eBay pages I can use several different search operators to refine my search.

Quotation Marks: These tell the search engines to search for that exact phrase. So I might search for "Guelph postcards" to find any titles with that exact wording. But I could also use "Guelph" postcards and this will find titles with the word Guelph and the word postcards but there  might be other words in between. So it would find titles using  Postcards of Speed River in Guelph

Asterisk (*): This is a wild card and allows you to search for an item such as Guelph Yearbook*  This will bring up the plural of yearbook as well as the singular. It would also bring up any title with the partial word book such as bookshelf or bookmark.

Commas and Brackets: I can use commas to separate keywords inside brackets, such as (Guelph, postcard). This brings up titles containing those keywords in any order

Minus sign: This acts as an exclusion operator and will bring up titles containing your keywords but not containing your exclusion word. So for example Guelph -hockey would eliminate any titles that are hockey related for Guelph items.

So there you have it - different ways to make your search for genealogy items on eBay much easier. And now I'm off to do my weekly search for any Guelph genealogy items. Oh one more thing - if like me you end up doing weekly searches, be sure to sort your search results by "Time: Newly listed". That way you won't keep clicking on through the older items that you have already looked at!

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution: Genealogist Job Available

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has an immediate full-time opening for a Genealogist in the Registrar’s Office. Primary responsibilities focus on examining and evaluating lineage-based information provided on DAR membership applications or supplemental applications, and corresponding with prospective members or Chapter Registrar if further documentation is needed.

Qualifications
Previous experience in conducting genealogical research is required. The successful candidate must be able to analyze and evaluate lineage information, be detail oriented and resolve issues from conflicting data, and be able to write clear and concise letters explaining difficult research problems, including providing suggestions to the applicant for further research. Proficiency in Microsoft Word, including the ability to adapt quickly to proprietary databases, is essential.

Limited overtime hours possible during board weeks, (April, June, October and December) however, must be available to work overtime hours during one week of annual meeting.

Please send a cover letter and resume including a writing sample and a sample or portfolio of genealogy/family research performed, to:

Attn: Human Resources
NSDAR
1776 D. St., NW
Washington D.C., 20006-5303
Fax: (202) 737-5702
E-mail: resumes@dar.org

NEHGS New Visitor and Welcome Tour

Announcement from NEHGS

June New Visitor and Welcome Tour

June 1, 2011 10:00AM - 11:00AM

99-101 Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116-3007


Make plans to start your genealogy with this great tour. This program begins with a thirty-minute introductory lecture and will be followed by a tour of the NEHGS library and its vast holdings.

To learn more about upcoming events, programs, and tours, visit AmericanAncestors.org/Event to register online or download a registration form. Please mail your registration form to:



NEHGS, Education & Tours

Attn: Joshua Taylor

99-101 Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116-3007

For more information call 1-888-296-3447, or e-mail education@nehgs.org

Names of People in Donated Civil War Era Photo Album

Here is the list of identified photos (CDVs and tintypes) from the donated Civil War era photo album which recently arrived in my mailbox. It was sent to me by a reader of my Olive Tree Genealogy blog, who had also seen my Lost Faces website

1. Nathaniel Sutton
4. Rosa Weeks
5. Salmon [sic] King Weeks (tintype)
6. David Pratt. O. C. Barnes Photographer, Stowe VT
7. Angie Weeks Pratt. O. C. Barnes Photographer, Stowe VT
9. Allie Weeks (tintype of a baby)
10. E. A. Fuller. C. Miller, Photographic Artist, Burlington. 2cent George Washington Revenue Stamp
11. Mrs. E. A. Fuller. Ditto on verso as #10
12. Judson Milo Fuller. Ditto on verso as #10
13. Effie Fuller Loomis. Onward Styles, Burlington VT
14. Marion Fuller Story
15. Edward Story. G. B. Davis, Photographer, Union Block, Burlington VT
16. Albert Sutton. Charles Miller, Burlington VT
17. Will W. Sutton. ditto as #16
19. Rev. C. D. Fuller & Mary Ann Weeks Fuller
20. Charles D'Estaing Fuller
21. Edward M. Fuller aged 11 years. tintype with doubled purple backing. Continental Ferrotype Co., Burlington VT
23. Mrs. Shedd. C. Miller Burlington. 2cent Revenue Stamp for playing cards. dated 186_
30. Burr C. Fuller
31. Henry Fuller. Onward Styles Burlington VT
34. Lillian Woodruff. Bolton Monson Mass.
35. Nellie Woodruff. C.L. Howe, Brattleboro VT
36. Mattie Dyke Brown. tintype
41. Edward M. Fuller age 6 years
46. Cynthia Fuller Cunningham. tintype
47. William Cunningham. tintype

I will be adding scans of all 50 photos on my Lost Faces website so be sure to watch that space. The photos will join the dozens of other antique Civil War era photo albums I've rescued.

As for the photographers, I'm fascinated by their design logos and their work. So far I've found a nice little bio of M. J. Bixby the photographer of some of the unidentified photographs in the album.

Published on  a Rootsweb mailing list:

Smith and Rann, 1886
page 932

BIXBY, MARQUIS J.--Castleton,was born in Shalerville, O., in 1835 ,he came to Mt.Holly in 1841 and learned the photography business in 1863, in which year he moved to Castleton, and has at different times since carried on the photography business at Poultney, Ludlow and Burlington,VT. He enlisted in Ludlow,VT, in Company C, 16th Vermont Volunteers in 1862, served until August 1863, when he was wounded at Gettysburg and was at once awarded a pension. He purchased his present summer resort on the shore of Lake Bomboseen (sic), and erected his hotel in 1877, and it is now one of the most inviting places for a quiet rest and fishing pleasure there is in the
vicinity. He also has a large picnic grounds and  ample accommodations for all, and also a large supply of boats. He is to be found eight months
a year at his photography studio in Castleton. His wife is JULIA MILLS, daughter of FRANKLIN MILLS of Bolton, Lake George,N.Y., to whom he married in 1865. They have a daughter, FLORENCE M. , born in Poultney, VT., October 4, 1866. He was the son of ARMESETUS BIXBY, of Mount Holly, Vt., who moved to Ohio in 1834.

Another Genealogy Find

Recently I found, bid on, and won, a really neat genealogy item on EBay.

It's a very small (3"x6") booklet called "Annual Commencement, Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute" The date is Friday December 22nd, 1931.

Written in faded pencil at the top is the name [illegible] Jackson

Inside are 16 pages of names of staff and students in all years.  It also has lists of scholarship and other awards winners.

I haven't gone through it carefully as the fonts are very small, but I'm hoping that one or both of my parents' names are in there! They both attended GCVI and in 1931 my mom was 15, my father 19. There's a good chance my mother's name will be there.

This little booklet was not much money and shipping was free. Even if I am not lucky enough to spot my mom's name, I'm pretty sure there will be some McGinnis, Peer or King relatives in it's pages.

Update: I just spotted Leonard Peer's name along with a list of the subjects he took. Leonard was my dad's cousin and I love finding these little gems to add to the family history.

And there's my mom's name under the heading TYPEWRITING AWARDS and a sub-heading 30-50 words per minute. So another new fact to add to my knowledge of my mother. I knew she was in Commercial but didn't know she'd won an award. I wonder what happened to it.

Under VOCATIONAL DIPLOMAS I spot two of my father's cousins - Albert McGinnis and John McGinnis. Albert pops up under another heading - as winner of the 2 Industrial Prize, while John's name appears as #4 in the Top 5 students in Industrial.

So a little booklet bought on EBay on speculation, having no clue what might be included in it's pages, has turned out to be a genealogical treasure in my eyes.

Family Finder Test Results in for my Brother's DNA!

On April 15 I ordered an upgrade from Family Tree DNA called Family Finder for my brother's original Y-DNA test.  It wasn't clear to me exactly what I would learn from this test but I thought it sounded like fun and would probably provide us with new information on our family origins.

On May 18th I received an email saying my Family Finder Results were in. I was really excited and rushed to the website to read what they'd found. Confession time - I found it very confusing! But reading through their help with Family Finder Results page was very helpful. 

There I found answers to 61 questions about Family Finder including the very obvious questions

 What can it show me? What do my results mean?

 A brief but helpful explanation of Family Finder Testing was given

"The Family Finder test traces all of your ancestral lines. It uses your autosomal DNA to identify confidently relationships for five generations."

LOOKING FOR IDENTICAL DNA SEGMENTS

My understanding is that the test looks for identical blocks (segments) of DNA in other people in the database.  If you share identical segments with someone else, the odds are good that somewhere you have a common ancestor. So the test results include the names of those in the database who share identical segments - and your suggested relationship to them is calculated and given.

Unlike Y-DNA or MtDNA, the autsomal DNA testing will detect matches regardless of gender. Y-DNA  only tests males while MtDNA only tests females.  

As soon as I logged in to my brother's account, I saw the following choices under Family Finder

• Matches
• Chromosome Browser
• Known Relationships
• Population Finder
• Download Raw Data

MATCHES IN FAMILY FINDER RESULTS 

Checking my brother's results under MATCHES I found several people listed as 4th and 5th cousins, but no closer relationship. There were options to filter the results for those with a common surname, those who had close relationships and other choices.

What confused me (and still confuses me!) is that when I filtered on common surnames, I got a list of names and beside each, their list of ancestral surnames and the common surnames in bold. But the confusion is that NONE of the bolded surnames are in fact surnames that I submitted as surnames in my brother's list of ancestral surnames. In fact we do not have these names in our lineage on either my mom or my dad's side. Only two of those listed did in fact have a common surname - Downey in Ireland and Burkholder.

Beside each name is a link to contact the person via email and I'm going to contact the two who do have a common surname, so I'll be very interested in what information they might have that might help us figure out our common ancestor. 

POPULATION FINDER IN FAMILY FINDER RESULTS 

Leaving MATCHES, I clicked on POPULATION FINDER and that got really interesting! The explanation given on the new page that loaded stated

The Population Finder program determines your biogeographical ancestry — the story of your personal genetic history — by comparing your autosomal DNA to that of our world DNA population database

The percentage of your genome that matches up to 4 of the 7 continental groups is shown.  The continental groups are based on genetic similarities and not exact geographic boundaries. I was stunned to read my brother's results: 94.33% Basque, Orcadian, Spanish and the remaining 5.67% was Sardinian

THE FUN BEGINS!

What the heck? We know my father's lineage back to the 1600s and it is predominantly Irish, German, and Dutch with a scattering of English, French and Norwegian. Mom's lineage is English back to the 1600s and we don't know of any other ancestry in her lines.

But I believe genetics and DNA are solid indicators of origins, so this news is really exciting and interesting. I knew from my brother's original Y-DNA test that he has a mutation that is apparently rare and can be traced back to the Basque region and a small group of Basque who were up in Northern England and Southern Scotland during the time Hadrian's Wall was built. Of course my genealogy research does not go back that far in time so it's not unexpected that what I know of our lineage from genealogy research does not tie in with what genetics shows us.

How I wish I could trace our ancestry back to those origins and have names of our ancestors who were from those regions! After reading the Population Finder results, I rushed off to research Basque, Orcadian and Sardinian.

ORCADIANS

I learned that Orcadians, who reside primarily in Orkney, which is just off the coast of Scotland, are the descendants of Iron Age Picts, Norwegian Vikings and Scots. Okay now I'm off to look up Picts. According to Wikipedia, The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland.

BASQUES

I'm starting to get a very cool picture of our early genetic ancestral movements.  Next I checked Basque and learned that the Basque primarily inhabit an area  known as the Basque Country. This is a region located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddling parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.

SARDINIANS

My last one to look up was Sardinian. My search found that Sardinians originated on the island of Sardiania (considered part of Italy) and that during the Neolithic (or New Stone Age) period, people from Italy, Spain and the Aegean area settled in Sardinia. While we can't know exact dates for our ancestry in these areas, we have to remember that this is genetic DNA we're looking at  - our early biogeographical ancestry.

WHAT NEXT?

I can hardly wait to do more research on this new find, and to finish looking at the rest of the Family Finder Results from Family Tree DNA

I'm really not sure at this point what else I can learn from the test results but I am going to have a lot of fun doing in-depth research on the countries, the people, the history and the culture of the groups given as my brother's genetic origins. I'm also eager to exchange emails with the 4th cousins that are listed as matches for his DNA.

Hidden Treasures in the Civil War Era Photo Album

Continental Ferrotype Company

 Still working on my wonderful Civil War Era Photo Album which I've labeled as SUTTON

After the CDVs and tintypes were removed from the album I  found some very early photographer logos (that's another passion of mine - the artwork and design changes in photographer's logos over the years),  CDVs with dated revenue stamps and best of all - a photographer's double sided advertisement paper glued to the back of the CDV. 

I've never seen a double-sided paper advertisement on a CDV before. The photographer has his details on the left, and he's apparently accepted money from other establishments to place their ads on the right side.

This photographer lists himself as the Continental Ferrotype Company on Church Street in Burlington Vermont.  Ferrotypes are commonly referred to as tintypes and they were introduced in the United States in 1855.  I haven't researched this company yet but I will.

After the photographs have been removed, I scan each one, front and back. I like to use my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for this stage because it's fast and easy.

Eventually my husband scans all the photos on his HP Scanjet 8300 scanner at a very high resolution (600)  in .tif format so that we can offer best quality reproductions to those who want a copy.

But for my immediate purpose (publishing the photos online) the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner does a great job and thus works well for me.

After scanning I'm ready to start researching the family and study the photos. This is the stage I love most - seeing the women in their beautiful elaborate gowns, imagining their daily lives, and placing family members together is magical.

This is one of the hidden CDVs that was tucked between two others. Since it was between the first and second CDVs in the album I gave it the designation SUT-1a

The photographer is identified as MOULTHROP and his business is located in the Phoenix Building on Chapel St. in New Haven Connecticut.


 This is where I start to get side-tracked. I like to search these photographers. It helps to date a photograph by finding out when the photographer was in business. Besides, I'm just curious!


A search for Moulthrop reveals that he was known as Major Moulthrop and was (1805-1890) Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1805, dying there in 1890. Before becoming a photographer, he was a landscape and portrait painter. He had a photography business in New Haven his entire life.




Finding one identified person in a census record almost always links several identified photos together. Entire families are revealed! I don't need to be related to the families to gain great pleasure from seeing their faces and understanding who was married to who, who the family groups are and so on.

SUT-1a

After all my fun in studying every little detail of the photos, and researching the families is done, I  place the photos in archival storage sheets in archival binders and add the scans to my Lost Faces website. Hopefully descendants will find my site and enjoy discovering an ancestor or two. My fun might be over but the real fun is just starting!

I'll list the names and locations for each photo in this Civil War era photo album in my next blog post.

Oh Where oh Where Have my Digital Files Gone?

Jill over at Geniaus blog, recently wrote a post called Fling it in the folder - my digital filing system  
I read her ideas with great interest.

I've never been very good at taking care of paper. My filing cabinets get reorganized and filing folders renamed, every couple of years. Much of my paperwork is in piles or tubs on my desk or the floor. I've started getting a handle on that mess but my digital filing sucks.

I can never decide where to put digital items (photos, emails, documents etc). I also tend to forget where I put stuff the last time. So I end up with duplicate folders - perhaps I'll call one PEER and toss all my digital copies on the PEER family in it. That's on C-Drive. Then one day I forget I have that on C-Drive and I create another folder (also called PEER) inside my Documents folder!

Often I create folders that are on the same topic but I give them different names. For example I have a folder called LOST FACES where I was putting all the scans from my Lost Faces photo albums. Inside Lost Faces directory were subdirectories neatly and consistently labelled Album 01, Album 02 and so on. But then for some now unknown reason I created a folder called PHOTO ALBUMS and inside that I created subdirectories called 01 (surname), 02 (surname) Sheesh! Now I have some scans in one set of folders and some scans in another.

Inside my MY PICTURES subdirectory  I have folders called "FARM", "FUN ON THE FARM" and "HOUSE" all of which contain various pictures taken at our home over the past 15 years. Sigh. Do you see how hard it is for me to make an organized plan and stick to it??

I like Jill's simple approach. Most of her folders appear to be on the top level which I find appealing. I think half the reason I forget what my system is, is that I have sub-folders inside sub-folders! Right now I'm kind of excited and thinking that I should come up with a plan on paper. I'm leaning towards Jill's method of an overall topic name followed by a sub-name, as the main folders.

So I could have FARM-Machinery and FARM-Animals and FARM-grandkids or whatever sub designation I need to be organized. Using this method would mean all my FARM documents and photos would be much more easily found and new material filed.

What are your digital filing methods? I like Jill's methods but am open to other ideas!

Continuing to Document the Donated Civil War Era Photo Album

Readers may recall that a few days ago a Civil War era photo album arrived in my mailbox. It was sent to me by a reader of my Olive Tree Genealogy blog, who had also seen my Lost Faces website

When I acquire an antique photo album, I follow certain steps. I'm sure that an archivist would scold me, but I do the best I can to carefully document and remove the photos from their album pages.

Example from Photo Album

The first thing I do is photograph the album as it is. I take pictures of the front and back covers, then I snap photos of each album page (with the photos intact).

I don't fuss too much with this step as I am only interested in documenting exactly what photos was on each page, and the order of placement in the album.

This is my record which I save so that I can return the photos to the album if I choose to do that later.

Next I want to record whatever has been written in the photo album or on the front of each photo. First I have to decide on a name for the album. My usual method for naming an album is to see what surname is most recorded and use that. Sometimes I just start with the first identified photo and use that surname. It really doesn't matter what I name the album, it is just a way for me to distinguish between my collection of over 50  Civil War Era albums.

For this album I chose SUTTON as the name. I start with SUT-1 as the identifier for the first photo (using a 3 letter abbreviation of the album name and numeric order) on a blank piece of lined paper. I could record this on my computer using WORD or even EXEL but I prefer to use pen and paper for these first stages.  So I begin with SUT-1 and the inscription, if there is one, for each photo. If there is no inscription I put a brief description of the photo - only a few words such as "head & shoulders, young woman, bow at neck"

I learned the hard way to leave a few lines blank between each numbered description on my paper. After I remove the photos I will be adding to each description whatever is found on the reverse (verso) of each photo. Sometimes there are hidden treasures - another photo tucked between two visible photos, or a lengthy description on the back, or the photographer's logo plus a revenue stamp and date. So I need lots of room to record this. Also, if I find hidden photos tucked between others, leaving room lets me add a subset of numbers. So if I have photos  SUT-1 followed by photo SUT-2 but find a CDV tucked between those photos, I can add SUT-1a to my documentation. Using the "a" designation reminds me that the photo was hidden.

My next step takes patience, a steady hand and lots of time. I'm not great with the patience part but I force myself to go slowly.  I'm ready to carefully remove the photos from the album. This album is approximately 150 years old and most of the photos have been in it for that long. Pages are brittle and tear easily. Most of the photos are CDVs which are paper. Over the last 150 years some have stuck to the album inserts or to each other.

Each photo is back to back with another photo and although originally there was a thin paper insert between each one, that is often missing.  The tintypes don't stick to each other but they are much thicker than the CDVs, with sharper edges that can tear and rip the album pages. They are often are more difficult to remove without damaging the album.

I start by gently wiggling and sliding the first photo. Sometimes I slide and wiggle it's backing photo at the same time. I don't tug or pull or force. Basically I'm trying to feel if the photos are stuck or might just slide out the bottom easily.

It's difficult to describe my method as it is all based on the feel of the photo in that album. I have a small tool I use for more difficult pictures but I'm a stickler for removing the photos without damage to either the album pages or the photos themselves so using a tool of any kind can be a bit nerve-wracking.


The tool I use has a rounded end (no sharp edges!) and is very thin so it can slide between the photo and the album page that is holding the photo in place. This allows me to gently "unstick" the album pages from the photo at which point I can carefully slide the photo out. Sometimes a photo comes partway and the only way to get it all the way out is to push on an edge. But this too is a tricky move if your goal is no damage.  It can take me anywhere from one minute to 20 minutes to remove one photo from an antique album. I once spent over an hour getting one photo out.

As I remove each photo from the album I record what is on the verso. I also write on the back my own identifier name and number (SUT-1 for example) so that I know what album this photo came from and what it's placement is. I also add whatever was written on the album page for that photo. This step has given me a lot to think about. I have wrestled with my need to document and record each photo and my horror at adding anything to the original photo.

I would prefer to not alter the original photo in any way but with over 3,000 CDVs in my collection I worry that identification of a photo will be lost over time, or that I will not know which album it was found in. So after much thought and discussion with my husband, I've made the decision to record the album identifier and any identification on the back of each photo.

There are many treasures in these photo albums. In the Civil War era album I just received, I found two hidden CDVs tucked between other photos. The final total was 50 CDVs and tintypes. My next blog post will talk about some of the hidden treasures, and various photographer's logos and marks.

Book Review: Time Traveller's Handbook

Time Traveller's Handbook:A Guide to the Past
Author: Althea Douglas
Published by Dundurn Press, Toronto. March 2011
341 pages
16 Chapters plus Introduction, Notes, Index, Bibliography, Appendix

Time Traveller's Handbook is chock full of interesting facts and details that affected our ancestors' lives. If you have ever wondered how long it took your ancestor to sail across the ocean to their new home, you'll find the answer in this book. Perhaps you found a record of land ownership for your ancestor but you don't understand the currency or the measurement unit. This book has your answer to such questions - questions about terms or items used in every day life by our ancestors but not used or understood now.



 But Time Traveller's Handbook is not just a list of dry facts. Ms. Douglas explains how researchers need to take a close look at family lore, and how to analyse documents.

In Time Traveller's Handbook we learn about such things as changes in technology. Once we know when electric lights were first used, or when running water first appeared in homes, we can set our ancestors in that time and understand what their daily lives were like.

Checking such facts as how long it took an ancestor to travel by horse or by carriage from one place to another can provide clues which enable researchers to look for more information. Such information also helps researchers develop a timeline for each individual in their family tree.

 I love this type of detail as it helps me to imagine my own ancestor Joseph McGinnis on a wagon with his wife and year old daughter making his way from York (Toronto) to the wilderness area near what would become the city of Guelph, in 1847. Such a difficult journey and with the help of Time Traveller's Handbook, I can get a much better sense of how many days the family had to suffer in the heat of Ontario with blackflies surrounding them.

One item I found particularly interesting was an early photograph of a young child in what appears to be a dress. As a collector of CDVs (mid 1800s photographs) I know that young boys wore dresses and are often mistaken for girls. The usual way to tell boys from girls is through the hair - centre part is a girl, side part is a boy. But I never knew the reason behind parents dressing boys and girls alike in certain cultures and time periods until I read Time Traveller's Handbook.

Ms. Douglas explains that these youngsters were "in petticoats" meaning they were still in diapers. Suddenly it al made sense - it was simply easier to change a young child, whether boy or girl, if they wore a dress or skirt rather than long pants. But what is even more exciting to me is that this new information gives researchers a very good way to establish an age for an individual.

Although Ms. Douglas states that the book is intended for "family historians working in Canada whose ancestors originated somewhere else" I believe most genealogists or historians would find information in its pages that would be of interest and use.  The author points out that  much of the information she has provided might be found on the Internet. But the sheer volume of what the author has compiled and the ease of finding the wanted information at your fingertips makes this book an invaluable addition to any historian or genealogist bookshelf. It has a place front and centre on mine and I'm eager to use it even more as I discover new ancestors!

Musings About Life and Dear Friends

It's a special day today. My dearest and oldest friend J. is having a birthday.

It's a birthday we weren't sure she would see. This past February J. was given 3 to 4 months to live. Although she has been struggling with cancer for several years, she seemed to be getting better. Things were going well.  Then the blow.

I'm still not sure how I feel about doctors giving patients an expiration date. Because that's what it is - a kind of "best before" date. And every single day forward from the date of getting that verdict delivered, J. has to wonder if this is her last sunrise or sunset or time spent at the stable with her horse. But we're talking about people, not a jar of mayonnaise! It's a horrible thing to have hanging over her head.

I understand that there are people who may wish to get their affairs in order, or say goodbye to family or complete their bucket list. But the reality of waking up each morning, knowing that there are only x number of days left in your timeline, must be horrendous. And yes, there are miracles, there are suprises and a doctor does not know an exact date when a person's time is up. But J's been handed her expected date of demise and it makes me very angry.

J. and I met when she was 6 and I was 7. We spent our summers when we were young gathering minnows in a nearby creek, hiking for miles in the country around our homes, and spending every minute together that we could.

As teenagers we sat in my bedroom or on the front porch sharing confidences, giggling over boys and dreaming up all kinds of fanciful adventures. When I was first told that my father was dying (I was 13) I walked to J's house to cry with her and her mother. 

In Grade 9 we had a crush on the same boy. He was in Grade 12 and it was unlikely that he even knew who we were but we came up with the crazy idea to invite him to a Sadie Hawkins dance at school. Do you remember those? That was the only time it was okay for a girl to ask a boy out. I have no idea why we ever thought that was a good idea but we did it. We went to the corner store where he worked and asked him to go with both of us to the dance. He accepted (such a nice guy!) and we walked home, super excited. Sadly he came down with the flu right before the dance (wink, wink)  so we didn't attend but it took years before we realized that he was just such a decent person he didn't want to reject us outright. 

I moved away in Grade 13 and I missed her. She went on to University and I followed one year later. We went to dances and parties together and whispered in corners, hoping that some cute boy would notice us.  We discussed politics and writing and the state of the world. We took a week off and hitch-hiked to New York from Toronto.  I can hardly believe that we did that but it was the 1960s and a different world.

We even shared boyfriends. She was so pretty she attracted all the good-looking guys, then when she broke up with them, they'd ask me out. So I got to go out with guys who were out of my league! I actually dated her older brother once. And I do mean "once". It was  a mistake because he and I never got along, but somehow it seemed like the thing to do once I was in University. 

J. was my maid of honour at my first wedding. In those days she was my mentor on clothes to buy, what spoon or fork to use at a fancy restaurant.... everything.

We ended up living quite a distance from each other. J. never married while I married and divorced, then remarried and after my second husband's death I remarried again. We kept in touch though with letters and phone calls and a few personal visits over the years. J. and her wonderful mother who I adored came to see me after my second husband passed away and that visit meant the world to me. 

Our lives continued to run in different paths and I felt we had lost our connection but a few years ago we  re-connected. It was a wonderful feeling for me to have J. in my life again!

Yesterday I emailed her a newspaper clipping of us circa 1962 when we were part of the Silver Spurs Ranch. Silver Spurs was a farm where we rode horses. (That's me marked with an X and holding the horse on the right. J. is seated on a horse in the back row, far left and beside the girl wearing the cowboy hat) J. loves horses, and always has. She's owned a horse as long as I can remember.  As kids, we used to sit and draw for hours and J's horse sketches were amazingly good. I was terrified of horses but J. convinced me to join a riding school with her. It was such a frightening experience for me but thanks to J.'s encouragement I did it.

So today I want to wish J. a  wonderful birthday. I'll be phoning her later today to share more memories of us together as kids and remind her of some of the crazy antics we got up to. We'll  do some laughing because that's what we do together. 

As J. always says to  me at the end of our phone calls or in her emails ... "Love yah!" 

 


 

Civil War Era Photo Album Arrives!

A few days ago a Civil War era photo album arrived in my mailbox. It was sent to me by a reader of my Olive Tree Genealogy blog, who had also seen my Lost Faces website. 

My reader is a woman who told me she bought the photo album many years ago, mainly because most of the photos were identified by name. She hoped to find a descendant but wasn't sure how to go about the search. So she tucked the photo album away, only to pull it out last month and offer it to me as a gift.

Many readers know of my personal collection of Civil War era CDVs (Cartes de Visite) and tintypes. I also collect daguereotypes and ambrotypes. Many of my photo albums with their identified photos are online on Lost Faces.

You can imagine my delight when my new friend offered to send me her album for Lost Faces. She does not wish to be recognized and has asked me to keep her name anonymous but I can still give a public shout out to such generousity of spirit.

When the album arrived, I spent an enjoyable afternoon slowly documenting and photographing the album page by page. Although the album is in rough shape the CDVs are still in very good shape, and the names of individuals are written in beautiful legible handwriting on the album pages.

Tomorrow begins the work of carefully and slowly removing each picture from its album page. After I remove each picture I photograph both front and back and list each photo by identified name. At this time I also assign a unique identifier and number to each photo that was in the album. I'll share more on how I do this in my next blog post.

Press Release: AncestorSync Available in June

The following Press Release was sent to Olive Tree Genealogy blog by AncestorSync. This is the first time I've heard of them and so I know nothing about the company but their Press Release sounds intriguing.

Real-Time Collaboration, Inc. Unveils AncestorSync™ To Bridge The Gap Between Desktop and Online Family History

AncestorSync™ enables you to synchronize your family tree, source documents, citations, and notes across all of your computers and a web pedigree of your choice.

Orem, Utah (Real-Time Collaboration) – Real-Time Collaboration has announced the release of their latest offering, AncestorSync™, which allows you to seamlessly download, upload, or synchronize your family tree from your online pedigree to your personal computer, and back again.

AncestorSync is the first service on the market that allows you to easily move all of your family history work from a desktop genealogy program to an online pedigree without anyone or anything getting lost in the process

AncestorSync™ has partnerships with FamilySearch, Geni, Inc., and ourFamilyology, Inc. and is a joint venture of Ohana Software, LLC. and SharingTime, LLC., wholly owned subsidiaries of Real-Time Collaboration.

"AncestorSync™ is precisely the type of service we envisioned when we created the Geni API. Genealogists no longer must choose between their favorite desktop software and Geni. With AncestorSync™ as the bridge, they can maintain their offline tree while taking advantage of the incredibly rich data and collaborative community Geni offers,”states Noah Tutak, Geni CEO.

"AncestorSync makes interfacing you genealogical data with FamilySearch family tree easy. One product to read, write and synchronize your tree regardless of the desktop software you may own, " says Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch Web Services Product Manager.

AncestorSync will be of great value to genealogists by expanding their ability to work with their desktop application and sync their data with our online service.  We look forward to adding this feature for our customers, says Brandy Sacco founder and owner of ourFamilyology.

AncestorSync supports a variety of program formats including: Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree, Personal Ancestral File, RootsMagic and GEDCOM. It will soon support The Master Genealogist and MacFamilyTree.  AncestorSync will be available in June for a budget-friendly $15 annual fee, and is PC and Mac compatible.

For more information about AncestorSync™, contact us at info@ancestorsync.com or 1.877.436.3256 or visit our website at www.ancestorsync.com.

Cemetery Walk: Trinity UC Cemetery Beeton Ontario Canada

Join me on a Cemetery Walk of Trinity United Church Cemetery in Beeton, Tecumseth Township, Simcoe County Ontario.

I have uploaded the second video of this Cemetery to the Olive Tree Genealogy YouTube Channel to join my other Cemetery Walk videos.