Woohoo! Just Ordered Proof Copy of my Van Valkenburg Vollick Book

Yesterday I ordered the proof copy of my new book on the Van Valkenburg-Vollick family. This book has been a dream for many years. I've been researching the Vollick (aka Follick) families for over 15 years in hopes of compiling a book one day. 

Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick fought with Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution. He and his wife Anna Maria (Mary) Warner settled in Upper Canada in 1782. Isaac's Land Petitions, Affidavits of witnesses regarding his Loyalty to the British Crown, letters about Mary's ordeal after American Patriots burned her home and sent the family fleeing north to Canada in 1779, and other records are found in this book. 

Stories of Isaac's ancestors back to the first settlement of New Amsterdam (present day New York City) and Albany in the 1620s and Mary's ancestors back to the 1709 Palatine immigration from Germany to New York are included. 

Proof Copy Cover Van Valkenburg - Vollick book

This is Volume 1 of From Van Valkenburg to Vollick and is the story of Isaac Vollick the Loyalist and his sons and daughters. Volume 2 is almost ready for publication (it's about Isaac Vollick's son Cornelius Vollick and descendants of that branh), and Volume 3 has been started (it's on Isaac's son Storm Follick and descendants of that branch). Isaac had 5 daughters so there will be many more volumes to come.

Lost African American Burial Ground Discovered in Philadelphia

Archaeologists in  Philadelphia unearthed what may be the resting place of nearly 3,000 African Amerians buried under a playground in the city’s Weccecoe Park.

Screen Shot from Liberty Voice

" Historian Terry Buckalew accidentally stumbled on a mention of the cemetery while researching the 19th century civil rights activist Octavius Catto for a documentary film project. He found a record of family members of Catto’s fiancé buried in something called Bethel Burying Ground, a site he had never heard of."

The names of almost half of those buried have been discovered and historians hope to be able to find the names of everyone laid to rest in that spot.

One stone that has been uncovered reads "Amelia Brown, 1819, Aged 26 years” with this epitaph: “Whosoever lives and believeth in me, though we be dead, yet shall we live.”

Continue reading this story at Thousands of African-American Graves Found Beneath Philadelphia Playground

Rootstech 2015 Videos Online

If, like me, you missed out on going to RootsTech this year, don't despair. The RootsTech 2015 Videos of the streamed sessions are now online.

As of today the following sessions are available from Thursday and Friday. Still to come are Saturday sessions.

Thursday Keynote Session
Dennis Brimhall, Mike Mallin, Tan Le

30 pieces of tech I can't live without
D. Joshua Taylor

You've Mastered the Census and Basic Search, What Next?
Karen Auman

What's New at FamilySearch
Devin Ashby

Getting Started in Genetic Genealogy
Diahan Southard

Building a Genealogy Research Toolbox
Thomas MacEntee

Bring Your Ancestor Back to the Future
Anne Leishman

Happy 50th Anniversary to the Canadian Flag

Oops missed this by one day! Canada’s national flag celebrates its 50th anniversary!

Approved by Parliament on December 15, 1964, the flag was proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II to take effect on February 15, 1965.

Nursing Sister Phillips WW1 Album 8R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.  

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain. 

Night Staff

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission. 

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page. 

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos" in the vertical menu bar on the right side of your screen. You can also click on that phrase at the bottom of this post.

Don't Lose Your Genealogy Data!

Keeping your genealogy research safe and sound is important. I'm so pleased that iDrive is extending their special offer to readers of Olive Tree Genealogy blog!

iDrive is offering my followers 1TB of automatic Online Backup Storage PLUS 1TB of Sync Space file storage, for $14.88 for the first year. This is a 75% savings off the regular price of $59.50 and saves you almost $45.00. Offer good until Feb. 28/15

iDrive just received the prestigious PC Mag Editors Choice award for online backup for 2015. iDrive is easy to install and easy to use. There's no learning curve and you can start protecting your years of genealogy research immediately. 

Use this link for the Olive Tree Genealogy exclusive iDrive offer

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told WINNERS

1917. Mother in my grandmother's arms. Godfrey my future step-father is standing in front of the family

Very cool!! My story about my mother and step-father won in The Greatest Love Story Ever Told contest. Read about it here and also read the other stories of #2 and #3

Thank you Crestleaf for a fun contest!

Coming Soon! Ancestry Academy, Beta Testing & iOS App Full Search Features

 
Ancestry.com announced some pretty cool things yesterday:

o    A new and improved  Ancestry.com website will make it easier for anyone to discover and tell the rich, unique story of their family, through new features and site enhancements that will reinvent the ways Ancestry members create and showcase their family story.  The new site experience is currently in limited Beta and will be demonstrated at RootsTech On Friday, Feb. 13 at 1:00 pm MT (Room 151) as well as at the Ancestry booth. Visitors to the Ancestry booth will be able to opt in to participate in the Beta.

o    Ancestry mobile will introduce a full search feature in the iOS app that will empower users to access 15 billion historical records and hints anytime, anywhere in the native app environment. The intuitive interface will make both simple and advanced searches easier, while the presentation of search results will also help you quickly identify and prioritize the most important results, making search less complicated.  The Ancestry mobile team will showcase version 1 search in the Ancestry booth and discuss search and other mobile features in length during an FGS class, “Ancestry’s Mobile World,” on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 1:00 pm MT.

o     Ancestry.com will also remain committed to providing the best in educational resources with the launch of Ancestry Academy in April. The new resource will offer how-to tutorials and historical guidance to help experts and novices alike. Released as a limited Beta this week, Ancestry Academy will be showcased via demo in the Exhibit Hall on Friday, Feb 13 at 3 pm MT. Those interested in participating in this Beta should stop by the Ancestry booth for more information.

 

Rootstech Streaming Schedule - at Last!

If you couldn't make it to RootsTech this year, don't despair. Several sessions at RootsTech including the general keynote sessions on Thursday, and Saturday will be streamed live on the home page of RootsTech.org. 

After the conference, recordings of these sessions will be posted on the website for a limited time. Here is the Streaming Schedule for RootsTech 2015

Medieval Mortuary Chests to be Opened

From the Romsey Advertiser:

The inventory of the tombs’ contents, believed to be the mortal remains of some of the early royals of Wessex, will be assessed in the coming weeks. They are also thought to contain three bishops as well as other artefacts.

Other interesting facts will almost certainly come to light once the chests are opened and the bones thoroughly examined

Experts believe those interred include Canute, King of England, Denmark and Norway, his Queen Emma of Normandy, as well as their son Harthacanute. Canute, who died in Shaftesbury in November 1035, was originally buried in Winchester’s Old Minster before work on the city’s cathedral had even begun.

Read the rest of this story at Winchester Cathedral unveils plans to open medieval mortuary chests

New Copy of Magna Carta Discovered in Scapbook

Another copy of the famous Magna Carta has been found in Kent England. Experts are now revising their estimate of how wide-spread the Magna Carta was and now believe it was copied and distributed throughout many churches in England.

With the 800th Anniversary of the signing of the original Magna Carta in 1215, this discovery has sparked new excitement among experts.

Continue reading this story at Magna Carta edition found in Sandwich archive scrapbook

Nursing Sister Phillips WW1 Album 1R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.  

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain. 

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission. 

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page. 

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos" in the vertical menu bar on the right side of your screen. You can also click on that phrase at the bottom of this post.

Rootstech 2015 Schedule

RootsTech is happening February 12–14, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  

Here is the schedule for this amazing conference combing genealogy and technology. Since some of the lectures and workshops were streamed last year and are available online, I believe we will see the same thing happen this year.

Stay tuned because I will post about that as soon as I know about it.

 

AncestryDNA Available in United Kingdom and Ireland

Great news for our friends in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.  Ancestry DNA is now available to purchase in the United Kingdom and Ireland!

Ancestry.com sold their first DNA kit in the U.S. in 2012, and since then, more than 700,000 people have used AncestryDNA to discover more about their family history. 

Wonderful news for the U.K. and Ireland but when is it Canada's turn?

Happy 12th Birthday to Olive Tree Genealogy Blog

Happy Birthday to Olive Tree Genealogy Blog! Can you believe it is 12 years old? Almost a teenager, wow!

It all started when a friend invited me to post on his new blog and suggested I start my own blog. My response was "Huh? What's a blog?" Yep that's right. 12 years ago blogs were just starting up and not many people were aware of them. 

It was February in Canada. It was cold and snowy and we Canadians always get the February blahs. So I started a blog. This blog. And I found I loved doing it! 

My family always tell me I'm pretty talkative and here's proof: I've written 2691 blog posts since birth in February 2003.

How many times have my blog posts been read? The blog stats show almost 3 million pageviews (2,276,622 pageviews)

Here's a few stats that might be of interest - one is where my readers live and what browser is most often used.

No surprise that the majority of my readers live in the USA with Canada coming in second. And the most popular browser is Firefox. I am surprised at how popular Internet Explorer is!

I hope my readers aren't bored with me (yet) as I plan to carry on sharing my stories with you for another 12 years at least!!

Out of curiousity I looked up what the most popular blog posts were for the last 12 years. Omitting blog press releases about new genealogy goodies coming online, here are the top 5 posts in the last 12 years:

1. Personal Opinion about Copyright
   
2. Heads up all Genealogists!
   
3. What Happens to Your Genealogy Research When You're Gone?
   
4. Organizing Family Photos - creating a plan
   
5. Creating a Family Story Book Using Flip-Pal

And now I'm off to have some cake and blow out 12 candles.

Ancestry Working on Improved Website

For the past few weeks I've been a beta tester for the new website Ancestry.com is developing. I love it! It's visually appealing, easy to use,  and has all kinds of nifty features in the Family Tree section. We beta testers have had a few meetings with Ancestry.com executives and I'm happy to report they are listening to our feedback. 

Example of a page in the new Ancestry site

If you want to be a beta tester and are going to Rootstech 2015, you can sign up at the Ancestry.com booth. You can also sign up online (URL is given below)

Below is the official word from Ancestry on this new project:

Over the past year, we have been conducting extensive research and testing to gather user feedback on our existing Ancestry website and to identify critical pain points. As a result, we have been working on a groundbreaking initiative to evolve the Ancestry website to meet the needs of our users. We will introduce a new and improved Ancestry experience that makes it easier for anyone to discover and tell the rich, unique story of their family. 

The improved Ancestry website includes:

• A new LifeStory view to transform your ancestors’ facts and events into engaging, unique stories
• A new, intuitive, modern look to streamline your work flows and make your family story the focus
• Historical Insights to discover significant historical events that your ancestors may have experienced
• A new Facts View to make it easier to validate facts with sources, and edit and review facts contextually
• A new Media Gallery where you can consolidate all your media in one place

We will be showcasing the Ancestry beta at RootsTech, Feb. 12-14. Visitors to the Ancestry booth will be able to opt in to participate in the beta. For those not at RootsTech who would like to be invited to the beta, visit this link to request to be on the waitlist: http://home.ancestry.com/beta

We will be inviting new participants off the waitlist to join the beta over the next few months.

 

Canadian Directories Online

Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the release of a new version of the online database Canadian Directories. 

An addition to the page includes full versions of the directories in PDF format, as well as newly digitized directories which are not available through the database.

These 152 new directories are for the Ontario cities of Hamilton, Kingston and London and for the counties of Southwestern Ontario.

The Ryckman Family - Harmen Janse Ryckman of New Netherland New York

Harmen Janse Ryckman (my 9th great grandfather) came to the New World with at least one child - his daughter Margarita (Grietje) Harmense Ryckman. By 1662 Grietje had married Jacques Cornelise Van Slyke, the son of Cornelis Antonissen Van Slyke and his Mohawk wife, Ots-Toch. Jacques and Grietje settled in the new village of Schenectady. Grietje's father lived in Albany as early as 1666 and there he died circa 1677

Official Seal of New Netherland

Harmen was living near Albany in 1667 as per a court record which states

"....in his [Robert Sanders] house and lot standing here and lying here in Albany, adjoining to the south and east the street, to the north Harmen Janse Ryckman, and to the west Volkie Jurriaense, widow of the late Jan Van Hoesen...'

[Source: Early Records of the City and Colony of Albany and Colony of Rensellaerswyck, 1656-1675, translated by Jonathan Pearson. Vol. 1:410]

Harmen's brother, Jan Janse Ryckman, married Tryntie Janse and settled in Beverwyck. By 1663 Jan was dead, his widow remarried to Eldert Gerbertse Cruyff. They had one son living in 1663 - Albert Janse Ryckman, married to Neeltie Quackenbos. From this line came many of the Ontario Rykman families.

Continue reading about the Ryckman family at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/surnames/ryckman.shtml

Nursing Sister Phillips WW1 Album 70-R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.  

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain. 

--- Inglefield, Pilot of Flying Corps (Corpses)

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission. 

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page. 

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos" in the vertical menu bar on the right side of your screen. You can also click on that phrase at the bottom of this post.

Organization Project Part 3 - Digitizing Family Slides

Since I am still waiting for my archival boxes and sleeves to start organizing my hundreds of family photos, I decided to go ahead and start on my family slides. Remember when slides were the rage? That was back in the 60s, 70s and even into the 80s, then their popularity died out.

 I don't know about you but I have hundreds of slides and it's time I did something with them. The longer they are left the more they deteriorate. Besides who has a slide viewer anymore? One problem is that my slides are not organized by  event, date or any other criteria. You can see from my photo that some are in slide boxes and others are just loose.

To start my organization I bought a nifty little piece of equipment - the Jumbl Scanner & Digitizer. It scans slides and negatives and digitizes them to a memory card or the Jumbl internal memory. You can use an external power source or you can plug it into your computer via USB and use your computer power. It's on sale right now on Amazon. I am loving mine! It's easy and fast. If you want to grab one just use the link below.


  Jumbl High-Resolution 22MP Scanner/Digitizer
- Converts 35mm Negatives & Slides to 22-Megapixel Digital JPEGs Using Built-In Software Interpolation - No Computer/Software Required to Operate - Features 2.4" Color LCD & TV Out

 To begin my organization and preservation of my slides I decided my first step was to scan them all and organize the digital files later.

The box on the right of this photo are the slides I have scanned in the last 3 days. I only work for an hour at a time as the repetitive motion of inserting and removing the slides is hard on my bad shoulder due to a rotator cuff problem.

Once scanned and saved to a memory disc I insert the disc into my computer and transfer the scans to Picasa. Then I rename them, make any adjustments in contrast that I want, crop any dark edges (this only happens when I don't insert the slide accurately), and rotate them if they are sideways or upside down. Jumbl has editing capabilities but I prefer to use Picasa.

A few of the slides were noticeably backwards (spotted due to backwards writing on signs) so I flip those horizontally using a program called Gimp. You can use almost any graphic program to do this but I work on a Mac and have my favourites that I am used to.

It's a good idea to work out your naming system for the scanned slides before you start renaming them. I like to name mine as Surname_FirstName_Year_Event.

I also add names of other individuals either in the file name if not too lengthy or in the Comments section of the Information part of the photo.

The photo on the right shows my digitized scanned slide of me playing guitar in 1971. I tagged the image with my maiden name and added some detail in the Comment setion.  I didn't put my maiden name in the file name as it changed with marriage, so I prefer to just use my first name in this case. For those who might notice the Description "My beautiful picture", my husband put that!

I'm very pleased with the quality of the scans. I uploaded some to my Facebook page and my family seems very pleased to see photos of themselves or deceased loved ones from the 60s and 70s. 

Don't wait to start saving your treasured family slides.   

Here are links to the previous blog posts about this project:

Organizing Family Photos - Creating a Plan

Organizational Project Part 2 - Family Diaries

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

Crestleaf is looking for the "Greatest Love Story Ever Told" for Valentine's Day. Details are on their blog at http://crestleaf.com/blog/call-submissions-greatest-love-story-ever-told/

Here's what they had to say about this fun event:

In the lead up to Valentine's Day, we thought it would be fun to hear some inspiring love stories from your family, relatives or even friends you know. Just a great way to warm up the cold winter months with some inspiring and heart-warming stories.

1916. Mother in Grandma's arms and Godfrey standing in front of them

I submitted the story of my mother and her second husband Godfrey. They met in 1916 when mother was a few months old and were often together as children. As a teenager Godfrey lived with my mother's parents and fell in love with her. He left town without telling her because he wanted to find work, save his  money and come back and propose. When he came back my mother was engaged to my father so once again Godfrey left without saying a word. They lost touch after that.

50 years later in 1985 they accidentally ended up in the same town in Florida for the winter and after Godfrey's wife died, he confessed his love for my mother. She then confessed that she too had loved him way back in 1934.  

They were together from that date until Godfrey's death in 1995. Do you have a story to tell? Why not submit it to Crestleaf? It's a fun activity!

Exclusive Offer on IDrive Backup for Olive Tree Genealogy Followers

Keeping your genealogy research safe and sound is important. I've been thinking a lot about how and where genealogists should be backing up their computer files and reached out to iDrive to see if they could help. I'm very pleased to say they agreed to provide an exclusive deal for followers of Olive Tree Genealogy! 

iDrive is offering my followers 1TB of automatic Online Backup Storage PLUS 1TB of Sync Space file storage, for $14.88 for the first year. This is a 75% savings off the regular price of $59.50 and saves you almost $45.00

iDrive is easy to install and easy to use. There's no learning curve and you can start protecting your years of genealogy research immediately. 

Use this link for the Olive Tree Genealogy exclusive offer Offer valid  until Feb. 14,2015 

What Does iDrive Offer?

iDrive offers more benefits and features than Dropbox, Carbonite and Backblaze. Here are just a few of the benefits of iDrive:

- backup unlimited computers and smartphones: Mac, PC, iOS & Android
- ability to set a personal encryption key which affords extra security for your data
- real time (as it happens) backup
- offers both online backup and Syncing services  
- Facebook backup 
- Instagram backup
- iDrive Express:  IDrive will ship you a hard drive of up to 3 TB. You simply backup or restore all of your data from the hard drive and return the drive to IDrive. iDrive then transfers the data to your online account. 

iDrive vs Dropbox, Carbonite & Backblaze

Compare  iDrive and Dropbox, iDrive and Carbonite and iDrive and Backblaze

Are There Any Extras?

iDrive has extras benefits available for a small fee. The one I like best is

- Hybrid local backup with iDrive WiFi. This is secure local storage for all of your important files, with speedy backups and restores

Ready to start protecting your work? Use this link for the Olive Tree Genealogy exclusive offer 

Diary and Letters of the Nile Expedition of 1884 now online

The Canadian Military Heritage Project recently added a Diary and Letters kept by Moise Godin during the Nile Expedition of 1884. It's a fascinating account of a Canadian boatman who joined hundreds of Canadians to take barges down the Nile River.

The Nile Expedtiion was the first instance of overseas service of Canadians. In 1884, during the Battle of Khartoum in the Sudan, the British put out a call for Canadian volunteers to help guide British soldiers up the Nile River. The soldiers were to provide some relief to the isolated men stationed there. 

There are 3 pdf files available for download and several newspaper clippings

File 1: 32 pages from Moise Godin's Diary File 2: Drawings & Tickets File 3: 4 envelopes, 4 Letters to his wife Lucie dated 16, 17, 18, 20 Sept. 1884, 3 Letters to his wife early, middle & 30 of Oct 1884, 2 letters to his wife 25 Nov. 1884 & 16 Dec. 1884, Letters from his wife Lucie to Moise 22 Sept.1884 & 1 Nov. 1884 

Love it, Don't Care, Hate it! How Families React to Genealogy

Have you ever noticed that friends and family react in different ways when you start to relate a genealogy story or find?

In my family most are mildly interested if it's a good story about a rogue or an ancestor who did something exciting. They don't want to hear about 3rd great grandpa Joe who was a farmer his whole life or how I can't find Great Great Grandma Harriet's maiden name. 

There are a couple of my family members who tell me bluntly they aren't interested. At all. Not one little bit. This is usually followed by a yawn.

How many ask me what new things I've found? Zero. None.  I will admit that there are a couple who say the right things "Oh that's cool!" "Wow, good stuff!" but I know they're just being kind. And that's okay because at least I feel like my hard work over the last 30+ years hasn't been totally in vain.

I do wish there were one or two family members who cared, perhaps not as passionately as I do, but who showed more than a passing interest. I'd love to share genealogy discoveries with them. I'd enjoy chatting about brick walls, or brainstorming how to move ahead with a challenging ancestor.

However I count myself lucky to have a husband who shares my love for genealogy and family history. He listens, He enjoys brainstorming sessions. He understands and accepts that if I'm deep into census or church records, I am not stopping to make supper.

What kind of reactions do you get in your family?

Credit: Photo by Stuart Miles

Bridgeport Connecticut Photos Rescued

Recently I purchased 35 loose Cabinet Cards and CDVs (Cartes de Visite) that had been removed from an old photo album and were up for sale. Every photo except one was clearly identified and I had a bit of fun yesterday scanning the photos and researching the family.

 This is one of the photos. It's a really lovely photograph of two children, almost certainly brother and sister. They are labelled in period handwriting "Edmon & Fannie". This is the only identified photo that does not include a surname.

Because little Edmon is wearing a dress, we know he is a toddler and not toilet-trained, so probably around 2 years of age. 

The photo is a CDV with rounded corners and this can help date it. Rounded corners on CDVs did not begin until 1872.

Studying the photographer's mark on the verso of this CDV and finding out when M. Smith was in business, as well as studying the clothing styles, children's hair and other clues would allow this photo to be dated with some precision.

From my research yesterday it appears the photos may all connected through family relationships. For example there are 5 photos of brothers and sisters of the Williams family of Bridgeport Connecticut. This became evident as I searched census records on Ancestry.com . I believe, but have not yet proven. that 2 other Williams photos are of wives of two of the brothers.

The Williams family consisted of Benjamin Williams and his wife Elizabeth Goss. Benjamin was born in Maine and Elizabeth in New Brunswick Canada. All the children were born in New Brunswick. The photos I have are of the siblings Simeon, Orlo, Hartley, Eva and Samuel. 

There are photos of the Deniger family, also of Bridgeport. Joseph Henry Deniger and his sister Gertrude are two that I have found so far. Interestingly, their father Joseph Deniger Sr. was born in Canada and their mother Harriet was a Chatfield before her marriage. In the group of photos is one labelled "Uncle Lew Chatfield" and I found 21 year old Lewis Chatfield living with Joseph Deniger Sr in 1860 in Bridgeport.

I hope to have these lovely photos scanned, researched and online on Lost Faces soon. Meantime here is a list of the surnames written on the photos:

Williams, Jackson, Henderson, Morgan, Wells, Deniger, Night, Curtis, Dumbull, Marley, Carpenter, Ferry, Chatfield, Rider, Bowen, Smith, Diott, Polk

Locations of photographic studios were: New York, Bridgeport Conneticut, Danbury Connecticut, Boston Massachusetts, Norwalk Connecticut, Kingston Ontario, Gananoque Ontario, Davis New York, Poughkeepsie New York, Chicago Illinois, Detroit Michigan, and Lynn (Massachusetts?)

Sixteen of the photos were taken in Bridgeport Connecticut.

Update on Early Irish Marriage Records Online

The IGRS (Irish Genealogical Research Society) now has over 66,000 marriage records online. The index of early marriages is free to search. A quote from the website states:

With so many parishes in Ireland not having any register of marriages before the 1840s, the database is fast becoming an invaluable tool in identifying where and when ancestors tied-the-knot. It includes references from a myriad of different sources: books, gravestones, family bibles, deeds, wills, letters, court records, published journals, newspapers, census transcripts and old age pensions forms, to name just a few.

Sources drawn upon for this particular update include marriage licence bonds from a number of diocese covering all or parts of counties Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow; and there are further references to marriages from the Registry of Deeds.

Lambert Van Valkenburg in the New World

Official Seal of New Netherland

My 9th great-grandfather Lambert Van Valkenburg was born in the Netherlands circa 1614. With his wife Annetje Jacobs, Lambert sailed for the New World of New Netherland (present day New York state). 

From his son Jochem Lambertse Van Valkenburg, there are 10 recognized branches of the Van Valkenburg family (one for each of Jochem's children with his wife Eva Vrooman) and I descend from two - his son Isaac Jochemse (with wife Lydia Van Slyke) and Isaac's sister Jannetje Jochemse (with husband Isaac Van Alstyne)
Records found for Lambert indicate he was in New Amsterdam as early as Jan. 1644. Since it is unlikely the ships sailed in the winter, he was probably in New Amsterdam in the summer or fall of 1643. Existing records indicate he purchased land in July 1644. That 1644 plot of land  is now the site of the Empire State Building in New York City.

29 July 1644: Deed. Jan Jacobssen to Lambert van Valckenburgh, of house and plantation on the island of Manhattan, near Fort Amsterdam. [Register of Provincial Secretary Vol. II p. 121] [Source: Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany NY edited by EB O'Callaghan]

16 March 1647: Patent. Lammert van Valckenborch; lot south of Fort Amsterdam, Manhattan Island. [Land Papers Vol. G.G. p. 192] [Source: Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany NY edited by EB O'Callaghan]

Court records are a wonderful resource. Those of us with ancestors in early New Netherland are lucky for the Dutch kept meticulous records. It was a litigious time period and settlers were frequently in court suing their friends and neighbours. Lambert is found many times in the court records for New Netherland. Here is one of the more volatile examples:

Source:"Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck 1657-1660", translated and edited by A.J.F. Van Laer, Vol.2, Albany, 1923. Page 9:
"Ordinary Session held in Fort Orange, January 9 Anno 1657

"President, J. La Montagne, Rutger Jacobsen, Jacob Schermerhoorn, Andries Herbertsen, Philip Pietersen

"Lambert van Valckenborch, plaintiff, against Henderick Claessen and Gerrit Willemsen, defendants.The plaintiff complains that the defendants beat him and his wife in his own house. The defendants deny it and claim that the plaintiff chased them with a naked rapier out of his house and pursued them to the center of the fort. The court orders the parties respectively to prove their assertions."

In 1659 Lambert was appointed to the Rattle Watch. The Rattle Watch was responsible for walking the streets at night, watching for crimes or fires and from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. they called out the hour every hour as well as ringing their rattles.

Source:"Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck 1657-1660", translated and edited by A.J.F. Van Laer, Vol.2, Albany, 1923: Page 209-210:"Extraordinary Session held in Fort Orange, August 8 Anno 1659

"Instructions issued by the honorable commissary and magistrates of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwyck for the rattle watch, appointed at the request of the burghers to relieve them of night-watch duty; to the rattle watch of which place Lambert van Valckenborgh and Pieter Winnen were appointed the 6th of July of this year 1659, on condition that they together are to receive for the term of one year one thousand and one hundred guilders in seawan and one hundred guilders in beavers.

Read more about Lambert from the Court Records online at Lambert Van Valkenburg in The New World This was first published as "Lambert Van Valkenburg: His Life in the New World as Revealed in Court Documents and Other Primary Source Records From 1644 - 1664" by Lorine McGinnis Schulze in The National Association of the Van Valkenburg Family of America serialized beginning in the Fall of 1999

Earl G. Gregory's WW2 Navy ID Tags Need to Go Home (Case #24)

Sue wrote to Olive Tree Genealogy with a request for help sending a WW2 Navy ID Tag back to family

I would like to find a home for the attached dog tag.  My father ran a wrecker service in DeKalb, Illinois and found this in a car many years ago.  It is for Earl George Gregory.

After receiving Sue's email I did some research. The first thing I noticed was that this was a Navy ID Tag (USN on the tag)

A search on Ancestry.com found this record for Earl:

Earl George Gregory
Service Info.: CWT US NAVY WORLD WAR II
Birth Date:18 Dec 1916
Death Date:11 Jun 1990
Cemetery:Thomason Cemetery
Cemetery Address:Main St Wayne City, IL 62895

Find-A-Grave shows his wife as Anna, buried with him.

If you can help find Earl's family, we can add this to our solved cases with a happy ending. There is probably a family member who would treasure this item, let's help find Earl's family and send it home.  

More Rescued Postcards 1900-1918 Added to Lost Faces

Recently I rescued 28 vintage orphaned postcards from antique shops. They range in date from 1900 to 1918. 27 are from United States and 1 is from Ontario Canada. 

I have scanned and added more of these postcards to Lost Faces and will be adding the rest of these wonderful cards over the next month. I hope descendants will see these postcards and recognize an ancestor.  

• Bowman To "Dear Friend" Mr. Oland Bowman, Hammond New York from Cassie W. 1912
• Bennet Pte A. Bennet, Port Sanitary Hospital, New Ferry, Cheshire from B.R. 13 Sept. 1918
• Dunmire To Mr. Claire Dunmire, Punxsutawey, from Charlotte A. 1913