Create a Fun Ancestor Score Card

Thanks to Tangled Roots and Trees for this fun idea on measuring your genealogy research. First you create an Ancestors Score Card like mine below. I opted to do an 8 Generation Chart but you could list as many or as few as you wish.

 Then you start counting your ancestors in your tree. Fill out the numbers then calculate the percentage. For those who aren't sure how to calculate that, write your numbers as a fraction with the numerator (top number) from the Known column and the denominator (bottom number) from the possible column. Divide numerator by denominator and multiply by 100.

My chart becomes this when I count my known ancestors in each generation:

It's obvious that I have 100% in Generations 1 to 5. For Generation 6, I divide 31 by 32 and multiply by 100 for 96.875% I'll round that off to 97%. Here is my final score card

I don't collect names. It's not about how many ancestors I can find, but I like to see how I'm doing.  I research, find my ancestors one by one, and then I look for their stories. When I'm done I create what I call Family Memory Books consisting of those stories and facts for each person. 

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album: 71R Sister Cameron Smith

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.

ww1 71R Sister Cameron Smith in charge of Convalescent Home for Sisters 13 Cheyne Place - Chelsea London

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"

Do you Love or Hate the New Facebook Icons

If you're on Facebook you have no doubt heard of, or seen, the new emoticon icons that rolled out a week ago.

Now when someone you are friends with posts a status update, you can do more than LIKE, COMMENT, or SHARE. 

Hold your cursor over the LIKE icon and up pops a whole role of goodies, from LOVE, HAHA, WOW, SAD, and ANGRY.

There's been plenty of buzz about the icons. Some love them, saying that now they don't need to find the right words to express sorrow when a friend talks about a sad event for example. Others dislike them and believe the emoticons will only lead to the further degeneration of using words to express our feelings.

I don't care for them. I've used a few and found that if you use the ANGRY icon to express solidarity with someone who is complaining about something, they sometimes think you are angry with them, and not expressing support for their feelings. 

And I think it's a disrespectful cop-out to use the SAD emoticon on a status where a friend is reporting the death of a beloved family member or pet. No one knows "the right thing" to say when someone is grieving but resorting to a sad face emoticon is not the right way to show a person you care. 

What do you think of the emoticons?

TLC ANNOUNCES CELEBRITY CONTRIBUTORS FOR SPRING SEASON OF WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Olive Tree Genealogy received the following Press Release about Who Do You Think You Are?

New season premieres Sunday, April 3 at 9/8c

The two-time Emmy nominated series WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? returns this spring to follow more of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities as they embark on personal journeys of self-discovery to trace their family trees. The series continues to deliver unbelievable stories from crucial moments in history, including a number of firsts for the series, such as a male witch hunt, and traveling to Portugal, Sweden and Ellis Island. Executive Produced by Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky, the new season premieres Sunday, April 3 at 9/8c.

The contributors featured in the upcoming season include:

•     Scott Foley finds a relative who risked his life for one of America’s founding fathers, and an ancestor who suffered unspeakably during one of this nation’s darkest times.
•     Lea Michele nails down where her mysterious paternal ancestors came from, and learns of the dire economic circumstances they endured while trying to emigrate to the U.S.
•     Chris Noth learns his ancestors suffered during one of the greatest catastrophes in American history, and a relative who fought in one of the bloodiest battles of all time.
•     Molly Ringwald explores family lore of Swedish royalty which uncovers her ancestors’ harrowing lives and a brave woman who forever changed her family’s fate.
•     Katey Sagal is shocked to learn of her family’s Amish roots, and digs deeper as she realizes the level of dedication to their faith.
•     Aisha Tyler tracks down her 2x great-grandfather, whose story had been lost over generations, and uncovers an astonishing tale of a prominent ancestor whose struggle to keep his illegitimate son a secret made headlines.

Ancestry.com, the leading family history company, is teaming up again with TLC as a sponsor of the upcoming season. As part of the show sponsorship, Ancestry.com provides exhaustive family history research on each of the featured celebrities to help make discoveries possible and build out the story of each episode.

The series is produced for TLC by Shed Media and Is or Isn’t Entertainment, and is based on an original format created by Wall to Wall Media and Alex Graham. More information can be found at TLC.com/WDYTYA. ‘Like’ Who Do You Think You Are? on Facebook.com/WDYTYA and follow @WDYTYA on Twitter.

Image: Screenshot from TLC Sneak Peek Video Clip

Rootsweb Expects to be Back Online Mid-March

Those who use the Rootsweb pages or have websites hosted there, most likely know by now that the sites have all been offline for several weeks now. Ancestry.com, who own Rootsweb, put up a notice recently about the problem. 

Here  is the announcement from their website:

We're currently experiencing a temporary website outage due to Rootsweb hardware failure. Rest assured, our development and web operations teams are busy working to securely restore the site as quickly as possible.

Our initial expectation is to have the site back up and running on or around March 15, 2016.

We apologize for the disruption and thank-you for your patience. We will provide other updates here as we have them.

Patience is definitely required! Fingers crossed that Ancestry.com can get this solved and that Rootsweb will be back with us in another couple of weeks.

Ireland Catholic Parish Registers Free in March!

Ancestry.com has launched the Ireland Catholic Parish Registers online. With more than 10 million Catholic Parish records, this launch will help create the largest collection of Irish registers available online.

Best of all the records are free during March 2016.

Here's some facts before you start your search!

The collection means that Ancestry.com will have over 55 million Irish records and will provide the largest collection of Irish Catholic parish records available online.

The collection is made up of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from over 1,000 Catholic parishes across the whole of the island of Ireland - both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Baptism and Marriage records make up the majority of the collection and Burial records can be found primarily for parishes in the northern regions.      


Ancestry.com has indexed records from over 3,500 parish registers. This is the first time that the collection has been indexed with the images linked online.

I Love This! AGS Laser Projection Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard

I just bought a new toy. It's a virtual keyboard and I love it! I can text much easier now from my iPhone, and this little device slips easily into my purse for when I'm not at home. It weighs 5 ounces and is only 2 x 2.8 x 2.8 inches in size!

After reading reviews of different brands, I bought the AGS Laser Projection Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard

It works on an Iphone, Ipad, Smartphone and Tablets

Right now it's on sale for $39.90, regularly $169.99!  

Here's some details from the Amazon page:

• Easily pair laser projection keyboard & mouse for your Iphone, Ipad, Smartphone, laptop or tablets
• For devices with bluetooth, operation systems: Windows, iOS, Android, Mac OS
• English QWERTY keyboard layout

And here's mine in action! The cord is just for charging. I set it up on a wooden TV tray and it worked just great.

If you are in Canada you have to buy it from Amazon.ca and it will cost you $59.99 Canadian. Use this link  AGS Wireless Laser Projection Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard & Mouse for Iphone, Ipad, Smartphone and Tablets 

Americans can purchase it for $39.99 U.S. by using this link: AGS Laser Projection Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard

I am having a lot of fun with my new toy.  

Woman of Courage Sarah Elvery Stead

Because February is Women's History Month I wanted to share with my readers the story of strong and courageous women in my life. You will be able to follow along as you wish by choosing the label "Women of Courage" in the right side bar. I encourage my readers to join me in honoring women of courage in your own families.

Sarah Elvery Stead 1867

Sarah Elvery has always been an ancestor whose life story brings tears to my eyes. Born in Kent England in 1836, Sarah grew up in a hard-working family. At the age of 20 she married William Stead, a local gardener. William was deaf, having suffered from measles as a 10 year old and losing his hearing as a result.  

Children soon followed in rapid succession - Edward, William Jr. and Charles. In 1862 their only daughter, my great-grandmother Sarah, was born. Sadly one year later little 6 year old Edward died. 1866 saw the birth of another son who they named Edward after their deceased first-born son. 

William decided the family would emigrate from England to Australia where his brother had been living since 1855. It was 1867, the Civil War was barely over in the United States, and 29 year old Sarah was pregnant with her 6th child.

The voyage on the Light Brigade was a rough one. They encountered many storms and the voyage was much longer than normal. Sarah was nearing her time to deliver her child an they were still at sea. Then tragedy struck. Sarah gave birth to a son who they named Ebenezer but shortly after his birth she was bitten by a flea on a rat, and fell ill with Typhus. When the ship reached Sydney Harbour, they were quarantined and poor Sarah died on board without ever setting foot on land. 

Although Sarah did not have to suffer anymore sadness, there was more to come for the family. After she died in June, William took his four children ages two weeks to 8 years old to his brother's. Then in October 5 month old Ebenezer died and was buried in Sydney with his mother. William was left with a very tough decision as to what to do next. 

Sarah would no doubt have been heart-broken at what happened next. William took his 5 year old daughter Sarah and 7 year old son Charles back to England, leaving his other two sons behind with his brother. They were later adopted by William's brother, and William himself remarried in England one year later and had more children with his new wife.

He never saw his two sons left behind in Australia again. 

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album: 47 R Cameron Ward

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. 

ww1 47R P?\ Cameron Ward K

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"

Don't Miss My February Legacy Family Tree Articles

I hope my readers enjoy my February articles on Legacy Family Tree!
  
Original Sources: Are They Always Accurate?
 
Is your genealogy accurate? Genealogists strive for accuracy. We want to be sure we have the right great-grandmother, the correct year of birth or death, the correct parents for our 3^rd great-grandfather. 

We spend hours, days, weeks, even months looking for original sources. But what are original records and sources? They are documents and records that were created at or around the time that an event occurred. These include such documents as vital statistic registrations, newspapers, tax lists, court records, church records, land records, funeral home documents, census records, personal letters and diaries, and other more obscure items such as funeral cards, coffin plates, and so on.

Continue reading at Original Sources: Are They Always Accurate?



Getting Real With Naming Patterns 
 

 Genealogists have strong opinions. But are they always correct?

I've been following some online genealogy discussions recently and noticed that we genealogists often answer questions with an emphatic point of view. Very often the answer is an extreme leaning one way or the other, with no middle ground or room for a “perhaps…”
One recent discussion began after a seemingly simple question -- were there naming patterns for children in the 1800s in [fill in blank with any country]. 

Continue reading at  Getting Real With Naming Patterns

More About the 10M Irish Catholic Parish Registers Coming in March

Drumgooland Parish Baptisms 1833

Ancestry.com will be launching the Ireland Catholic Parish Registers online in March of this year. With more than 10 million Catholic Parish records, this launch will help create the largest collection of Irish registers available online.

Here's some facts to keep us all anticipating this debut!

The collection means that Ancestry.com will have over 55 million Irish records and will provide the largest collection of Irish Catholic parish records available online.

The collection is made up of Baptism, Marriage and Burial records from over 1,000 Catholic parishes across the whole of the island of Ireland - both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Baptism and Marriage records make up the majority of the collection and Burial records can be found primarily for parishes in the northern regions.      


Ancestry.com has indexed records from over 3,500 parish registers. This is the first time that the collection has been indexed with the images linked online.

1917 & 1918 Postcards West Valley New York

Mrs. Geo (George) Weast, West Valley, New York from Kennedy New York. to "Dear Aunt and all" from "Ella" July 1918

Mrs. Geo (George) Weast, West Valley, New York "Dear friend" from Allen & Edith. 1917

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: 5 Sisters in Hats

My friend and fellow blogger Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

Here is my photo and story for today:

 

Cabinet Card taken ca 1905 St. Mary's Ontario Canada

This photograph is of four Purdue sisters - Margaret born 1875, Louise born 1881, Nellie born 1882 and Carolyn 1877. The sisters were milliners in Toronto Ontario, and these wonderful hats are their own creations.

I love the variations they created with two very flamboyant hats in the back, one on the right front much more restrained, and on the left front, one very simple hat. I've often wondered - do the different styles reflect their different personalities or was it simply due to inexperience versus experience in hat making! 

All in all this is one of my favorite photos. 

The gal standing on the right strikes a casual yet cocky pose with her arm resting on the chair and her head tilted slightly. She seems to be saying "Okay world, here I am. What are you going to do with me!" I find it significant that her hat is the most flamboyant. I suspect she was a very confident young lady. 

By contrast the sister seated on the left seems to almost disappear. She is rigid, her body seems so very tiny and insignificant. That simple and tiny hat on her head also adds to the idea that she may have been shy and timid.

 

Featured Database: Letters of 1916

Yesterday I found this very interesting website called Letters of 1916. 

It is a crowd-sourced digital collection of letters written around the time of the Easter Rising in Ireland.

The dates the website has covered are November 1915 to November 1916.  

Most of my readers know how much I love these old letters! If you haven't been to my site called Past Voices: Letters Home, please do take a minute to have a look. Old letters and photographs are my passion and I am always looking for more to share with you.

Woman of Courage Edith Finch

Because February is Women's History Month I wanted to share with my readers the story of strong and courageous women in my life. You will be able to follow along as you wish by choosing the label "Women of Courage" in the right side bar. I encourage my readers to join me in honoring women of courage in your own families.

Race Hill Workhouse

Edith Winnifred Finch, my husband's 2nd great grandmother, was born in the Race Hill Workhouse in Sussex England in 1870. She was the third illegitimate child born to Martha Finch, who had lived in the Workhouse for over 10 years. Martha gave no father's name on little Edith's birth registration and it is not known who he was. 

Sadly Edith was not as lucky as her two older siblngs who had been taken in by their maternal grandparents. She grew up in the Workhouse and was still there 20 years later. Then Edith was hired to work as a servant for a wealthy family. Not long afterwards, 21 year old Edith had a son. It is believed that she became pregnant by the son of the family she worked for. She and her baby Albert were able to rent a room in a private home. 

When Albert was 4 years old Edith's luck seemed to be changing. She met and married Albert Markham in 1895 and a son Frederick and daughter Elsie soon followed. Elsie was born in February 1898 in London England but misfortune struck again. When baby Elsie was 8 months old, her father Albert died and one month later her mother, 28 year old Edith also died. The two boys, ages 2 and 8 years old, were first taken in by relatives but within a few months they were put into orphanages but 9 month old Elsie was taken in by her aunt and uncle.

Edith, through no fault of her own, had a very short and very tragic life. I call her a Woman of Courage for doing her best to make a good life for her children.

Heads Up! Bloggers Check for Unauthorized Use of Your Content

One of my Legacy Family Tree articles
published in its entirety without my permission

Copyright issues have raised their head again. The following website, TORGGG Blogger: Toronto Galician Genealogy Group, has many bloggers' articles on its site. Perhaps you gave permission for your work to be republished there. I did not give that permission, yet two of my articles written for Legacy Family Tree were found there. 

My articles and images, including graphics I created personally, were taken without permission and published on TORGGG. My name was also missing as the author. 

Other bloggers have reported on Facebook that their unauthorized work is also found on the site. I wrote to the owner, Jim Onyschuk, jodanji@rogers.com.ed to demand he remove all articles written by me which he published without my permission. 

There is an article outlining how to write such an initial take-down letter at Lorelle

In the one and only email I send to the person who used my content without my permission, I give 24 hours as the timeline in which such articles must be removed or a fee for the article must be paid to me. 

I make it clear to the webmaster that if one of these actions is not take when the 24 hour deadline rolls around, I will file a DMCA notice with his webhost, any ad services he uses such as Google AdSense and feed services if they are used. And I do it. I don't hesitate, I don't give second chances, I file the DMCA notice. I then copy the webmaster on my filing of the notice.  

You can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice by following instructions on How to File a DMCA complaint. 

My word of caution for today is to go and check out the TORGGG Blogger site if you have concerns that your work might have been taken and published without your permission.  

I won't link to the site and give him a nice backlink. Just use your favourite search engine to search for TORGGG BLOGGER or copy the link you can see in the graphic above.  If your work is there and you don't want it there, please do follow up with a takedown email to the webmaster or a DMCA complaint or both.

Copyright issues, splogs and using content without permission is not okay! We must all fight this attitude that if it's on the internet it's free for the taking. Anything published online is copyright to the author the second it is published. Don't let your rights be trampled on. Don't let your work be devalued. 

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album: 72R Leaving Sister's Quarters Netheravon 1915

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.

ww1 72R Leaving Sisters' Quarters Netheravon to spend the day in Winchester. April 1915
 
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"

Relative Race: Amazing Race Meets Who Do You Think You Are

Olive Tree Genealogy received the following announcement about a brand new TV show, an original family history-based competition reality show titled Relative Race, that has been described as Amazing Race meets Who Do You Think You Are.
 

Premiering on Sunday, February 28 at 8pm ET/6pm MT/5pm PT on BYUtv, Relative Race features four married couples as they travel across the US in search of long lost relatives, armed with only paper maps, a rental car, a $25 per diem and a flip phone. 

Using the science and technology provided by Ancestry DNA, the couples embark on a journey that starts in San Francisco, ends in New York City and leads them to unknown relatives along the way. Cameras follow all four teams as they drive across the country -more than 4500 miles- in just ten days, stopping each day to complete a challenge and find (and stay with) their newly discovered relatives in a different city. At the end of each day, the team that finishes last receives a strike; after three strikes, teams are eliminated and the remaining teams travel to NYC for the grand finale where there is a $25k grand prize for the winning couple.

Image from relativerace.com

Looking for WW1 Soldier James A. McDonald

My friend Patricia G. shared this story on the Grande Prairie District Branch of Alberta Genealogical Society Facebook page a few days ago. 

Can my wonderful readers help?

At our AGM last night a member came in with a photograph from her own family collection. The information she had to share about the photo is that James A. (Jim) McDonald walked over the Edson Trail with her relative (surname Edgerton) and later signed up for WWI. James was said to not have remained in the Peace Country for too long.

The goal is to return this photograph to a relative of James A. McDonald. I told her I would share it with the sleuths on this site and see what we could come up with for her.

*Another tidbit is that the Edgerton family settled around the Beaverlodge area.

*The newspaper article is one I found on-line that I think may be the same guy.

Aug. 28, 1917 in the Grande Prairie newspaper.

Woman of Courage Sarah Jane Page

Because February is Women's History Month I wanted to share with my readers the story of strong and courageous women in my life. You will be able to follow along as you wish by choosing the label "Women of Courage" in the right side bar. I encourage my readers to join me in honoring women of courage in your own families.

Sarah Jane (Sally) Page Simpson

Sarah Jane (often called Sally) Page was born in May 1840 in the village of Chilham in Kent England. Queen Victoria had just married her first cousin Albert one month prior.

Sometime between 1855 and 1861 her parents separated. Sally and her husband Charles Simpson went to live with her mother and Sally's younger brothers Moses age 11 and Charlie only 6 years old. Her father lived elsewhere in the village with an older son. 

Little is known of Sally's early years but her strength and courage were called on in the spring of 1874. At that time her young husband, only 44 years old, became ill and died. Sally, pregnant with their 5th child was left a widow at the age of 37. Her oldest child was only 13. 

Sarah with grandson Ernest ca 1885

Less than 2 months after her husband Charles died, Sally gave birth to their son. This child was sickly and died when he was only 1 month old. Sally managed to raise her surviving children on her own by taking in laundry. She never remarried and remained a widow until her death in 1920 - 46 years after Charles died. In her later years she lived with her oldest son, my great-grandfather, and his family. In fact she died in their home with her daughter-in-law at her side.

I admire my 2nd great-grandmother Sarah Jane (Sally) a great deal. Being widowed at 37, losing a child, and working long hours over steaming hot water at a physically demanding job must have been horrendous. She was a petite woman too so the job must have been very difficult. But she raised children who grew up to be decent kind individuals.