Leftover Ancestors Anyone?

As I am sitting here feasting on a turkey sandwich with cold stuffing, I wondered if there were any odd “leftover” names via Ancestry.com. Here’s a sampling:

Thanksgiving Day

• You knew there would be a family Gathering, and it is inevitable that there would be some family Feuds as well as family Fight.

• And I also found a Bernard S. Turkey Day in the California Voter Registrations – that’s a way to get into the holiday spirit, no?

Turkeys

• Do you think there would there be Turkeys in the US Census? But of course! But not as many Tom Turkeys as you might think – although in 1920 there is a Big Turkey in Todd, South Dakota and a Primo Turkey in Franklin, Illinois.

• There’s a John Turkey Legs along with his wife Lydia Turkey Legs in Big Horn, Montana in 1920! And even a Wish Bone in the Washington State and Territorial Census in 1887. Well, who doesn’t have a few turkeys in their own family tree, right?

Side Dishes

• Side dishes are well represented this holiday season as well, with various Cranberrys although I can’t verify that any were sauced. Casseroles are covered as well.

• There’s a bumper crop of Potatoes and while some might be sweet, a Sweet Potato could not be found. Plenty of Yams, my favorites being Yostus Yam and Stray Yam. I would avoid Harry Yam however.

• In case you were wondering, there was no Mashed Potato but plenty of other people who are Mashed, including Mashed Carpenter, and Mashed Noggie. Another fave: Mashed Clampit, from North Carolina, of course. One note: scrolling down through the Masheds you come upon many listings for nuns, such as Sister M. Joseph, Sister M. Elise. Is there some order of the Masheds that I missed out on?

• Plenty of Stuffings and Stuffins with some Dressings as well. Also, you may call it Corn but some call it Maize. You’ll find most of the Green Beans in the South but not living anywhere near a Casserole (see above). Anyone for Beets? Not sure if any of them went to Harvard.

• And finally, you just can’t eat all these good dishes without gravy. I present Gravy Cooks – from the 1930 US Census, Phoenix, Arizona. In case you were wondering, yes, there are several that arrived by boat.

Desserts

• For dessert there are the usual Pies but which do you prefer? If you aren’t sure there is a Trial Pie and for those who’ve overeaten, a Minnie Pie or even a Zero Pie. There are also those who just want Cake.

Cleanup

• Eventually you have to deal with the Dishes as well as the Silver Ware – why she was bland, I know not except that may have been her maiden name. Wash the Glasses, even the ones that are Chip and gather up all the Napkins.

* * *

And if we’re lucky and fortunate, we’ll all be back to do it again next year! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Photo: Thanksgiving Leftovers via Flickr, used under Creative Commons License 3.0.

Disclaimer: See Disclosure Statement for more information on the material connections I have with Ancestry.com and various genealogy and non-genealogy vendors.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 3 - My Thoughts

Well the third episode of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? with Lisa Kudrow just ended here in Chicago and I wanted to put my impressions down in a blog post.  I'm encouraging my other genealogy blogging colleagues to do the same or if you don't have your own blog, add your comments below.

• PLUS:  Lisa Kudrow was excited about trying to find the story about her great-grandmother and how she died in Ilya, Belarus based on the facts told so touchingly by her father.

• MINUS:  Not really a minus, but having to see Kudrow's father cry and be in such turmoil.  No one told me this was a three-hanky episode.

• PLUS:  Being able to visit your ancestral homeland and talk to actual neighbors about your family.

• MINUS:  Again not a minus, but I just can't imagine the pain of having to hear from these neighbors how your family was slaughtered.

• PLUS:  The ability to be in Poland after the Iron Curtain fell and have open records in order to find a distant relative.

• PLUS:  The fact that Yuri (Borislaw) was still alive.  This goes to show that genealogists never make assumptions (like assuming someone is dead because someone else said so) but do the research first.

• MINUS: Too many recaps!  Was it just me or did it seem there were way more recaps and "coming up" in this episode?  What was a 42 minutes episode after commercials really was a 32 minute episode if you remove the intro (which is way too long) and the recaps.  Were there no other compelling aspects of this story that could have filled out those 10 minutes?

This was one of the most moving episodes of WDYTYA despite its brevity in terms of content.  It also again brought to light a disturbing period in our civilization and I hope - as others must - that we never forget.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Meeting A Genealogy Celebrity

Last Saturday evening on 9 January 2010, I attended a banquet sponsored by ancestry.com at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah as part of my ancestry.com Blogger's Day trip.  As I was getting ready to stake out my seat right next to Diane Haddad of Family Tree Magazine and Kimberly Powell of About.com Genealogy, I looked up and noticed a beautiful female face that also seemed familiar.

It wasn't until later when my other table mate, Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie pulled me aside and asked me to take a picture of him with this woman did I realize who she was and why the photo request.  It was Peggy McDowell who had starred in one of the ancestry.com commercials as part of the My Story series.

The embedded clip is below.  I can tell you it was a pleasure to get to talk with Peggy and to learn that she is fairly close by to me here in Chicago!



* * *

You can read a great description of the banquet posted over at Ancestry Insider.  Much better said than I could.

[Note: please read the disclaimer concerning my recent trip sponsored by ancestry.com]

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

ancestry.com Bloggers Day - Part 1

On Friday, 8 January 2010, I was honored to be part of ancestry.com's Bloggers Day held at their headquarters in Provo, Utah.

I was in great company, as the group included:

Ancestry Insider
Lisa Louise Cooke, Genealogy Gems
Dear Myrtle
Dick Eastman, Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
Diane Haddad, Family Tree Magazine’s Genealogy Insider
Craig Manson, GeneaBlogie
Leland Meitzler, GenealogyBlog
Kimberly Powell, About.com’s Genealogy Expert

I don't see much value in reposting some of the great information already share by my colleagues above.  What I'd like to mention is that it was a very hectic day beginning with a shuttle pickup at 7:30 am.  Bloggers and work-at-home folks like me know that waking up at a set time runs counter to what seems "normal."  So too does the lack of an afternoon nap.  Heck, one of our attendees even confessed to using the term "naps" as in more than one!

In addition, by the end of the day most of us had eyes and minds glazed over from information overload.  I have to say that the folks at ancestry.com gave great presentations, made it very clear that they wanted to answer as many questions as possible, and wanted to work with the genealogy blogging community as much as possible.  I chalk this up to more than just being a public company as of November 2009: I really can see from some of the new faces on ancestry.com's management team and staff (with hires from Silicon Valley companies like eBay), there is a commitment to openness as well as to improving products and services by listening to critics as well as customers.

I've decided to group "the meals" - meaning the group dinner on Friday, 8 January 2010 and the banquet on 9 January 2010 - into a separate post.  There is much to be said about what happens when you sit down and break bread with others.

For purposes of disclosure, please see my earlier post Disclaimer: ancestry.com.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Disclaimer: ancestry.com

In preparation for a series of posts about my visit to ancestry.com from 7 January 2010 to 10 January 2010, I want to put forth this disclaimer so that it can be referenced in future posts.

• I was invited by ancestry.com to attend a Blogger's Day Event on Friday, 8 January 2010 as well as a dinner on 9 January 2010 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The purpose was to gain more information about the ancestry.com organization, tour certain Ancestry.com facilities as well as have the opportunity to ask ancestry.com management and staff questions about ancestry.com products and business practices.

• ancestry.com paid for round-trip airfare from Chicago, IL to Salt Lake City as well as three nights hotel accommodations in Salt Lake City.  In addition, upon my arrival I received $75 in Visa gift cards to defray any transportation or meal expenses.

• On Friday, 8 January 2010, round-trip transportation was provided from my hotel to the ancestry.com data center in Orem, Utah and then to ancestry.com headquarters in Provo, Utah.  While there I was provided with a catered lunch and given a gift basket of Lehi Rollers Mill products.  At the end of the day a group dinner was held at Market Street Grill in South Jordan, Utah and then transportation back to the hotel in Salt Lake City.

• On Saturday, 9 January 2010, I attended a banquet sponsored by ancestry.com with attendees from the Blogger's Day Event.

In no way have I been asked to blog or write or speak about specific ancestry.com products, services or business practices.  As a commitment to transparency in my blogging and other genealogy industry activities, I may make reference in the future to this post when discussing ancestry.com on Destination: Austin Family and my other blogs and websites.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

An Ancestry Adventure This Week

Okay, I  can let you all in on a secret - well not really a secret, but an event that I am attending later this week in Salt Lake City.

It is Ancestry.com's annual Blogger's Day.

So what is this all about?  Well I first heard about Blogger's Day back in January 2009 through a series of posts at Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings (see Randy's post on his best 2009 genealogy moment to learn more about last year's event) and I found every aspect of his visit interesting.

Late in 2009, I received an invitation from Ancestry.com to attend the 2010 Blogger's Day planned for Friday, January 8, 2010 in Provo, Utah where Ancestry's headquarters are located.  Not only was I ecstatic at the chance to meet with Ancestry staff and hopefully discuss issues in the genealogy industry, I was grateful for such an opportunity.

I will be reporting on my trip beginning Thursday, January 7, 2010 and will fill my readers in on my experiences and what I learn during the tours and meetings.

Stay tuned!

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Ancestry Canada's Free Canada Day Offer

From Ancestry Canada:

Canada Day is not only a great day to spend with family - it's the perfect time to get together and learn more about how your family came to be Canadian.

For the first time ever, Ancestry.ca is making available The Canadian Passenger Lists Collection, 1865 to 1935, FREE* until July 3rd, 2009.

Don't miss this great opportunity to discover your Canadian story in The Canadian Passenger Lists today.

Catherine Sullivan Located In 1910 Census

If you remember my complaint of madness in this past Monday's post, I had been unable to locate Catherine O'Keefe (nee Sullivan), my 2nd great grandmother, in the 1910 US Census. This all came about after participating in Randy Seaver's SNFG challenge on Saturday when he asked which ancestors were living in 1909 and which of them could be located in the 1910 US Census.


As you can see in the image above, Catherine is listed as KIEF not O'KEEFE. While searching on Ancestry last night, I had to employ all my searching super powers and wildcard tricks in order to locate her. Here's how the sleuthing worked:


- I knew that in 1920, Catherine Sullivan was living in Birmingham, Alabama with her daughter Mary O'Keefe and husband James Downey. So I did an exhaustive search in the Jefferson County, Alabama census rolls for any Catherine born in New York abt 1837 after failing with the surname O'KEEFE and OKEEFE.


- Catherine Sullivan had lived most of her life in Lowville, New York and this is where she had appeared in the 1900 US Census. So searching through the Lewis County, New York census rolls using the surnames O'KEEFE and OKEEFE resulted in bupkus.


- I then decided to search for all Catherines born abt 1837 in New York within Lewis County and Lowville township. Bingo! It appears that even the enumerator got the last name wrong, writing it as KIEF.


Catherine Sullivan had been widowed since 1870 and in 1910 was living with her daughter Ellen (often called Ella). Ella was a milliner and hair dresser who moved back home to take care of her mother who was now 72. The 1920 US Census shows Ella living in the Bronx, New York with the family of William Dence Austin who married Catherine Sullivan's daughter, Catherine O'Keefe. Catherine Sullivan would also moved into the family home at 2482 Elm Place in the Bronx before she passed away on February 12, 1928.

Census Search Trick - Drop The Last Name

As I described in yesterday's Madness Monday post, I've been focusing my efforts on my Lehive line, namely John Lehive b. 1833 in Ireland who was my 3rd great-grandfather.

While I had searched about all I could for John and his son John Jr., I decided to start looking to the other children of John Lehive for clues. Although some may think this is a waste of time, very often an elderly parent can be found living with one of the children or there may be other valuable clues in reading census records for those who were your great aunts and uncles.

While looking for Dennis Lehive who was last noted in the 1900 census living in Rosendale, Ulster County, New York, I seemed to hit a wall. There were no records past 1900 - or so Ancestry's census database would lead me to believe.

So I tried using surname variations as well as wildcard searches (with Lee* and Leh* for the surname) but to no avail. So, I tried dropping the last name - and it worked!

I need to qualify that further. I felt I had enough information (first name, residence state and county, birthplace and year of birth) that I could find my Denis without the last name. So using the criteria below:



I was able to find my Dennis list in the 1930 census as Dennis Lechrie:



Using my wildcard search of Leh* and Lee* would not have found this record while my "no surname" search did. Of course, the culprit here is the person who indexed the record. Perhaps it is just me - and because I've been so immersed in the research of the Lehive/Leehive surname - but it doesn't look like Lechrie on the original:

[1]

For the 1920 census, the record appeared as Lehigh which is a common error with the Lehive surname:



And sure enough, in checking the original, the offender this time is the census enumerator who perhaps "heard" Lehigh:

[2]

And finally, for the 1910 census, the record appears indexed as Shive:



And in looking at the original, since it is blurry and the handwriting is obscured, I can't blame the indexer for reading it as Shive and not Lehive:

[3]

For each of the above records I did submit additional/corrective information. I do this not so much to improve Ancestry's product but more as a RAOGK so that others researching the Lehive line won't have to struggle the way I did.

So try this search trick out the next time you are stuck and feel one of your ancestors is hiding in the census forest. Of course, this trick won't work every time. I was lucky in my assumption that Dennis Lehive stayed in Ulster County, New York and did not move down to New Jersey like his father, his siblings and even his oldest son. I had enough information for me to find these records rather quickly by disregarding the surname and using what I already knew about Dennis Lehive.

Notes:

[1] 1930 US Census, NARA, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed March 30, 2009, citing Census Place: Kingston, Ulster, New York; Roll: 1655; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 26; Image: 432.0.

[2] 1920 US Census, NARA, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed March 30, 2009, citing Census Place: Kingston, Ulster, New York; Roll: T625_1271; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 156; Image: 57.

[3] 1910 US Census, NARA, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed March 30, 2009, citing Census Place: Rosendale, Ulster, New York; Roll: T624_1085; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 160; Image: 931.


(Note: source citations have been withheld for purposes of readability. They are available upon request.) I am including endnotes for this post - please see To Cite or Not To Cite for a discussion on source citation and blog post readability.

My Foray Into The World of DNA Testing and Genealogy

I've taken the plunge and I've actually used a DNA testing kit for the first time. You can read more at my recent post over at Examiner.com where I give a review of a YDNA kit from familybuilder.com.

My reasons for being hesitant to test my DNA had to do with the price of the DNA testing kits and my feeling that the technology was not far enough into its development. With plunging prices on a variety of test kits (the 17 marker YDNA kit from familybuilder is $59 and Ancestry recently announced a 33/46 marker YDNA kit for $79) I no longer had any reason to put off taking my genealogy research to the next level.

In a previous post here at Destination: Austin Family, I discussed what couldn't be learned about my family tree from DNA testing. But what I most want to learn is this: is my theory about the MacEntees of New York's Hudson Valley being related to the famous McEntees of the same region true?

Stay tuned. I will have results in about four weeks and then I will need to contact McEntee family members who also have DNA testing data they can share.

I'd like to hear from anyone else who has decided to pursue DNA testing as part of their research.

Disclosure: familybuilder sent me their YDNA kit at no charge for purposes of reviewing the process of taking a DNA sample, using a DNA kit for genealogy purposes, and to receive and interpret results. I am disclosing this as a matter of transparency and honesty of my opinion. My intent is to give a good review (meaning a well-researched and written review) not necessarily a favorable review of all products I receive gratis.

Copyright 2009, Thomas MacEntee.  Some rights reserved.

Family Tree Maker Updates

As my readers may know, I recently made the transition from Family Tree Maker 16 to FTM 2008. And then with various blogs posting about the upgrade to FTM 2009, I was all hyped about getting a preview as early as possible.

A few fellow genea-bloggers sent me the 800 number to call to get my code since "the email process has been backed up." Well it turns out that the information was not entirely correct.

I did call Ancestry using the special 800 number I was given. Turns out that emails will still be sent out to FTM 2008 owners in the order in which they purchased and registered the product. This is the important part. Since I didn't purchase and register my FTM 2008 but two weeks ago, I will probably be one of the last one's receiving the upgrade email.

Despite that bit of bad news, I was happy to see that there is a new FTM-related blog as Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has pointed out.

Please take time to go visit Family Tree Maker User and see all the great posts. It is sort of like a "boot camp" for FTM 2008 and 2009 users.

When Old News Is New News

I know many other genea-bloggers have been chiming in on Ancestry's recent announcement concerning new additions to its historical newspaper collection. Some have wondered whether it is as big a deal as Ancestry seems to think and to be honest, I wasn't sure the new additions would help me get through some of my "brick walls."

But count me in the "big fan" camp and I too am ready to shout it from the mountain top: Ancestry's "old news" is "new news" and access is free through June 19th.

I've been dealing with the MacEntee/McEntee issue for several months - mainly trying to document whether or not my MacEntee family is really just a variation of the McEntees of Kingston, New York and vicinity.

Well one of the new additions to Ancestry's collection of historical newspapers is The Kingston Daily Freeman, from 1914 to 1950. And in it are various listings for McEntee as well as MacEntee. Interestingly, for my grandfather Abraham MacEntee, his wedding announcement in the Kingston Daily Freeman has his last name spelled as McEntee.

I still have many articles to review which mention McEntee - over 3,000 - but many simply reference a "McEntee Street" which exists to this day in downtown Kingston. Now I just wish Ancestry would allow you to use Boolean logic for searches so I could eliminate all references to McEntee Street but still pick up those with just "McEntee."

Ancestry Press - I Made Books!

Update: I just received an email from a Senior Product Manager at AncestryPress to clarify some of my feedback below - see the strikethrough and the updated text in bold below.

I am so psyched because the books that I created over at Ancestry.com using their Ancestry Press feature arrived last night. And I am very pleased and impressed. Of course, this is the first time I've ever taken portions of my family history research and opted to have them "published," as it were. And I took a chance on this feature to create some holiday gifts this season.

Ancestry had a great offer of a reduced price and free shipping but that ended on October 31, 2007. Ancestry still has an introductory offer in effect but the free shipping expired on October 31, 2007. I didn't want to feel rushed so I decided I would submit my books for publishing when I was ready. Here is a brief description of how it worked:

- While I already had an abridged family tree on Ancestry's site, that wasn't a requirement. All the information for "Kenny's Choice" was taken from my blog posting and copied to the publishing application.

- Photos were easy to import and upload to Ancestry's site. The information in the publishing feature is secured with your login and password and not available to other users or posted elsewhere on Ancestry's site.

- I started with a blank book, and then found the Military Service template. This allowed me to drag a photo of Kenny on to the page, edit the timeline with important dates, and list his dates of service and medals awarded.

- There are close to 200 different embellishments available to also drag onto pages. These include pins, tags, buttons, lists, and quotes. I liked the format of some of the quotes but I didn't care for the content - it wasn't appropriate for this project. No problem - I was able to edit the text using one of the quotes from my article.

- I was worried that aligning items would be difficult. There were some missteps in the beginning but I soon got the hang of it. I was able to align text with photos and embellishments. I had to do this quite a bit with the book I created on my partner's family history. There were lots of items that had to be evenly spaced and it was fairly easy to do.

- Right now the limit is 24 pages which is more than what I needed. A book length is not limited to 24 pages as I had stated - a book can be up to 100 pages long. The introductory price for a 24 page book is $29.95 with each additional page priced at $0.39 per page. I also know that Ancestry is working to add new features and relies upon the feedback of its users.

- Each project is saved to Ancestry's site and can be accessed at a later date and even republished.

- The turnaround time was fantastic - the stated time was 3-4 weeks but I received mine in less than 2 weeks Ancestry has changed the book fulfillment time from 3 - 4 weeks to 2 - 3 weeks. I was worried the books would not be here in time for Christmas but they were.

The finished product? It is difficult to actually see the quality in the slideshow above. There is gold stamped lettering on the cover (up to 2 lines). The cover is a "leatherette" but it doesn't feel cheap. The pages are glossy and the photos are clear. One issue I worried about was photo resolution. But the application won't allow you to drag a photo on to a page if the resolution doesn't meet a minimum standard. While the application will allow you to drag a photo onto a page even if the resolution doesn’t meet the minimum standard, once the image has been placed on a page a warning icon is displayed. If the image is scaled to a point where the resolution is less than recommended, you can decide to remove the photo and select a better one.

If you've used this feature at Ancestry please let me know your thoughts. And if you've used other methods of publishing your research I'd be interested in how that process went.