Mapping My Ancestors

Mapping your family's historical residences comes up from time to time. Recently blogger Randy Seaver wrote about it in his Genea-Musings. Genealogist Lisa Louise Cooke did an excellent webinar on the subject for RootsMagic. I have her  CD set "Google Earth for Genealogy." It covers more than just mapping. There is a genealogy program "Map My Family Tree" which works with many genealogy database programs.

Randy started in 1900. My rule of thumb is start with grandparents to protect privacy. Another reason is programs like "Map My Family Tree" and Google Earth have issues with names of locations that aren't the same as they are today - it may be Logan County now but then it was Sangamon County - or no longer exist. Yankeetown and Bakerville, both of which were just west of what is now Chestnut, come to mind.

Here is the movement of my maternal grandfather's paternal line, 1850-1975. I can tell you the rest of the lines look about the same although a couple did go out to southeast Kansas and look around temporarily before turning around and heading back home. Let me tell you, it is not terribly exciting to map moving across the field. There were no addresses, street or otherwise, so Downing Cemetery is pivotal to this story.

In 1850 my great great grandfather Samuel lived in a house (which still stands) next to Downing Cemetery. His son William Nelson, a minor, lived with him. William Nelson's mother had died in 1847 which is the reason for Downing Cemetery. In 1862 William Nelson married Delilah Downing (yes, her maiden name was Downing). A couple months later he went off to the Civil War. William Nelson returned from the war to Downing Cemetery.

William Henry, my great grandfather, lived with his mother Delilah and her new husband David Shellhammer about a mile down the road east which was not far from where she grew up. When William Henry married in 1886 (to Eliza Harding who lived a little further down the road east in the next township) they moved to a house on land he owned across the field from his grandfather's house, the one next to Downing Cemetery.

Things went well. Four sons were born. William Henry then built a new house across the field and down half a mile on a little high spot. High means a couple feet above the surrounding land. The new house was a mile due south of Downing Cemetery. In 1903 William Henry died in the typhoid epidemic. In 1910 his son Ellis married  Ethel Ryan and moved his wife into the house. Shortly before she died in 1975 Ellis and Ethel moved to a house in town. Ellis lived in that house in town until he died in 1978. Moving to town - probably two miles if you are a bird, about three by road - was the longest move of his life.

These places can all be viewed on one screen of Google Earth. That same screen can show the cemeteries where all of these people are buried, including Delilah's parents, and the resolution will be high enough you can pick out houses.

Android Genealogy

Way back when I had a Palm which I loved. I had three before Palm stopped making the organizers. I tried other things but it was years before I found an iPod Touch. I have since added an iPad. I tried FamViewer, GEDViewer and Families on them. My comments on FamViewer are here . If you read the comments the developer tells about GEDViewer which I then tried and wrote about here.

Families is only for Legacy software. It allows you to put your entire database on it, add to it while out and about, sync back to your computer. You need to make sure you have the latest database on your idevice, upload it and sync back BEFORE you change something on your computer. If you take a computer along and forget to sync first there is a problem. I sat through the Legacy webinar on Families. While I like having my whole database I am not comfortable doing the sync thing as a general rule. On a specific trip maybe. Here's the webinar. (Scroll down to April 11, 2012.)

This week I got a new phone, an Android. I had GedStar Pro on my Palm. It is not available for idevices (and never will be the developer says) but it is available for Android. I made haste to install it. It is simple but it has everything. You can look up names, families, pedigrees, descendants. You can view your sources, even the details. On some screens, including marriage and burial, you can get a map of the location. On all the maps I tried it got it right even though my locations do not always conform to naming systems required by my genealogy programs - and which their mapping programs whine about.

The program requires first converting your database. It converts directly from Legacy and The Master Genealogist, requires a GEDCOM for other programs. Once you have that there are several ways to get it on your device but the easiest - which they encourage - is to use Dropbox. The developer's web site has all the documentation and it won't take you long to read the whole thing. It is very simple to use.(Hints: install the program, open it on your device once, then proceed with making the file conversion. When making the conversion save the file to Dropbox rather than moving it there later.)

Families is also available for the Android. Julie Cahill Tarr has written a series of articles on apps she uses for her Kindle Fire (an Android device) here. She discusses Families for Android, the Ancestry app (which is available for Apple and Android) and a couple non genealogy programs she uses which I also use.

FamilySearch Family Tree

You've been wanting access to FamilySearch Family Tree, right? The link tells you how:
http://broadcast.lds.org/eLearning/fhd/Community/en/FamilySearch/FamilyTree/pdf/familyTreeAccess.pdf

Be careful what you wish for though. I've been on it for about a year and, frankly, it's a major mess. Here's what James Tanner has to say:
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2012/04/sorting-out-relatives-in-family-tree.html

1940 Census

I'm not excited about the 1940 Census. I know. I know. It's heresy to say that with all the hype that is going on. But it's true. I know where all my ancestors and most other family members were in 1940 - same place they were in 1930 - and 1920. For the most part, same place they had been for the last 100 years. The only difference is in 1940 they will all be in one township instead of two or, if we go back far enough, three. So I just can't get excited about it.

And frankly, be honest, how many of you don't know where your parents or grandparents were in 1940? You might be excited to see the information in writing - maybe you are in the 1940 census - but are you really expecting a big surprise?

I am excited about transcribing the 1940 Census. I think the method in place for doing this, enlisting the help of local genealogical societies to transcribe local counties, will provide future researchers with a much more accurate transcription than we have ever had. We know the local names. That means our grandchildren will not have to be creative in searching for names. Now that's something to be excited about.

FEMALE ANCESTORS

How many generations in your direct female line do you know? This question is for females. The way records were kept men can generally go further back with data on male lines than females with their female lines. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited solely from the mother and thus enables the trace of your maternal line back in time. Unfortunately it can't put a name to the members of the line.

Obviously you are #1 and your mother is #2. My maternal grandmother #3 was Leona Ethel Ryan Downing who was born in 1892 and died in 1975. Her mother was Lillie Margaret Wood Ryan #4. Lillie was born in 1871 and died in 1956. I knew all of these people. Lillie's mother, #5, was Sarah Katherine Lucas Wood. Sarah was born in 1835 and died in 1896. Sarah's mother was Mary Turner Lucas #6. She was born in 1813 and died in 1855. Lillie, Sarah and Mary are buried in the same area of Lake Bank Cemetery, Lake Fork Township, Logan County, Illinois.

Mary's mother was Margaret Low Turner. Margaret #7 was born in Maryland around 1793, had 13 children and died, presumably, in DeWitt County, Illinois, after 1870. Her husband Allen had died in DeWitt in April 1846. Margaret's mother was Mary Low, maiden name unknown. We know her name was Mary from land records in Ohio. Mary #8 was born about 1771 in Maryland, married Nathan Low and died after 1827, presumably in Madison now Clark County, Ohio, where her husband died a few years later.

THE CLOUD

I recently heard a lecture on The Cloud. The Cloud is our future. The Cloud will store everything. You won't have to worry about backups. The Cloud will work across platforms. The Cloud will keep files compatible with current versions of software. You can collaborate in The Cloud. The Cloud is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

The Cloud may be our future whether we like it or not and you can collaborate in The Cloud but I have some  issues with the rest.

Do you trust all your data to the cloud? Really? What happens when it rains? Seriously, what good is all your data in the cloud when you don't have wi-fi or your ISP is down or your cell provider throttles you back to a snail's pace? My favorite program, Evernote, runs and syncs in The Cloud. If the internet is down I can still use it because there is a local copy but that is not true of many of the apps on my iPad. They depend on The Cloud. No wi-fi, no work. I don't have wi-fi or ISP 24/7 and I am sure I am not the only person who doesn't. Do you really want to be totally dependent on your ISP or cell provider for access to your data? And if you were what would that cost?

What does work across platforms mean? A Word file in The Cloud magically becomes a Pages file for Mac users? If only. I suspect he meant you can use The Cloud from your iPad, your Android tablet, your PC or Mac, your smartphone, etc. But if you put a Pages file up in, say, Dropbox, your collaborator isn't going to be able to read it if they have Word.

You won't have to worry about versions of software in The Cloud. Hmmm. Does The Cloud magically convert those Windows 98 files I can't read now to Windows 7?  Next year will it convert everything to Windows 8?

Let's pretend The Cloud has all those magic properties. What does something like that cost? He tossed out figures. Basically it depends on which one of The Clouds you choose. What? There is more than one Cloud? So if put all your data on Cloud A can your potential collaborators on Cloud D see it? Will we need multiple Clouds?

I welcome The Cloud. But let's eliminate the thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes first.

Online Genealogy and Security

Years ago I was opening a bank account in Chicago. She asked me for my mother's maiden name. I must have looked at her funny because she explained it was for security. I laughed. I told her that wouldn't work where I was from. I knew everyone's mother's maiden name. She said I'd be surprised at the number of people who didn't know their own mother's maiden name.


That was long before the internet. About 25 years ago I was on Compuserve and people traded genealogy in the Roots Forum run by Dick Eastman. I was careful to end mine at my great grandparents. Later I picked a date of 1900 and gave no information after that. When ask my mother's maiden name for "security" purposes I created a maiden name she would not recognize. Early on that was a problem because I was rarely asked and I would forget. So I changed her maiden name to something I could remember. She's had that same maiden name since.


About 15 years ago signing up for the first free web mail account [I still have it] it asked me my birth date. I didn't figure it was any of their business so I created one. They only want to know if I'm adult and the birth date I created indicated I was. Wouldn't you know I forgot the password and they asked my birth date to retrieve it. Fortunately she also gave me a password hint and I got it. [Yes, back then you talked to a real live human.] So I created a "permanent" birth date for myself. Naturally I made myself younger and with a more interesting birth date.


I still don't put out the details in my genealogy but it wouldn't take too much to figure it out from reading blogs, mailing list posts, etc. And a couple of people have posted my lineage all the way to me. 


Security questions have gotten more detailed. I can't answer them. What street did you live on when you were 6? When I was 6 I might not have known what a "street" was. Certainly the roads were not named in the country. So I pick the genealogy question and use my creative facts. 


The criminal who uses my mother's maiden name, my birth date, etc. from my online genealogy is in for a big surprise.