In my recent post about statistics for FamilySearch, a comment by Randy Seaver of
Genea-Musings
got me thinking about the statistics and terminology used online by all
of those huge records collections, everybody from FamilySearch to
Ancestry.com to the Library of Congress. One of the most influential
books I have ever read is a small 144 page treatise written in 1954
entitled "How to lie with Statistics." Here is the…
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Added by James Tanner on October 29, 2010 at 8:03pm —
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The following article appeared in the Newberry County, S.C. newspaper dated Nov. 13, 1838.:
Today at the historic Bush River Baptist Church was unveiled a marker erected by the D.A.R. at the grave of Mary Cole, "THE HEROINE OF THE REVOLUTION". She was nee Mary Golden, widow of Lochlin Lenard who was killed by the Tories in 1781. She married Rev. John Cole in 1783.
I am a direct decendant of Rev. John Cole. He was minister of the Bush Baptist Church in Newberry…
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Added by Sherlene Riddle on October 27, 2010 at 6:30pm —
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In a recent FamilySearch Blog post on 25 October 2010, DiltsGD offered a list of the
top ten genealogical repositories.
There is no doubt that the libraries on the list offer huge
genealogical resources, but the most important question for researchers
is how accessible are the collections? What access is there to the vast
stored material? How much of what the library contains is original
source documentation…
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Added by James Tanner on October 26, 2010 at 8:31am —
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Nearly two thousand contributors averaging about 500 new articles a week
go into the FamilySearch Research Wiki. Now linked and integrated into
the
Beta.FamilySearch.org
website, the Wiki is accessed through the "Learn" link on the startup
page. Here is a screen shot showing where the link is located:…
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Added by James Tanner on October 25, 2010 at 8:15pm —
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James Wilson was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire on March 15, 1765. His father was a farmer, and James was an apprentice to a blacksmith. He had little formal education. In 1796 he…
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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on October 25, 2010 at 7:25am —
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Early sponsors of the upcoming
FamilySearch RootsTech Conference
in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 10th through the 12th, 2011 include
Brigham Young University, the New England Historic Genealogical
Society, Ancestry.com, the National Genealogical Society and the
Federation of Genealogical Societies. The conference with bring together
the resources of three other conferences, the Conference on
Computerized Family…
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Added by James Tanner on October 24, 2010 at 9:33pm —
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As soon as I got back from Utah and my visit to FamilySearch, I taught
two classes at the Fall Genealogy Workshop of the Family History Society
of Arizona. The conference seemed very well attended but being at a
genealogy conference raises some issues, including whether or not
attending a genealogy class is more entertainment than education. The
classes I taught were on specific software products and it was
interesting that more than a few of the attendees had…
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Added by James Tanner on October 23, 2010 at 8:21pm —
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I'm working on a program for our local genealogical society on how people use Social Networking sites for genealogical research.
Does anyone have a success story they would like to share on how GenealogyWise, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Social Networking site have helped you in your genealogical research? I'd love to hear them!
Added by Brian Bouchard on October 22, 2010 at 3:37am —
2 Comments
I have made a number of new Blog posts recently while I am here in Utah for the first ever FamilySearch Bloggers Day. Here are a few of the newer ones:
More to Salt Lake than Family History Library
Feedback and Community Support on the Beta FamilySearch.org
Updated version of FamilySearch Indexing
and a few others
Read more...
Added by James Tanner on October 20, 2010 at 9:44am —
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Once again the powers to be are trying to get the ok to build a casino in or near Gettysburg.
How could anyone think something like this is the right thing to do.
This is one of our nations most treasured national parks.
Please go online and sign the petition to stop this from happening at
http://nocasinogettysburg.org/Check out what others are saying about this threat to our national treasure.…
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Added by Bob Mooney-Pa on October 18, 2010 at 9:30am —
1 Comment
We had an interesting occurrence this past week or so. On October 5, I
received an E-mail from the New FamilySearch.org Beta Test Team, as
follows:
Dear Member, We are looking for individuals who can participate in evaluating new.familysearch.org before each quarterly update.
We need individuals with different levels of computer skills, family history backgrounds, languages, and new.familysearch.org experience.
We try…
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Added by James Tanner on October 17, 2010 at 8:54am —
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An early Halloween Story.....
In the spring of 1819 the residents of Ipswich’s Chebacco Parish (now the town of Essex) saw lantern light in the graveyard at night. Soon they discovered that the graves had been disturbed, and several families discovered that their relative’s graves were empty. Eight graves, going back to…
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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on October 15, 2010 at 7:53pm —
3 Comments
Since 1995, Ira Glass, one of the greatest storytellers of our time, has been the host of the radio show “This American Life,” a weekly hour-long show that is primarily journalistic non-fiction but also features essays, short fiction and occasionally memoirs.
I had the pleasure of seeing Ira live this past weekend at Jones Hall here in Houston. My experience was less like sitting in a…
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Added by Stefani Twyford on October 15, 2010 at 1:12pm —
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The NOAA announced they have posted a website for viewing civil war maps online for free.
/
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/This could be a valuable tool in plotting the areas your ancestors fought and possibly died during one of the most historic events in our nations hsitory.
Added by Bob Mooney-Pa on October 15, 2010 at 7:35am —
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When you go to those seminars-check out the new things offered for sale during intermission. I found a pack of Census Records-for 1790 t0 1930. I don't WRITE on it much, but I grab it for reference ALL THE TIME, when my old eyes can not see the record I am looking at.
I teach a lot of classes, and I can not stress enough-the great use of a time line. I do my notes by year-or approximate year. You are able to see what you are missing-as well as what you have.
Added by Ms. Gerry Hill on October 15, 2010 at 2:04am —
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I just came across some interesting information regarding my grandfather, Frank Boyd. Frank originated from Waycross, Georgia. What I now know about Frank is his mother's name was Parilee and Peter Boyd was his father.
What is my interesting information? Frank had a wife. Her name was Inidiana and they had a daughter, Annie.
To some this just may be this is great, you found a grain, that little piece that gives our search gratification. What I found was…
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Added by Cheri Boyd on October 13, 2010 at 7:04pm —
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This morning, I received a message from someone in Mexico, who was telling me about a fountain in Nacozari, Sonora, where he lives. This town was apparently founded by James Douglas in the late XIX Century. In the early 1920s, his son, James S. Douglas built a fountain as a monument in honour of his father. This fountain still stands today in the plaza in front of the Town Hall.
James Stuart Douglas (1837-1918) was born in Quebec City, son of Scottish-born father, Dr. James Douglas.…
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Added by William Douglas on October 13, 2010 at 5:53am —
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I had a very well prepared and attentive group of teenage boys in a
genealogy class recently. They all had a Spanish speaking heritage. They
all came prepared to the class with information about their
grandparents who were born in Mexico. With the new records on
FamilySearch's Record Search, we were able to find some of their family
records right online. As I showed them the records we had found, one of
the boys raised his hand and said, "Mr. Tanner, we can't read…
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Added by James Tanner on October 11, 2010 at 8:51am —
2 Comments
News Clipping from the Salem Evening News, June 3, 1938 (a Massachusetts Newspaper).
Old houses in Essex Of…
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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on October 10, 2010 at 4:49pm —
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I previously wrote "Searching For Me" but have come to an additional afterthought. I look like my father, Cecil Boyd.
Out of his six children that's what everyone said. Then I thought of his father, Frank Boyd. Frank died when I was five, so my recollection is not that keen but I remember that his complexion was a reddish bronze. He had high cheekbones and shiny soft hair, known to African American's as good hair. But there were his eyes. His eyes seemed to have the ability to…
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Added by Cheri Boyd on October 8, 2010 at 5:42pm —
3 Comments