Congressional Papers Website

For those of you who were in my class last night, I mentioned the American State Papers. You will find that website at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsp.html. It is an offshoot of the Library of Congress American Memory website with Congressional Documents and Debates at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/.

When you look at the image above you will see the Search function and that will let you search everything on that website including the American State Papers, the Congressional Record and a whole lot more.

Excellent site to uncover some hidden genealogy records to aid your family history research.

How many Genealogists does it take to change a lightbulb?

Six:  . . .

One to travel to the factory to record the name and age of the bulb.

One to test to see if the line is still alive.

One to trace the line back to the pole.

Two to argue over the name of the original pole where the line started

And one to screw in the bulb and write a detailed biographical account of  the experience.

Coming Soon to Ancestry.com Search—More Control Over Your Results? Really!

No one in the online or professional genealogy community has been more of a critic regarding the new Ancestry search engine than me. I will be the first one to admit that I have been a bit obsessive about this but with good reason -- IT WASN'T BROKE DAMNIT!

Bottom line - I hate it and I have told them so at every turn. Heck, I went on a new search engine rant the other night in class (I'm sorry folks it is like showing a bull a red cape).

Now the programmers at Ancestry have come up with another scheme (uh, I mean enhancement) to try and make something that wasn't broke to begin with better --- sliders (no Gayle they aren't talking about hamburgers sweetie).

From the Ancestry.com blog yesterday: "A new sliding control is coming to the Ancestry search function over the next couple of weeks. Located in the upper-left corner of the search results page, it will make it easy to quickly broaden or narrow your search results.  Don’t see the search results you were expecting? Simply drag one or more sliders from left to right to quickly modify your results.  The slider position shows how closely your search terms should be matched.  With all the sliders to the left, your results are matched at the broadest level, and moving one or more sliders to the right will display more exact matches. - See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/02/24/coming-soon-to-search-more-control-over-your-results/?sf1952133=1#sthash.18uRa7n8.dpuf

"In this first update, you’ll be able to use slider controls on these fields:First and last name of the person being searchedBirth and Death factsOne “Any event” factOne residence locationOther criteria in your search will still be available to edit using the “Edit Search” link and will be noted in the “Other” section just above the “Edit search” link.You’ll start seeing the sliding controls gradually over the next few weeks, so look for them soon on your search results page."

Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me you have time to invent a hamburger, uh, I mean slider feature and you can't fix all the issues or add new features for the DNA folks who have been left swinging in the wind the last two years?

What Ancestry needs more than anything else is some adult leadership in their new products development office (or whatever they want to call it), someone who is not wetted to a bunch of new bells and whistles and fluff on the front end and that doesn't work well on the back end.

Guess it is time to launch another feedback button rant. But hey, I pay my money just like everyone else so I have a right to complain when these folks just can't seem to get it right. Been a paying member since December 2000 longer than most all others in case you really want to know.

And if that wasn't enough now Familysearch, Ancestry and others have automated location information in their search engines. What I need to do is have them educated in one of my classes that there is no such place in 1620 as Jamestown, York County, Virginia, USA.

Are these people serious or do they only want to take the easy way out for the masses. I dare you to find a record or repository for someone in 1620 in Jamestown, York County, Virginia, USA

More on that rant very soon so stay tuned.

AncestryDNA and the Chromosome Browser Saga.

After I got home from class tonight (sorry about the early release but better safe than sorry with snow in area), I found the tweet below circulating in the #rootstech world off the Ancestry.com tweeter feed. I will attempt to get more info ASAP.

"AncestryDNA is working on a product experience that takes into consideration chromosomal browser abilities at a higher level."

Global RootsTech Conference Announces Free Online Broadcast Schedule

SALT LAKE CITY—RootsTech, the world’s largest family history and technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 6-8, 2014, announced today that 15 of its popular sessions will be broadcast live and complimentary over the Internet.

The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year’s conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org.

The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.

The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times below are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Thursday, February 6

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps

3 p.m. to 4 p.m., FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next by Ron Tanner
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader

6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman

7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Sharing Your Family with Multimedia by Michael LeClerc

Friday, February 7

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero by David Adelman

3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo

4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.com by Crista Cowen

6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with New Technologies by Daniel Horowitz

7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Do It Yourself Photo Restoration by Ancestry Insider

Saturday, February 8

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke

3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Information Overload: Managing Online Searches and Their Results by Josh Taylor

4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., A Beginner's Guide to Going Paperless by Randy Whited

6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History by Tom Taylor

7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Five Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep by Deborah Gamble

About RootsTech

RootsTech is a global family history event where people of all ages learn to discover and share their family stories and connections through technology. The first annual conference was held in 2011, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by leading genealogical organizations, the conference includes hands-on demonstrations and forums to provide a highly interactive environment and accelerate learning. Content is geared to young and old, beginner to advanced levels.

Legacy SIG (Special Interest Group) to Meet at Moss Library in Hayseville

Just a reminder that the Legacy Sig will meet tomorrow morning at 9:30 am at the Moss Library in Hayesville.

Bobby will be giving us our first look a Legacy 8, a new version of Legacy, and get a fresh start for any newbies that might be in attendance.  This is a free forum and the public is invited. Bring your laptop loaded with Legacy 8 or have a downloaded copy ready to install. If you are unable to do this, you may take notes for when you are ready to download and install. If you know of anybody who might be interested but does not monitor this mailing list, pass this message along. You may also find this information at:
bgj-murphyhayesvillelegacysig.blogspot.com

I look forward to seeing everyone in the morning.

Starting in January we will resume the monthly Legacy SIG meetings at Moss Library in Hayesville. These meetings will be held at 9:30am on the third Saturday of the month. January's meeting will be Saturday the 18th. These meetings are free and the public is invited. Legacy 8, a new version, has been released and our focus will be on the changes introduced in this new version.

Your Ancestor’s Name Was What?

 

Ancestors changed names much more freely than we do nowadays, which can make it difficult to trace them through time and record collections. Ancestry genealogy expert Anne Gillespie Mitchell tackles this tough problem and shares tips to help you in the name game. Read all about it by clicking here.

Update: Spring Genealogy Classes Set at Tri County Community College

It is that time of year again. The Spring genealogy classes at TCCC are about to begin. If you hadn't signed up yet, now is the time to get on that phone (828-837-6810), ring up Lisa Long and get on that class list before all the seats get taken.

I have four classes available this semester, enough to keep you all busy (and me as well). Our courses meet for 2.5 hours per session and are very inexpensive compared to other local and Internet genealogy education sources. Here is what is being offered this semester.

Genealogy: DNA – The New Tool in Genealogy Research
March 4 – March 18 Tuesday Nights (3 weeks) 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $15
Science can help you with your genealogy research but you will have to take a test first. This course will cover the new and expanding field of genetic genealogy basics and is designed for DNA Newbies. Some of the topics to be covered include an introduction to DNA testing and technical terms, how DNA testing will help your research, what are your ethnic origins and how to interpret the results, the different types of DNA tests available and their applications, and DNA testing and interpreting resources. If you want to demystify genetic genealogy and use it in your family history research then this course is for you.

Genealogy – Hidden Genealogy Sources
January 23 – April 17 Thursday Nights (12 weeks) Class will not meet March 6. 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $60
Discover facts about your ancestors in unexpected places--some right under your nose! Hidden Sources is a genealogy course to help you find family history in unlikely places. This course will help the genealogist discover a diversity of unexpected and productive resources capable of filling in the gaps of family charts and providing missing information on genealogical relationships. Family history researchers are accustomed to searching among vital records, censuses, and other commonly used sources, but there are a number of more obscure sources that can lead researchers to crucial information. This advanced course tackles these other sources and it will help you know how they can help you in your family research. This course will give you an overview of more than 100 sources, including: Adoption Records, Holocaust Records, Coroner’s Inquests, Licenses, Orphan Asylum Records, Slavery Records, Court Records, Patent Records, Diaries and Journals, and many more.
This is now open to all researchers and there are no prerequisites to take this class although experience in researching is helpful.

Genealogy – Beginning/Intermediate Genealogy (A Tuesday Day Class)
January 21 – April 8 Tuesday Day (12 weeks) 8:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. $60
This course covers the basics of genealogy research by exploring a variety of record sources used in the pursuit of ancestor hunting. Sources such as vital records, census, church records, court, military, land property, probate, and tax records will be discussed in detail. We will also cover the newest genealogy tool in that can open up your family history research – DNA testing. If you want to learn how to do genealogy research the right way, this is the course for you. This course is a requirement to take any of my advanced genealogy courses offered at TCCC.

Genealogy Classes: Genealogy- Advanced - Discovering Your Female Ancestors
January 21 – February 25 Tuesday Nights (6 weeks) 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. $30
“Discovering Your Female Ancestors” introduces students to special strategies and uncommon resources needed to research female lines in their family genealogies. Students will learn about genealogical sources created by and about women, and methods they can use to learn the maiden name and parents of our female ancestors. This is an advanced genealogy course and completion of the Beginner/Intermediate Genealogy course is mandatory to take this class.

To each of you I look forward to seeing and/or meeting you in class in a couple of weeks.

How Others See Us - Genetic Genealogists

Couldn't resist this. I do believe this is pretty accurate unfortunately. Have a chuckle on me today. Click on image to see full size.

Genealogy Funny

Baffling 400,000-Year-Old Clue to Human Origins

An artist's interpretation of the hominins that lived near the Sima de los Huesos cave in Spain. I do believe that one on the right looks like one of my uncles on my dad's side of the family!

Scientists have found the oldest DNA evidence yet of humans’ biological history. But instead of neatly clarifying human evolution, the finding is adding new mysteries.

In a paper in the journal Nature, scientists reported Wednesday that they had retrieved ancient human DNA from a fossil dating back about 400,000 years, shattering the previous record of 100,000 years.
      

The fossil, a thigh bone found in Spain, had previously seemed to many experts to belong to a forerunner of Neanderthals. But its DNA tells a very different story. It most closely resembles DNA from an enigmatic lineage of humans known as Denisovans. Until now, Denisovans were known only from DNA retrieved from 80,000-year-old remains in Siberia, 4,000 miles east of where the new DNA was found.

 

You can read the rest of this New York Times story at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/science/at-400000-years-oldest-human-dna-yet-found-raises-new-mysteries.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

 

 

 

 

A Colonial Goldmine

One leaf from a 1775 journal kept by Harvard scientist and professor John Winthrop (1714-1779) in that year’s Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanac. The list notes the battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19) and Bunker Hill (June 17) and Harvard’s one-year refuge at Concord (June 21).

Historians and archivists know a secret that most of us do not: that vast stores of primary documents about North America’s Colonial era lie untouched and unseen in repositories throughout the United States and Canada.

But according to an article in the online Harvard Gazette, two digital projects aim to bring vast numbers of early documents, many unexamined, to light.

You can read the entire story online at http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/11/a-colonial-goldmine/.

FDA Tells Google-Backed 23andMe to Halt DNA Test Service

23andMe Inc., the Google Inc.-backed DNA analysis company was told by U.S. regulators to halt sales of its main product because it’s being sold without “marketing clearance or approval.”

23andMe is led by Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded the company in 2006 and recently separated from her husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Google has invested millions of dollars in the company in recent years.

The 23andMe $99 Saliva Collection Kit and Personal Genome Service, or PGS, tells users whether they carry a disease, are at risk of a disease and would respond to a drug. Most of the uses fall into the category of a medical device and require Food and Drug Administration approval, the agency told the Mountain View, California-based company in a Nov. 22 letter made public yesterday.

Alberto Gutierrez, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a letter to the company made public on Monday that 23andMe had failed to address concerns raised on multiple occasions since the agency began working with it on compliance in July 2009.

“FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device,” the agency said today. “The main purpose of compliance with FDA’s regulatory requirements is to ensure that the tests work.”

“Assessments for drug responses carry the risks that patients relying on such tests may begin to self-manage their treatments through dose changes or even abandon certain therapies depending on the outcome of the assessment,” Gutierrez wrote.

The FDA said that while 23andMe had initiated new marketing campaigns that show how it plans to expand the uses of PGS, it had failed to provide information that the FDA requested multiple times. The FDA said it has had “more than 14 face-to-face and teleconference meetings, hundreds of email exchanges, and dozens of written communications” with 23andMe to discuss how to get the company to comply with its recommendations.

“However, even after these many interactions with 23andMe, we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated the PGS for its intended uses, which have expanded from the uses that the firm identified in its submissions,” Gutierrez wrote.

23andMe is one of many companies to offer at-home genetic testing; in September it reported that its database had reached 400,000 people. Scientists have raised questions about the accuracy of the tests, and in May 2011 a Dutch study claimed the tests were inaccurate and offered little to no benefit to consumers.

Blog Editor Note: I have had several emails regarding this story and it has nothing to do with the genetic genealogy test we take to study our family history. This is about the personalized health DNA test that 23andMe (and only 23andMe) has been advertising recently for $99. Scientist claim that these personalized health tests that screen thousands of genes for versions that influence disease are inaccurate and offer little, if any, benefit to consumers. This part of the DNA story has been out there for several years now. As I see things now not to worry about the genetic testing that we have taken as genealogists. This has NOTHING to do with that unless you did your genetic test at 23andMe and that would only be impacted if the company shuts down.

There is a very interesting Forbes article with background on all this online at http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2013/11/25/23andstupid-is-23andme-self-destructing/

Finally, here is an update posted yesterday on the 23andMe blog:

An Update Regarding The FDA’s Letter to 23andMe
         Published by Anne Wojcicki, co-owner of 23and Me.

23andMe was started in 2007 with the belief that consumers have the right to get access to their genetic information and that information can help them live healthier lives.

It is absolutely critical that our consumers get high quality genetic data that they can trust.   We have worked extensively with our lab partner to make sure that the results we return are accurate.  We stand behind the data that we return to customers — but we recognize that the FDA needs to be convinced of the quality of our data as well.
In 2008 we began our dialogue with the FDA. The relationship with the FDA remains critically important to 23andMe.

In July 2012 23andMe submitted its first application for FDA clearance and followed on with another submission at the end of August. We received feedback on those submissions and acknowledge that we are behind schedule with our responses.
This is new territory for both for 23andMe and the FDA. This makes the regulatory process with the FDA important because the work we are doing with the agency will help lay the groundwork for what other companies in this new industry do in the future. It will also provide important reassurance to the public that the process and science behind the service meet the rigorous standards required by those entrusted with the public’s safety.

I am committed to making sure that 23andMe is a trusted consumer product. I believe that genetic information can lead to better decisions and healthier lives — a goal that all of us share.

We will provide updates as they become available.

A Genealogy Dream in the Making: OCR Software That Reads Old Handwriting

Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog is reporting that "Mocavo announced this week that it's making progress on optical character recognition (OCR) software that will read cursive handwriting, which could revolutionize how digitized records are put online."

On the Mocavo blog, company founder Cliff Shaw described the process, which first involved developing OCR software that could  "perfectly separate handwriting from typewritten text."

Now, Shaw says, the company is getting closer to the "Holy Grail" of being able to accurately read handwritten text. "With limited vocabularies (potential answers), we’re achieving 90-95% accuracy," he writes.

They still have work to do to achieve the ability to read handwriting of a wide range of styles, and to overcome problems with faded or ink-spotted documents I mentioned above. Read about the software and see examples on the Mocavo blog.

Imagine having  software package that can index a hand written document such as this without human intervention. That would truly be the holy grail of software.

This is cute and in some respects true

Click on picture to enlarge.

Courtesy of the Family Tree magazine Facebook page.

Do You Have a Native American Ancestor from North Carolina?

If you have a Native American ancestor from North Carolina, search through the Ancestry newly added North Carolina, Native American Census Selected Tribes, 1894-1913, database.

These census books enumerated Cherokee Indians living in communities o...n the Cherokee or Qualla Reservations in western North Carolina, including Big Cove, Yellow Hill, Birdtown, Natahala, Soco, and Wolf Town in Cherokee, Jackson, Swain, and Graham counties.

Start searching here >> http://ancstry.me/1gKMV7C <<

Have You Used the FamilySearch Free Lookup Service?

My genealogy students all know what my favorite word is "FREE!"

Right now I can heard them all say "FREE" in unison all the way over here in the Btown Gap.

Well nuff of that. I thought I was the master of free, but my old ham buddy Dick Eastman of EOGN fame has me beat. There I said it. So Dick don't get a big head on this. What am I talking about? Here is something very interesting from Dick Eastman's newsletter at http://www.eogn.com/. If you like free, you will definitely like this.

This must be the best-kept secret in genealogy! Well, it isn't really a secret as it is documented on several web pages on FamilySearch.org. However, in my travels, I have never met anyone who has used this valuable service. In fact, most of the genealogists I have talked with have never heard of FamilySearch's free lookup service. This surprises me because (1.) it is a chance to easily obtain valuable genealogy information from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and (2.) because it is available free of charge.


FamilySearch provides a free lookup service for genealogy books and microfilms that are available at the renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The free service does ask you to supply specific information. The folks in Salt Lake City are not prepared to answer questions of, "Please send me all the information you have about my great-grandfather (insert name here)."  However, if you can specify a book and page number, or a specific image on a reel of microfilm, the personnel at the Family History Library will gladly look at that page or image and (in most cases) scan the entire page and email it to you for free.

What's not to like about this service?
You do need to do a bit of homework before using this service. At a minimum, you must provide:

1. The name of the individual as it appears in the book.
2. The book title
3. The page number(s)

Next, check the Family History Library Catalog at https://familysearch.org/catalog-search to see if that book is available in the Family History Library's collection. If so, make a note of the Call Number.

Once you have the required information, fill out the online Photoduplication Request form at https://lds.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9tdS7lqbTCW30kR.

Assuming you supplied enough information for the Family History Library employee to find the book, you will receive the reply and (usually) a scanned image of the page within a few days.

So how do you find the page number of a book that contains information about your ancestor? I suspect there are several ways but I would always start with Google Books at http://books.google.com. You can find tens of thousands of genealogy books there along with a few million other books covering a wide variety of topics. I would search for the name of the person I seek to see if anything about him or her has been published in a book.

Comment: As a genealogist, you really should be familiar with Google Books as it is another free and valuable service. If you are not yet familiar with Google Books, this is a good time to learn!

Keep in mind that Google Books scans ALL the pages of all the books it digitizes. That includes books both in and out of copyright. For books that are obviously out of copyright (normally anything prior to 1923 for U.S. publications), Google Books will display the entire page to you. For books out of copyright, you won't need to use the FamilySearch Free Lookup Service as the same image is already available to you on Google Books.

However, for books printed in the past 90 years, Google cannot legally display entire pages to you without the author and/or publisher's permission. Instead, Google displays only a snippet from that page. Typically, you only see a paragraph or two, showing the words immediately before and after the name you specified. If that snippet happens to contain all the information you need, consider yourself lucky. However, my experience has been that the snippet is only a "teaser" and does not display everything I need.

What do you do if you want to see the entire page, or several pages from the book? The answer is to use FamilySearch’s free lookup service. Assuming the Family History Library does have the book and the information you supplied does point to the appropriate page, an image of the entire page will be sent to you in email. I am no lawyer but I believe U.S. copyright laws allow libraries to look up information for patrons upon request and send limited photocopies or scanned images whereas Google and other providers of information cannot legally supply similar images in large quantities to everyone.

You may never need to use the FamilySearch free lookup service. However, if you do have the need, this is a valuable service that is free. You don't need to fly to Salt Lake City to obtain what you need.

If you wish to use the FamilySearch free lookup service, I would urge you to first read Nathan W. Murphy's description on the FamilySearch Blog of how it all works at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/google-books-free-copies-pages-family-history-library-books/. Nathan even supplies screenshots showing the step-by-step process of using Google Books to find snippets of genealogy information.

UPDATE: By Nathan W. Murphy of the Family History Library: "GOOD NEWS -- you can now use this service up to five times a week. The previous limit had been five times a month."

Prowling the Harshaw Chapel Cemetery in Murphy NC

Gayle and I spent the early afternoon prowling the Harshaw Chapel Cemetery in Murphy. Beautiful Fall day to look for tombstones.

 

 

I love the Fall and all the color that the Lord provides.

 

DAR to accept Y-DNA evidence!

According to a post on the NSDAR President General's Today's DAR blog, beginning January 1, 2014, the NSDAR will accept Y-DNA evidence in support of new member applications and supplemental applications. DNA evidence submitted along with other documentation will be considered along with all of the other source documentation provided to prove heritage. Y-DNA will not be considered as stand-alone proof of lineage because while it can be used as a tool point to a family, it cannot be used as absolute proof for an individual.

See the following webpage for the full statement from the President General's official blog of the DAR. http://youngblog.dar.org/dna-evidence-dar-applications-and-supplementals

As soon as I see more on how this fits in with the rest of their proof structure, I will post additional information on this blog.

It is my opinion that this is a very important step forward in genealogy research. I have stated in the past that "every" genealogist should at least take an autosomal DNA test. You need to consider this test a unique genealogical record that only you can create. It is a record that will last for generations and help future researchers untangle all of your family lines. The more people who test, the more we all will be able to lock down and prove scientifically all our paper trail lines. Like the computer was to genealogy, in the future, so will DNA testing.

So it is great that such a nationally recognized lineage society, such as the NSDAR, recognize the new frontier of DNA testing. Now I hope we won't have to wait long to see autosomal DNA testing as part of the proof structure in lineage genealogy research.

More on this very soon de Larry.

Three Ways to Celebrate National Family History Month

Some of my relatives at the String Prairie, Bastrop County, Texas, Post Office. Love those floppy hats. And check out those dudes on horseback. Must have been one heck of a celebration. If you know the story of this photo, contact me at the email address in the masthead.

October is National Family History Month, a perfect time to discover your roots, learn something new, or gather photos and other memories to create that special project you’ve been meaning to work on. Here are three great ways you can make the most of this month to celebrate and share your family’s story courtesy of Lisa A. Alzo.

See more at: http://www.reelgenie.com/blog/3-ways-celebrate-national-family-history-month/#sthash.rnWQPLBU.dpuf