1. I like putting folks up on MyHeritage (and synced with Family Tree Builder), but I've no luck yet with matching anyone else with Smart Matches on my Smith line. I may find that some of my other lines will have better luck in that area.
2. I have a number of people to contact on Ancestry regarding my Smith line (at least one is someone I've been in some contact with for years), but I'm worried that most of them have simply copied their data from others, so it will be difficult to track down the originator. The hints to sources were generally useful.
3. I don't think I'll go forward with Geni.com at this point, considering that there are free alternatives.
4. WeRelate and WikiTree were ok, but I probably won't see greater value until I am looking at my oldest lines.
5. The FamilySearch tree has been interesting. I discovered some new sources for my Smiths, or sources that I didn't know had been indexed online, but I probably won't face having to untangle some mismatches until I get to my Bodie line (which won't be for a little while). I enjoyed the process of looking for matches, choosing whether or not to merge them, and basically cleaning up some oddities (I found one of my set of direct Irish ancestors, not in the Smith line, that had been entered using Italian first names! Very strange!).
Now on to my Mom's direct line, the Martins. A very different geography from my Smiths.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Smith - Unified Trees
It's time to look at the options for unified trees. I'll save the RootsMagic/FamilySearch sync for last.
First, Geni.com. I entered my Smiths, and when I got to great-great-grandfather James Smith, I was told that there were 40 possible matches. I then entered additional data (a date and location of death), and the number dropped to 20. However, in order to see those, I would need to be a Geni member. So I'll hold off on that for another future date.
Next up, WeRelate. I first searched for each of my Smiths to see if they were already there. None appeared to match, so I began the process of adding them. It took me a few minutes to master the system of adding pages to the wiki structure, but eventually I was able to add my Smith line and come to a reasonable conclusion that these individuals were not already in the WeRelate tree.
I next went to WikiTree, where I had some time ago entered my own name, my father's, and my grandfather's. I now focused on adding Charles Henry Smith and James Smith. First, I searched for Charles Henry Smith (basically, anyone with a real birth year within 2 years of my great-grandfather), and there were no matches that would have been him. I did the same for James Smith, and again, didn't see any obvious matches.
Finally, I created a new, empty tree in RootsMagic, and then downloaded 10 generations from my tree in FamilySearch. There was an error message at one point, but it appears that it successfully pulled down a copy of my tree. I went back to the tree on FamilySearch that I had worked with previously, where I had entered all of the direct-line Smiths, and had processed possible duplicates. That left my immigrant ancestor, James Smith, with 15 possible duplicates. So my remaining task before I leave the Smiths is to work down that list and merge my James Smith with duplicate men. Update: I reviewed all the possible matches and determined that conflicting information or insufficient information could not justify any matches.
First, Geni.com. I entered my Smiths, and when I got to great-great-grandfather James Smith, I was told that there were 40 possible matches. I then entered additional data (a date and location of death), and the number dropped to 20. However, in order to see those, I would need to be a Geni member. So I'll hold off on that for another future date.
Next up, WeRelate. I first searched for each of my Smiths to see if they were already there. None appeared to match, so I began the process of adding them. It took me a few minutes to master the system of adding pages to the wiki structure, but eventually I was able to add my Smith line and come to a reasonable conclusion that these individuals were not already in the WeRelate tree.
I next went to WikiTree, where I had some time ago entered my own name, my father's, and my grandfather's. I now focused on adding Charles Henry Smith and James Smith. First, I searched for Charles Henry Smith (basically, anyone with a real birth year within 2 years of my great-grandfather), and there were no matches that would have been him. I did the same for James Smith, and again, didn't see any obvious matches.
Finally, I created a new, empty tree in RootsMagic, and then downloaded 10 generations from my tree in FamilySearch. There was an error message at one point, but it appears that it successfully pulled down a copy of my tree. I went back to the tree on FamilySearch that I had worked with previously, where I had entered all of the direct-line Smiths, and had processed possible duplicates. That left my immigrant ancestor, James Smith, with 15 possible duplicates. So my remaining task before I leave the Smiths is to work down that list and merge my James Smith with duplicate men. Update: I reviewed all the possible matches and determined that conflicting information or insufficient information could not justify any matches.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Smith - Personal Trees
It seems appropriate to begin the experiment with my Smith line, since here we are the day before St. Patrick's Day, and my immigrant Smith ancestor was from Ireland. I've previously written about these Smiths just last August.
So we begin with the personal trees. I entered my known Smith line into MyHeritage, and synced it with my copy of Family Tree Builder 7. So far, I'm the only one who has viewed my MyHeritage tree, and I don't yet have any Smart Matches™.
Then I turned my attention to Ancestry.com (with the intent to sync to Family Tree Maker 3 for Mac). While entering the data for my father, George Thomas Smith, I saw two public trees that gave an incorrect county name for his death. So I have emailed the two people who had the incorrect data (I assume that one got it from the other). As I reviewed the hints for Dad, I saw one referring to an obituary. But the name of the paper listed at the top of Ancestry's screen was incorrect. The obituary was clearly from the Greenville (SC) News, not from a newspaper in Massachusetts. How odd!
Adding my grandfather, William Henry Smith, resulted in 6 hints from public trees. These all had information that I already had, but I left them for now as people I might want to contact. As I reviewed the other hints, I saw the one for him in the 1910 census. Interestingly enough, it had an incorrect middle initial for him (L instead of H), but it was clearly the right family.
With great-grandfather Charles Henry Smith, there were 9 hints. One was for a hint from 10 public trees. Again, I left these for a later date (one had what appeared to be an incorrect mother's name). One of the things that I noticed is that the baptisms for the Irish Catholic church in Newark had been added to Ancestry, which I had previously viewed on microfilm some years ago when I was at the Family History Library.
Finally, I added James Smith, but so far, no hints were forthcoming. UPDATE: 2 hints were eventually suggested. One was the usual from public trees (I won't bother mentioning those in the future). The other was a New Jersey death and burial index, which actually gave a more precise date for the death of James (15 November instead of just November). I then went over to FamilySearch to see the records on that. I may have to find out if I can get a source for that particular date beyond the indexed film.
Having added all my known Smiths in the direct line, I then downloaded the Ancestry.com to Family Tree Maker and linked it. So far, no particular problems.
It is time to move to the unified tree options.
So we begin with the personal trees. I entered my known Smith line into MyHeritage, and synced it with my copy of Family Tree Builder 7. So far, I'm the only one who has viewed my MyHeritage tree, and I don't yet have any Smart Matches™.
Then I turned my attention to Ancestry.com (with the intent to sync to Family Tree Maker 3 for Mac). While entering the data for my father, George Thomas Smith, I saw two public trees that gave an incorrect county name for his death. So I have emailed the two people who had the incorrect data (I assume that one got it from the other). As I reviewed the hints for Dad, I saw one referring to an obituary. But the name of the paper listed at the top of Ancestry's screen was incorrect. The obituary was clearly from the Greenville (SC) News, not from a newspaper in Massachusetts. How odd!
Adding my grandfather, William Henry Smith, resulted in 6 hints from public trees. These all had information that I already had, but I left them for now as people I might want to contact. As I reviewed the other hints, I saw the one for him in the 1910 census. Interestingly enough, it had an incorrect middle initial for him (L instead of H), but it was clearly the right family.
With great-grandfather Charles Henry Smith, there were 9 hints. One was for a hint from 10 public trees. Again, I left these for a later date (one had what appeared to be an incorrect mother's name). One of the things that I noticed is that the baptisms for the Irish Catholic church in Newark had been added to Ancestry, which I had previously viewed on microfilm some years ago when I was at the Family History Library.
Finally, I added James Smith, but so far, no hints were forthcoming. UPDATE: 2 hints were eventually suggested. One was the usual from public trees (I won't bother mentioning those in the future). The other was a New Jersey death and burial index, which actually gave a more precise date for the death of James (15 November instead of just November). I then went over to FamilySearch to see the records on that. I may have to find out if I can get a source for that particular date beyond the indexed film.
Having added all my known Smiths in the direct line, I then downloaded the Ancestry.com to Family Tree Maker and linked it. So far, no particular problems.
It is time to move to the unified tree options.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Summary of the experimental tools and process
Although this repeats some content from the previous posting, it is worth summarizing the tools I plan to use to run this experiment. They are:
Personal trees:
I also plan to focus on one surname at a time, in Ahnentafel number order.
Personal trees:
- Family Tree Builder 7.0 (running on a Mac under CrossOver), synced with MyHeritage
- Family Tree Maker 3 for Mac, synced with Ancestry.com (public tree)
- RootsMagic 6 (running on a Mac under CrossOver), synced with FamilySearch Family Tree
- Geni.com
- WeRelate
- WikiTree
I also plan to focus on one surname at a time, in Ahnentafel number order.
A genealogy experiment involving public trees
In the past few years I've read numerous debates on the topic of whether one should have one's genealogical tree available to others as a public tree, or hidden away (discoverable only in the sense that it exists but one does not share the details in a public manner) as a private tree.
As with many debates, it is not either/or, since one can have both. This would make sense if one considers the public tree to represent research work that you feel is sufficiently sourced and argued, while the private tree represents a work in progress that is not quite ready for prime time. In any event, this posting, and the related postings that will follow, are not really about that particular debate. If anything, these postings will be about a very different debate, namely, the experience of having a personal tree (a standalone tree that either you alone can edit, or only a limited number of people chosen by you can edit), or of participating in a unified tree (a single, shared tree that can be edited by anyone in the world, much like a typical wiki).
Before it became reality, I made some predictions on the Genealogy Guys Podcast that it was only a matter of time before we saw a company link its online trees (providing access to others) with desktop-based software (personal editing). Ancestry.com was in a position to do this since it had both its website for hosting trees and its Family Tree Maker software for desktop editing. In 2013, FamilySearch certified a number of software programs for synchronizing data with the tree on FamilySearch, including one that I was already using, RootsMagic (on a Mac under CrossOver). MyHeritage is now offering this via a sync to its Family Tree Builder software. [Note: Is anyone successfully running Family Tree Builder under CrossOver?]
In addition to the personal trees on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage, and the unified tree on FamilySearch, there are other sites that provide for unified trees. Geni.com (owned by MyHeritage since November 2012) provides such a tree, so there you have an example of a company providing both options. WeRelate (at werelate.org) hosts a unified tree using a wiki model, as does WikiTree (at wikitree.com).
Which brings us to the experiment: What would happen if I began to enter my direct ancestral lines, fully sourced, into each online tree? Who (if anyone) would contact me? Whose other trees would I encounter in the unified model, and how would we resolve conflicts? And how can I actually do this experiment in an orderly fashion so that it doesn't get too crazy?
Stay tuned.
As with many debates, it is not either/or, since one can have both. This would make sense if one considers the public tree to represent research work that you feel is sufficiently sourced and argued, while the private tree represents a work in progress that is not quite ready for prime time. In any event, this posting, and the related postings that will follow, are not really about that particular debate. If anything, these postings will be about a very different debate, namely, the experience of having a personal tree (a standalone tree that either you alone can edit, or only a limited number of people chosen by you can edit), or of participating in a unified tree (a single, shared tree that can be edited by anyone in the world, much like a typical wiki).
Before it became reality, I made some predictions on the Genealogy Guys Podcast that it was only a matter of time before we saw a company link its online trees (providing access to others) with desktop-based software (personal editing). Ancestry.com was in a position to do this since it had both its website for hosting trees and its Family Tree Maker software for desktop editing. In 2013, FamilySearch certified a number of software programs for synchronizing data with the tree on FamilySearch, including one that I was already using, RootsMagic (on a Mac under CrossOver). MyHeritage is now offering this via a sync to its Family Tree Builder software. [Note: Is anyone successfully running Family Tree Builder under CrossOver?]
In addition to the personal trees on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage, and the unified tree on FamilySearch, there are other sites that provide for unified trees. Geni.com (owned by MyHeritage since November 2012) provides such a tree, so there you have an example of a company providing both options. WeRelate (at werelate.org) hosts a unified tree using a wiki model, as does WikiTree (at wikitree.com).
Which brings us to the experiment: What would happen if I began to enter my direct ancestral lines, fully sourced, into each online tree? Who (if anyone) would contact me? Whose other trees would I encounter in the unified model, and how would we resolve conflicts? And how can I actually do this experiment in an orderly fashion so that it doesn't get too crazy?
Stay tuned.
Sunday, September 01, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Smith
There are a lot of different ways to document one's ancestry in a blog. One way is to dedicate each posting to a different surname, starting with the most recent generations and working backwards in time.
In this posting, I'm documenting what I know about my direct Smith ancestry. Much of it comes from personal knowledge, then census records, christening and marriage records, and newspapers.
My father was George Thomas Smith, born 8 November 1917 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 3 November 1999 in Richland County, South Carolina, and is buried in Newberry Memorial Gardens in Newberry County, South Carolina. Apart from the time that he was stationed at various locations during World War II, Dad lived his life before 1960 in Essex County, New Jersey (primarily Newark before the war and in East Orange after the war). He married my mother, Altha Corinne Martin, on 31 January 1943 in Newberry, Newberry County, South Carolina, at Epting Memorial Methodist Church. He moved the family (Mom, my brother Jeff, and me) from East Orange to Newberry in early 1960, and he lived the rest of his life there. He graduated from East Side High School (Technical track) in Newark in 1936. He originally worked for Reynolds Metals prior to 1960, learned from the RCA Training Institute (funded by the GI Bill) how to repair radios and televisions, and then set up his own radio/TV repair business in Newberry which he continued until his retirement. He was originally raised Catholic but attended Methodist churches after his marriage.
My grandfather was William Henry Smith, born 21 September 1889 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 9 February 1961 in Irvington, Essex County, New Jersey, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Essex County, New Jersey. He married my grandmother Rachel Weinglass on 19 July 1911.
My great-grandfather was Charles Henry Smith, born 30 May 1859 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 22 April 1906, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Essex County, New Jersey. He married my great-grandmother Mary Ann Bannon on 4 January 1880 in Newark. He was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Newark-based M.A. Smith Glass Bending and Beveling Company, later known as the American Glass Bending and Beveling Company.
My great-great-grandfather was James Smith born about 1825 in Ireland and died November 1872 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. His burial location is unknown. His jobs included being a "boss carpenter" and working in a zinc works. The county of his birth is unknown, although at least one newspaper article claims that he was from County Mayo in Ireland. He married my great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Reilly, in 1850 in Newark.
At this point, my biggest Smith brick walls are:
In this posting, I'm documenting what I know about my direct Smith ancestry. Much of it comes from personal knowledge, then census records, christening and marriage records, and newspapers.
My father was George Thomas Smith, born 8 November 1917 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 3 November 1999 in Richland County, South Carolina, and is buried in Newberry Memorial Gardens in Newberry County, South Carolina. Apart from the time that he was stationed at various locations during World War II, Dad lived his life before 1960 in Essex County, New Jersey (primarily Newark before the war and in East Orange after the war). He married my mother, Altha Corinne Martin, on 31 January 1943 in Newberry, Newberry County, South Carolina, at Epting Memorial Methodist Church. He moved the family (Mom, my brother Jeff, and me) from East Orange to Newberry in early 1960, and he lived the rest of his life there. He graduated from East Side High School (Technical track) in Newark in 1936. He originally worked for Reynolds Metals prior to 1960, learned from the RCA Training Institute (funded by the GI Bill) how to repair radios and televisions, and then set up his own radio/TV repair business in Newberry which he continued until his retirement. He was originally raised Catholic but attended Methodist churches after his marriage.
My grandfather was William Henry Smith, born 21 September 1889 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 9 February 1961 in Irvington, Essex County, New Jersey, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Essex County, New Jersey. He married my grandmother Rachel Weinglass on 19 July 1911.
My great-grandfather was Charles Henry Smith, born 30 May 1859 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, died 22 April 1906, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Essex County, New Jersey. He married my great-grandmother Mary Ann Bannon on 4 January 1880 in Newark. He was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Newark-based M.A. Smith Glass Bending and Beveling Company, later known as the American Glass Bending and Beveling Company.
My great-great-grandfather was James Smith born about 1825 in Ireland and died November 1872 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. His burial location is unknown. His jobs included being a "boss carpenter" and working in a zinc works. The county of his birth is unknown, although at least one newspaper article claims that he was from County Mayo in Ireland. He married my great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Reilly, in 1850 in Newark.
At this point, my biggest Smith brick walls are:
- Where is James Smith buried?
- Where in Ireland is he from?
- Who were his parents?
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