THE ENDLESS SUMMER OF A GENEALOGICAL MIND

I've never been a cold weather guy. Weather-wise, I take after my Mom's
Irish roots. I'd rather be dry and warm inside than outside schlepping around
in the cold and snow. I'm sure my Dad's hardy Maine forefathers are all
shaking their heads in dismay in the great hereafter over their wussy
descendant. That's okay by me; they don't' have to drive on icy roads any
more so they can be as judgmental as they want and we'll hash it out when
I join them.

So it should come as no surprise that the warmer seasons have become my
more active ones genealogically speaking. To be honest, this is a recent
development.. I've worked full time most of my life and didn't really spend much
time on my family tree until about five years ago. But recent events have left
me with a lot more time on my hands, and I've made use of it. I started getting out
taking pictures of headstones at local cemeteries last Fall and continued with
that this Spring once the snow melted. In the process I discovered the graves of
distant cousins, descendants of the sisters and brothers who stayed behind down
here in Plymouth County when my own ancestors moved north to New Hampshire
and Maine two centuries ago.

I recently became a member of Find A Grave and have had some success fulfilling
photo requests of other members. It's a good way to get myself out of my chair and
outside moving about more, and I'm slowly gaining a better knowledge of the local
cemeteries and histories of the towns.  I also started photographing all the graves in
Mt Vernon Cemetery here in Abington, some of which are three hundred years old.
When I'm done there, I'll move on to another cemetery. There's so many older
gravestones that have deteriorated so badly they can't be read, so preserving a
record of the ones still readable is a goal.

There's other things I'm planning to do this summer: attending the Ellingwood
Family Reunion and the New England Geneablogger's Bash in August, trips into
Boston and to Billerica to find out more about my grandfather Edward F White
Sr.'s family, research  trips into the NEHGS and The Mass. State Archives, and
visiting the genealogy room of the Dyer Memorial Library right here in Abington.   

It's Summertime for my genealogical research as a whole. I keep discovering new
information online and adding collateral branches to my family tree. I'm one of
those lucky New Englanders blessed (on my Dad's side) with prolific ancestors so
I'm not in danger of running out of cousins for awhile yet. And because I live in New
England there's also plenty of history to explore as well. So genealogywise, it's an
endless Summer for me.

To use a typical New England expression, I'm as happy as a clam!

A GENTLE CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY REMINDER:

I'll be hosting the next edition of the CoG for Jasia here at West in New
England and this is the call for submissions for it:

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of 
Genealogy will be: the seasons of genealogy. Do you spend more time 
on genealogy research in the summer or in the winter, or maybe spring 
or fall? How does the amount of time you put into research and blogging 
differ from season to season? Or perhaps you'd like to think of things 
metaphorically... which season is your genealogy research in? Write up 
your thoughts and observations and submit your articles to the next 
edition of the COG.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy 
using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the 
title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/
introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival
submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written
about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts 
and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.


I have my post written up already...in my head.  Now I need to get it
onto my blog!

How about YOU?  Send your post to the blog carnival submissions page
or send your link right to me as a comment to this or as an email to the
email address at the upper right of my page.

I look forward to reading what your seasons of genealogy are!

PAYING FOR PAST GENEALOGICAL SINS

Back when I first discovered online genealogy, I downloaded the free PAF
program from FamilySearch at the suggestion of my late friend Diana Probus
and entered all the information that my Aunt Dorothy had sent my Dad. Then
I entered information from Florence O'Connor's book about the Ellingwood
branch of my family.

And then I made a mistake. I name-gathered.  Here was all this information
on FamilySearch that went back centuries that I would never have found so
quickly on my own!  So I downloaded gedcom after gedcom into my tree.
To make matters worse, because I'm not the brightest of people at times, I
ended up sometimes importing a gedcom several times. Now I had multiple
entries for people on my tree,

 I compounded my mistakes by uploading the tree to Ancestry. Now the
information from Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Florence as well as a Barker
family genealogy a Barker cousin had sent me gave me a solid foundation
to start with and I've been adding citations and sources to that as time and
energy allowed. And as time went on and I became wiser in the ways of
the Genea-force, I checked and double-checked anything else I might add
to that foundation. Eventually I switched to RootsMagic as my primary
hard drive genealogy program and used the merge functions on it and on
PAF to clean up the duplicates.

But there is no merge function on Ancestry.com(at least as far as I know).
I could delete my present Ancestry tree there and upload what I've cleaned up 
so far but I'm afraid I'd lose all the citations and document images I've found.
So I am using a more laborious method: first, I"d capitalized all the surnames on
my tree when I originally uploaded it . Now I started working backwards from
myself on each individual. I go into their "View Profile" page, check the information,
check and add any documents Ancestor might have that I don't already have
attached to the individual, then click on "Edit this person" and adjust the surname
from the all caps. Then I search for the same person's name in the "Find a person
in this tree" search box and then delete any duplicates with capitalized surnames
who match the individual I just corrected.

It's a long process given the number of names on my tree and it's why I haven't
been blogging as frequently as I normally have in the past. Think of it as the
genealogical equivalent of Bart Simpson at the chalkboard.

Only this time, he's writing:
"I will not name-gather"
"I will not name-gather"

"I will not name-gather"
"I will not name-gather"

"I will not name-gather".....

ASA ELLINGWOOD'S PENSION FILE PT10

The next witness was his cousin Oliver Pratt. On the affidavit he
says "his age is 64 years. P.O. address West Paris Me. Occupation carriage
maker by trade and painter."
Q: How long have you known the claiman Asa F. Ellingwood
A: Ever since we was a little boy

Q: Did you ever work with him
A: Yes sir from 1853 to 1860 we worked for a chair mfg. co. and he did the
lifting part of the work

Q: What was his physical condition  when you and he worked together
A: I don't know and never knew but what he was an able bodied man.

Q: Did you ever hear him complain of any disease or pains prior to his
enlistment
A: I don't remember ever hearing complain at all

Q: Did you ever see him naked prior to his enlistment
A: Yes sir once we went in swimming but I was not near him

Q: Did you ever see him in the service
A: No

Q: Have you seen him often since the war
A: No sir

Q: Do you know for what he claims a pension
A: No sir

Q: Have you any knowledge what has been the trouble with him since
the war
A: No sir

Q: Have you any interest directly or indirectly in the prosecution of said
claim
A: No nor prejudice.

This concluded Oliver Pratt's testimony.

To be continued.

  

ASA ELLINGWOOD'S PENSION FILE PT9

In my last post in this series on my 2xgreat grandfather Asa Freeman
Ellingwood's Civil War Pension file, I talked about the revelation in the
testimony of his cousin James Barrows that he(Barrows) had testified
before in the case and in fact there were two previous afidavits!  When
I checked the testimony of several other witnesses on Asa's behalf, I found
they had also testified on earlier occasions.

So how did I miss that?

Simple. I didn't look to see if the documents from NARA were in chronological
order. Each page was numbered so I went with the order in which they were
numbered assuming they were chronological.

Yeah, I know. I can dream, can't I?
Then I made a second assumption, that the transcripts of the hearings in April of
1884 must have been for the original pension claim. Once I read in James Barrows'
testimony that he had made previous statements, I looked at some of the other
documents. There were at least three other earlier occasions when some witness
or another had testified, in the years 1877, 1879, and 1881,  

Now I know Asa got his pension, his file has a certificate number. So what is
going on here?

Apparently, Asa's pension was granted originally because of his kidney disease,
but afterwards he filed for additional benefits based on the fact of his rupture. 
This is why Special Examiner F E Lawton has so  many questions about Asa's
physical condition before and after the war,

You'll have to keep reading to find out if Asa was successful!

THE FIRST ANNUAL NEW ENGLAND GENEABLOGGERS BASH!

For the past few years many of us on the east coast and New England have
have wistfully read about the SCGS Jamboree and especially the gathering
of our fellow geneabloggers. Many of us can never make the trip out to
Southern California so we read about Jamboree with lust in our hearts.
Why, oh why, couldn't there be something like that meeting of bloggers
closer to home?

*SIGH*
Then Barbara Poole asked whether anyone was interested in a New England
genealblogger get-together. Heather WIlkinson Rojo answered with another
question: "Why not?" and volunteered to host everyone.

So on Saturday, August 27th she is hosting the 1st Annual New England
Geneabloggers Bash in Londonderry, It'll start at 12 noon, run until 6pm, and
will be an informal picnic/cookout style event. Geneabloggers living in New England
or who research in New England are invited to attend and bring along some
family tradition picnic food.

You can find more information as it develops at the New England Geneabloggers
Bash page on Facebook, and on this and other blogs.

Lucie Leblanc Consentino did a great job designing the logo for the event using a
photo Barbara Poole had of a typical New England scene. Feel free to grab it to
display on your blog.(please remember to credit it to them if you do). Thanks Lucie
and Barbara.

So watch out, geneablogger world! The New Englanders are coming!

SNGF TWO TRUTHS & A LIE: THE ANSWER

So here's the answer to my "Two Truths and a Lie" for Randy Seaver's
"Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" at Genea-Musings.


#3   I had a relative drowned at sea. TRUE
My 9x great grandfather Stephen Greenleaf drowned on1Dec 1690 near
Cape Breton  while returning from the Phipps Expedition against Quebec. I
blogged about it here exactly two years ago on 11Jun 2009.

#2  I had a relative killed in an earthquake. TRUE
My 7x great granduncle Ralph Houghton died during the sinking of Port
Royal, Jamaica harbor in 1692. His wife escaped by clinging to a trunk of clothes.
You can read about it here in New-England historical and genealogical register, 
Volume 19 page 122.

#1 I had a relative wounded at the Battle of Concord, Ma. LIE
While I had many ancestors and relatives respond to the alarm that April
morning in 1775, none of them were wounded at Lexington, or Concord, Ma!

Ironically, Randy was the only person with the correct answer.
Thanks Randy for a fun SNGF challenge!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: GENEABLOGGERS PAJAMA PARTY

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge over at Randy Seaver's
Genea-Musings blog is inspired by a Geneabloggers' PJ Party being held at the
Southern California Genealogy Society's Jamboree:

Tonight at Jamboree is the Geneabloggers Pajama Party, and everyone knows
that fun folks play games at their pajama parties.  So, for SNGF tonight:

1)  Play "two truths and a lie."  Tell us three facts about your family history -- 
two have to be true and one has to be a lie.

2)  Put them on your own blog post, in a Facebook status or in a comment
on this blog.  Ask readers to guess which one is a lie.

3)  After one day, be sure to put the right answer as a comment to your blog.
 or Facebook status.

Ok,  then readers, riddle me this: Which is my lie?

1. I had a relative wounded at the Battle of Concord, Ma.


2. I had a relative killed in an earthquake.

3. I had a relative drowned at sea.

So, Randy and the rest of you out in California, which two are the truth, and
which the lie?

Answer tomorrow.

INFERENTIAL GENEALOGY: THE BLOG ATE MY HOMEWORK!

Well, not really. Actually, in this case, this blogpost IS the homework!

I'm taking part in an Inferential Genealogy Study Group over on Second
Life. It's based on an free online course from Dr Thomas W Jones over
at FamilySearch that you can view here. The Second Life group is being
led by none other than DearMyrt who in Second Life is known as
Clarisse Beaumont. 

As I understand it so far, Inferential Genealogy is the process where you
piece together different sources of information to arrive at a conclusion
when you don't have a definitive document to help you. (Although I think
I'd search for those other sources anyway even if I do have one.). The
steps to the process are:

1. Establish a Focused Goal: Who was someone's parents, for example.

2.Conduct a Broad Search: Remember to check a wide area and time
period. Check documents for the subjects parents or children, and include
documents that might involve family and friends.

3.Understand the Records: What are their purpose. These include wills, deeds
and court records.

4. Correlate the Evidence: Take all the information you've gathered and put it
together. If there is conflicting points, try to resolve that conflict.

5. Write Your Results: Make sure they are clear, correct,and don't pass on
   incorrect information.

So far I haven't done any genealogy research using all these steps. I have yet
to search through wills and deeds other than those I've already found on the
internet. Now that I have more time on my hands I'm planning to remedy
that with visits to the various places that are nearby where my ancestors once
lived. Some of the places thatg are further away, like Western Maine, might
have to wait a bit. If I had to pick a case where I used some of the steps it
would be the one  I blogged about in "DIGGING UP ALEXANDER 
AUGUSTUS BARKER"

I am really enjoying this course and plan to put it to good use in my research.
But it's hard trying not to "read ahead"!

THIS IS THE FACE OF GENEALOGY

My grandmother Agnes McFarland

My paternal 2x greatgrandparents Amos H Barker and Betsey Jane Moore and family

My grandfather Floyd E West Sr

I repost these pictures in response to the picture that the LA Weekly website used
to illustrate a calendar event notice on the upcoming 42nd annual Southern
California Genealogical Society Jamboree. Someone at LA Weekly thought it
would be funny to use a photo of two special needs kids with the caption:
"Inbreeding: Still thinking about your hot cousin?".

I sent LA Weekly the following email:

Sir or Ma'am
I find the graphic used in conjunction with your event page for the 42 Annual
Genealogy Convention highly offensive, not only to genealogists
but to special needs children as well. I don't know what infantile
wit thought this was funny but they need a serious attitude readjustment.
Shame on you all.


Bill West 

You can view the page in question here, and if you find it as vile and
offensive as I do, please let the editor of the LA Weekly know by sending
an email to
http://www.laweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters 

ASA ELLINGWOOD'S PENSION FILE PT8

The next person to testify in Asa Ellingwood's pension claim case was his
cousin James Barrows.
According to the statement,  James "says  his age  52 years, P.O. address
 West Paris, Maine occupation  mfg of chairs

Q: How long have you known the claimant Asa F.Ellingwood
A: Ever since 1850

Q: Did you work with him at that time
A: I worked with him from 1850 to 1860

Q: What was his physical condition in those years
A: I considered him sound

Q: Have you personal knowledge that he was not sound
A: None other than I could gain from acquaintance with him

Q: Did you ever know of him being sick or complaining of any disease prior
   to 1860
A: Not to my knowledge

Q: Did you ever see him in a (illegible) state
A: Yes sir every summer before 1860 we were in the habit of bathing together

Q: Did you ever notice any ruptures while you were bathing together
A: No sir and if he had have had any I think I should have known of it.

Q:Did you see Asa F Ellingwood in the service
A: No sir

Q: When did you next see said Ellingwood after he enlisted in to the service
A: I saw him the day that he came home

Q: What was his physical condition at the time that he came home
A: He was looking rather bad

Q: What was the trouble with him
A: I don't know the nature of the disability

Q: Did you ever know of him being ruptured
A:  I may but I have forgotten it if I did

Q:  Do you know what disability he has suffered from since his discharge
from the service
A: I don't

Q: Have you ever testified in this claim before today
A: I think I have

Q: Are these two affidavits now show you signed by you
A: I should say they were

Q: How is it you state in on of said affidavits he had kidney disease
when he came home from the service and today you say you don't
know what disease he has had
A: I recollect now that he had kidney disease since I have now my old affidavit

Q: Do you have any interest directly or indirectly on said claim.
A: No sir.

The introduction of two previous statements surprised  me and had me
rummaging through the other pages of the Pension File images. I'll
discuss what I found in the next installment of this series.  

THE 106TH EDITION OF THE CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY IS OUT!

Well, it's almost Summer, and that means another Swimsuit Edition of the
Carnival of Genealogy over at Jasia's Creative Genealogy. This is the
fourth one and nineteen geneabloggers have contributed great posts full
of family history and photographs.

I'll be hosting the next edition of the CoG for Jasia here at West in New
England and here's the call for submissions for it:

Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of 
Genealogy will be: the seasons of genealogy. Do you spend more time 
on genealogy research in the summer or in the winter, or maybe spring 
or fall? How does the amount of time you put into research and blogging 
differ from season to season? Or perhaps you'd like to think of things 
metaphorically... which season is your genealogy research in? Write up 
your thoughts and observations and submit your articles to the next 
edition of the COG.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy 
using our carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the 
title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/
introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blog carnival
submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written
about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link. Past posts 
and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

 I know there are going to be some interesting blogposts on this one!

TO WEST COUSIN MARKR

Mark, could you please contact me when you read this? I have a question
for you concerning our ancestor John Cutter West

Thanks!.