Author Archives: Dave Robison

About Dave Robison

Professional Genealogist with more than 15 years experience. Currently engaging in lectures, instructional classes from introductory to advanced level research and contract client research. A Mayflower descendant and a pending member of the Sons of the American Revolution with more than 18 direct Revolutionary War Patriots.

Introduction to Genealogy—Becoming a Genealogy Detective!

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Anyone near Wilbraham, MA tonight is welcome to stop at the Wilbraham Public Library tonight.  It’s the 3rd in a 4 part series “Introduction to Genealogy”.  Each week there have been more and more participants so feel free to call the library at 413-596-6141 to make sure there’ll be room!  Based on the popularity, I can see that there just might be some future programs.  The last in this series will be held February 11th where we’ll work on individual pedigree charts and whatever other subjects may come up.

This series is “sponsored” by the Western Massachusetts Genealogy Society (WMGS) in an effort to help people who are interested in family research and encourage them to take part in courses such as these and introduce them to WMGS.  Annual membership is only $20 and includes 10 monthly meetings held locally.

Over the full 4 sessions, we cover the basics of research, web sites (free and low-cost), definitions (soundex, vital records, etc), specific resources, naturalization, immigration, Ellis Island, name changes, spelling variations and “myth busting”!

Hopefully, some of you can make it tonight!  See you there.

Boston University: Genealogy Research Course On-Line

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Today I begin a 16 week on-line course with Boston University to refine my genealogical research skills and, hopefully, learn, learn, learn! I hope that it pays off, mostly in the content that I’ll be able to present in the courses and classes that I’ve been conducting! Wish me luck!!

Lest We Forget for January 7, 1913

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The sign reads: “SUMMIT of YELLOWHEAD PASS and WEST BOUNDARY of JASPER PARK ALTA.”  Each corner has the name of the railroad, “GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC RAILWAY”.  Clem Dickson, arms folded, stands just above the word “TRUNK” over the upper right hand corner.

The left side of the sign reads, “PRINCE RUPERT 498 MILES” and the right reads, “WINNIPEG 1045 MILES”.  It looks as though the team heading west out of Winnipeg was making better time than the eastbound team out of Prince Rupert.  That makes sense as the Prince Rupert team had a much more difficult job!

Yellowhead Pass, Jasper Park, Alberta, Canada

Here’s Clem’s diary entry for Tuesday,January 7, 1913

Left north yards at 930 for Story Plan (sic).  Arrived at Stony Plain 11 oclock had dinner at the hotel.  The weather a little colder.  The wind was very high and cold.  Snowed a little all day. Weather about 23 below.  Cullerne went to town was in all day came out on the 1118 train.

Lest We Forget

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Clement A Dickson, the Dickson Family Patriarch

This will be a series of blogs that I should have started January 1st. By sheer luck, I happen to have the diary that my maternal grandfather kept while he worked for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad. He made an entry every day during the year 1913. That’s right; the diary is exactly 100 years old. It was written in pencil as a bottle of ink for an ink pen would have frozen in a heartbeat in Northwest Canada in the winter! What follows is as close to an accurate transcription that I can produce, warts and all!

His handwriting leaves a great deal to be desired, but it’s function rather than form here that’s important to me. Truthfully, the entries are, by and large, extremely boring. But every once in a while, something is written that piques my interest. I’ll let you be the judge.

Clement Alexis Dickson was born in Williamstown, Glengarry County, Ontario in 1888. As a young man, he went off to help build the Grand Truck Pacific Railroad. It is reputed to have been the most expensive section of a railroad ever built in North America at $112,000 per mile which roughly converts to $2,600,000 in today’s dollars. It was built from 2 directions: Winnipeg, Manitoba west and Prince Rupert, British Columbia east.

To get us up to date, here’s 01 JAN 1913 through 06 JAN 1913:

Wednesday January 1, 1913
This being the first day of the new year. We went into Edmonton Cullerne, Steve and I. Had dinner at the Royal George then took in a show at the Empire. Mr Cullerne bought the three tickets. Then had the pleasure to walk home two miles after the show. The weather was very mild.

Thursday January 2, 1913
We went out to work at 1030 A.M. to get plus (sic) of the oil house. In the afternoon, L. St V. went to town about 1.30. About 4.30 I went in on the train to have a skate that night. I got in about 5.30 went to the rink and had my skates sharpen (sic). I found out that there was a bunch of the caps going out to prac(tice) at 6.30 so I went out with them and had some time with them. Got home about 130 A.M.

Friday, January 3, 1913
This morning we had to get up a (sic) 6 oclock much against our will. We went over town to run levels on a drain for Jan is on over at Strathcona. We had to work till 1.30 took dinner at Strathcona came over to the city. Alvin Cullerne let us do as we like on $2.00 but we got ( ) and he will know the rent. We came home on the 10 oclock train. Cullerne stayed in town with a cold.

Saturday, January 4, 1913
Got up at 10 oclock this morning, went over to Johns to breakfast, then came back and had a little sleep till 1 oclock then went over to dinner and the same thing this afternoon. Mr Cullerne still in town with a cold.

Sunday, January 5, 1913
Got up at 9 oclock had breakfast. The first thing on sunday is washing day had a big washing stang (sic) out side door on 7 spot in the afternoon 20 below. After super (sic) we stayed in the car at north yards all evening. I wrote three letters one home the other two L. J. A. D.

Monday, January 6, 1913
The weather is about the same maybe a little colder. We did nothing but stayed in the 7 spot. About 4.30 I got the train and went to Edmonton for a skate had a little workout with Esk. From 630 to 7.30. Then met Cullerne and we got all the instruments and came out to the north yard at 10 oclock

Lots happening

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Last night was Session 2 of a 4 part class I’m holding at the Wilbraham Public Library on the basics of genealogy and family research. The first session went very well and everyone in attendance seemed to get a lot out of it. Well, I guess it was a good session because last night, about twice as many people as the first session showed up!! A wide variety of participants in the group: Some have done a substantial amount of research but most have only dabbled or are just beginning. We spent most of the night discussing web sites and went to a few so I could show them some shortcuts to their research. Lots of great interaction and we actually went over by about 45 minutes in the Q&A!!

Next, I finally registered to attend NERGC, the New England Regional Genealogy Conference. Karen and I went to the last conference which was held down the road in Springfield. Next year’s conference will be in Manchester, NH. I really got a lot out of the last one and I’m looking forward to this one. Many speakers, many subjects covered and much to learn. The easy part is registering; the hard part is trying to pick the sessions to attend. There are probably 5 or 6 different subjects being covered in each time frame such as DNA/genetics, the National Archives, immigration and naturalization, writing and publishing your work, advanced on-line research techniques and many more. I’ll also be leading one of the discussion groups at a luncheon on Saturday sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

And at last, I was able to register for the on-line “Certificate in Genealogical Research” course at Boston University. It begins January 16, 2013 and runs for 15 weeks. When that’s complete, I’ll begin the official certification process through the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). As I get deeper and deeper involved in specific areas of research, I discover that I don’t know what I don’t know! Basically, it ain’t easy!

Bigfoot is Real???

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I just listened to a DNA presentation by Roberta Estes, the author of the blog where I found this article.  By far, the best DNA presentation I’ve ever participated in. She really knows her stuff!!

So I went to her blog at dna-explain.com and found this article: Bigfoot is Real???.  At first I thought it might be ajoke.  But after reading the article and the science behind the findings…..

What are your thoughts???

Old Bones on LCTV—Interviewing Relatives

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Here’s the video of my interview with “Mrs Buttercup” for Ludlow Community Televisoion. I’m describing the value of contacting relatives for the purpose of learning about their childhood, where they grew up, what their family life was like, what games they played as children and dozens more questions. All of this in the interest of making the cold dry facts of genealogy research come to life by “putting some meat on the bones”, telling a real family story, give your family history some color and make it interesting.  Click this link and take a look: Old Bones on Interviewing Relatives for Family Research.  The sooner a good family researcher gets to their family members, the better the chance to capture the treasures of their memories.

Questions are tailored to trigger those memories.  Here are some examples: “Did you go to your grandmother’s for special dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc?”, “Do you have pleasant memories of the aromas in her kitchen?”, “Can you still “smell them at times?”, “Did your family eat dinner together at the table?”, “Did everyone have their own place to sit?”.  These questions should elicit more than a one word response; they should be the foundation of stories as the person you are interviewing begins to remember their childhood and how they interacted with their family.  Good or bad, you’re sure to get some great stories.  When I interviewed my Great Aunt Sarah, we got to talking about some of the mischief she was involved in.  She admitted to me (and I was the first to hear her “confession”!) that she was the one who painted the neighbor’s cat blue when she was about 7 years old.  She never really liked that cat!!

If you’re going to take on this as a project and get some interviews, I strongly recommend using a digital recorder.  Get permission to use it in the interview.  Some people can be very intimidated by a recording device and small digital recorders can just sit on the table without microphones and other recording technology.  Very soon into the interview, everyone will just forget that it’s there.  After you get permission, ask AGAIN after the recording starts.  You may be getting along just fine today, but you want to make sure that the person’s voice can be clearly heard agreeing to taping the interview .  Not that you’re going to publish the recording or put it in the public donain, but it’s a good idea to get approval!  Take your time…you’re probably not going to get this done in one session.

I’ll be hosting some classes in the interview process and possibly record a “lesson” to post on YouTube wich I’d link here.

Stay tuned!

Old Bones on YouTube!

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Great news…I think!  I’ve finally figured out how to get my debut performance on Ludlow Community TV uploaded to YouTube.  Click here http://youtu.be/3GqKT2WEov4 to view. This one is about basics. But I just recorded the second session where we talked about interviewing relatives as a part of your family research.  I’ll be uploading that one later this week.  Comments are welcome!!  And don’t forget to visit www.oldbones.co where I try to keep up with all upcoming programs.

More Local Programs!

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Two programs are coming up. I’ll be presenting “Introduction to Genealogy and Family Research” in at least 2 locations in the coming months.  First, at Wilbraham Public Library, a basic “Intro” program will take place in four sessions, one per month beginning November 19th.  The second and more comprehensive program will be held at YELLOW HOUSE COMMUNITY CENTER for LEARNING on a weekly basis beginning Thursday, January 17th 2013 and continuing for at least 5 and possibly 6 weeks.  The curriculum for Yellow House has been submitted and is awaiting approval but will include census records, vital records, interviewing relatives, becoming a “genealogical detective”, soundex calculations, name variations, interviewing relatives effectively and will include individual assistance with pedigree charts and family group sheets.

Each of these are designed to open up into a more advanced sessions which may involve computer labs with hands on research by individual participants and designed around the needs of those who want to continue into deeper research strategies.

I’ll be updating my web site at www.oldbones.co to include these latest additions.  Feel free to comment and let me know if you’re interested in joining either of the groups!

I Didn’t Know “Uncle Wallace”!!!

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In last night’s “Introduction to Genealogy”, I took some time to discuss the web site www.findagrave.com. I explained that it’s certainly not a “Primary Source” as the data is uploaded by volunteers who scour public records, family stories and even obituaries. Many volunteers are well intentioned and put up either their own family’s information or the information of their friends or clients. Very ofter, a person or a group may take on a “project” whereby they will use a specific data base and upload GOBS of information. I fall into all of these categories: 1) Family data; 2) Data on the family of friends and clients; 3) Cemetery logs; or 4) just from casual walks through cemeteries after finding a specific individual or individuals.

At any rate, these sisters, who are in their late 60’s or early 70’s (I certainly won’t reveal even though I’ve found them in the 1940 census!) asked if I could look in Island Pond Cemetery in Ludlow for their grandfather. I cautioned that the only way he’d be there is if a volunteer uploaded the information. That could be a relative or just someone who, like myself, will put up data for any number of reasons. They were disappointed that “William Williamson” wasn’t there, but it provided a perfect opportunity too show everyone in the class how the program works. So, based on the data the sisters had (and the research I’ve already done for them) the whole class became a part of uploading their grandfather to the site.

“Now”, I asked, “is your grandmother here as well?” As it turns out, she was Catholic and was buried in St Aloysius Cemetery in Indian Orchard, MA. William wasn’t Catholic and was buried in the secular Island Pond Cemetery in Ludlow, MA a few miles away.

Now is when it gets slightly weird. Someone had already uploaded Minnie Williamson, the grandmother. As I scrolled down, I discovered who that volunteer was…..me! I uploaded it a couple of years ago, probably after finding some other memorial that had been requested. I have no memory of it specifically. The relly weird part? On the tombstone and entered with his own memorial was an infant named “Wallace” who was born in 1912 and died in 1913. The sisters gasped and stared at each other! “Did you know about Wallace?” they asked each other almost simultaneously. Neither knew of “Uncle” Wallace….a family secret revealed!!