Category Archives: Genealogy

I Can’t Find My Family in the 1950 US Census – Now What?

In my line of work, I hear complaints/issues/calls for help whenever a genealogy website is updated or altered in any respect. That goes for all the sites, especially “big” sites such as Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org. There are also issues that pop up when certain collections are released. What is it, how do I search it, can I download it, etc…

The latest series of issues I’ve dealt with has to do with the 1950 US Population Schedule. In this blog, I’d like to discuss one solution to the “missing person” issue.



After one of the recent classes I held, a gentleman raised a problem during the Q&A session. He was about 9 years old in 1950 and was eager to see his own name as well as his parents and siblings’ names. They were nowhere to be found. His entire family was missing. Try as he might, he received no results when using his name or any of the names of those in his family. And it was in a small town in central Massachusetts. There were others in his family, aunts, uncles, and cousins who were easily found. But his entire family had vanished.

First, he assumed that they were never enumerated. Then he thought that they might have lived elsewhere during that point in time. Unlikely in either case, but he had no other theory as to where they were.

I didn’t have too much time to dedicate to him as there were many other questions from the class. I gave it my best shot by changing the search parameters to “Exact and Similar” for the names and “+/- 5 years” for the dates. I tried each name of those who should have been in the family at that time. No luck. And a “failure” in front of the entire class!

Many other hands were raised so I told him that I would use a few more strategies when I got home. Whatever the results, I told him, I’d get in touch as soon as possible.

After dinner that night, I went to the 1940 census, hoping to find someone who lived on the same street or at least close to it. I picked up a few other families who may have been neighbors and hoped they were still around in 1950.

Back to the 1950 census, I searched for his potential neighbors and got an immediate hit. It didn’t take much time at all to locate a neighbor who lived next door to the 1950 family we were trying to locate. The problem? Not only was the handwriting of the enumerator difficult to read, the family name I was looking for was not much more than dark, heavy lines of squiggle on the census record. As you can imagine, the indexer had to take their best shot at what was written in 1950.

When I found the family, their name was indexed with no vowels and what looked like letters weren’t even close to the name. But there they were! Father, mother and three kids including my diligent student, now 81 years old and very happy!

Just a quick afterthought: If this didn’t work, I would’ve gone to page 71….

Not the First…and Not the Last

I feel compelled to address the current pandemic and how it has affected many genealogical researchers.  For me, I spend most of my time in my office which is in the basement of our home. So being down there all day (and sometimes all night!) is not a big stretch. But I can completely sympathize with just about everyone else who more than likely aren’t mushrooms! Getting out every morning, going somewhere – anywhere – meeting people face to face is something I don’t think anyone after this is over will take for granted.

So how does this directly affect me? First, I was concerned that I would lose a great deal of business. But clients have been happy to meet virtually or at the very least, on the phone. Remember the phone??? With classes and lectures, I can tell you that I average about 2 Zoom meetings a day! I was pleasantly surprised especially by senior center whose program directors tell me that residents have grown fond of being able to participate in these types of meetings.

I had arranged to hold a fund raiser for our church which was due to start the week the pandemic hit. Rather than meeting at the church which was now out of the question, or cancelling altogether and returning the funds collected, I proposed a Zoom class. All but 1 person participated. They were “all in!” And it went smoothly once I helped anyone new to webinars get accustomed to the right buttons to push. I was happy, the participants were happy and, of course, the church was happy!

I happen to be involved with several genealogical societies. Not one meeting has had to be cancelled including the Board and Delegate meetings for NERGC 2021, the biennial conference of the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium. It was planned to be held at the MassMutual Conference Center in Springfield, MA where it was held quite successfully in 2017

MassMutual 2008

MassMutual Center, Springfield, MA

The actual conference next April is another story, however, as we work out what direction we will go in. We may go totally virtual for 2021 and then hopefully be back to normal in 2023. Or postpone 2021 into 2022. Either way, we’ll come up with a solution that will work for conference attendees, speakers and vendors.

Virtual meetings are not foreign to me at all. My first remote speaker was Pat Richley-Erickson a/k/a Dear Myrtle, your Friend in Genealogy. It was in 2014 and I was a nervous wreck! Pat had been doing webinars weekly which is how I became familiar with how it all works. Thanks to her support and the support of “Cousin Russ,” the event was a resounding success. When the speaker allowed us to record the presentations, we put the recording behind the members only paywall. All speakers appreciate that and only a few will ask us to leave it up for a limited period of time. I understand that especially with a topic that is dynamic and the substance can change as time goes on. DNA is a great example.

Below is the title slide from a presentation by Melissa Barker, a genealogist and the Archivist for the Houston County Tennessee Archives.

image

Melissa Barker, Genealogist, Archivist for the Houston County, Tennessee Archives

She presented her Power Point and supplied a handout. She was at her office in Tennessee and we were at our meeting room in Agawam, MA. This was just one of the dozens of recorded presentations I’ve been involved in.

With all the colleagues with whom I communicate, I believe most are soldiering along as much if not more than usual. There’s no libraries or archives or court houses to visit. Just about the only source in the short term for any kind of research other than emailing document requests is the internet. This is when I’m grateful for the enormous list of websites that are currently available for research, the Facebook pages that are a well kept secret for genealogists, the webinars that have always been available with many that had a cost attached to them are now free, genealogical societies that have adapted to virtual presentations are all resources that we are collectively taking advantage of.

Speaking of Facebook, I always ask the attendees at any of my classes to raise their hand if they’re an active user of Facebook. Mostly, I get surprised looks with about 25% of the class raising their hands. Sometimes I’ll ask them to guess how many of those pages are genealogically oriented. I usually get “hundreds” and sometimes “…maybe a thousand?” I want to mention Katherine R. Willson, a professional genealogist from Michigan, and her incredibly comprehensive list of genealogy related Facebook pages. You can access her website Social Media Genealogy here: https://socialmediagenealogy.com/genealogy-on-facebook-list/. There you can download a 419 page PDF file with links to over 16,000 Facebook pages! I don’t advise printing it! But getting that document on your computer or tablet or into your GoogleDrive account or other cloud storage that you are using will be a great tool for you to use. Imagine, 16,000 Facebook pages!

Our collective situation is certainly a life changer. But we can fall back on all the plagues and pandemics that have caused massive upheaval around the world. The Black Plague, Spanish Influenza, Covid-19 along with many more. The bad news is that they were all profoundly disruptive and caused tens of thousands of premature deaths of the young as well as the old. The good news is simple: humanity survived.

Happy Ending or Happy Beginning – A DNA Success Story

Standard DNA test kit from 23andME. Also available is the basic test plus health for additional cost.http://www.23andme.com

Debra knew from a very early age that she was adopted. Her mother and father provided an incredibly  loving environment where she could grow and thrive. And that’s exactly what she did! While it may sound unusual, when she was 3 years old her Mom sat her down and gently explained that some mothers were not able to provide for their children and for many reasons, those children were adopted by families who had the means and the love to help those children grow up. For this reason and as young as she was, she grasped the concept and simply went on with her life. 

Debra’s birth was a bit premature. As a result, she was kept at the hospital for several days to ensure that she was healthy enough to go home. But where was home? Her birth mother was either not allowed or was incapable of caring for her. That’s the short story of how Debra came about being adopted by parents who were very much in a position to raise a child in a healthy, happy home. 

Even with the knowledge that she had been adopted, she was loved by her Mom and Dad, she was healthy, happy and she had dreams for her future. 

My Heritage test kit http://www.myheritage.com

About ten years after her adoption, Debra’s parents decided to adopt another child. This time the circumstances couldn’t be any different. When they brought the new sister home, it was a tragic reality that Lisa had been the victim of a hostile environment. Lisa was covered with bruises, stitches and scars. Her “new” parents were very successful in again providing the same loving care they had been providing for Debra. After a brief period of adjustment, Debra became very close with her new sister, Lisa Marie.

Debra’s life was as ideal as she could have hoped for. Soon, she fell in love, married and had her own house full of children. She never dwelled on her own adoption issue. She was loved, secure, and looking forward to raising her family in an environment such as the one in which she grew up. As her children got older, she was able to discuss her history. With the knowledge that their Mom had been adopted, their curiosity got the best of them. The older kids insisted on knowing more… And more… And they wanted to know soon! 

The largest data base and reference population can be found at http://www.ancestry.com

Although I had known Debra and her family for many years, I was unaware of the fact that she was adopted. It was never an issue for her to discuss it with anyone other than her family and even at that, there wasn’t much discussion until the older kids began to get her to wonder about her birth parents. She will readily tell you that the search for her birth story would never distract her from the parents who raised her. But the curiosity began to creep in. As a result, she learned about a class I was conducting at a local library that was designed to teach the basics of DNA, the various tests available, how each of those tests can be used and the companies who administer them. As an enticement, I offered to “raffle off” a DNA test to one of the participants after the session. 

A graphic of the DNA double helix.

Frankly, I was surprised but pleased at the same time to see Debra walk through the door! We went through the presentation in a little over an hour. The attendees asked many great questions and I believe we all learned a lot. After the Q&A session, it was time for the raffle. I’ll give you a couple of seconds to guess who won! Debra took the test home, submitted her sample and as everyone who has tested can tell you, waited the 5 or 6 weeks it took for processing. Results in hand, the hunt began!

The good news is that she was uncommonly successful. Her first “hit” led her to a biological uncle who is a brother to her biological father. Uncle Jack was more than just pleased to hear from her. I suspect that Jack was aware that he had a niece out there somewhere and that niece turned out to be Debra. He was more than happy to help. He led her to her full biological brother named Brian who lived just a few towns away, close enough to possibly visit from time to time.

It’s worth noting that adopted children who choose to seek out their biological families can run into a myriad of problems. The parents they are looking for may have split up long ago and gone their separate ways or possibly even died; the siblings, if there are any, may live too far away to be able to develop any meaningful relationship or they simply are untraceable; contacting anyone may be a negative experience for the individuals being contacted; and, in many cases, you simply can’t find anyone in the bio family and frustration ensues.

Fast forward to Brian. He was thrilled to finally hear from the woman who turns out to be his full biological sister who he never had the opportunity to meet much less have any type of relationship with. The good news, no…the great news, is that Debra and Brian have not only met, but have formed a meaningful bond with one another. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they are not only somewhat similar in appearance but share many common interests. The outdoor life appeals to both: fishing, hiking, spending a great deal of time outdoors. Since they live fairly close to one another, they meet often and spend a great deal of time together. 

But wait, there’s more. Her bio father left New England for the west coast. To date, Debra has been able to locate 4 half-siblings. One of them, Charles, has been very open to establishing some type of relationship in spite of the fact that he lives out west. Fortunately for Debra, she has been able to travel out there and meet him and talk about their individual experiences. Two of three other half-sisters, however, were less than enthusiastic about staying in touch with her. Regardless, Debra was very excited to make the progress she had made to put together the pieces of a life she never knew. 

Nuclear DNA known as autosomal DNA or atDNA. The 23rd chromosome is the sex chromosome. It can be XX (female) or XY (male). Moms always contribute an “X” while Dads can contirbute either an “X” or a “Y”.

Keep in mind that adoption notwithstanding, nothing diminishes in any way the relationship she has enjoyed her entire life with her parents who did the right thing in so many ways. And Lisa, the sister who Debra grew up with, has been a source of support in Debra’s efforts to discover her “other life” but has so far not expressed any interest in following the same path Debra has followed.

One final chapter to this story. Debra’s biological father has a sister who lives nearby. She is Debra’s aunt. The aunt has a daughter, a full first cousin of hers who also lives nearby. Debra’s daughter recently moved in to a new house. Debra’s cousin is her daughter’s new next door neighbor! They have all had the chance to meet and spend time together. 

The conclusion is a simple one: When and only when you’re ready to go out to make these discoveries, it’s well worth the journey in most cases. No one could be happier than Debra! And I am proud to say that I was a part of this great story.

Dave Robison

All the names in this blog have been changed to insure privacy.

Copyright © Dave Robison Old Bones Genealogy of New England

The URL for this blog is https://oldbonessearch.com/?p=4984

General Henry Knox – Revolutionary War Hero

As a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (Pomeroy Chapter – Western Massachusetts), I use my reasonable and maybe even above average knowledge of history to help with my work as the Chapter’s Registrar assisting the folks applying for membership. Having grown up in Springfield, Massachusetts, I’m familiar with General Knox as we lived just a few blocks away from the Springfield Armory. There’s is a marker on the east side of the intersection of Federal and State Streets in Springfield very near the Armory indicating that this was a part of Knox Trail, the roads used by Knox to deliver 59 cannon and other supplies to General Washington during the seige of Boston. Yes, we routed the British in January of 1776.

Typical marker found throughout the route taken by Knox on his way from Ticonderoga New York to Boston Massachusetts.

Knox was a 25 year old book binder who literally taught himself history and military science. He participated in the Seige of Boston and was selected by General George Washington to head up to the recently captured Fort Ticonderoga. The American victory there allowed Knox to simply take possession of the artillery. That was the easy part. It was November of 1775 and Knox expected to get back to Boston in a few weeks. It took 3 months of slogging through the frigid wilderness of upstate New York, sailing down Lake George with the equipment on barges, crossing the Hudson into the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and finally along the Boston Post Road. But he made it and in January of 1776, Washington had his artillery. No ammunition per se, but the Americans were able to surround the British with an array of cannon which was enough to chase the British out of Boston. Needless to say, this amazing feat in the dead of winter sparked the beginning of Henry Knox’s brilliant career.

But let’s talk about the armory for a minute. It was Knox who persuaded Washington to site the first arsenal on the hills of Springfield overlooking the Connecticut River. That location proved to be a very strategic spot to locate what became the Springfield Armory. There’s a great deal of history to recount here including the events of Shays’ Rebellion, the supply of arms to the armed forces from the late 18th century up until its closure by Seretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1968. During those years, a great deal of history was made: standardized manufacturing, invention of numerous armaments, and employment for thousands of residents including women. Today, what is now known as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site allows an in depth view of the history of the Springfield Armory’s many contributions to the defenses of the United States of America.

The Springfield Armory National Historic Site

Click here to take a tour with the Armory’s Curator, Alex McKenzie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIfyzai6Uzk.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make about General Henry Knox. Karen and I took a vacation up to Edgecomb, Maine. During the week, Karen found a mumber of places for us to go, mostly visiting a variety of lighthouses, historic sites, some ancient cemeteries (Karen knows that’s a MUST on my itinerary!), and of course, restaurants and other tours. The best of those tours was a 1 and a half hour ferry ride from Boothbay Harbor to Monhegan Island. Other than one thunder storm, the weather couldn’t have been better! We even had time to stand in line for about an hour to get the famous “Red’s Eats” lobster roll. A little over a pound of lobster in a hot dog roll. Only $23.75! Last season, Red’s went through 14.5 TONS of lobster meat! That’s 14.5 TONS!! Click here to read about them: https://www.redseatsmaine.com/.

One of our side trips was to the Maine State Penitentiary Gift Shop. Prisoners are encouraged to develop their talents in carving, furniture creation, model ship building, and dozens of other unique items. Karen found a handmade birdhouse that we’ll be putting up in the back yard. What I found was a 2-page handout about the General Henry Knox Museum. The General Henry Knox Museum??? Well, it was just up the road from the gift shop, so off we went.

After General Henry Knox’s brilliant career, he retired to Thomaston, Maine. Although he grew up in virtual poverty, he married let’s just say, he married well. Lucy Flucker was from a wealthy New England family. With his marriage to Lucy, Knox became the owner of an enormous amount of land in Thomaston which was in Massachusetts at the time. Maine was not created until the Missouri Compromise in 1820 but that’s another story! The Knox’s built what was contemporaneously described as the most beautiful home in New England. They called it “Montpelier.” Sadly, the building deteriorated to the point where demolition was the only solution in the late 19th century. Now comes the DAR to the rescue. During the height of the Great Depression, they were able to raise the funds to rebuild an exact duplicate of the original down to every last detail. This was made possible due to the prolific writing of General Knox describing what he wanted built and how to go about building it! Sizes, colors, wallpaper, the layour of the grounds, every detail was meticulously recorded allowing for the details that were built into the new building. The project obviously provided much needed work and the new home was opened to the public in 1931. Click here for their website: http://knoxmuseum.org/ .

Montpelier – A recreation of the original Montpelier, home of Henry and Lucy Knox

The docent who brought us through all 3 floors of the building offered a great deal of information about Henry and Lucy Knox. Of 13 children, for example, only 3 survived to adulthood. The museum is chock full of Knox memorabilia with furniture, writings, portraits, books, and household goods. The Knox’s are buried in the Village Cemtery about a mile from the museum.

The graves of General Henry Knox and family in the Village Cemetery, Thomaston, Maine

The lesson here, as I’ve said before, is you don’t know what you don’t know. I was delighted that Karen found the Maine State Prison Gift Shop. I was delighted that I just happened to find the little handout about the Hentry Knox Museum!

Genealogy Conferences – NERGC and OGS

Here are some updates on genealogy conferences and my personal involvement with at least two of them.

Landmarks in Manchester, New Hampshire

First, a little report on the NERGC conference held in Manchester, New Hampshire back in April. NERGC is the acronym for the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium. It’s a whole lot easier to just pronounce it “NERK!” An unbelievable amount of work goes into these conferences: venue, participating societies, setting the price of registration, speakers, food, vendors, and on and on! The Manchester event attracted nearly 120 speakers, as many vendors and over 1,000 attendees. The program included an opening session, single presentations, workshops, banquets, special presentations by featured speakers and on and on. But most of all, what everyone should garner from attending a conference is the comaraderie, the “elbow-rubbing” with other genealogists who are there for a common reason: To expand their knowledge of genealogy and family research.

Well, NERGC 2019 was a huge success. The 22 participating societies who contributed financially as well as with the volunteer efforts of their respective memberships were rewarded with a return of their investment as well as a share of the excess receipts.

So now what? Since NERGC is a biennial event with the next conference being held in 2021. While we try to produce the conference in cities all over New England, the size of the crowd of enthusiastic genealogists who attend demands a larger venue. So, we return to the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

A broad view of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts

We held the previous conference there in spite of all the construction that was going on in 2017. All of that is complete and with the addition of some unexpected features, the City of Springfield offers a more than adequate solution. At least 3 additional hotels are in various stages of construction, a new service of the PVTA is a free bus called the “Loop” will take passengers the length of Main Street with stops at various hotels, the MassMutual Center (which is the site for the conference), the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Springfield Armory National Historic Site among other points of interest. And it’s free! And the MassMutual Center itself is practically a no-brainer for our style of conference: Meeting rooms on the two levels with an escalator and elevators to easily get from the lower level to the upper level. The banquet hall and vendor hall are right next to each other on the lower level. Very easy to get around.

So now here’s the big news (at least for me ) regarding the Ohio Genealogical Society’s 2020 conference titled “Unlocking the Pieces.” It will be held at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Sandusky, Ohio. The conference website is not yet ready as of today, 01 July 2019 as they are just putting together the details. But I’m giving the link here for “Unlocking the Pieces” which you can check on over the next several weeks.

One of the auditoriums at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, Sandusky, Ohio

Now I’ve given classes, lectures and presentations all over New England including the last 4 NERGC conferences. Those are easier to get involved with as I’ve held various positions with NERGC: Society delegate, conference co-chair, commitee chair, and now a member of the board and its President! If I don’t take a slot to make a presentation in “NERGC 2021,” it’ll be because I’ll be too busy.

I’ve never ventured out of New England. I considered submitting for last year’s OGS conference but too many factors interfered. Since I’ve backed away from the Presidnet’s position at the Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society, Inc and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc, I felt as though I had the time to give it as shot.

Figuring that since I have no previous experience with the Ohio group, the “newcomer” so to speak, that I might get a shot at one slot, maybe 2 if I was really lucky. So I submitted a proposal on 10 or 12 different presentations with various genealogical topics from the basics up to DNA and a few other topics. To might great surprise, along with many other genealogists who I know throught webinars and various other social media, I was offered 3 slots! I’ll be delivering a presentation on researching in New England, what is required for a DAR or SAR application and a discussion of a little known organization that operated in the late 18th century, the “Ohio Company of Associates” who worked to get New Englanders to emigrate from Massachusetts and settle in southeast Ohio.

This is all about education. I blogged back in February about why anyone should attend any conference, genealogical or otherwise. The simple answer was this: You don’t know what you don’t know! You can’t argue with that one. So find a conference and go!!

Genealogy Conferences – Another Level of Self-Eduation

I’ve talked about conferences many times. At Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society as well as Connecticut Society of Genealogisists we’ve had presentations about why you would want to attend a conference. My shortcut answer is this: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Regardless of how long any of us have been researching our own families or the families of others, there’s always something new to consider. Especially now, in the electronic age. Don’t misinterpret that statement because “…it’s not all on the internet.” As a matter of fact, it has been estimated that only about 10% to maybe 15% of what’s available has been digitized and indexed to make it searchable at the dizzying number of websites that are available to us today. And the list includes straight-up commercial sites that charge a fee for membership, free websites such as FamilySearch.org, privately uploaded trees, and many others. In a nutshell, with the exception of FamilySearch (free), you get what you pay for. Many offer month to month subscriptions or 6 to 12 months at a time. In addition, sites like Ancestry.com further blur the options by offering graduated levels of access. European websites often offer a per document fee where you would buy a certain number of points to “spend.”

Why is the internet data so scarce? First, you are mostly blocked from seeing documents and records that haven’t been indexed. Indexing is the process handled mostly by volunteers where the words on the image are transcribed into specific fields in an electronic form. First name, middle name, last name and all the rest of the pertinent data that we’re accustomed to filling in on the search pages of various websites has to be made available so a computer can “read” the words. Now computers don’t read words, they interpret complex arrangements of zeros and ones then convert that into the words that we mere mortals can read!  And only digitized documents and records can be indexed. Once a record is indexed and uploaded, you can type in data that can be matched against an electronic record and show it to you in the comfort of your own home.

Now, consider the millions upon millions of documents that are generated each and every day! Babies are born, couples get married, folks die, people join the armed forces, apply for pensions, and so on creating a myriad of records that we will be searching for some day. Can you imagine the size of the backlog of paperwork we create in the 21st century? No wonder the percentage of available electronic records is so low.

So what does all this all have to do with conferences? Searching websites is mostly a self-taught process. Conferences offer the knowledge and advice of professionals who can dispense a wealth of knowledge to large groups of interested people. At genealogical conferences, for example, there is a very broad range of topics and speakers to deliver the messages. Lots to learn! From internet search strategies to off line sources such as libraries and other repositories and archives, DNA (WOW, that’s a hot topic these days), court house research, interviewing relatives, cemeteries, European research as well as other foreign countries, military records and the list goes on and on.

There is so much interest in certain topics that the classes or workshops offered with the best of intentions often fill up the first or second day registration is open!

The whole point here is to encourage you to seriously consider registering for as many conferences that would be reasonable for you. It’s not free, of course, and they’re not always in the next town over! So there are many considerations especially with regard to your time and the expense.

Some of the largest conferences are held in the largest cities in the largest venues than what is generally available. RootsTech is a good example. The initial registration is a little pricey and attendance would require an airline ticket and hotel accommodations for us folks here in New England. But there’s an important, well-attended “bargain” of a conference right here in New England. The New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) is a bargain.

Here are the featured speakers at the 2019 conference including Thomas D Jones, Blaine Bettinger and Cyndi Ingle.

Cyndi Ingle
Blaine Bettinger
Thomas D Jones

The 2019 conference is being held in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Manchester Downtown Doubletree Hotel at 700 Elm Street April 3rd to the 6th. Many more details including registration information is available at www.nergc.org. Registration will be open until March 30, 2019.

A “Found” Patriot

Heritage. As a youngster, I always wondered of the heritage that resulted in me.  The culture at home was a simple one when it came down to family stories and history. “What you don’t know won’t hurt you!” Well, I guess I won’t ask THAT question again!

What follows are a few descriptions of discoveries I’ve made since I began my genealogical journey.

My father, Henry Dunn Robison (Find A Grave Memorial# 33567770), went into the Navy exactly 3 weeks after Pearl Harbor at the “insistence” of his maternal grandmother, Gilma Cecilia Robertson Dunn. She went so far as to have his birth record destroyed (there’s no record of his birth to this day!), falsify his age and ship him off at age 15!

My father and the previous 4 generations had lived in Alabama and Tennessee. As I discovered years later, my 4th great grandfather, Hezekiah Robertson/Robinson/Robison/Robrson (Find A Grave Memorial# 7048152), was a veteran or the War of 1812 having served with the East Tennessee Volunteers then settled in Limestone County, Alabama. There were a few Confederate ancestors who served in the “War of Northern  Aggression.” One of my 2nd great grandfathers died at the Rock Island Confederate POW camp in Rock Island, Illinois (Find A Grave Memorial# 5092694). During World War II,  while Henry was in the Caribbean, his mother divorced her husband and moved to Massachusetts.  As far as I can tell, this was the reason they wanted Henry out of the way. The short version here is the “Granny” lived with us in Springfield for a while until she entered a nursing home in the mid-60s where she died in 1970.

I never knew my paternal my grandfather, Cecil Lee Robison (Find A Grave Memorial# 5092687), who remained and remarried in Alabama. I was only marginally aware of the fact that I even had a grandfather.  My father would make a 5- or 10-minute call “down south” around Christmas-time every year. I never saw “Papa Lee” nor did I ever speak with him. He died in 1964.  My first view of him was his obituary on the front page of the Anniston (Alabama) Star. While I shouldn’t have been surprised, he looked exactly like my father and it was a little unsettling.

My maternal grandfather, Clement Alexis Dickson (Find A Grave Memorial# 11132523), died when I was about 3 years old but my maternal grandmother lived until 1962. Of all of my grandparents, she’s the only one with whom I had ever had any semblance of a conversation.

The upshot is that my father didn’t care to talk about his side of the dysfunctional Robison family and my mother thought it best to hold the same line with regard to her side.

Now, enter the genealogist! I wouldn’t say that I was desperately seeking anything necessarily. But the lack of information led me to feel that we were all dropped off on earth by an alien spaceship back in the early 50s! Then, as I began researching for details, I was able to interview some of the prior generations of relatives: 3 aunts, 1 great-grandaunt and a couple of second cousins. If I only knew then what I know now!

In 2001, I got the bug to join a lineage society. If successful, that would “install” a heritage that was there all along but of which I was totally unaware. Maternal family lore stated that we descended from Pilgrims. Okay, but who, what, where, why, and when? There was a box of spoons that were allegedly made from the silver buckles of their shoes. Spoiler: hardly any pilgrims had silver buckles on their shoes! More on that some other time.

Paternal lore stated, well, nothing! But after a comparatively short period of time, I began to suspect that there was some validity to the Pilgrim story, underscore “some.” At the same time, I uncovered real evidence that my paternal lines stretched back to at least the War of 1812, as I mentioned earlier, and possibly the Revolutionary War.

So, here we go! Let’s join the Sons of the American Revolution. I downloaded an application and worked on it sporadically for about 15 years. Yes, not 5 or 10, but for 15 years, the application languished in my desk. In my defense, I was certainly busy with dozens of projects, nearly all of which involved genealogy. Then, in 2016, I was a co-chair for NERGC, a relatively large genealogy conference to be held in Springfield, Massachusetts in the spring of 2017. We normally brought in 2 featured speakers along with several dozen others. It was  my intent to solicit Kenyatta Berry, one of the very personable hosts of the PBS program “Genealogy Road Show.” It was to be filmed in Providence, Rhode Island. So off I went to Providence, Rhode Island. Short version, Kenyatta Berry became the third and very welcomed featured speaker. Score 1 for Dave.

In the meantime, many of my fellow genealogists were at the filming representing various clubs and societies in the vendor area of the venue. A friend of mine introduced me to the Registrar for a chapter of the DAR. I told her my story of profound procrastination with my SAR application. She eagerly said, “I can help!” OK, that’s great but I can’t join the DAR, I would qualify! She asked if I had a daughter which I most certainly do. As a result, my daughter is now a member of the Lexington Chapter of the DAR. For my purposes, I merely had to finish my SAR application, exclude my daughter’s generation and I could qualify.

But here, finally, is the most interesting part of the story: I have identified at least 24 ancestors who are age-appropriate to have served in the War, all would have been between their late teens to their early 40s. The specific ancestor we picked was a Patriot who had only most recently been identified as such. Timothy Blodgett’s (Find A Grave Memorial# 74484986) story involves mostly obscurity. He was a family man who, with his wife ran a small farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts while raising a small brood of 14 children. He was born in 1740 in Lexington, Massachusetts and was involved in the first battle of the War. The Lexington engagement occurred on 19 April 1775 then shortly thereafter came the battle at Concord. My ancestor was one of the registered Minute Men under Captain Charles Parker who confronted the British at Lexington, his hometown.

The singular reason that he was finally identified as a Patriot is that he lost his musket during the battle and petitioned for compensation at the Lexington Town Hall the following morning. The record of that petition was only discovered in 2012.

From www.wickedlocal.com:

     “Bill Poole, executive officer with the Minute Men, said he discovered Blodgett when he was researching local militia in the archives of Capt. Parker’s Company in Lexington. Blodgett had  moved to Shutesbury the year after the fateful morning on April 19, 1775 and his name was    never included on the official “muster roll.”

     But Poole said he found several documents confirming Blodgett’s post, noting he even           applied for a reimbursement from then selectmen for a firearm he lost on the Battle Green.     The young militia man lost the musket when he attempted to jump over a fence to while           fleeing from the Regulars, Poole said.”1

Here is the photo from the article clearly showing the addition of Timothy Blodgett’s name to the bottom of the second column:

Timothy Blodgett added to the Memorial at Lexington Green. Photo: http://bit.ly/Blodgett_Lexington

The proof of my ancestor came fairly easy as I already had nearly every document necessary. We used the documentation first for my daughter’s DAR application, then for my own SAR application. Success with both apps!

But wait! There’s more! In early 2016, I was giving a presentation on genealogy to the East Longmeadow (Massachusetts) Historical Society. It was a basic introduction to family research that was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm. Apparently, the members of the East Longmeadow Historical Society are in the habit of showing up just a little late for their meetings. So at 6:58, I was “concerned” but not showing it. Then in walked our first guest. A delicate woman, a senior citizen, who I greeted with a smile. Her name is Ruth Washburn, my first guest that night. I smiled because I had at least one person for the audience. She said, “I’m so glad I could make it. I usually don’t drive at night.” I offered her a ride home as I was sure there would be someone there she knew but she turned me down, flat! As I walked her to the front of the room, I sat her in a seat that was directly in front of where I would be speaking. When I mentioned the SAR, I also mentioned that my Patriot Ancestor was Timothy Blodgett. At that moment Ruth gasped and covered her mouth. Naturally, I suspected that something was wrong. I stopped and asked if she was OK. With a tear in her eye (really…she teared up!) she said that she, too, was a descendant of Timothy Blodgett.

As it turns out, Ruth Muriel Blodgett Fisher Washburn is a very energetic 91-year-old cousin who, in her own right, is a well-established family historian.  She’s pictured here in front of the window that was in one of her cousin’s family’s home. When her cousin asked if there was anything in the house she would want, she said she’d love to have the window from her bedroom but knew it was impossible. She had spent a great deal of time at this house during the summers of her youth and remembered the happiness that the sunlight brought her when it came streaming through the multicolored window. The window is a real piece of art!

Ruth Muriel Blodgett Fisher Washburn

I’ve spent time with Ruth to hear her stories and learn more about the Blodgett line. She has an extensive database which she has been more than willing to share with me.  But more important to me than a database, she has extensive personal knowledge and a clear, sharp memory.

Now, if I ever have the time, I just might prove more Patriot ancestors from both my maternal and my paternal side.

And one more thing, I’ve found 4 direct Mayflower ancestors. All I need to do is prove those lines and I’ll have a unique way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the 1620 Mayflower landing in 2020.

  1. “Lexington Minute Men add new name to monument,” website, (http://bit.ly/Blodgett_Lexington : accessed 18 July 2016).

Missed RootsTech?

RootsTech is the largest genealogical conference in the world. In 2017, more than 30,000 genealogists of all stripes attended what has been described as a phenomenal event. Their website describes the event: “RootsTech is a global family history event where people of all ages learn to discover, share and celebrate their family connections across generations through technology. At RootsTech, there is something for everyone, no matter your experience in family history or your skill level in technology.”

But, of course, most of us missed it for a variety of reasons. Well, there’s good news!

RootsTech has put up most of the presentations that anyone can view. BUT!! It’s only for a limited time.  I’ve searched around the site and there’s no indication as to how they define “limited time” so my advice is to check out the website and view what you can while you can. You won’t regret it as the conference was chock full of presentations by the best in the business. As far as subjects are concerned…best to check out the website!

Click here RootTech to access the home page and read about the conference itself and plans for RootsTech 2018 and RootsTech 2019 in the FAQ’s section accessible from the menu in the upper right-hand corner. Or just click here: Frequently Asked Questions.

And since we’re talking about genealogy conferences, don’t forget about NERGC 2017 being held this year in Springfield, Massachusett from 26 April to 29 2017. Wednesday the 26th  is “Library and Teacher’s Day with a track on Technology. Thursday through Saturday is the main event with 130 presentations, workshops, lunches and banquets.  NERGC takes place in venues around New England on the odd numbered years. Organized by the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium, the event is quite a bit smaller than RootsTech with a usual attendance of approximately 1,000. However, with 70 speakers, there is no shortage of quality presenters and with 130 presentations, no shortage of subjects covered.

Interested? Early bird registration ends on 28 February 2017!

 

Family Tree Maker® – Goodbye Ancestry – Hello MacKiev

In 1998, I was wandering around Circuit City, a company that went out of business maybe 7 years ago or more. I really don’t remember what I was looking for. Stereos, cell phones, DVD’s, whatever. I had recently bought a desktop computer and eventually I walked down the software aisle.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had family history in mind. By “back of my mind” I mean a subconscious, little-explored avocation. It began in 1969 when I received a letter from someone who turned out to be a second cousin.

Now, by way of explanation, my maternal lines extend to the Mayflower and dozens of others who arrived during the Great Migration, settling in Plymouth Colony and, later, Massachusetts Bay Colony and finally, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I’ve since discovered some very surprising ancestors that I’ve written about over the years. It’s from this side, I researched one of my 18 or so Revolutionary War Patriot ancestors and was able to join the Sons of the American Revolution.

My paternal lines, on the other hand, had all settled in the American Southeast: Virginia/West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. And that’s where the letter came from. The writer had typewritten what I know now is a descendant chart beginning with an ancestor of mine who was born in 1849. I was so impressed with this information that I now knew an ancestor who was born over 120 years before the letter was written. So impressed, that I put away and didn’t open it again until around 1998, a few months before my foray into the software department at Circuit City.

You should know that I was brought up in an environment of “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.” At the time, I wasn’t particularly interested in anything family related. Until the moment the Family Tree Maker practically jumped off the shelf. It was the spark that lit up my desire, or rather my need to find out if “what you don’t know” included family. Who were they? Who am I?  Exactly how did I connect with someone born so long ago in 1849? That was my father’s side. Obviously, there must be a few folks I never knew or heard of on my mother’s side. So, I was off to the races.

In 1998, I began what has become my profession. Speaking, teaching, consulting, family research and literally anything to do with genealogy. And now DNA has entered the equation. With FTM eventually becoming an Ancestry.com property, it became a convenience to me since I was already an Ancestry subscriber.

Having branched out into client work, I usually would use FTM as one of the tools to keep my research in order. And as far as my own family, my continuing genealogical discoveries created a tree that just became increasingly bigger as I continued.

FTM was updated and upgraded over the years. I was always interested in having the “latest” whenever possible. Sometimes I’d jump in as early as possible and other times I’d wait a month or so as I had learned that getting the bugs out was an important part of software development. The integration with Ancestry that allowed full two-way synchronization was an amazing breakthrough for me as I had become accustomed to updated one and then, separately updating the other.  Wow, technology!

When MacKiev got into the picture, I read what some people were posting on Facebook and other social media. Some were in a state of sheer panic while others, like myself, took a wait and see attitude. It always seemed to me that FTM had so many adherents that it was hardly likely that it would just sail off over the horizon never to be seen again. Somebody was bound to take over the reins.

And so it happened. FTM didn’t dissolve at the end of 2016 as some had predicted. As a matter of fact, as 2016 was melting into 2017, rather than the whole thing falling apart, the news simply got better. I was reluctant to try to teach myself the ins and outs of Legacy or RootsMagic or any of the other programs that are on the market. Keeping my focus on FTM was a more acceptable way to go.

Now it gets interesting. When I received the link to the upgrade, I felt I was relatively safe. If a major defugalty came along, there certainly are alternatives. The download and installation processes were a smooth ride which allowed me to focus on some family research. There’s always an ancestor lurking that can be proven and added to the “big” file. That file now has 43,893 individuals and a proportionate amount of media. That’s a lot to lose!

Pedigree Chart of Abigail Chapin Wheelock. Her husband, Paul Wheelock is a half-first cousin of President John Adams. Note the number of individuals: 43,893. Click to enlarge.

In December of 2015, when Ancestry announced that they were going to discontinue FTM altogether, the leading family history software — just bury it in the backyard. Many were panicked. Two months later on February 2nd, Ancestry announced that they’d changed their minds and would instead sell this wonderful old brand to SoftwareMacKiev. And as the developer of the Mac versions of FTM for the six years before that, “MacKiev was absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to take the wheel,” said Jack Minsky, President of Software MacKiev. They stepped forward the very next day. ” Lots of articles were written on alternatives and there was lots of handwringing from FTM faithful on what to do,” said Minsky.

Now during the waning days of December 2016, I began to experience some difficulty booting up the laptop, a relatively new Dell Inspiron running Windows 10 with 1T hybrid hard drive, 8G of ram and no outrageous peripherals. It had always run flawlessly with all the data I have stored which takes up less than half of the capacity. That problem went away until the day after New Years Day. All I could get was the image that displays on startup. Without boring you with all the details of 5 marathon sessions with Premium Support, I can summarize it by simply saying that after a few stop-gap measures, I was forced to undertake a thorough, clean factory re-install. Fortunately, I’ve been running cloud backups for several years. I’ve used Carbonite® and more recently BackBlaze® on all our computers here. I also maintain a redundant backup on an external 1.5T Seagate hard drive. So other than the process of dragging myself through all of this, it should have been a simple although lengthy operation.

The next day, the download was complete, the restore was complete and all that was left was to put everything away where it belonged and reinstall some applications. That part of the process included FTM 2014.1 which had been running flawlessly. In the meantime, I was made aware of an update to the upgrade. Update? OK…I’m in. Before the big meltdown, I had done some work in the “big” file with the upgrade but not with the update. I thought nothing of it. I should mention here that I reinstalled FTM 2014.1 from the thumb drive that I purchased just in case what just happened, happened!

But when I tried to open the “big” file, I got an error message. I tried to open several of the other family trees and they opened with no problem. I communicated with technical support through their chat application and had 2 differing solutions, neither of which worked.  Wallowing in my frustration, I put this project aside and went to read and respond to emails and check for messages on Facebook. Facebook, by the way, with over 10,000 genealogically oriented pages, has become an important part of my on-line research efforts. I noticed that the Family Tree Maker® Users Facebook page had some folks discussing the pros and cons of the upgrade. I’ll admit, I was a bit frustrated as I fired off my problem offering it to anyone who happened to be paying attention to that page.

To my initial surprise, one of the people paying attention was Jack Minsky, the president of Software MacKiev. He took the time to listen to the whole series of events and where I was at that point. Then, in no time, he nailed it! I had upgraded to 2014.1 then installed the update after which I worked on my personal file, the “big” one. Then the crash. Then the restore. Then I began re-installing software. My first re-install was the FTM 2014.1 program from the thumb drive. What could be easier? Then, to test it, I tried to open my own file. Nope! Wasn’t gonna happen. What Jack suspected that I had opened that file with the updated upgrade (does that make sense?) and the thumb drive installed the upgrade but not the update. He knew that the missing update was the problem. He sent me a link for the update as I couldn’t find it in any of the hundreds of emails I had collected by this time. I uninstalled the original thumb drive version (build 497?) then reinstalled it. The last step was to go to the update link (build 501?) and reinstall that.

Lo and behold! I’m very happy to report that everything is running as smooth as glass. I mentioned to Jack a few weeks ago, that someday we should get together in Boston the next time I’m out there or near there. This time I offered to buy the drinks!

Thank you, Jack Minsky! I don’t know when you sleep as I’ve communicated with you at all times of the day and night.  It’s encouraging to see that although we all have to get accustomed to a slightly different way to communicate with support technicians, in the end, it all seems to work out. When does the president of a company get that close to the little people and pitch in to help? Congratulations, Jack Minsky! You did good!  You’ve earned the trust of many in the FTM community with your pro-active approach. Now, what are you going to do for us next?

My message to any FTM user? Try it, you’ll like it!

 

Ages of Males at Death

Sounds morbid, I know, but that’s what genealogists deal with all the time. We study more dead people than living. So thanks to Randy Seaver (author of Genea-Musings) for bringing this up, but he proposed charting the ages at death of 4 or 5 generations. I could go back quite a bit farther, but here’s a quick 5-generation chart. I might take the lost back a few more generations, but the “unknowns” will definitely outnumber the “knowns” by the 6th or 7th generation. I have a few of my ancestral lines (proven…not guessed or harvested from other public, online trees) back to the 12th and 13th great grandfathers. That’s 14 or 15 generations! Keep in mind that if you could identify ALL of your 13th great grandparents (15 generations) you’d have a list of 16,384 individuals just at that generation. That’s husbands and wives but no siblings! If you collected every name to your 16th great grandparents, the total number of individuals including you would be 524,287! And again, no siblings.

By the way, Randy and I are distant cousins….very distant but related nonetheless.

Here’s what I offer so far:

Dave Robison’s Male Ancestors’ “Age at Death”: 

Father Henry Dunn Robison 78
     
Paternal Grandfather Cecil Lee Robison 61
Maternal Grandfather Clement Alexis Dickson 67
     
Paternal Great Grandfather Erskin Coleman Robison 63
Paternal Great Grandfather Henry Wright Dunn 45 (Car/Train Collision)
Maternal Great Grandfather Daniel Alexander Dickson 72
Maternal Great Grandfather Edward Harmon Bassett 83
     
Paternal 2nd Great Grandfather Samuel Coleman Robison 64
Paternal 2nd Great Grandfather James Pinkney Peace 74
Paternal 2nd Great Grandfather William Ira Dunn 72
Paternal 2nd Great Grandfather Samuel Joseph Robertson 73
Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather James Dickson/Dixon 75
Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather James Meagher Jr 72
Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather Ralph Harmon Bassett 37 (Diphtheria epidemic)
Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather Joseph Baber Tuggey Sr 76
     
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather Green Coleman Robinson 61
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather James Thomas Hardin 21 (Confederate POW Camp)
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather William Joshua Butcher Peace 66
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather James M B Temple Unknown
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather William T Dunn 63
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather John Wright Sr 63
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather Sampson Robertson 54
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather Elza Richard Donaldson 72
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Unknown Unknown
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Unknown Unknown
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather James Meagher Sr Unknown
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Alexander Donnelly Possibly 30
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Ephraim Lane Bassett 88
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Nelson Blodgett 77
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Thomas Tuggey 72
Maternal 3rd Great Grandfather Alfred Bailey 79
     
Average Excluding unknown 65.1
Average Excluding war, epidemic, accident 68.9
     

 Try your own list…it could be very interesting!