[SFGS] newsletter
- From: ludechem@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: gs members sunflower <sunflowergs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 01:51:52 +0000 (UTC)
Genealogy Gems: News from the Fort Wayne Library
No. 96, February 29, 2012
In this issue:
*The Leap Year--Using That Extra Day
*Passengers on the “Welcome:” Identifying Penn’s Colonists
*American Loyalist Claims
*Technology Tip of the Month--The Microsoft Word 2010 Ribbon: Mail Merge
*Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Organizing & Saving Memorabilia
*March Madness: Genealogy Style
*Exploring Origins.net for Your British, Irish & Scots Ancestors--Rescheduled
*Irish & Scots-Irish Genealogy: Part 2--A Two-Day Mini-Course
*Introduction to the 1940 Census
*Family Tree Maker Training Sessions
*Beginners’ Workshop
*Print Card System Streamlined
*FamilySearch Price Increase
*Out and About
*Area Calendar of Events
*Driving Directions to the Library
*Parking at the Library
*Queries for The Genealogy Center
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The Leap Year--Using That Extra Day
by Curt B. Witcher
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I hope the extra day we had this month was put to good use
discovering, recording, and sharing family histories. Never have we
had so many records to explore at our fingertips, and so many examples
of research strategies to employ depicted in periodicals, on webpages
and on television programs. Genealogical society meetings and webinars
are rich with ideas, and online classes and the FamilySearch wiki
provide an abundance of guidance and possible new pathways to
investigate.
The benefits of engaging in family history research are so
significant. As has been stated numerous times in this ezine, the
personal satisfaction of getting to know one’s ancestors, with all
their warts and wrinkles, challenges and triumphs, is enlightening and
inspiring. Family history is a great way--arguably the best way--to
learn history. It truly makes history come alive and take on a
relevance unmatched by any other approach. In discovering the
uniqueness of our individual ancestors, interestingly enough we also
learn how similar we are. Like the variegated colored threads in a
fine tapestry, the many threads of a family are wonderfully unique but
together they make an amazing tapestry. So it is with our immediate
families, extended families and community families.
The urgency to engage in family history research has never been
greater. First, there is so much living memory that is in jeopardy as
our family members age. I remain so convinced of our duty to take
active steps to record, preserve and share that living memory. We all
have heard too many “if only I had . . . “ stories. Add to that the
sober truth that we cannot depend on civil or church records to be
around for our children’s children to use. We at least need to
document our lives and the lives of our parents and grandparents to
ensure that our descendants have an opportunity to know us and those
close to us.
Record groups that you and I have used for years to assist us in our
research are increasingly at risk of being restricted, or completely
closed, by bureaucrats, or simply lost by well-intentioned but
uninformed record custodians who are simply “getting rid of all this
old stuff ‘cause we’re out of room.” Yes, we should continue our
efforts to engage government officials and record custodians about the
importance of preserving and making accessible the records that
document our rich history. That process is truly never ending and
typically nets only modestly satisfactory results. One of the surest
ways of seeing that documents and oral histories important to our
genealogies are preserved is do the research, make the recordings,
capture the images, and publish the data in some fashion. E-publishing
opportunities abound. The Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy
Center continues to welcome electronic publications to host on our
website. Increasing numbers of information aggregators in the
genealogy space are doing the same. History, our family history, is
truly in our hands. What remains for those who come after us is
increasingly our responsibility.
The RootsTech 2012 conference at the beginning of this month offered
so many amazing learning and networking experiences. There was much
talk about digital storage, with all its costs and implications for
access. While sobering, it was still quite instructive to hear
“between the spoken words” that very few governmental, educational, or
organizational entities have a meaningful digital archiving plan,
elements of which would include storage, retrieval, redundancy, and
data recovery. This writer believes that only the FamilySearch
engineers really “get it,” and are truly doing it. The point? Even in
a digitized form, our family histories are our responsibility. Share
the stories, share the work, share the copies.
If you need some help doing your research, or even getting motivated
to do the research, there are some excellent seminar and conference
activities coming up over the next three months. Read on in this ezine
for Genealogy Center programs. The Indiana Genealogical Society
< www.IndGenSoc.org > is meeting at the Allen County Public Library at
the end of April (April 27-28); the Ohio Genealogical Society
< www.OGS.org > is meeting in the Cleveland area before that (April
12-14); and the National Genealogical Society is meeting in Cincinnati
in May (May 9-12). You’re bound to find many motivating
presentations--encouraging you to advance your research as well as
equipping you to publish (preserve and share!) your findings.
***************************************
Passengers on the Welcome: Identifying Penn’s Colonists
by John D. Beatty
***************************************
The territory that became known as Pennsylvania was settled initially
in the early seventeenth century by the Dutch, who established a
scattering of trading posts in the wake of Henry Hudson’s
explorations. The Swedes followed, founding New Sweden in 1638, but
they lost control to the Dutch in 1655 when New Sweden became part of
the colony of New Netherland. After decades of war, England gained
firm control of the region by 1680, and the following year, Charles II
granted a charter to William Penn, who formally established the colony
of Pennsylvania and became both its proprietor and first governor.
Penn arrived in the colony aboard the “Welcome” in 1682, together with
a group that consisted mainly of other English Quakers but also
included a few Scots, Welsh, and Irish.
For this group of early English settlers and adventurers, the
“Welcome” is to Pennsylvania what the “Mayflower” and “Arabella” are
to New England. Generations of genealogists have taken great interest
in determining precisely who arrived with Penn, since no complete
passenger list survives for the vessel. The task has involved
examining London port books listing those who put merchandise on the
“Welcome,” as well as wills of four men who died on board, and several
other memoirs and depositions.
Enter the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, a hereditary organization
open to descendants of passengers on the “Welcome” and other ships
arriving in Pennsylvania between July and November 1682. In an attempt
to promote sound scholarship on these early arrivals, the society
sponsored the publication of two books in 1970: “Passengers and Ships
Prior to 1684,” under the editorship of Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. (GC
974.8 W44p no. 1), and “The Welcome Claimants Proved, Disproved, and
Doubtful, with an Account of Some of Their Descendants,” by George E.
McCracken (GC 974.8 W44p no. 2; reprint GC 974.8 M134w). In his
volume, Sheppard gathers articles by Marion Balderston and others on
subjects ranging from early shipping on the Delaware River to those
about some of the twenty-one other ships known to have arrived in 1682
and 1683. He provides annotations and a full name index, but the book
reads as a collection of assorted material instead of as a cohesive
work.
McCracken’s book is more ambitious, focusing exclusively on the
“Welcome,” gathering genealogical and historical information, and then
arranging it alphabetically by surname. For each of these family
sketches, McCracken offers an assessment of whether “proved,” “highly
probable,” “improbable,” or “disproved.” He provides genealogical data
on spouses and children when known, and he transcribes a number of key
historical documents, such as first-hand accounts, that further
illustrate the “Welcome” connection. He also includes notes, mostly to
other published sources. In the front, the reader will find a list of
both published and manuscript works about the “Welcome,” which
McCracken designates by letter throughout the text. His scholarship
does not reach the level of Robert Charles Anderson’s Great Migration
series for New England, and modern researchers would have liked many
more citations to original English and Pennsylvania sources. Still,
four decades after its publication, this volume remains the standard
work on the “Welcome” and is well worth a look for researchers who
believe they have ancestors who arrived with Penn.
***************************************
American Loyalist Claims
by Steven W. Myers
***************************************
The allegiance of American colonists during the Revolutionary War was
divided and substantial numbers remained loyal to the British Crown.
As many as 50,000 to 100,000 fled, suffering significant property
losses as a result of earlier confiscations or their “forced”
emigration. At war’s end, a Commission for Claims and Losses convened
in England to review applications for reparations submitted by these
suffering loyalists. Only a fraction of those who had lost much, about
2,000 individuals, managed to collect sufficient documentation to even
make a claim, and most who were successful received far less than the
amount requested. The resulting records, accumulated in Audit Office
series 12 and 13 at the National Archives outside London, are
available on microfilm in The Genealogy Center as the “American
Loyalist Claims Series I and Series II” (cabinet 50-B-7,8,9) and may
reward those researching Loyalist ancestry.
Some useful tools will help researchers access the wealth of
genealogical information in these claim files. First, a name index
compiled by Clifford S. Dwyer is available for each series (973.34
Aa1dw and Aa1dwa). The indexes provide name, state (when known), and
references to volume and page (Series I) or bundle number (Series II).
Beyond that, Peter Wilson Coldham published detailed abstracts of some
of the bundles of documents contained in AO series 13 in his “American
Loyalist Claims, volume I.” Many years later, Coldham’s additional
research in the claims was published as “American Migrations,
1765-1799,” containing biographical sketches of each claimant drawn
from documents in the files. Both of Coldham’s compilations contain
citations to the files of American Loyalist Claims, so that
genealogists can pursue other details on the microfilms that are not
included in the abstracts.
The nature of the documentation required by the Commission gives some
indication of the usefulness of these claims files for researchers.
Claims needed to be bolstered by proof of loyalty or service,
inventories of lost goods, proof of title to property, official
documents relating to seizures or banishment, and affidavits from
credible witnesses, some of whom were friends and relatives remaining
in America. Certainly, for those with Loyalist ancestry, the “American
Loyalist Claims” are an essential source, well worth examining.
***************************************
Technology Tip of the Month--The Microsoft Word 2010 Ribbon: Mail Merge
by Kay Spears
***************************************
Mail Merge is a powerful tool commonly used for labels, envelopes and
letters. The first step in using it is to establish a “source.” The
source is often in Microsoft Access or Excel and most likely contains
addresses. I usually create an address database in Microsoft Access
with name, address, city, state and zip code fields. These are all
separate fields, because I want the ability to manipulate my finished
mail merge. There are a number of ways to do mail merges, but I have
always created mine using Microsoft Word.
Now, open Microsoft Word, select the Mailings tab, and then click on
the “Start Mail Merge” drop down box. Select one of the options; for
this lesson, select Labels. The Labels dialogue box will open. Select
the type of label you have by clicking on the appropriate label vendor
and product number. Most standard labels have numbers assigned to
them, and Microsoft has quite a lengthy list of those choices. After
you have selected the correct label, click OK. You will see a document
with blank labels on it. Now we are ready to add the names and
addresses.
Click on Select Recipients>Use Existing List. A Select Data Source
dialogue box will open. Locate the file with your address list in it.
Select that list. You will see a page that says “next record” (except
for the very first label). Now find the Insert Merge Field tool,
located in the Write & Insert Fields group. Click on the Insert Merge
Field drop down arrow. Every field that is in your data source will be
listed. Pick the fields that you will be using for your labels. In the
first label, the one that is blank, insert the first field. If it is
the first name, enter a space and then insert the last name. Hit the
enter key. You will be on the line below the names. Now insert the
first address field and repeat until you have all address fields on
the label. When you have everything in the first label arranged to
your satisfaction, locate the Update Labels tool in the Write and
Insert Fields group, and click on it. Now all of your labels will have
the empty fields inserted in them. Any changes you make to your label
document, such as changing font size, etc., you will make on the first
label, then use the update tool.
Before the actual merge, you may want to sort your labels – by last
name or zip code, for example. This option is located in the Start
Mail Merge group under Edit Recipient List. You may sort by using the
drop down boxes for each field or by using the advanced tool,
depending on the desired results. For instance, if you want your
labels to be in order by zip code, go to the zip code field and sort
by using the “a to z ascending” tool. You can uncheck addresses you
don’t want to print or use the advanced option to do more complex
sorting. There are many options available in the Edit Recipient List;
I suggest you experiment.
Once you have everything in order, the next step is to merge your
source document with your label document. To do that, use the “Finish
and Merge” tool in the Finish group. Because I do a significant number
of mail merges, I put this tool in my Quick Access Toolbar. Click on
Finish and Merge>Edit Individual Documents, and a dialogue box will
open. Choose “All.” Voila, now you should have labels. After your
labels appear, quickly review each sheet. If you find that a name or
address is too long, adjust that particular label by compressing or
changing the font size. Now, you are ready to print. Envelopes and
letters that are merged go through most of the same steps. Just be
sure to connect to your source document.
Next: The Microsoft Word 2010 Ribbon: The File Tab
***************************************
Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Organizing & Saving Memorabilia
by Dawne Slater-Putt
***************************************
As genealogists, we daily create and handle a wide variety of paper
memorabilia and other ephemera that will be invaluable to our
descendants. Our calendars, cards and letters, ticket stubs and event
programs paint a picture of our lives that will go far beyond the
information future family historians can find about us on our birth,
marriage and death certificates.
One way to save this paper without allowing it to take over our homes
is to gather it in file jackets that are labeled by year. File jackets
are file folders with sides – enclosed “file pockets,” in other words
– that will accommodate contents approximately a half-inch thick.
Using a marker or pen, the tabs of these file jackets can be labeled
appropriately – “Cards, Letters & Calendars, 2011,” for example, or
“Paper Memorabilia, 2011.” A label maker can be used to make the
labels even more uniform and attractive.
Fill the file jackets with greeting cards, especially photo cards or
those that have a personal message written inside, tickets and
programs for events attended that year, baby birth announcements,
wedding programs, funeral cards, grandchildren’s artwork, appointment
books or wall calendars, and whatever other flat paper items you want
to save. The file jackets can be accumulated in plastic file boxes
with lids and stored in the basement, attic or a spare closet.
This storage is not suitable for long-term preservation of the paper
items, unless the file jackets and storage boxes used are specifically
labeled for archival storage, and items have been interleaved with
acid-free sheets of tissue. However, this is a method that will allow
the short-term storage and organization of paper materials so that
they do not overrun the home or office. It also allows for fairly easy
retrieval of items, since they are organized by year.
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