Genealogy

As the year draws to a close, it feels time to start something new in a an old container: this blog. I've been writing for my society at  https://skcgs.blogspot.com/ . I've learned a lot about DNA and how to do better research, and it's about time to tell some of the stories uncovered along the way.  I'll also be writing here for the new study group we are beginning in January, of the book Genetic Genealogy in Practice .  First though, new book for Christmas: Mastering Genealogical Proof , by Thomas W. Jones, 2013: National Genealogical Society, Arlington, VA Thank you Paul & Tara! It is a textbook, with questions at the end of every chapter.  Mastering Genealogical Proof Chapter One: Genealogy's Standard of Proof 1. What is genealogy? Genealogy is the study of families, known and unknown, by "accurately reconstructing forgotten or unknown identities and relationships of all sorts.[1] Research is drawn from all sorts of records, including those created by ...

The Goosics didn't come quite as early as the Disneys, and were not as numerous as the Baysingers. Here is what I find on a search of the Warren Co. IA Genweb: WARREN COUNTY TAX LIST – 1855 in Washington Township: Goosic, Andrew Index of Warren County Marriages 1849-1899 (Brides) BRIDE GROOM DATE Goosic, Delilah Nichollson, Elisha 15 Oct 1854 Goosic, Margaret Stierwalt, William A. 14 Apr 1870 Goosic, Mary Nichelson, William 8 Aug 1866 Goosic, Sarah Basinger, Elias H. 15 Aug 1861 Wilkinson, Nora C. Goosic, James E. 1 Mar 1877 Index of Warren County Marriages 1849-1899 (Grooms) GROOM BRIDE DATE Nichelson, William Goosic, Mary 8 Aug 1866 Nichollson, Elisha Goosic, Delilah 15 Oct 1854 Goosic, A. T. Jr. [Andrew Jackson Jr.] Burner, Lavina 17 Jun 1813 Goosic, James E. Wilkinson, Nora C. 1 Mar 1877 In order to take a more global look, I went to Linkpendium's Goosic page . * Findagrave reports 54 Goosic graves, mostly in Nebraska, some in Iow...

The history of the Disneys in Warren County, Iowa begins very early, 1846, and continues in pioneer deaths, as is told in the Warren County, Iowa Genweb page here:  http://www.iagenweb.org/warren/cemeteries/carlislehistory.html . Hadleys, Ormes and Browns, and even a connection to the underground railway during the Civil War also weave into this story. Names, dates and places: * Jacob Disney arrived in the Summerset-Carlisle, Iowa, area in the spring of 1846, from Knox County, Ohio. With him: Richard Hadley and Jacob's brother Mordecai Disney. * Hadley and Disney were the first burials in Carlisle Cemetery, in summer 1846, both dead of cholera. *  Eliza and Joseph Petre, relatives of Disney, finished out the claim and deeded the cemetery to the county in 1860. Eliza and Joseph's son, Albert Petre , was the first [white] child born in that area. * Mordecai Disney , blacksmith, later went to California (1849?) to dig for gold. * "The third burial in Carlisle ...

Quick shout-out to the fine work that Iowa GenWeb does. My mother was born in Warren County, and her Baysingers, Disneys, Goosics had all been there for generations. Her father's people, the McBees were there for a time as well. (Below is what is found for the Baysingers, not including the Census, which I find at MyHeritage.) Tonight I happened upon a database I've never heard of before, the OLD AGE PENSION TAX LIST – 1935 Otter Township Assessor’s List of Those Subject to Old Age Pension Tax for the Year 1935,  Otter Township, Warren County, Iowa , Filed March 16, 1935 by A. H. Traub, Warren County Auditor To the Treasurer of said County: This book contains a complete list, arranged alphabetically, of residents of Otter Township in the said county, who are over 21 years of age, and subject to a tax of $2.00, payable in 1935 for the benefit of the Old Age Pension Fund, as required by Section 34, Chapter 19, Acts of the Forty-fifth General Assembly in extraordinary sessio...

It's been about a month since I gave up waiting and started "making something happen" on 23andme . I have 983 "DNA Relatives" there, and Gedmatch shows me my top 1000 matches. I've messaged all of the 23andme matches, with mixed results. First, only about one-third of the cousins have a name or profile that I can see on 23andme. Those people I have messaged by name, and if they have surnames and/or localities listed, I often mention those if they sound interesting or familiar. Many people have nothing listed in their profile but a name. Those folks without a name can be messaged, but it has to be generic. A few of those nameless people have accepted contact, and some "sharing", which is what 23andme calls comparing genomes. Of course sharing genomes is the whole reason I'm doing this, so it has been a lot of work just to get to starting line. For those who are not interested in doing this work to get matches, my advice is: use FTDNA or An...

Sometimes your Swedes may have come from Denmark originally, married a Dane after emigration, or emigrated through Denmark. Here are some resources, generously collected by Arne Hansson on the Swedestoo list  (update: list now dead). Arne's note: Copenhagen in Danish is "København". In Swedish, it is Köpenhamn. To use the character "ø", copy and paste it from here, if you have difficulties creating an "ø" on your keyboard. Danish Demographic Database : http://ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm Danish digitized churchbooks : http://www.arkivalieronline.dk/ (similar to Genline for Swedish research). Both are run by the Danish State Archives. Press the button English flag to the left to get English. Both sites are free if you register. DIS-Danmark : http://www.dis-danmark.dk/dis-english.asp - the site for Danish researchers online. Danish Emigration Archives :  https://aemi.eu/the-danish-emigration-archives/

I read a wonderful comment today on Dick Eastman's site, by Geoff Riggs ... Genealogy is the bones - gathering of the facts about ones ancestors such as names, dates, places. Family History is 'putting the flesh on the bones' - finding the stories, history, geography, and so forth that shaped the lives of our ancestors. Rudyard Kipling wrote: I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who I added a second verse to this some years ago: For pure Genealogists 'Who, When and Where?' suffice But Family Historians> Add 'Why, What, How?' for spice Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. - Eugene S. Wilson

Prosopography: the study of collective biography, for individuals of a certain group (social class, profession, time frame, geographic origin, etc.). By accumulating data on individuals in a group, one learns more about the group. The term may have been coined by anthropologists but it is widely used among medieval historians, particularly social historians. - Nathaniel Taylor, ntaylor@fas.harvard.edu freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~randyj2222/gendictp.html Prosopography is an important methodological tool within historical research, its goal being the collection of all known information about individuals within a given period, often in the form of a register or database (frequently also known as a "Prosopography", e.g. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopography Thanks to Sharon Sergeant of the APG list for introducing me to this term. She references Mel Wolfgang's presentation Researching 'Birds of a Feather'...

Making of America University of Michican: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ Cornell: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/   Education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology Berkeley: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MOA2/Help/ Wildly cool - The American Colonist's Library: Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History : http://www2.pitnet.net/primarysources/ Yale Law's Avalon Project : http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm Federal Land Patents : http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Search the Missouri Digital Library : http://tinyurl.com/ytkxj Documents of Tennessee History, 1796-1850 : http://diglib.lib.utk.edu/dlc/tdh/index.html Repositories of Primary Sources, Eastern United States and Canada : http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/east1.html#usga Hundreds of links to Primary Sources, USA & Worldwide : http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/other.html Online Collections at BYU - Family History Archive : http://w...

Tracing the Tribe - The Jewish Genealogy Blog : http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com Excerpts from Gary Mokotoff's essential book, How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust : http://www.avotaynu.com/Holocaust/ JewishGen FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about Jewish Genealogy - How to do Jewish genealogical research, and InfoFiles: http://www.jewishgen.org/ Jewish Mail Lists : http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_jewish.html Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center (American Red Cross): http://www.redcross.org/services/intl/holotrace/ Towns with Published Yizkor Books : http://www.avotaynu.com/Holocaust/appendixa.htm Tracing Your Roots - Holocaust Research : http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/roots/jewish/holocaust/holocaust.htm Yad Vashem Search for Names : http://www.yadvashem.org/remembrance/temp_remembrance Global Holocaust Registry : http://www.jewishgen.org/registry/ Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors : http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/registr...

Annually, both the Federation of Genealogy Societies (FGS) and the National Genealogy Society (NGS) hold conventions. Both are full of excellent classes and workshops. Also, the Association of Profession Genealogists (APG) holds a Roundtable or Conference before these national conferences. FGS : http://www.fgs.org/ NGS : http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/    Home Study Course also available on CD APG : http://www.apgen.org/conferences/roundtable.html , http://www.apgen.org/conferences/    The APG list is also essential: http://www.apgen.org/publications/apg-l/ National Institute on Genealogical Research : http://www.rootsweb.com/~natgenin/    An-depth look at federal records of genealogical value located primarily in Washington, D.C. Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy : http://www.infouga.org/ Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research , Samford Univ., Birmingham AL: http://www.samford.edu/schools/ighr/ighr.html UWExtension offers a 9-mo...

Administrator's page: http://boards.rootsweb.com/Default.aspx?view=admin Localities Selkirkshire, Scotland : http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.britisles.scotland.sel.general/mb.ashx?view=admin ( SCT-Selkirk list: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/SCT-Selkirk-L.htm ) Dalarna, Sweden : http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.scan-balt.sweden.counties.dalarna/mb.ashx?view=admin Surnames Basinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.basinger/mb.ashx?view=admin ( Basinger list: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Basinger-L.htm ) Bassinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.bassinger/mb.ashx?view=admin Baysinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.baysinger/mb.ashx?view=admin ( Baysinger list: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Baysinger-L.htm ) Beesinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.beesinger/mb.ashx?view=admin Besinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.besinger/mb.ashx?view=admin Bessinger : http://boards.rootsweb.com/s...

Finding places in old Germany: ShtetlSeeker : http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm Meyers Geographical and Commercial Gazetteer of the German Empire ( Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs in German) now FREE at Ancestry: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/meyers-ort-online-and-free.html GEOserv (email process): http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/geoserv.html German Place Database : http://www.saxonyroots.com/place/index.php?lang=en Topography Keyword list with links to sources: http://www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de/digitaletexte_keywords.html    in German German Maps : http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/german-maps.html Genealogy.net (German & English): http://www.genealogy.net Germany GenWeb : http://www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/ Links for German Genealogy on the Internet : http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/germanlinks.html Ahnenforschung.net (in German; IRC chat as well as information): http://ahnenforschung.net/ and http://alsachat....