Wordless Wednesday: Joseph Josiah ROBBINS (1820 - 1905)

Joseph Josiah Robbins. Bef 1905. Original photograph believed to be privately held by Steve Robbins, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Muskegon, Michigan. 2012.

ArkivDigital for Free August 25-26

The Swedish genealogical records site, ArkivDigital, is offering free access to their image database containing over 36 million images this coming weekend, August 25 and 26, 2012. They are also offering a discount on a one-year subscription to their website from now through September 9th. To find out how to access ArkivDigital for free this weekend, what records they cover, and more information about their special subscription price, read their press release here.

Tuesday's Tip: County Histories and Biographies (Mug Books)

What They Are and Why They're Useful
Yesterday I started a new theme for my blog, Mug Book Monday. "Mug books" are are collections of biographical sketches usually found within or alongside county histories of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, particularly in the United States. As our nation celebrated its centennial in 1876, genealogy and local history became of interest to the layman, and this spurred the publication of county histories and biographies. Often, a family or individual had to pay to have their biography written up and published. If a person were lacking in finances or interest in having their life story published, then there possibly won't be a biography for him, even if he were a prominent citizen. Also, keep in mind that because someone might have paid to have the biography written, it would tend to highlight only the positive aspects of this person's life or ancestry. It's also possible that there could be erroneous information given, perhaps even deliberately. Beware of sweeping generalizations, such as "the subject's mother-in-law was of Scottish heritage" or "his grandfather fought with Washington in the American Revolution." Nevertheless, county histories and biographies are great secondary sources for genealogists because they often list parents, siblings, children, spouses, and in-laws; track migration; depict photographs of the individual and/or their home or business; and give birth, marriage, death, and burial dates and locations. This is especially important as vital records were not usually kept until the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries in many states. Additional information often includes occupations, religious and political affiliations, and societies in which the individual was a member. Remember to check to see if your ancestors' siblings, cousins, or in-laws were featured in mug books, as an indirect way to glean genealogical gems.

Does Your County of Interest Have a Published History or Biographical Sketches?

One of the best resources to find out if your county of interest has a published history or biographical sketches is A Bibliography of American County Histories compiled by P. William Filby. Your local library or genealogical society may have this title. If not, you could possibly order it through interlibrary loan (ILL) at your public library (more on ILL below). This will not only let you know if there are mug books for your county, but what the titles, compilers, and publication dates are for those items. This covers over 5,000 county histories published as of September 2000.

Another good resource to check is the FamilySearch catalog, which lists all the books, microfilm, and microfiche held at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. At this point, you're not looking to actually obtain the book. You're simply doing a place-name search in the catalog (remember to list the state first, then the county), then looking for titles in the biography and history sections for that location. Once you have a title, you can again check your local library or genealogical society to see if they have the mug book, or use WorldCat to have one sent to you. Another option is to order the microfilmed or microfiched book to your local FamilySearch Center or have a researcher at the Family History Library do a look up in the book for a small fee (more on that below).

By entering the county name and a phrase such as "spokane county history" or "muskegon county biographical", Google can come up with a linked title either available in electronic format on the Internet or listed in a online bookstore, such as Amazon. Note that if your county name is very common, you may wish to list the state name in your search as well: "lincoln county washington" "county history".

Where to Find Mug Books Online

The easiest way to access a county history or biography is right here on the Internet. Many have been digitized or transcribed and are available on subscription or free websites. Here are five ways to access these books:

1. Subscription sites - here are some well-known genealogy subscription websites containing many county histories and biographies; you may already have subscriptions to these or can access them for free via your public library or FamilySearch Center: American Ancestors (NEHGS), Ancestry, GenealogyBank, WorldVitalRecords
2. Digitized free book sites - FamilySearch Family History Books, Google Books, Hathi Digital Trust Library, HeritageQuest Online (requires a library card from a participating library; many FamilySearch Centers also have free access), Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg
3. Archives, Libraries, Societies, Genealogical County Sites - to find digitized mug books, check out state, county, local and university archives (many are linked at my blog in my Online American Digital Archives and Databases series, or the Repositories of Primary Sources site); public library sites; and genealogical and historical society sites. Many transcribed mug books can be found at genealogical county sites such as USGenWeb, USGenNet, or GenealogyTrails. Use all these sites by going to the local level of your county of interest to find what might be available. For instance, use the PublicLibraries site to find a library in your county of interest to see if there is a digitized local history book on that library's website.
4. Portals - sites that link you to other sites where the digitized or transcribed books reside: Cyndi's List, DigitalBookIndex, LearnWebSkills' County and Town Histories, Linkpendium, Online Books Library Page. Depending on the site, you can either run a search on a title, or work your way down to the county page to find the book of interest.
5. Google Search - Go to Google or your favorite search engine and enter the name of the title you want, in quotes: "History of the counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania, with Biographical selections"

Where to Find Mug Books Offline

Because everything is not on the Internet (shocking, I know!), your best success in finding the mug book with your ancestor's story may come at your local public library or the collection at your local genealogical or historical society. Most public libraries and some societies have their card catalog available online, allowing you to do pre-research. Keep in mind that mug books are nearly always considered reference books and usually aren't allowed to be checked out. If you can't locate the mug book at a local library, using interlibrary loan (ILL) is the next best step. Check out WorldCat to see where the title may be held, then ask your local librarian to help you order it through interlibrary loan. Some library districts, like my own, allow their patrons to make an ILL request directly from their website. At others, you will need to come into the branch and fill out a form. Keep in mind that depending upon the policy of the lending library, you might not be allowed to bring the book home and can only view it at your library's branch. If that is the case, see if you can are allowed to photocopy or photograph the pertinent pages containing your ancestor's biography. In other cases, the book may not be available to lend to your library, but you can request the holding library to make photocopies for you and send them to your library or mail them to you directly. There may be a small fee for this.

Yet another offline option is to use your local FamilySearch Center. Volunteers at these local branches of the Family History Library (FHL) can help you order mug books on microfilm or microfiche from Salt Lake City to be viewed on machines at your local FamilySearch Center. Once you know how to do this, you can also order these directly on the FamilySearch website. There is a small rental fee involved. Books are not generally loaned to a FamilySearch Center from the FHL. However, you can request that a researcher at the FHL do a look up for one of your ancestral names in a mug book. If found, photocopies can be made and mailed to you, again for a small fee. Check with the volunteers at the FamilySearch Center for assistance with this.

Mug Books in Other Countries

The United States does not have a monopoly on county histories and biographies. Canada's Local Histories Online site is called Our Roots/Nos Racines.While I haven't found specific Canadian ancestors so far, I've enjoyed reading the local history of where they lived. In 1899, the Victoria County History was created, "an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day." These books can be found at Victoria County History and British History Online. For these and other countries, many links to online county histories and biographies can be found at WorldGenWeb sites.


Join Me

I encourage you to attempt to find a biography or family history in a mug book. Even if you don't find one, take the time to read the local history and look at the maps to gain insight into the background and geography of where your ancestors lived. If you're lucky enough to discover an ancestor or relative has been highlighted, then please join me in blogging about them on Mug Book Monday. There's definitely going to be a limit to the amount of posts you can write for this theme, as we only have so many ancestors that had histories published. However, this is a great way to share these published treasures with our family and other researchers!

Mug Book Monday: Joseph Josiah ROBBINS (1820 - 1905)

"Mug books" are collections of biographical sketches usually found within county histories of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, particularly in the United States. Each Monday, I'm highlighting ancestors or relatives who were featured in these mug books.

     "JOSEPH J. ROBBINS, farmer, was born in Otsego County, N. Y., December 4, 1820, and was married January 15, 1842 at Tioga County, Pa., to Miss Marinda Robbins. He enlisted September, 1861, in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Pennsylvania Infantry, which was consolidated with teh Fifty-Eighth Pennsylvania Infantry. He was discharged January 9, 1865, at Chapin's Far, Va. He lost his eyesight by sunstroke in 1864, and still suffers from the same cause. He came to this township, May, 1865, locating on his farm a short distance north of Hesperia. He has resided for some time in the village of Hesperia. He has seven children--Charles H., Emmeline C., Berson [sic - Benson], Benjamin L., Evaline E., Benjamin F. [sic - Ben Franklin], and William W."

---

Joseph was my fourth-great-grandfather. His wife Marinda was his second wife, and she was my ancestor, too. Their son, Charles, was my third-great-grandfather. I wrote a little sketch about Joseph's Civil War service, here. All the details about Joseph's life mentioned here appear to be correct, as I analyze them against other documents. The only exceptions are his children's names. Their full names, with correct spellings, should be: Charles Henry, Emeline Catherine, Joseph Uzza Benson, Benjamin Leader (he went by "Lee"), Evaline L., Ben Franklin (nicknamed "Frank") and William Wallace Robbins. Evaline died in March 1880 and William died in July 1882. It's possible the material for this book was gathered several years prior to publishing, and therefore the death of Evaline (and possibly William) before publication would not have been noted.

This biographical sketch was taken from History of Manistee, Mason and Oceana Counties, Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published in Chicago by H. R. Page & Co., 1882. Joseph's sketch was found in the Oceana County section, on page 147. This county history, along with many other Michigan ones, can be found at the Michigan County Histories and Atlases Digitization Project website.

Surname Saturday: M(a)cARTHUR

MacArthur and McArthur are two common spellings of this Scots patronym. The surname simply means "son of Arthur". Who that man, Arthur--the originator of my particular family line--was, has been lost in time at this point. Using church records indexed at FamilySearch, I've been able to trace my line back five generations from my paternal great-great-grandmother.


Stories and History:

Ahnentafel #336 - Donald (or Daniel) MacARTHUR (b. 1716) - I've seen both Donald and Daniel listed as first names for this man. It's likely one is a mis-transcription of the other, a common mistake in genealogy. He married Katherine McNAUGHTON on 15 Jan 1754 in Kenmore, Perthshire, Scotland. They had nine children, all born and/or christened in Kenmore. Donald/Daniel was buried in Argyllshire, Scotland.

Ahnentafel #168 - Duncan MacARTHUR (1753 - 1842) - my immigrant ancestor was born in Kenmore. He married Janet HAGGERT, also born in Kenmore. It's not clear if they married in Scotland or in Canada. All seven children were born in Canada. Duncan died Aug 1842 in Martintown, Glengarry Co., Ontario.

Ahenentafel #84 - Donald MacARTHUR (d. bef. 1842) - I know less about this ancestor than I do his own father, due to the fact that he died young, before his father did and before civil registration of deaths in Canada. He married Catherine "Nancy" Anne MUNRO, who was also born in Canada. They had at least three children.

Ahnentafel #42 - Daniel J. MacARTHUR (1827 - 1919) - Another immigrant ancestor (to the U.S. this time), he served for the Union during the Civil War. I did a sketch about him here when blogging a series about Civil War Soldier and Sailor ancestors. I also blogged about him and his wife, Martha JOHNSON, here.

Ahnentafel #21 - Mary "Mae" E. McARTHUR (1875 - 1959) - read her AnceStory here

Ahnentafel #10 - Howard Merkel YORK (1898 - 1945) - read his AnceStory here

Ahnentafel #5 - Jane Marie YORK, a.k.a. Jeanne Marie HOLST - (1924 - 2012)

Ahnentafel #2 - my father (living)

Ahnentafel #1 - myself

More About the M(a)cARTHUR Family:

1. Online database (I update this at least once a month): McARTHUR and MacARTHUR ancestors and relatives (no info on living persons available)

2. Some McARTHUR obituaries

3. Posts about McARTHUR ancestors and relatives on this blog

4. Some scanned McARTHUR photos

5. Some scanned McARTHUR documents

6. My  McARTHUR Virtual Cemetery on Find A Grave

My M(a)cARTHUR Immigration Trail:

Perthshire, Scotland > Glengarry Co., ONT > Montcalm Co., MI > Clinton Co., MI > Gratiot Co., MI > Clinton Co., MI > Genesee Co., MI > Kent Co., MI > Ottawa Co., MI > AK > Stevens Co., WA > Spokane Co., WA

Surname Saturday: COLLINS

The COLLINS line for my children ends with one of my ex-husband's great-great-grandmothers, Senna "Senie" COLLINS TOLLIVER, who died in Los Angeles in 1950. The line's beginnings, as we know it, start with Jonathan COLLINS, Sr., in Pennsylvania in 1706. I strongly suspect that this line has Melungeon heritage, due to the facts that COLLINS is a common name among that ethnicity, as well as the family is known to have lived in areas of North Carolina where Melungeon ancestry is common. Furthermore, a close biological relative of my children tested positive for sub-Saharan African ancestry in an autosomnal DNA test.


Stories and History:

Ahnentafel #608 - Jonathan COLLINS, Sr. (1706 - 1779) - born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he married Ann SMITH (b. 1719) on 2 Jul 1731 in Hardwich, Sussex Co., New Jersey, where later Jonathan died.. They had eight children.

Ahnentafel #304 - Mahlon COLLINS (1756 - 1834) - born in Sussex County, New Jersey, he married Phoebe WEBSTER (1756 - 1841) on 10 Oct 1776 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. They also had eight children. Mahlon would have been the right age to have served in the American Revolution, but so far, I have neither found, nor honestly looked, for information to support this. This couple likely followed their adult children to Grayson County, Virginia, and eventually to Lawrence County, Indiana, where Mahlon died.

Ahnentafel #152 - John COLLINS, Sr. (1777 - 1850) - born in Sussex County, New Jersey, he married Effie CONLEY (1775 - bef 1830); no marriage details found so far. They had seven children. This couple migrated with John's siblings and probably his parents to Grayson County, Virginia, where John died.

Ahnentafel #76 - Elijah COLLINS (1802 - 1896) - born, married, and died in Baywood, Grayson Co., Virginia, he married Margy COX (1817 - 1904) on 9 Jun 1832. They had 14 children, many of whom moved west to Nebraska and Colorado.

Ahnentafel #38 - Mahlon F. COLLINS (1846 - 1887) - born in Grayson County, Virginia, he married twice. His first wife was Mary A. "Polly" HACKLER (1848 - 1878), to whom he married on 18 Feb 1869 in Grayson County. They had five children, the eldest being my children's ancestor (see below). After Polly's death, Mahlon married Nancy WARD (1843 - 1920) by 1882. They had two children. With his second wife and children, Mahlon migrated west to Nebraska, where he died at age 41, probably in Battle Creek, Madison County.

Ahnentafel #19 - Senna "Senie" COLLINS (1870 - 1950) - born in Grayson County, Virginia, Senie moved west with her father, step-mother, and siblings to Battle Creek, Madison Co., Nebraska, where she met and married Clark Pleasant R. TOLLIVER (1861 - 1918) from North Carolina. They were married on 3 Jul 1886 and had nine children. The family migrated to Hotchkiss Twp., Delta Co., Colorado, where they met the MIDKIFF family. Two of their children married MIDKIFFs, and both families migrated further west into California in the 1910s. Clark died in 1918, and Senie remained unmarried for the rest of her life, another 32 years, living mainly with her children in the Los Angeles area. She died in Los Angeles, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale. I was able to visit her grave in 2010 while attending Jamboree.

Ahnentafel #9 - Margie Ethel TOLLIVER (1889 - 1977)

Ahnentafel #4 - John Franklin MIDKIFF, II (1910 - 1957)

Ahnentafel #2 - my children's paternal grandfather (living)

Ahnentafel #1 - my children's father (living)


More about the COLLINS family:

1. Online database (I update this at least once a month): COLLINS ancestors and relatives (no info on living persons available)

2. Posts about COLLINS ancestors and relatives on this blog

3. Some scanned COLLINS photos

4. Some scanned COLLINS documents

5. My  COLLINS Virtual Cemetery on Find A Grave

6. The Historical Melungeons blog


The COLLINS immigration trail:

Bucks Co., PA > Sussex Co., NJ > Hunterdon Co., NJ > Grayson Co., VA > Lawrence Co., IN > Madison Co., NE > Delta Co., CO > Mesa Co., CO > Custer Co., ID > Los Angeles and/or Butte Co., CA > Yakima Co., WA > Thurston Co., WA > Clark Co., WA > Spokane Co., WA

Book Review: Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors

I've been doing a lot of research lately on my WILKINSON line, which purportedly originates in Yorkshire, England. That broad location is not exactly helpful; it's the equivalent here in the U.S. of saying one's family comes from Texas. Yorkshire is the largest of the English counties. In fact, it's so large, it was divided into three administrative units called ridings: North, West, and East.

While I have a long way to go before discovering exactly where in Yorkshire my WILKINSONs derived, I came across an advertisement for Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors and decided to order it through interlibrary loan to see if it could be of use to my future research. This 162-page paperback book, written by Rachel Bellerby and published by Pen and Sword Family History (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2006) contains quite a number of black-and-white photos. In my opinion, it would have been beneficial to include several maps, showing geography and communities, as well as parish and other administrative borders, especially to this American who is unfamiliar with the locations mentioned within. The introduction was extremely useful, with information on Yorkshire's various archives (university, museum, and business), county record offices, the Registry of Deeds at Wakefield, and the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research.

The book is divided into ten chapters. The first three are focused on the occupations and trades that many Yorkshire citizens engaged in, very often due to the regions they lived in. For instance, in Chapter 1, I learned that North Yorkshire is known for its farming and agriculture, while South Yorkshire has a industrial and mining tradition. East Yorkshire--on the coast--is recognized for its fishing and marine industries, and West Yorkshire has a worldwide reputation for producing fine textiles. (Note that the four geographic regions do not coincide exactly to the three Ridings.) From this information, I can estimate that my farming and carpentering WILKINSONs may likely have come from the North. The next six chapters focus on Yorkshire lifestyles which would produce records of genealogical interest, such as urban ancestors, leisure and societies, religion and its records, education and institutions, the military, and migration and poverty. I admit I was disappointed that the chapter on migration had no information whatsoever on emigration to other countries. I had hoped to find some clues as to migration patterns from certain parishes in Yorkshire to certain counties in Ontario, Canada. Instead, it had information on recent immigration into Yorkshire. I did see how its description of The Romany Collection would be of interest to someone with Romany (a.k.a. "Gypsy") heritage.

The last chapter appears to be well detailed and is an excellent reference. Titled "Directory of Archive Repositories and Family History Societies," it is divided into the following sections, most of which are further divided into the four regions: archives, museum archives, libraries, miscellaneous, and Family History Societies in Yorkshire. These contain descriptions of the institutions and their collections, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and websites and/or email addresses, where pertinent.

Despite some of its omissions, I recommend this resource, and will likely purchase a copy for my home genealogical library once I determine exactly from where in Yorkshire my ancestors immigrated. In the U.S., it is available on Amazon for $19.95.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Making a Living: Land and Sea

Chapter 2. From Serges to Saris: the Textile Trade

Chapter 3. Great Estates: Living and Working on the Land

Chapter 4. Street Life: Urban Ancestors

Chapter 5. From Sport to Shopping: Leisure Time

Chapter 6. Religion: Established Church and Nonconformity

Chapter 7. Education and Institutions

Chapter 8. Uniformed Ancestors

Chapter 9. Migration and Poverty

Chapter 10. Directory of Archive Repositories and Family History Societies

Conclusion

Index


Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price when readers purchase a title through the Amazon link above, although this title is available at other websites and various bookstores.

Idaho Genealogical Society's Annual Meeting and Seminar

The Idaho Genealogical Society announces its Annual Meeting/Seminar on 29 September 2012 in Hayden, Idaho. It is sponsored by the IGS and the Kootenai County Genealogical Society and will be held at the Holiday Inn Express, 151 West Orchard, Hayden.

The itinerary for the day is as follows:

8:30 AM - Registration
9:00 AM - Welcome by jean Timmermeister (KCGS)
9:10 AM - Welcome and Introductions by Juvanne Martin (IGS)
9:30 AM - IGS Business and Reports
10:40 AM - Break
11:00 AM - Speaker John Schalk: "Life in Nazi-Occupied Germany"
12:00 PM - Lunch (provided by KCGS)
1:00 PM - IGS Business and Elections
1:30 PM - Speaker Miriam Robbins: "Frugal Genealogy"
2:30 PM - Break
2:45 PM - Speaker Connie Godak: "Finding Family with FamilySearch.org"
4:00 PM - Wrap-up and Adjournment
4:00 - 5:00 PM - Networking and Socializing

Registration for KCGS and IGS members is $25; all others, $30. Fee includes lunch. Lunch cannot be guaranteed for late registrants and at-the-door, so register now. For more information or to register, call Waneva Maymon at (208) 772-6618 or email wmaymon@icehouse.net. This event is open to the public--bring a guest. Deadline for registration is September 15, 2012, so send it in soon!

The registration form, directions and overnight accomodations can be downloaded here.

July 2012 Scanfest

Scanfest is Coming (with some changes)!

The July 2012 Scanfest will take place here at AnceStories tomorrow, Sunday, July 29th, from 11 AM to 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

What is Scanfest? It's a time when geneabloggers, family historians, and family archivists meet online here at this blog to chat while they scan their precious family document and photos. Why? Because, quite honestly, scanning is time-consuming and boring!

Scanfest is a great time to "meet" other genealogists, ask questions about scanning and preservation, and get the kick in the pants we all need on starting those massive scanning projects that just seem too overwhelming to begin.

To get started, you need to know the basics about scanning:

1. Don't use commercial glass cleaners (i.e. Windex) or paper towels to clean your scanner's glass plate. Use a soft, clean cloth, preferably microfiber. If you must use a liquid, use water sprayed directly onto the cloth and make sure to let the plate dry thoroughly before placing photos or documents on it.

2. Wear cotton gloves (available at many art and/or photography supply shops) when handling photos and old documents.

3. Don't slide the photos around on the glass plate. Place them exactly where you want them. Photos should NEVER be scanned by a scanner that feeds the document through the machine, but ALWAYS on a flat-bed scanner.

4. Set your scanner to scan at no smaller than 300 dpi (dots per inch). Many experts recommend 600 dpi for photographs.

5. Photographs should ALWAYS be scanned and saved as .tif files. Use "Save As" to reformat the .tif file to a .jpg file for restoration and touchups, emailing, or uploading to an online photo album. ALWAYS retain the original scan as a .tif file.

6. Documents can be scanned as .pdf files or .tif files.

7. When you are done scanning your photos, don't put them back in those nasty "magnetic" photo albums. Place them in archival safe albums or boxes found at websites such as Archival Products or Archival Suppliers. Do NOT store any newsprint (articles, obituaries, etc.) with the photos. The acid from the newspaper will eventually destroy the photograph.

Now about the chatting part of Scanfest (here are the changes):

We will be using Cbox, a live blogging format that you access right here at AnceStories. On Sunday at 11 AM, PDT, come right here to AnceStories and you'll see the Cbox live chat window in the top post. You will not need to download any software.

Why the change? CoverItLive, the chat platform we have used in the past, changed its terms of use for its free version. It is now limited to 25 views per account per month. As you can imagine, more than 25 people visit Scanfest each month, either during its live session on the last Sunday of each month, or later, to catch up on what they missed. We will be trying out Cbox to see how it fits Scanfest's needs. We may try other chat platforms in the future to find the best fit for Scanfest and our Scanfesters.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all there and getting some scanning done!

Surname Saturday: WILKINSON

My WILKINSON line ends with my paternal great-grandmother's mother, Mary J. WILKINSON, and like my KIMBALL line, can only be traced back two more generations. The line originates from Yorkshire, England, but there are no further details, such as which city or town, or even which Riding in Yorkshire the family hails. This is a brickwall line I would love to tear down!

Stories and History:

Ahnentafel #76 - Richard (middle name John?) WILKINSON (b. c. 1815) - born in Yorkshire, England, he married Mary LAMOREAUX (a.k.a. TERRY) (c. 1818 - 1901). An article in the Weekly Guide, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, on 25 August 1869 mentioned a thirtieth anniversary celebration of a Mr. and Mrs. John WILKINSON of Canton on the 14th of August. Richard and Mary were known to have ties to the area. They had five, possibly six, children: Elizabeth, John, Mary, Richard, William, and (possibly) George Henry. The couple was in Woodstock, Oxford County in 1845, and Aurora, York County by 1856. By the 1861 Canadian Census, they were in East Gwillimbury, York County and in 1871 and 1881, they were in Whitchurch Township, York County, where Richard remained the rest of his days. In 1891, Mary is listed as a widow. There is no record of Richard's death in the Ontario Death Records (believe me, I've looked!).

Ahnentafel #38 - John WILKINSON, Sr. (1845 - 1917) - According to a written family history, John was born in Woodstock, Oxford County, Ontario. He married Mahala SAYERS (1847 - 1937) on 29 Jul 1871 in Port Hope, Northumberland County. They emigrated to Muskegon County, Michigan c. 1880-1 with other Sayers family members, effectively missing both the U.S. Federal Census of 1880 and the Canadian Census of 1881! John and Mahala had eight children, the first five born in various communities of Northumberland and Durham Counties, and the last three born in Muskegon County. John was a carpenter and built numerous homes in the Whitehall Township area of Muskegon County.

Ahnentafel #19 - Mary J. WILKINSON (1872 - 1940) - She was born in Port Hope, Northumberland County, Ontario, the eldest of eight children. She married George Emmett LEWIS (1868 - 1964) on 31 Dec 1891 in Muskegon, Muskegon County, Michigan. Like her father, George was a carpenter, and it is likely Mary met George if he worked for or with her father. For a short time, Mary and George lived in Cleon Township, Manistee County, and later in Blue Lake Township, Muskegon County, but they lived most of their lives in Whitehall Township, Muskegon County, particularly the Village of Whitehall with both Wilkinson and Lewis family members close by. Mary gave birth to 13 children, 11 of whom survived infancy. Her eldest child, George Richard LEWIS was tragically killed at the age of 20 in a motorcycle accident. Although Mary herself only lived to the age of 68, four of her children survived into their 90's, apparently inheriting her Great-grandfather Sayers' longevity genes (he lived to age 102).

Ahnentafel #9 - Marie LEWIS (1902 - 1986) - my great-grandmother; read her AnceStory here.

Ahnentafel #4 - Robert Lewis ROBBINS (1920 - 2003) - my paternal grandfather; read his AnceStory here.

Ahnentafel #2 - my father (living)

Ahnentafel #1 - myself


More about the WILKINSON family:

1. Online database (I update this at least once a month): WILKINSON ancestors and relatives (no info on living persons available)

2. Some WILKINSON obituaries

3. Posts about WILKINSON ancestors and relatives on this blog

4. Some scanned WILKINSON photos

5. Some scanned WILKINSON documents

6. My WILKINSON Virtual Cemetery on Find A Grave

My WILKINSON immigration trail:

Yorkshire, England > Oxford Co., ONT > York Co., ONT > Northumberland Co., ONT > Durham Co., ONT > Northumberland Co., ONT > Muskegon Co., MI > Manistee Co., MI > Muskegon Co., MI > Ottawa Co., MI > AK > Stevens Co., WA > Spokane Co., WA

June 2012 Scanfest

Scanfest is Coming!

The June 2012 Scanfest will take place here at AnceStories this coming Sunday, June 24th, from 11 AM to 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.
 
What is Scanfest? It's a time when geneabloggers, family historians, and family archivists meet online here at this blog to chat while they scan their precious family document and photos. Why? Because, quite honestly, scanning is time-consuming and boring!

Scanfest is a great time to "meet" other genealogists, ask questions about scanning and preservation, and get the kick in the pants we all need on starting those massive scanning projects that just seem too overwhelming to begin.

To get started, you need to know the basics about scanning:

1. Don't use commercial glass cleaners (i.e. Windex) or paper towels to clean your scanner's glass plate. Use a soft, clean cloth, preferably microfiber. If you must use a liquid, use water sprayed directly onto the cloth  and make sure to let the plate dry thoroughly before placing photos or documents on it.

2. Wear cotton gloves (available at many art and/or photography supply shops) when handling photos and old documents.

3. Don't slide the photos around on the glass plate. Place them exactly where you want them. Photos should NEVER be scanned by a scanner that feeds the document through the machine, but ALWAYS on a flat-bed scanner.

4. Set your scanner to scan at no smaller than 300 dpi (dots per inch). Many experts recommend 600 dpi for photographs.

5. Photographs should ALWAYS be scanned and saved as .tif files. Use "Save As" to reformat the .tif file to a .jpg file for restoration and touchups, emailing, or uploading to an online photo album. ALWAYS retain the original scan as a .tif file.

6. Documents can be scanned as .pdf files or .tif files.

7. When you are done scanning your photos, don't put them back in those nasty "magnetic" photo albums. Place them in archival safe albums or boxes found at websites such as Archival Products or Archival Suppliers. Do NOT store any newsprint (articles, obituaries, etc.) with the photos. The acid from the newspaper will eventually destroy the photograph.

Now about the chatting part of Scanfest:

We will be using Cover It Live, a live blogging format that you access right here at AnceStories.

On Sunday at 11 AM, PDT, come right here to AnceStories and you'll see the CoverItLive live blog/forum in the top post. It's not really a "chat room," per se, it's more like a live forum and anyone visiting this site can read and see what is happening in the forum.

You will not need to download any software.

Up to 25 individuals can be invited to be Producers. Producers are participants who have the extra capability of sharing photos, links, and other media within the forum (great for sharing the photos you're scanning!). You must have Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Firefox 2.0+ to be a Producer.

We can also have up to 25 other Participants who can comment freely in our conversation, but will not be able to share media. You can have any kind of browser to be a Participant, except AOL. Those who normally access the Internet with AOL may wish to download Firefox or Explorer ahead of time to be able to participate on CoverItLive.

In addition, any other readers of this blog can drop on by and view/read what is happening at Scanfest. If the 25 Participant spaces are full, those readers will not be able to comment, unless someone else drops out.

Confused? Have questions? Go to CoverItLive and check out 6. Try It Now to see live blogs in action or 7. Demos to see videos demonstrating how to use CIT (especially the ones titled "How do my readers watch my Live Blog?" and "Adding Panelists and Producers").

If you would like to be a Producer, please e-mail me no later than Saturday, June 23rd at 4 PM, PDT and I'll send you an invitation. Preference will given to previous Scanfesters. You must set up an account (free!) ahead of time to be a Producer. This account will be good for all future Scanfests. You can do some practices ahead of time by going to My Account and clicking on the link under Practice your live blogging. Again, you must have IE 6.0+ or Firefox 2.0+ to be a Panelist.

As a Producer, Participant or simply a reader, if you would like an e-mail reminder for Scanfest, fill out the form below and choose the time frame for which you would like to be reminded (if you're reading this through Google Reader, Bloglines, or some other RSS feed reader, you will need to go to my blog and view this post there to see and utilize the form).

It really is easier than it sounds, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all there and getting some scanning done!

Fold3 Opening War of 1812 Images for Free During June

I received the following message from Matthew Deighton of Ancestry/Fold3:

... Fold3 will be opening up all of their War of 1812 records to the public for free during June. This is in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the commencement of the war. The collection consists of more than 400,000 images including 233,000 images from the War of 1812 Pension Files never before available online. The following databases provided for free included:

• War of 1812 Pension Files
• War of 1812 Prize Cases, Southern District Court, NY
• Letters Received by The Adjutant General, 1805-1821
• War of 1812 Service Records

The Pension files that are included are only a small percentage of the entire collection that will eventually be available online. For more information on the War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, visit http://go.fold3.com/1812pensions/.

No Scanfest in May

I'm sorry to report that there will be no Scanfest in May. We normally meet the last Sunday of each month, unless holidays preclude it. Because the last Sunday of this month falls during Memorial Day weekend and many people will be gone or busy, I had planned to move it forward to Sunday, May 20th. However, my paternal grandmother passed away on May 5th and I will be out of town the weekend of May 20th for her memorial in Western Michigan.

We will resume Scanfest in June and will hold it on Sunday, June 24th from 11 AM to 2 PM, PDT.

Thank you for your understanding.

The Clark County (WA) Genealogical Society's Spring Seminar

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Clark County Genealogical Society's Spring Seminar in Vancouver, Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon across the Columbia River. The theme was Frugal Genealogy and I gave four presentations: Frugal Genealogy, or How Not to Spend a Fortune on Your Family Tree; Finding Volunteer & Low-Cost Researchers Online; Finding Vital Records and Obituaries Online; and Finding Your Ancestors in Historical Newspapers. Here are some photos of their library and meeting room at 717 Grand Boulevard, as well as snapshots from the seminar:

Building Front

Meeting Room

Front desk in research library

Research library, view from front

Local history and records

Some of the stacks

More of the stacks

Microfilm collection and reader

Some of the attendees

Calling the group to order

I had an enjoyable time visiting with several members of the society and speaking to their group. I wish I had had the time to do some research at CCGS on my kids' paternal lines, as they settled in the area about a century ago. Perhaps next time...

Some of the links in my Frugal Genealogy syllabus were incorrect, even though I had checked them a week before. There were also some questions about other sites not on my syllabus for which I did some look ups during the lecture. A few members of the audience lent their expertise and recommended some sites as well. I promised the CCGS that I would post these corrected and new links to my blog. Here they are:

FamilySearch Center locations: http://www.familysearch.org/locations

Current newspaper websites: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com

World Ancestry Project (indexing for Ancestry.com): http://landing.ancestry.com/wap/learnmore.aspx

The difference between Ancestry.com's U.S. Deluxe Subscription and their Library Edition: http://tinyurl.com/6plclb6

Free Access to Pay Databases: http://www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/PDF/freedatabases.pdf (some info may be outdated on this chart)

Cyndi's List of Free Software: http://www.cyndislist.com/software.htm/free

For copyright questions, check out the Legal Genealogist's blog: http://legalgenealogist.com/blog/

For questions about DNA and genealogy, check out Emily Aulicino's blog: http://genealem-geneticgenealogy.blogspot.com/

PrintKey Freeware, to capture a screenshot of what's on your monitor: http://www.joshmastaaa.net/2010/11/printkey-v30-freeware.html (thanks to Laurie Burgess!)

April 2012 Scanfest