Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

A Weekly Summary of Events and
Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists

Vol. 5 No. 14 – April 1, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

If you do contact any of the companies or societies mentioned in this newsletter, please tell them that you read about their services in this newsletter.

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records, 1600s – 1900s on CD-ROM
- Most Popular Genealogy Sites
- MyFamily.com Gets $30 Million In Funding
- Updated SAR Revolutionary War Graves Register
- Associated Daughters of Early American Witches
- Summit County, Ohio Web Site
- The Amistad is Launched
- 27th Annual Nordic Festival
- Upcoming Events

- Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records, 1600s – 1900s on CD-ROM

This week I had a chance to use a new CD-ROM produced by Genealogical Publishing Company, in conjunction with genealogy.com: "Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records, 1600s – 1900s." Given the number of Americans with Massachusetts ancestors, this particular CD-ROM should prove to be quite popular.

Between 1630 and 1642, approximately 30,000 people left England for Massachusetts. By the time of the American Revolution, nearly everyone still in Massachusetts could trace their ancestry to one of those 30,000 people. This new CD-RM disk lists more than 160,000 individuals in probate records, town histories, and vital records.

The CD-ROM contains data but no software. In order to use this information, you must have one of the following programs already installed on your computer:

• Family Tree Maker for Windows version 3.02 or higher
• Family Archive Viewer for Windows (a free program) version 3.02 or higher

Most of the CD-ROM disks produced by genealogy.com also operate with Family Tree Maker for the Power Macintosh. However, the company notes that the "Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records, 1600s – 1900s" CD-ROM is available only for Windows. I placed the data into my Windows NT system, launched Family Tree Maker, selected "View", then "FamilyFinder" and then "View CD-ROM." A second or two later I was looking at the data on this CD-ROM.

This CD-ROM contains scanned images of thirteen books originally published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. The titles include a variety of records types, including probate, town, and vital records. Vital records usually contain the full name of the individual involved in the event, the date of the event, and the town in which the event took place. The thirteen volumes list more than 160,000 individuals. Each of the following towns or counties has at least one volume dedicated to it in this Family Archive: Barnstable, Bristol, Duxbury, Eastham, Fairhaven, Haverhill, Middleborough, Orleans, Plymouth, Sandwich, Scituate, Stoneham, and Suffolk. Anyone researching early Rhode Island ancestors also should note that Massachusetts' Bristol County originally included the Rhode Island towns or areas of Bristol, Warren, Barrington, Little Compton, and Tiverton until 1747; these records may be found on this Massachusetts CD-ROM, too.

Massachusetts probably has the best vital records of any state in the U.S. and probably rates amongst the best such records in the world. Since its early settlement, Massachusetts has been collecting vital records (births, marriages, and deaths) at the town level. In the early twentieth century, many of these records were published in book form. This CD-ROM contains scanned images of the pages of many of these books. It also has an every-name index that can be used electronically. That is, you can type a name onto the index, and the software will automatically link that name to scanned images of the pages where that name appears. You can also electronically "thumb through the pages" of these books, one page at a time.

The books on this CD-ROM include:

• "History Of The Town Of Duxbury, Massachusetts With Genealogical Registers" by Justin Winsor

• "The History Of Haverhill, Massachusetts From Its First Settlement, In 1640, To The Year 1860" by George Wingate Chase

• "History Of Scituate, Massachusetts, From Its First Settlement To 1831" by Samuel Deane

• "History Of Stoneham, Massachusetts, With Biographical Sketches Of Many Of Its Prominent Men" by William B. Stevens

• "Records Of The Town Of Plymouth" Published By Order Of The Town - In Three Volumes by William T. Davis

• "Vital Records Of The Town Of Plymouth, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction Of Records Published Serially 1901-1935 In 'The Mayflower Descendant.'" By Col. Leonard H. Smith, Jr., and Norma H. Smith

• "Vital Records Of The Towns Of Barnstable And Sandwich, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction Of Records Published Serially 1901-1937 In ‘The Mayflower Descendant’"

• "Vital Records Of The Towns Of Eastham And Orleans, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction Of Records Published Serially 1901-1935 In 'The Mayflower Descendant.'"

• "Vital Records Of The Town Of Fairhaven, Massachusetts To 1850" by Leonard H. Smith, Jr., and Dorothy Marvelle Boyer

• "Vital Records Of The Town Of Middleborough, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction Of Records Published Serially 1899-1937 In 'The Mayflower Descendant'" by Leonard H. Smith, Jr., and Norma H. Smith

• "Abstracts Of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1687-1745" by H. L. Peter Rounds

• "Abstracts Of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1745-1762" by H. L. Peter Rounds

• "Suffolk County Wills Abstracts Of The Earliest Wills Upon Record In The County Of Suffolk, Massachusetts From 'The New England Historical And Genealogical Register'"

That is a rather impressive collection of records! The above list contains many of the "old standard references" used by genealogists for many years. To be sure, the CD-ROM does not contain records of all the towns in Massachusetts, only the ones listed above. These books are still available on paper, but obviously the CD-ROM version is much more cost-effective.

I normally search for occurrences of my own surname on the CD-ROM disks that I review. This time I was particularly interested, as the earliest immigrant with my surname arrived in Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1638. While Salisbury vital records are not on this particular CD-ROM, I expected that some of his descendants might be listed. I popped open the index and typed my own surname. Hundreds of listings appeared. I then entered the first name of the original immigrant and found that he was mentioned in the "The History Of Haverhill, Massachusetts From Its First Settlement, In 1640, To The Year 1860." I clicked on this reference, and within a second or two I was looking at the page from the original book that gave the detail. In this case, the son of the original immigrant settled in Haverhill and is well documented in this book, along with a mention of his father’s name.

Searching the index is simple: enter the surname and (optionally) the first name. When I typed only the surname, hundreds of entries were displayed. However, when I entered the surname, followed by a comma, a space, and then the first name, the index listings immediately jumped to the first record containing both names.

I spent quite a bit of time browsing through these records. This CD-ROM contains 160,000 records of birth, marriage, probate and other such data. The format varies a bit because these volumes were written by different authors and published by different companies. Yet the volumes are all similar in nature and a single search lists all occurrences of the name you specify in all the volumes")

Printing the original page was a simple task. The resultant printout looked like a photocopy of a page in the original printed book, except for two things: (1.) it was clearer than most photocopies and (2.) it was well-documented, with a reference across the bottom of the printed page that gave the name of the original printed book, along with the title of the CD-ROM disk.

I also had a pleasant surprise when I found that I could cut and paste a page from the CD-ROM to almost any other Windows program. If you are using a word processor to write about a particular family, you can cut-and-paste an image of the reference directly into the document you are writing. Keep in mind that this is an image, not computer text. However, that is still a big improvement over many other genealogy CD-ROM disks that I have used. You can cut-and-paste a complete page, but you cannot highlight just a part of the page and then copy only that part. It is an "all or nothing" approach; however, you can use a graphics-editing program later to crop these images as needed.

All in all, I was pleased with the "Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records, 1600s – 1900s" CD-ROM. It is easy to use and contains high-quality genealogy information. Keep in mind, however, that these are still secondary records. These publications have been in use for 70 to 80 years, and genealogists have found them to be high quality but not perfect. A few transcription errors do exist. I would suggest that you use these references often and use them well. But, when you find a reference in one of these books, rent a microfilm copy of the original hand-written records and verify the information you have found. Not only will you ensure accuracy, but you will occasionally be surprised to find that the original hand-written entries may contain even more information about a family that was not included in the printed volumes published many years later.

"Genealogical Records: Massachusetts Probate, Town, and Vital Records, 1600s-1900s" is a must-have for any genealogist researching ancestors in any of the towns listed above. This is listed as Family Archive 502 in genealogy.com’s list of CD-ROM disks. The CD-ROM lists for $29.99. You can order it directly from the publisher or from many genealogy bookstores. Most dealers will also add a bit more for shipping and handling charges.

For more information about "Genealogical Records: Massachusetts Probate, Town, and Vital Records, 1600s-1900s" or to order it online, look at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/502facd.html

- Most Popular Genealogy Sites

Nielsen Inc. is probably best known for their ratings of the popularity of television shows in the United States. However, the same company also produces Nielsen//NetRatings, which measures and reports Internet audience behavior, based on data collected from 43,000 home users and 8,000 at-work users in the United States. The company has just released their ratings for the month of February, 2000.

The most active genealogy site in February was MyFamily.com at http://www.MyFamily.com with 1.5 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Trailing close behind was Ancestry.com at http://www.Ancestry.com with 1.4 million unique visitors. The third most popular genealogy site was RootsWeb.com at http://www.RootsWeb.com with 981,000 unique visitors, followed by FamilyTreeMaker.com http://www.FamilyTreeMaker.com with 640,000 unique visitors.

 - MyFamily.com Gets $30 Million In Funding

MyFamily.com Inc. announced this week that the company has raised $30 million in its third round of financing, adding a unit of Eastman Kodak Co. to an investor base that already includes CMGI Inc., Intel Corp., and Compaq Computer Corp. The latest round brings the total investment in MyFamily.com to $75.5 million.

Kodak was the only new investor in the round. Previous investors that gave MyFamily new capital in the current round also included Tango of Boulder, Colorado, which led the round, French investor Bernard Arnault's Europeb, and Pivotal Asset Management.

MyFamily is based in San Francisco and runs three Web sites: MyFamily.com, which lets families post information and photos; ancestry.com, a genealogy site, and FamilyHistory.com, a message-board site.

Company executives have declined to discuss possible plans for an initial public offering, though funding rounds like the one MyFamily completed are generally signs that an IPO filing is in the offing.

- Updated SAR Revolutionary War Graves Register

Progeny Publishing has announced the release of the 2000 Edition of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) Revolutionary War Graves Register. This new edition has doubled in size since the previous version, published in 1998. The new version contains over 140,000 names and burial locations of soldiers, sailors and civilian Patriots of the Revolutionary War, as well as many of their spouses. The majority of records also variously contain details on birth, death, service, state served, township, and source of entry.

I reviewed the earlier version in the January 31, 1998 edition of this newsletter. At that time I wrote:

The information on this CD-ROM is compiled from the Revolutionary War Graves Register, which was first published as a book in 1993 by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Quoting from the forward by then President General Robert B. Vance:

"The American citizens of 1774 to 1783 dominate. ... there are listed Lady Patriots, as many Black Soldiers as could be found, many of the Jewish patriots and soldiers, the German, the Polish and hundreds of French …[plus] more than one thousand brave American soldiers who perished at Valley Forge during the severe winter of 1777-78."

I will point out that this CD-ROM does not contained scanned images of the original book. Instead, the data has been laboriously re-entered into a true computer database that is fully searchable. The "search engine" is the brand-new Progeny Family Explorer, which is included on the CD-ROM. You do not need any other software to use this database.

Use of the Progeny Family Explorer is "falling off a log simple." Start the program, enter a last name, enter a first name and click on OK. Within a couple of seconds you see a list of all the Revolutionary War soldiers of that name with known burial locations.

The complete article went on at some length describing the CD-ROM’s operation. I also described how I found a new ancestor on this CD-ROM disk that was previously unknown to me.

This week’s announcement describes the new version this way:

From its founding in the 19th Century, the SAR has sought to locate and record the final resting places of those who served the cause of the War for Independence. Records are regularly gathered by members from burial sites and reported on forms, letters, index cards and tapes. The first CD Edition of the SAR Revolutionary War Graves Register contained 69,000 records, and was comprised of the original 54,000 names published in book format (1993) plus 15,000 spouse names. This was published for the NSSAR in 1998 by Progeny Publishing.

In order to publish the greatly expanded Millennium Edition, the SAR War Graves Committee, chaired by Robert Galer, conducted an intense acquisition program with the goal of doubling the number of grave sites in the Register. In addition to the graves researched and reported by SAR members over the past two years, new sources for this 2000 Edition CD were found in the Annual Reports to Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

Americans who lived in the 13 original colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia make up the bulk of the Register. They include 280 Lady Patriots and additional graves of the thousands of black soldiers and sailors who served the American cause. There are more Canadian graves, and those of the French Allies who died on land or sea, or returned to their country to live out their lives. The new Register also includes, for the first time, 300 Louisiana Patriots of different nationalities who fought with Bernardo de Galvez, and other soldiers of New Spain who served in the Presidios and missions of Alta California.

The SAR War Graves Register now indexes virtually all the Revolutionary War Patriot graves recorded over the last hundred years by the members of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and SAR.

"With this latest publication of the War Graves Register," explains Bob Galer, "the SAR has made a tremendous contribution to the genealogy of patriotic Americans. Every person interested in the history of the Patriots who won our independence from colonial rule will certainly find this CD a valuable research tool."

For more information about the new SAR Revolutionary War Graves CD-ROM, look at: http://www.progenysoftware.com

- Associated Daughters of Early American Witches

Are you a female with an ancestor in Colonial America who was accused of or tried or executed for the practice of witchcraft prior to 31 December 1699? If so, you may be interested in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches. This society was formed 13 years ago for the purpose of:

1. Searching for and preserving the names of those accused of witchery in that portion of Colonial America now the United States of America.
2. To locate the living female descendants of all witches who were accused in the American colonies prior to published records of same.

The society maintains a list of "Approved Ancestors: that have been documented as those who were accused of witchcraft. While many on the list lived in Salem, Massachusetts during the hysteria there, the list also includes others accused of witchcraft in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.

Membership is by invitation only, but you can submit documentation showing proof of your descent from an identified witch. If your claim is validated, you may be invited to join.

For more information on the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches, look at: http://www.adeaw.org

My thanks to Audrae Mathis for letting me know about this organization.

- Summit County, Ohio Web Site

The Summit County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society has provided a text-based genealogical section on ACORN (the Akron Community Online Resource Network). Until recently, this was a dial-in service, not a service on the World Wide Web. Now the genealogy section has been converted to a Web-based system.

New queries and a new and updated surname list are now online. New information also includes a township outline map, along with burial information from two small cemeteries in Boston Township. Although the cemeteries are small, the burial information is invaluable because the files contain information first gathered in the early 1900s. Some tombstones are missing or unreadable since they were first recorded, so the records in some cases are available nowhere else.

Some information files on the website are still being undated, and new cemetery files will be added.

The new site, which is also the official site of the Summit County chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, can be found at: http://www.acorn.net/gen

- Genealogy.com Adds Another Five Million Names

Genealogy.com, LLC, announced this week that the company has added several significant new resources to its online collection. This collection of data includes nearly five million names in 11 different compiled resources. The site’s Internet Family Archives currently contains the following titles:

• UK Census Records - Records for approximately 1 million individuals from the 1851 census with each household member's name, age, occupation, address, relation to the head of the household, marital status, and the exact town or parish of his or her birth.

• Italians to America – An index of 413,000 Italian immigrants passing through New York's port of entry. May include age, occupation, or village of origin and arrival date.

• Notable British Families - 429,000 unique names referenced in pedigrees and lineage records published in Great Britain by Burke's Peerage. Includes the best reference work ever published on British heraldry, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

• Mayflower Genealogies - 111,000 names in pages from Genealogies of Mayflower Families and Mayflower Source Records. Resources contain vital information and lineages pertaining to passengers of the Mayflower.

• Ontario, Canada Census Index - 374,000 names in partial index of heads of household in the 1871 Ontario Census. May include age, birthplace, ethnic/religious demographic, occupation, and district/subdistrict.

• Virginia Genealogies - 113,000 names from a variety of family history articles, genealogies, newspaper notices, town records (including deaths and marriages in some cases), Bible and family records, wills, and deeds for the state of Virginia; information spans the years 1892-1942.

• Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy - 455,000 names from William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. Almost half of all people who can trace their ancestry in America prior to 1850 have Quaker ancestors. This is a broad, yet comprehensive collection of vital records and certificates of removal for Quakers in several states.

• National Genealogical Society Quarterly - 702,000 names on images of volumes 1 - 85 of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Among the oldest and most widely respected genealogical journals, the NGS Quarterly contains methodological case studies, discussions of major resources, compiled family histories and genealogies, and guides to research.

• Massachusetts Marriage Index - Indexed marriages for approximately 837,500 individuals in 1633-1850 Massachusetts; includes marriage date, names of bride and groom, and county where the marriage was recorded.

• Ohio Marriage Index - 303,000 indexed marriages across 85 Ohio counties in 1789-1850; includes marriage date, names of bride and groom, and county.

• Directory of Deceased American Physicians - Biographical records extracted from the Directory of Deceased American Physicians for approximately 149,000 medical practitioners. May include dates and locations of births and deaths. Usually only available at libraries, the Directory normally sells for $200 in book form.

"We are in the business of helping people piece together their family histories more quickly," said Genealogy.com Chief Executive Officer, Rob Armstrong. "By continuing to place genealogically relevant content online, like the Internet Family Archives, we are making it easier and faster for people to find the vital family information they need to build their family trees."

For more information about these new additions, look at: http://www.genealogy.com/press-032800.html

- The Amistad is Launched

More than a century ago, Sengbe Pieh led slaves aboard the Amistad in a revolt in which they overthrew their captors in an effort to return to their homeland. This story was captured in the 1997 movie by Steven Spielberg named after the ship. On March 25, the launching of a replica of the 129-foot schooner gave Pieh's great-grandson hope for the future and optimism that his ancestor's fight for freedom would soon be heard around the world. "It's unbelievable that an icon of slavery is being transformed in this millennium into an icon of partnership, faith in each other and of human rights for all of us," said Samuel Pieh, who runs an organization that works to improve relations between Africa and the United States.

Thousands of observers, including American and Sierra Leone dignitaries and descendants of the Amistad captives, watched and cheered as the 138-ton vessel was lowered into the Mystic River in Connecticut. The ship was christened with water from Cuba, Long Island, and Sierra Leone -- where the slaves were sold, captured by American authorities and finally returned home.

The six-year, $3.1 million project marked the beginning of the unending task of teaching histories, retelling forgotten stories, and improving race relations, organizers said. "She represents friendship, which is the translation of the name Amistad, cooperation ... all of the good stuff," said Warren Marr II, who began in 1976 to push for the project.

The slaves took control of the original Amistad near Cuba in 1839. Led by Sengbe Pieh, the slaves killed the captain of the Spanish ship and tried to force its crew to sail them back to Africa. The ship wandered up the East Coast before landing on Long Island. They were captured there, brought to New London, and then jailed in New Haven, after which several trials followed.

An 1841 U.S. Supreme Court ruling freed the slaves, whose cause had been taken up by white abolitionists and former President John Quincy Adams. The 35 Africans who survived returned to their homeland in 1842 and established churches and schools for others.

"Our mission is to tell the story of the Amistad as well as the story of the human rights struggle that exists today," said William Pinkney, the ship's captain. "We want to show young people what can happen with cooperation."

The ship will make its maiden voyage to New York City on July 2. The ship will then sail around the world, making stops in many countries, including Cuba and Sierra Leone.

For more information, look at the Amistad America Web site at: http://www.amistadamerica.org. A second source of information can be found at the Mystic Seaport site: http://www.mysticseaport.org

- 27th Annual Nordic Festival

The rich traditions of Norway -- music, food, folklore, and the arts -- will be celebrated at the 27th Annual Nordic Festival on April 22 at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. The fundraising event for the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, is sponsored by the Twin Cities Friends of Vesterheim, a local organization of more than 1,000 members.

The festival features the sights, sounds, and flavors of Norway to tempt people of all ethnic backgrounds and ages:

• a Nordic brunch with entertainment, including Nordic fiddlers and a parade of traditional Norwegian costumes, called bunads, worn at weddings and special occasions;
• 25 exhibits of Nordic crafts by artisans, many of whom will demonstrate their trades, including hardanger embroidery, rosemaling, woodcarving, jewelry, and clothing;
• Norwegian story-telling and songs;
• antiques from the Vesterheim museum;
• a silent auction and raffle will offer many Nordic products and prizes, including two airfare tickets to Norway;
• strolling musicians, friendly trolls, homemade lefse, and more.

The cost is $35.00 for adults and $15.00 for children under 12 years, which includes a donation to the museum. The festival runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (with a break for brunch between noon and 2:00 p.m.). For ticket information or silent auction donations, call 612-944-3110. Only advance tickets will be sold.

Founded in 1877 in Decorah, Iowa, the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum is the oldest and most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant ethnic group. The museum complex includes 15 historic buildings plus an immigrant farmstead, a prairie church, and a genealogy research facility. The museum houses over 20,000 artifacts -- samples of fine, decorative, and folk art, as well as the tools and machinery used in immigrant industry. Most of the collection is displayed either in formal exhibits or in open storage, where the visiting public, students, and scholars can view it.

The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum’s Web site can be found at: http://www.vesterheim.org

- Upcoming Events

The Upcoming Events section of the newsletter is published once per month. Each event will be listed very briefly: title, date(s), location, and sponsoring organization, all followed by either an e-mail address or a Web page that you can use to find more information. Since detailed information is available via e-mail or the Web, I will not list the details in this newsletter. If you do contact any of these organizations, please tell them where you heard about the event.

Here are the listings, arranged by date. An asterisk indicates a new listing that has been added since the last time this list was published:

If you would like to see your event listed, send an e-mail to: meetings@rootscomputing.com. You must include either a Web page that gives details or an e-mail address for the organization or for someone within the organization who is willing to supply the meeting details upon request. Please limit your listings to events where you expect 100 or more people to attend.

The list of events is published once a month, usually in the first newsletter of each month.

Are you interested in the articles in this newsletter? Would you like to learn more or ask questions or make comments about these articles? Join this newsletter’s online discussion group on CompuServe’s Genealogy Techniques Forum. CompuServe members using Netscape, Internet Explorer or CompuServe 2000 can go to http://go.compuserve.com/GenealogyForum. If you are using Classic CompuServe, you can GO ROOTS.

If you would like to submit news, information or press releases for possible inclusion in future newsletters, send them to richard@eastman.net. The author does reserve the right to accept or reject any articles submitted.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is being written and sent via e-mail at no charge. I expect to write one new issue on a more or less weekly basis. However, life sometimes interferes, and the need to earn a living may create an occasional delay.

COPYRIGHTS: The contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard W. Eastman. You are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles from this newsletter to other parties provided you do so strictly for non-commercial purposes. Please limit your re-distribution to one or two articles per newsletter; do not re-distribute the newsletter in its entirety. Also, please include the following words with any articles you re-distribute:

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author.

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About the author: Dick Eastman is the forum manager of the four Genealogy Forums on CompuServe. He also is the author of "YOUR ROOTS: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" published by Ziff-Davis Press. He can be reached at: richard@eastman.net