Best Deal in Genealogy: Family History Library Classes & Webinars

If you are like me you want to make the best use of your genealogy budget.  There are so many things genealogists can spend money on: books, records, research trips, conferences, online subscriptions, society dues, magazines, printer ink, gadgets, DNA testing, office supplies and more.  The list can go on and on.

Last week, I found the best bargain in genealogy.  The Western European Family History Conference that FamilySearch live streamed for FREE!  Yes, free.  It was five days of national conference quality presentations.

Each day of the week focused on an area of Western Europe.  The following areas were covered: Germany, France, The Low Countries, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.  The research I do for my husband and I involved all of these countries except Belgium and Luxembourg, which were included in the Low Countries.

There were 25 classes in all.  I cleared my schedule, except for Friday, and was able to watch 18 of the 25 live streams.  Three of the classes I passed on as I wasn't doing research in those areas at this time; another three I missed because I run errands for my parents on Friday.

It would be impossible to pick which classes were the best, they were all top notch with top notch presenters and handouts.  Presenters included Mindy Jacox, Coreen Barrett-Valentine, Jilline Maynes, F. Warren Bittner, Brandon L. Baird, Heidi G. Sugden, Baerbel K. Johnson, Fritz Juengling, Daniel R. Jones, and Sonja Nishimoto.

The classes I watched are in italics:

     Germany

• Finding German Places of Origin
• Spelling Variations in German Given and Place Names
• Meyer's Gazetter Now Online, Indexed and Fully Searchable
• German Church Records and Beyond: Deepen Your Research Using a Variety of Town Reocrds
• Elusive Immigrant:  Methods of Proving Identity

     France

• Finding Your French Ancestors Online, Part 1 Family Search and Ancestry
• Finding Your French Ancestors Online, Part 2 France GenWeb
• Finding Your French Ancestors Online, Part 3, Geneanet
• Out of the Ashes of Paris
• Research in Alsace-Lorraine

     The Low Countries

• Latin for Researchers
• Calendar Changes in France, Germany, Switzerland and the Low Countries
• Gazetteers and Maps for Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
• Beginning Research in Luxembourg
• Beginning Research in Belgium

     The Netherlands

• Names in Belgium and the Netherlands
• WieWasWie, Past the Index:  What to Do Next
• Dutch Provincial and City Research
• Dutch Research Before 1811
• Finding Your Family in the Amazing Online Amsterdam City Archives

     Switzerland

• Beginning Swiss Research
• Swiss Maps and Gazetteers
• Swiss Archives Online Records
• Swiss Census Records
• Swiss Chorgericht (Court) Records

I don't know where I have been the last two years because this is the first time I heard about these classes.  The Family History Library Classes and Webinars at the FamilySearch Wiki is the place to go to find out more information about what FamilySearch offers.

This wiki page shows you class schedules for on site classes at the Family History Library.  Some of the classes are live streamed, as well.  Upcoming webinars can be found here and past webinars, with handouts.

The past webinars section includes an area about past research seminars and conferences.  The 2016 tract was European, Nordic, and Roots Tech en Espanol.  The 2017 tract was British Isles and Roots Tech en Espanol.  Some of the past sessions may be watched from this area.  I plan to go back and watch the British Isles one. Other areas include Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America.

The only drawback to this is that I wanted to stay up all night using all the great information that was presented.  I was able to do a little research and found some amazing records about my husband and my ancestors.  I found or learned:

• About German vowels and consonants and how to search with spelling variations for my German families.
• Kirk's great, great grandfather, Quirin Schmitt, birth record and civil registration records in the Bas-Rhin department of Alsace-Lorraine.  This information included Quirin's parents, including mother's maiden name.  A great find!
• I found the huwelijksbijlagen for Kirk's Dutch 2x and 3x great grandparents.  I was up until midnight searching these gems of Dutch records and have many more names to find.  What is a huwelijksbijlagen, you ask?  These records are marriage supplements and contain the papers that a dutch couple had to present before marriage.  They are a gold mine.  They are in Dutch, but that is a small inconvenience for the awesome genealogical information they contain.
• I found so many resources for my Swiss ancestors, I may need a month to use the resources and I only attended two of the five sessions!  The Swiss court records are fascinating and I may just order the ones I need for the Canton Bern to see if my Anabaptist ancestors are mentioned. Swiss court records are available on DVD by town for Canton Bern.

This was only a small sampling of what I got out of the conference.  In addition, I have a list of resources to check the next time I go to Allen County Public Library.  I have a list of other wiki's to check out and I have a huge list of online resources to save to my bookmarks.  

This conference was just the break I needed from real life that has been a little busy lately.  I am excited about researching again AND it even got me to start blogging after a few months break.

If you are looking for a great deal in genealogy, look no further than the Family History Library classes and webinars.  You won't regret it.

What's New in My Genealogy Library

Spring cleaning isn't something that I normally look forward to, but the time had come to go through my office and organize books. I had books stored on the floor and wanted them on shelves.  Most of the books on the floor were recent purchases and I wanted to use them before I put them away.  I decided it was time to put them away.  I rearranged my books a little and did some spring cleaning of my office.  I don't know about you, but once I decide to clean that leads to cleaning the whole room, minus the closet.  That is a project for another day.

This is one of the bookcases I have.  It doesn't hold a lot, but it fits in a very narrow space that I have next to my desk.  I organized the shelves by category (top to bottom): General Research Help; England, Scotland,and Ireland; Germany; Europe (Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland); United States (Illinois, New York, Michigan); and Military.

I have another bookcase for all my New England books, including all my Great Migration books.  I have a few leftovers that I need to find room for and I will be done.

The new books are books that I purchased because there was a sale online, or in the case of Bernese Anabaptists, I was at the Clayton Library for Genealogical Research, in Houston, Texas and they had a sale section.

While going through all these books I realized that I had a few books that I hadn't put on My Library page at the top of this website.  Those books are:

• Genealogical Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors by Radford and Betitt
• Amish and Amish Mennonite Genealogies by Hugh Gingerich
• Bernese Anabaptists by Delbert Gratz
• Family Maps of Washtenaw County by Gregory A. Boyd
• Tracing Your Colonial American Ancestors
• Tracing Your Revolutionary War Ancestors
• Tracing Your War of 1812 Ancestors

Please check out the "My Library" page tab and if you see something you would like to know more about email me, or leave a comment.  I am happy to do look ups, if interested.  

One spring cleaned room down and a few more to go.  What about you, do you Spring clean? 

Blogging Hiatuses and Me

Julie Cahill Tarr posted on her blog today, What Happened to Genealogy Blogging?  She shared statistics about blogs in her blog reader and how many bloggers hadn't posted in awhile.  She asked her readers who write blogs to leave comments about their reasons for not blogging.

Julie's post led me to check and see when I last blogged.  Gasp! It was August 23rd, almost 8 months ago. Although I haven't blogged in awhile, I have been busy with genealogy type things.

First, in August I was busy prepping for a three week genealogical trip of a lifetime to New England, which I was taking in September.  The preparation included:

• ordering Family Search microfilm on Vermont land records
• transcribing over fifty of these land records
• organizing my research for the trip
• writing research plans
• researching repository card catalogs
• and so much more

Next, was the trip itself where I was gone for 26 days.  I could write a year of blog posts based on this trip.  I visited New York, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  I combined research with vacation.  Some of the genealogical highlights of this trip were:

• Visiting my fourth great grandparents, Alexander and Sarah (Salisbury) Glover, gravesite and my fifth great grandparents, William and Elizabeth (Beal) Salisbury, gravesite at Joslyn Cemetery, Phelps, Ontario, New York.
• Exploring the Hingham, Massachusetts area, including a visit to the Hingham Historical Society's Heritage Visitor Center, which was temporarily housed at Talbot's Headquarters.  A blog post in itself!
• Exploring Cape Cod cemeteries-Old Cove Burying Ground in Eastham; Old Town Burial Ground in Sandwich; Old Burying Ground/First Parish Cemetery in Brewster.
• Visiting the historical sites of Salem, Massachusetts AND
• Meeting "Life from the Roots" blogger, Barbara Poole for the first time.
• Spending many hours in Plymouth, Massachusetts seeing Plimouth Plantation, Mayflower II, Pilgrim Hall Museum and all the historical sites around Plymouth.
• Researching at New England Historic Genealogical Society library for two days, including a consultation with genealogist Rhonda McClure.
• Sitting on the cellar hole steps of my fifth great grandparents, Moses and Hannah (Santclare) Poor in Salem, New Hampshire.
• Researching and exploring the areas of Pittsford and Shoreham, Vermont.  I visited cemeteries, libraries and historical societies in the area.
• Touring Fort Ticonderoga to see where my fourth great grandfather, Hopkins Rowley, raided the fort as part of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys.
• Researching at the Leahy Library of Vermont History Center in Barre, Vermont.

This above may have been enough of a reason not to blog because I came home with many records to analyze, but ten days after my vacation I had thumb surgery! I wasn't able to use it for almost three months!  I am still rebuilding strength in that hand.

The holidays came and went as I was recovering from surgery.  January rolls around and I found myself providing care and support to my aging parents.  My parents, who still live independently, needed a little help as my dad found himself in and out of the hospital with low hemoglobin and low blood pressure.  Other parental support came in the form of visiting senior living options for them and presenting them with a few options, which they are still deciding on.

These are a few of the reasons I haven't kept up on my blog. I guess I have a good excuse for neglecting my blog.  One thing I don't like to do is to blog unless I know that what I am posting is quality material and for me that takes time.  Time which has been short in supply the past eight months.

I can't guarantee that I am on the way to regular blog posts, but Julie's blog post got me thinking about my blog, and that is the first step to more posts.

Where in the World is Alexander Glover (1756-1826)?

Researching before the first United States Federal Census in 1790 finds researchers using other records that place our ancestors in a specific locale.  This is where one must search for land records, military records, jury lists, and other records.  I have been compiling my "Where in the World" series for awhile now.  Currently, I am to the point where I need to add records besides census ones.  The table below is for my fourth great grandfather, Alexander Glover, who married Sarah Salisbury.

FACT	DATE	PLACE OF RESIDENCE
Birth	20 Mar 1756	Lebanon, New London, Connecticut, British America
Marriage	1780 (to Sarah Salisbury)	Conway, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States
Census	1790	Conway, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States
Census	1800	Conway, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States
Property	1803	Ontario County, New York, United States
Jury List	1808	Phelps, Ontario, New York, United States
Census	1810	Phelps, Ontario, New York, United States
Census	1820	Phelps, Ontario, New York, United States
Death	27 Jan 1826	Phelps, Ontario, New York, United States

Brazil Immigration Records for Francis Henry "Hank" and Mabel Glover

Watching the Rio 2016 Olympic Games reminded me of the time my Uncle Hank Glover and Aunt Mabel (Ruff) Glover lived in Brazil. My uncle worked for General Motors and after having spent time in South Africa, he was sent to work in Brazil. They lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil for a few years.

I remember when my uncle and aunt were in Brazil.  They visited once or twice while there.  I have a purple amethyst and yellow topaz from Brazil that they gave me.  My aunt and uncle enjoyed living in South Africa, but didn't find Brazil as nice. I remember my aunt talking about the lizards on the walls.  Conditions were not like they were use to.

Family Search has a record group: Brazil, São Paulo, Immigration Cards, 1902-1980. This record contains "registration cards for foreign citizens with permanent residency in São Paulo, issued by the Office of Public Safety and housed at the Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo", according to the Family Search description. Below are the cards for Francis Henry Glover and Mabel Louise Glover.

1975

Source:  Brasil, São Paulo, Cartões de Imigração, 1902-1980," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2S7-XMR8 : 3 June 2016), Francis Henry Glover, 1975; citing Immigration, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, certificate , registration , Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Public Archives, São Paulo).

Source: "Brasil, São Paulo, Cartões de Imigração, 1902-1980," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2S7-XMB1 : 3 June 2016), Mabel Louise Glover, 1975; citing Immigration, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, certificate , registration , Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Public Archives, São Paulo).

1977

Source: "Brasil, São Paulo, Cartões de Imigração, 1902-1980," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV9-HK93 : 3 June 2016), Francis Henry Glover, 1977; citing Immigration, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, certificate 9466422, registration 364166, Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Public Archives, São Paulo).

Source:  Brasil, São Paulo, Cartões de Imigração, 1902-1980," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV9-HSJ2 : 3 June 2016), Mabel Louise Glover, ; citing Immigration, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, certificate 9466421, registration , Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Public Archives, São Paulo).

The type of information included on these cards is

• Name of Immigrant
• Date of immigration
• Date and place of birth
• Nationality
• Marital status
• Parents’ names
• Profession or occupation
• Place of residence in country of origin
• Passport number with its date and place of issuance
• Signature of the immigrant

I knew a lot of the information on this record already but the information provided here is great for genealogists.  One note: Francis Henry Glover listed his mother as Sarah L. Glover.  Sarah L. Glover was his step-mother.  Francis Henry Glover's biological mother was Emma Winkler, who died shortly after giving birth to Francis.

This is a piece of family history that brought back fond memories of my aunt and uncle.  They were both very loving, caring and special people.  It was nice to see their pictures and information from a time I remember.

Daniel Fenn and Hopkins Rowley Vermont Land Records

Land records can provide relationship information on our ancestors and I wanted to make sure I didn't overlook these important records before I head to New England to conduct research on my Fenn and Rowley family.

Specifically, I was looking for Daniel Fenn's and Hopkins Rowley's Vermont land records.  I am trying to identify the parents of Daniel Fenn, who married Huldah Rowley, and to provide proof for Hopkins Rowley being the father of Huldah. Research already conducted shows Daniel Fenn and Hopkins Rowley in Pittsford, Rutland, Vermont and Shoreham, Addison, Vermont.

First place I went to look for Vermont land records was Family Search.org.  I ordered the following land records.

1. Microfilm No. 28954-Shoreham Grantee and Grantor Index v 1-18
2. Microfilm No. 28689-Pittsford, Vermont Index to Land Records (1770-1951) and Vol. 1, 1761-1790.

I photographed (old microfilm machines at my local Family History Center) the pages of Fenn's and Rowley's that bought or sold land. I went home and compiled a Deed Index chart for each surname and location and ordered the land records I needed. I ordered the following land records.

1. Microfilm No. 28690-Pittsford Vermont Land Records, 1787-1801, Book 2,3.
2. Microfilm No, 28957-Shoreham Vermont Land Records, 1812-1822, Vol. 5,6.
3. Microfilm No. 28958-Shoreham Vermont Land Records, 1822-1829, Vol. 7
4. Microfilm No. 28959-Shoreham Vermont Land Records, 1829-1851, Vol. 8

I spent hours going through these land records at my local Family History Center that is only open four hours a week.  One of the Shoreham volumes was so frustrating because the microfilm pages did not show the page numbers, so I am sitting there counting page by page and finding one and having to start counting from there.  I had to do this volume in two trips because I was getting a headache from concentrating so hard.  It might have been my bifocals, who knows.

I found land records for Daniel Fenn and Hopkins Rowley. Hopkins Rowley even sold land to Daniel Fenn.  I was so hoping for information about their relationship, but no luck.  I did find a couple of instances where Hopkins Rowley sold land to his sons, which was stated in the document, Silas and Myron Rowley.  Now, if I could prove Silas and Myron were the brothers of Huldah, I would be happy. 

Finding Daniel Fenn's parentage is going to take further research, but I found a few Fenn names in early Pittsford, Vermont that look promising.

Occasionally, I would find evidence of previous residences.  For example, Jonathan Rowley of Richmond, Berkshire, Massachusetts bought land in Pittsford, Vermont in 1773.  Jonathan Rowley is the father of Hopkins Rowley.  This was the first time I saw a record showing Jonathan Rowley having a connection to Richmond.

I haven't transcribed all the land records, but that is the next thing I will do.  I want to have it done before I leave for New England.

I have left land records for later in my research and I would encourage researchers to look at them sooner, maybe right after using Census Records.  It helps place a specific person in a specific place. In addition to providing locale, land records can provide relationship information.  Land records are some of the most important records researchers can use when conducting good genealogy research. You never know what you will find in land records, so don't overlook them.  

Vermont County Formations

It is important to understand the formation of states and counties when researching your family. Historical maps can help one in understanding this information.  I used the information found at mapofus.org and created a timeline for Vermont and its county formations.

Vermont County Formations

1764       Vermont region under New York jurisdiction

1777       Vermont declares independence from New York

1779       Original counties were Bennington and Cumberland formed by the Republic of Vermont

1781       Rutland county is formed from Bennington County

Cumberland County is divided into Orange, Windham, and Windsor.  Vermont asserted claim to adjacent areas by creating Washington County and extending Orange and Windsor counties into New Hampshire and extending Rutland and Bennington counties into New York.

1782-Abandoned claims to adjacent lands, Washington eliminated

1783-Orange and Windsor gained from Rutland

1785-Addison county formed from Rutland County.

1786-Orange county exchanged with Addison.

1790-New York relinquishes all claims

1791-Vermont becomes a state.

1830 Map of Vermont (Fenn’s left Vermont in 1833)

The wonderful information and screenshots of maps were provided from mapofus.org.  If you haven't checked this website out, you need to.  It has each U.S. state and its history in map form. Each state has its own page with animated maps showing the changes throughout the years. There is a map showing the formation of the United States, a couple of military maps, and historical atlases on this website as well.  This website should be in every genealogist's toolbox.