Part of the worldwide genealogy/family history community
FamNet eNewsletter February 2017
ISSN 2253-4040
Quote. The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Anon.
Contents
DNA
Testing for Family History
22.
DNA Testing – One of the many advantages of DNA testing with FTDNA is
its Projects…
From our
Libraries and Museums
Whangarei Family History Computer
Group
Waitara Districts History &
Families Research Group
Free Genealogy Books on The
Internet Archive
LABOUR, The NZ Labour Party
1916-2016
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Editorial
Peter has left
it to me to once again write the editorial – slack! Should
I fire him? Not a good idea, then I’d
have to do the whole newsletter myself, and I simply don’t have the time. I know, I’ll double
his wages. What’s twice $0? No, that won’t help.
As for the
editorial, I don’t know that I’ve got anything new to say, so I’ll just repeat
my main message – TELL YOUR STORY. FamNet
is a great way to organise your stories and research. You can easily attach things (Word and PDF documents,
pictures and scanned pages, even video and audio) to one or several of your
records, creating a rich history of your family. I’ve covered how you do this in previous
newsletters, and there’s a complete list of my articles on this subject below. Just click the link to go to the topic that
interests you. And remember, whether
you are an experienced genealogist like Jan Gow or Peter Nash with an
extensively-researched whakapapa containing hundreds
of records, or somebody just starting out with a family tree containing nothing
more than you and your parents, the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to record the
stories that you and your living ancestors remember. Records remain, but memories vanish!
In this
issue: -
·
From
The Developer: User Feedback: it’s great when we hear from people, even when it’s
problem. Especially when it’s a problem.
·
The
Nash Rambler: Genealogy is best as a shared activity.
·
DNA
testing for Family History: One of the advantages of DNA testing with FTDNA is
its projects
·
Wairarapa Wandering: the SKEY-FRANCIS family
·
·
Hanley
Hoffmann: how much of your family history has been brushed under the carpet?
·
From
Dick Eastman’s newsletter: Free
Genealogy Books on the Internet Archive
·
Book
reviews: between us we’re proving that Peter and I are the only people who read
books.
Regards
Regular Features
From the Developer
User Feedback
FamNet has a particularly valuable user in New Plymouth. Why do I
think that Laurie is particularly valuable? I like it that he makes
a lot of use of FamNet, but the reason he’s valuable to me is that when he has
a problem he tells me. Sometimes the problem is his – he made a mistake
or didn’t understand what to do. But often the problem has been mine: a
particular operation doesn’t work as it should because of a mistake in my
programming. Yes, I know, it’s hard to think that a programmer of my vast
skill and experience might get it wrong … cue
hysterical laughter!
Generally FamNet works reasonably well, but it has a lot of sophisticated functions, some of which are rarely exercised, so there are many situations where my testing has not found all the possible errors. If nobody tells me that something’s wrong I’ll never know, so I really value people who will tell me when things don’t go as they should. Over the years Laurie and I have exchanged many emails, and had several Skype sessions where we’ve used Skype screen-sharing to see what he’s doing and to show him how I thought the feature should be used. Many improvements to FamNet have resulted from this, and we’ve all benefited.
So, if you have a problem, don’t just swear and
ignore it, let me know. Email is best
and we’ll Skype if necessary. I don’t promise
to fix it quickly, I do promise that I’ll look at the problem, and it won’t be
forgotten until it is fixed.
Going Back
Sometimes the problems aren’t really mine. Recently Laurie had problem going back to a previous page. But there are two ways of doing this: -
FamNet has a [Back] button at the top of every screen. On some screen this also appears further down as well: -
This back button works perfectly (according to Laurie, and as far as I know). The problem comes with the other, which is the browser’s back arrow. In Firefox: -
Clicking this back arrow often does what the
[Back] button does – but it often doesn’t. Sometimes the previous page
doesn’t exist and you get a message “Page has expired” or similar. This
isn’t just a FamNet issue, you’ll get the same
response on other sites – try going back in the middle of a credit card
process, or a bank transfer. Changing browsers won’t make any difference:
this is just the way that the web works. This is not an error; this is a
deliberate feature of Internet design, as without it web pages might allow
security breaches or other errors.
For example, many web pages have pages that require viewers to be logged on. What happens if you click a link to such a page? Typically the web site will redirect you to a logon page, get your name and password, and then pass control to the linked page. You may not even see this intermediate page – for example if you click the FamNet link from Cenotaph you think you go directly to the FamNet record of the person (say my Uncle Albert), but actually you’re going via a logon page that logs you in as a Cenotaph guest. You never even see this page, and by the time you arrive at the FamNet record of Uncle Albert it longer exists. The browser’s back button would attempt to take you back, but because it doesn’t exist you’ll get the “Page has expired” message.
The [Back] button in FamNet takes you back to the previous “different” page, which might be another ancestor and which might be several pages back according to the browser’s back button. In FamNet, always use [Back], not the back arrow.
Telling your story. Index
The Nash Rambler
In my previous column I mentioned
the long term search for Joseph NASH and how I needed to unearth cartons of
research out of the shed to prove or otherwise a proposed ancestry I found on
Ancestry.com. That will happen at the end of the month when my daughter arrives
home from
But this
exercise brought back to mind another long-term research problem that I solved
back in 2008. The solution has been a source of much pride and has been used as
an example of brilliant research many times during my now-finished public
speaking career.
Sarah
DINNISS is my great, great, great grandmother and appeared in the Saleby,
One major
problem in this research was the various possibilities for the surname -
DINNISS, DINNIS, DINNESS, DINNES, DENNISS, DENNESS, DENISS, DENIS, DENESS, DENES, DINIS and others I may have missed. That is,
all combinations of D*N*S appear at some stage of my research.
I started
this research in the early 1990s and there was no Ancestry.com or Findmypast. That was the good old days of reading films at
the LDS research centres. Ann Bromell used to drum
into her students at night classes and members of her branch of the NZSG, Onehunga, that, in problems like this you worked your way
around the last parish of "sighting" in concentric circles, slowly
working your way outwards until you hit "pay dirt" and thus solving
the problem. So I gradually worked my way outwards from Saleby,
reading film after film, and recording all occurrences of the name.
Incidentally,
I visited Saleby last year and each parish is very
small and the distances between parish churches are very small. Saleby is a village of a few houses only and the nearest
market town, Alford, is a lovely small village in
After many
years and many films (including Wills, Census, etc) I found a possibility in a
By this
stage I had been working on this problem for fifteen years. By now Ancestry.com
was up and running. I was also working for the NZSG (another story) and I had
about six or seven films ordered in for reading which included Great Carlton
and surrounding parishes. I was having coffee with Elaine Bell and her research
team and we discussed my DINNISS research problems. I could not find Sarah
DINNISS (and variant surnames) in any census records and there were too many
John DINNISS (and variations) options in the 1841 census and birthplaces were
of no value in that census.
We had the
whiteboard covered with suggestions for research and one postulated that Sarah
had married before the 1851 census. This was relatively easy to check out by
searching Ancestry.com's 1851 census for every Sarah,
born in Great Carlton, in 1809 plus or minus two years. Only two sensible
options were found - Sarah WHITWORTH married to a Joseph WHITWORTH and Sarah
PLUMTREE married Jacob PLUMTREE. Sarah
Whitworth had a "stranger" in the house - Moses MALKINSON who was a
son-in-law to the head of the household and the household was in
Marriage
records showed that a Joseph WHITWORTH had married a Sarah MALKINSON in 1846. Realising
that "son-in-law" had a different meaning back then we focussed on
this option rather than the other.
All options
were put up on the whiteboard - she had died before 1841, she had moved out of
Researching
Finding a
Sarah MALKINSON in the 1841 census was impossible. Using a bit of "left
field logic" we searched for Moses MALKINSON, born 1838 plus or minus five
years living in South Cockerington which was his
birthplace according to his entry in the 1851 census. We were unable to find
him but using the same method as we had for Sarah ie
ditching the surname we came up with about 70 options but one stood out, Moses
MORVINSON, living in
Having all
the films needed to prove two marriages, one death and all the census records
solved the problem.
Suddenly
within an hour I had another six children and Sarah's ancestry back another
three generations with their extended families. Sarah had lived the rest of her
life in either South or
The moral of this story is that I could not
have solved this problem without discussions with other genealogists.
Elaine Bell
is an exceptional researcher but the others in her team contributed all sorts
of possibilities. You would not believe all the possibilities that were on the
whiteboard. I had become blinkered and
forgot to consider all sorts of alternative possibilities. Working by myself I
may have solved the problem but it may have taken another fifteen years. I am a
fan of putting out on the internet the bare bones of my family tree to use as a
fishing exercise - I could not have contacted the airline pilot otherwise.
Therefore I
thoroughly recommend regular discussions with other researchers. NZSG you owe
me for this - maybe join your local group. Other researchers have no previous
knowledge and therefore may suggest a weird scenario that may lead to resolution.
Another situation to illustrate this point. I was doing some paid research for
a lady that was looking for a John DIAMANTI in
In summary,
family history is not a solo sport. No matter how good a researcher you are or
as you think you are, you become blinkered by the very work you are doing.
Somebody who is not been involved in your particular research area and problem
can put up some other possibilities. They may know of resources in
Thus endeth the lesson for today.
DNA Testing for Family History
22. DNA
Testing – One of the many advantages of DNA testing with FTDNA is its Projects…
I have said on numerous occasions that not all DNA testing firms are
equal. See my previous article #21 in this newsletter.
Nor do they give identical results – this is
not because the results are wrong, but the outcome is based on the testing chip
used by the firm concerned. Nor do they all offer the same tests and prices vary enormously.
Try to not get taken in by glossy advertising –
the PR people are highly paid to put a really positive spin on the products
being sold and the eventual outcome. And
most definitely read the fine print before signing up.
My favourite testing firm is FamilytreeDNA.com,
but please understand I am neither employed by them nor receive any perquisites
of any description – I am a total volunteer, and depending on what is wanted by
a tester I will recommend any one of the three main genealogical testing firms.
Having said that, in this article I
want to state a less well known but very advantageous (from my perspective)
offering from FamilytreeDNA (FTDNA). This is the ability for a tester
to join a project. There are many
categories of projects: for example there are
·
Y
Surname projects (usually males only unless a female joins and has a male
family member test;
·
Geographical
projects (some are for the Y Haplogroups and some for
the Mitochondrial Haplogroups and some are for
both);
·
Mitochondrial projects,
·
Autosomal projects;
·
Y
Haplogroup projects.
You will not necessarily see every project
category unless you have taken a specific test for such a project. After all, there is no sense in a female
whose only test is mtDNA trying to join a Y Haplogroup project, therefore until she looks from the
perspective of her personal FTDNA Home page, she will not see this category in
the general listing..
Every single one of these projects is free to
join and all are run by volunteers. The
downside to this is that sometimes (especially if the project is large) the
administrator can get buried in emails and are unable to give a speedy response
to a question, but all try hard to respond within a couple of days.
Every administrator must agree to a policy set
out by FTDNA which is very focused on privacy.
For example, no administrator may give out any of your details to anyone
or do anything with your results unless you actively request via email. Some administrators also operate private
websites and by and large these work well.
Occasionally an administrator doesn’t follow the policy procedures: when
discovered, the administrator is speedily removed.
Surname Projects
Family Tree DNA Projects are run by
administrators. Administrators are
unpaid volunteers who have an interest in the history and genealogy of a
particular haplogroup, lineage, geographic region,
ethnic group, or surname. They are given access to tools to compare results and
are responsible for managing and organizing the data for their projects.
Not every surname is represented but there are
7007 surname projects (and a number of the GUILD surnames) represented in the
category of surname projects at
today’s time of writing (17 Jan 2016).
A tester may join any of these and the
administrator will only raise an objection if it appears to be a frivolous
request. This is your cue to get on side
with the administrator if you think there is any possibility that they might
object. Ladies, be aware that some
administrators will not accept you and will ask you for a male relative
interested in joining. Some will also
expect your Family tree to prove that you have a direct connection with the
surname whose project you are wishing to join.
Adoptees find such restrictions particularly
difficult. Consequently, many
administrators who are sensitive to this issue will allow anyone to join. In recognition of this issue, FTDNA enable
testers to designate particular surnames when seeking matches to their results
via their personal FTDNA Home pages.
There are Surname projects beginning with any
of the alphabet letters (2 for X and 46 for Z as examples. You can see these and click on them to learn
which surnames are actually active by going to
https://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx
Geographical Projects
New Zealand is not represented here because it
is classed as a Dual Geographic Project, meaning both males and females can
join it. It (along with Australian
projects) are found in the Dual Geographic Projects
category.
The same principle applies to the MT Geographical Project – only those
with an mtDNA test should join it.
General
If, for example, you have not tested your DNA
via FTDNA and you just happen to do a Google search, you may well find a
project run by FTDNA come up in the list Google will give you. If you land on one which interests you, click
on the JOIN button
and take advantage of the project’s discount (and start your new journey into
the realm of genetic testing for genealogy.)
Index to previous articles
The series is well worth re-reading. Previous articles in the series are:
1. What is Molecular Genealogy?
4.
What DNA will NOT tell you and the risks involved.
5.
Direct paternal line (men only).
6.
Direct maternal line (men and women).
7.
All the lineages including maternal and paternal (men and
women).
8.
Understanding direct paternal results.
9.
Understanding direct maternal line results.
10.
Understanding your Autosomal ("cousin") results.
11.
Understanding the X Chromosome.
12.
Bits ‘n Bobs: DNA Testing Companies, Glossary.
13.
DNA Websites, Blogs, and Forums
14.
Commonly Asked Questions – Some Basic, Some Advanced
15.
DNA – Something a little different…
16.
Current Pricings for the Three Main Genealogical Testing
Firms
17.
DNA Testing for Family History
18.
Starting a new series on Y DNA Testing
19.
DNA Testing – Getting
into SNP testing on the Y chromosome to enhance your Family History
20. DNA Testing – Getting into SNP testing on the Y chromosome
to enhance your Family History (Contd)
21. DNA Testing – Going over some frequently asked
questions, plus, plus…
Wairarapa Wandering.
SKEY-FRANCIS Family
Here is another family that settled
in the Wairarapa that I have researched. The
information has mainly come from descendants.
When I first started looking beyond the
headstones at Clareville cemetery, here in the Wairarapa, one headstone stood out above the rest. It is a tall grey monument for William
SKEY, together with his wife, Louisa (nee FRANCIS)
William came out from
In November 1893, Ernest died, in an accident with his tracton engine coming up from Martinborough.
Son Frank married Fanny FRANCIS in
1890 and had a family. Phyliss never married, and son
William Trevor SKEY became as an
Anglican Priest, both buried at Clareville.
Henry was William's brother, being sons of William Fawcett
SKEY and Harriett. He joined the
Lands and Survey Dept. as a draughtsman. He married Sarah Ann ROSS and was one of
But, I was contacted by a lady in
I am in touch with family with the Francis side in Raumati
area near
Incidentally Francis Line is named after the Francis family, and name of
Clareville after daughter Clara FRANCIS who married Frank Wm. Dundee QUANTTRELL. All are buried at
I do have a manuscript hand written by William SKEY.
I wish I could find out who this person was in
So here is a plea for help - anyone knowing more please get in touch with me,
Thank you in advance
12 Neich’s Lane
Clareville.
5713
From our Libraries and Museums
Triggered by an email from Seonaid (Shona) Lewis, we are offering a forum to our libraries and museums to publicise their events, and to contribute articles to this newsletter that may be of interest to our readers. Auckland Libraries is starting to make good use of this free service, let’s see if other libraries and museums take up this offer.
For readers of this newsletter: please bring this to the attention of your local libraries etc, and encourage them to participate.
Auckland
HeritageTalks 2017
When: Fortnightly on Wednesdays
from February to November, 12pm - 1pm unless otherwise stated
Where: Whare Wānanga,
Level 2, Central
City Library, Lorne St, Auckland
Cost: Free
Booking: All welcome.
To ensure your place, please contact the
Central Auckland Research Centre on 09 8902412, or complete our online booking form.
www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/HeritageTalks
Interested in family and local history? The history of this country, as well as the rest of the world?
Then why not come along to one of our fortnightly HeritageTalks and hear more about both our personal
and our shared heritage.
Coming up in HeritageTalks:
February
Exodus to the Southern
Seas with Michelle Patient
Wednesday
8 February, 12pm -1pm
Aotearoa is not only the land of the long white cloud, but a land peopled by
immigrants. Join us at our first Lunchtime Lecture for 2017 to hear researcher
Michelle Patient discuss various waves of migration to New Zealand,
particularly from Britain, and touch on the who, what, when, where and why they
came.
Recording Family History
for People of Chinese Origin with Annie Chui
Wednesday
22 February, 12pm-1pm
‘如何收集和记录你的中国血统的家族史’讲座
Chinese
genealogy
March
Let’s look at the new ScotlandsPeople with
Wednesday 8 March, 12pm -1.30pm
What is new and what is different
and what is, thankfully, still the same . . . We have a chance to find our
family from 1500s through almost to date! Pretty much from womb to tomb!! Find
a marriage in the Parish Register or Civil Registration; then look for the
babies; then for their marriages; and then for deaths - and wills!! (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk)
Selwyn Stories with
Wednesday 22 March, 12pm -1.00pm
Late last year The Church on the Corner: a
history of Selwyn Church Mangere East, 1863-2012
was published. Author
All welcome.
To ensure your place, please contact
the Central Auckland Research Centre on 09 8902412, or complete our online
booking form.
www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/HeritageTalks
Ngā mihi | Kind regards
Seonaid (Shona) Lewis RLIANZA |
Family History Librarian
Central Auckland Research Centre,
Central City Library
Heritage and Research
Auckland Libraries - Nga Whare Matauranga o Tamaki Makarau
Ph 09 890 2411| Extn
(46) 2411 | Fax 09 307 7741
Auckland Libraries, Level 2, Central
City Library, 44 - 46 Lorne Street, Auckland
Visit our website: www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
@Kintalk on Twitter / Auckland Research Centre on Facebook
Group News
Whangarei Family History Computer Group
Contacts:
Pat: (09) 437 0692 whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com
Venues
Thursday evening venue is
email Whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com, if
you need directions.
Saturday meetings are held in the SeniorNet rooms in
The
rooms are upstairs in the
47 Websites You Can Use Instead of Wikipedia
for building a profile of your ancestors, what they did and about the times
they lived in.
“Wikipedia is
perhaps the most popular reference site online, with millions of high quality
articles available on virtually any topic. However, there are limits to what
Wikipedia can offer. Here are 47 Wikipedia alternatives you can use to find
information, research a paper, get quick answers, and much more.”
https://www.lifewire.com/alternatives-to-wikipedia-3482764
WHANGAREI FAMILY HISTORY COMPUTER GROUP – starts its meeting in February with a
number of us getting into extending our research into DNA.
Waikanae Family History Group
Contacts: Email: wfhgroup@paradise.net.nz Phone (04) 904 3276, (Hanley Hoffmann)
Venue: Meets every 4th Thursday
morning at the Waikanae Chartered Club,
Research days: at the Waikanae Public Library, 10am to 12 noon on second Wednesday of each month.
EXTRACT FROM HOFFMANN
FAMILY HISTORY IN
Getting
away from the Hoffmann name to Bernard’s time serving in WW1, it is significant
to note that many servicemen including Bernard Laurence Hoffmann, while serving
in Egypt, were prone to VD, venereal disease, many of them could not resist the
temptation to use the Cairo brothels. Bernard’s file reveals that he had “time
out” for VD.
I
imagine that both Sylvia his wife, and her subsequent families would not have
known this fact, access to servicemen’s files is a more recent phenomenon, so
this fact would have been kept a secret by most servicemen. In any case one could imagine relatives
would have said ‘…no it could not happen to Ben (as he was known) because he
was a good Catholic young man…..!’ How often have you heard relatives go into
denial over a newly, not so tasteful revealed fact. I have two female cousins who had the same
burst of denial over their mother having a child out of wedlock! “Our mother was a good Catholic…. Impossible!”
If
you look at many of the servicemen of WW1 in Egypt this was a cause for
leave.
Ben
was astute enough to save his money; I suspect that he did not waste his
military pay, or what he saved in employment before he enlisted. One of his eldest sons went on to ask me
(because of my doing family history) where his father got all his money from,
and I was astonished at this approach, I only had occasional contact with Ben
as a great uncle, and here was a son who had lived and worked closely with his
father in farming, most of his lifetime.
He obviously bought and sold land adjacent to his brother Harry at Yannawah after getting married at age 29 and then moved to
West Wyalong and purchased a farm. That would have
been no mean feat in 1922/1923 in his son’s eyes, but he never inquired of his
father how he was able to muster equity to make such a purchase.
Hanley Hoffmann
A
Waikanae Family History Group
Waitara Districts History &
Families Research Group
The contact details of this group are:
Waitara Districts History & Families Research Group
Rose Cottage
WAITARA 4320
Tel: 06 – 754 – 3212
waitarahistory.genealogy@xtra.co.nz
News and Views
From the Editor: Here is an article by Dick
Eastman that resulted in hours and hours of fun and lost "research
time" although it was a nice sidetrack. There are an
amazing collection of old books from the
Free Genealogy Books on The Internet Archive
When I started researching my family tree more than thirty years ago, I
purchased a paper reprint of a genealogy book first published in 1920: The
Harmon Genealogy, comprising all branches in New England written by Artemas C. Harmon. The book
mentions my great-grandmother, Lucy Harmon, and documents her Harmon ancestry
back to 1667. It is a wonderful resource, and I have referred to this book
often over the years.
I paid more than $100 for this reprinted book
many years ago. Today I found the same book online. The cost is ZERO. I can download the entire book to my hard drive or to a jump drive or
save it to an online storage service. I can print one page, multiple pages, or
even the entire book. Even better, I can electronically search the entire book
within seconds for any word or phrase. Not only can I search for names, but I
can also search for towns, dates, occupations, or any other words of interest.
Try doing that with a printed book!
The Internet
Archive, also known as “The Wayback Machine,” is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include
offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with
disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in
digital format.
The Internet Archive is well known for storing terabytes of old web
pages. However, the organization has also expanded its role to digitize and
store all sorts of public domain material, including old books, movies, audio
recordings, radio shows, and more. I have also found a few modern books on The
Internet Archive that were legally contributed by the copyright holders
themselves.
The site’s Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books,
children’s books, historical texts and academic books. The list includes
genealogy books as well. The Internet Archive is working with several
sponsoring libraries to digitize the contents of their holdings. In addition,
private individuals are invited to scan the public domain books in their
personal libraries and upload them as well. (See http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#195 for information 
about contributing your books.)
The result is a huge resource of books in TXT, PDF, and other formats,
books that you can download to your computer, save, and then search for any
word. The same books are also visible to Google and other search engines,
including online every-word searches.
Right: “A collection of upwards of
thirty thousand names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other immigrants in
Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776 : with a statement of
the names of ships, whence they sailed, and the date of their arrival at
Philadelphia, chronologically arranged, together with the necessary historical
and other notes, also, an appendix containing lists of more than one thousand
German and French names in New York prior to 1712”
The PDF versions contain images of every page in the original books.
That makes them easy to read. I prefer to look at PDF versions of a book
whenever possible. However, searching the PDF versions electronically does not
work very well.
You should be aware of a couple shortcomings of books converted to plain
text, however. First, the TXT files have lost the formatting of the original
books; there is no bold or italics or underlining since such formatting is not
supported by TXT formatting. In addition, paragraph indentations and other
“spacing” often is lost.
Secondly, many of the books available were converted to TXT format by
OCR software. OCR never converts all words perfectly; so, you can expect to
find numerous OCR errors in these documents. For instance, “The Harmon
Genealogy, comprising all branches in
The Internet Archive presently digitizes more than 1,000 books a day and
presently has more than 11 million “texts” (books and other printed material)
available online. There is also a collection of 300,000 modern eBooks that may
be borrowed or downloaded by the print-disabled at OpenLibrary.org. If you do not find what you want
today, come back in a few months and try again. It may have been added by then.
Of course, the Internet Archive is not the only source of digitized
books. In fact, Google Books is a well-known source of digitized books.
Operated by a well-funded commercial company, Google Books gets most of the
publicity. However, with commercial ownership come proprietary business
methods. Google Books has almost stopped adding new books to the collection.
New additions have slowed to a trickle. However, all books previously digitized
remain available online at http://books.google.com.
The Internet Archive also provides most books in http, EPUB, Kindle,
Daisy, and DjVu formats in addition to TXT and PDF.
As a result, the books and other documents can be read on almost any ebook reader as well as on computers, iPads,
and most cell phones that have web browsers.
The Internet Archive does not yet have all the genealogy books ever
published. In fact, nobody seems to know how many genealogy books are available
this way. Even the folks at The Internet Archive don’t know. They simply scan
everything they can find and don’t worry much about classifying the topics.
However, it is known that the Archive’s ever-expanding collection of genealogy
resources includes items from the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Robarts
Library at the University of Toronto; the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign Library; Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; the National
Library of Scotland; the Indianapolis City Library’s Indianapolis City
Directory and Yearbooks Collection; The Leo Baeck
Institute Archives of German-speaking Jewry Leo Baeck
Institute Archives; and the Boston Public Library.
Resources include among many things books on surname origins, vital
statistics, parish records, census records, passenger lists of vessels, and
other historical and biographical documents, as well as individual volumes
contributed by thousands of users from around the world. Most of the genealogy
books are published in English but there are numerous exceptions.
I searched the “Texts” section of The Internet Archive for the word
“genealogy” and found 128,198 results. By searching in “Texts,” I was able to
ignore the “hits” found on the Internet and in other sources. That’s not a definitive
answer as the word “genealogy” obviously will exist more than once in
many books. However, it does provide a rough idea of the popularity of the
word in The Internet Archives’ books, magazines, and other texts. Whatever the
true number, there must be thousands of genealogy books available today on The
Internet Archive, and the number is growing rapidly.
The Internet Archive also has scanned and digitized the U.S. Census
records from 1790 through 1930. Unlike the commercial providers of census data,
the versions provided by The Internet Archive have not been indexed. They are
useful only if you already know where to look for your ancestors. Small towns
can easily be searched one page at a time while cities probably are best
searched if you already know the enumeration districts involved.
Also unlike the commercial providers of census data, the census
information on The Internet Archive is available free of charge to everyone.
However, the Internet Archive version has not been indexed.
In fact, everything on The Internet Archive is
free. There is never a charge for
anything on The Internet Archive. As a non-profit, however, the organization
does accept donations which are tax-free to Americans.
In a casual search, I found all sorts of material of interest to
genealogists on The Internet Archive, including these:
Compiled
service records of soldiers who served in the American Army during the
Revolutionary war
Polk
Lafayette, Indiana, city directory (Volume yr. 1891)
Preakness
and the Preakness Reformed church, Passaic County, New Jersey: a history,
1695-1902, with genealogical notes, the records of the church and tombstone
inscriptions
The
history of ancient
Ziegler
Genealogy by John A. M. Ziegler
Genealogy
of the Beaudry Family of
Morse
genealogy by Morse & Leavett
Genealogy
of the Spotswood family in Scotland and Virginia
The Lenher family: a genealogy by Sarah Marion Lenher
The above is only a tiny fraction of the many books available free of
charge on The Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive isn’t perfect, but it does provide a great resource
for genealogists, historians, and others. If you are looking for information
about your family tree, I’d suggest that you check out The Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org. You can read about the Internet
Archive’s genealogy collection at https://archive.org/details/genealogy.
If you are interested in The Harmon Genealogy, comprising all
branches in
Caution: This book is great; but, like most genealogy books, it does contain a
few errors. Author Artemas C. Harmon did a very good
job of research, but his work was not perfect.
Book Reviews
The Romanovs: 1613-1913
By Simon Sebag Montefiore published 2016 by Orion Publishing Co,ISBN978 0
297 852667 (available at Whitcoulls)
I bought this book when I noticed it in Paper
Plus, and although this is not a light read (in either sense), 745 pages
including 100 of bibliography and references, I enjoyed it and I’d recommend it
to anyone with an interest in history.
An account of the dynasty which turned a poor and backward principality
on the edge of Europe into an empire stretching from the Baltic to Alaska, it’s
a tale of excess, cruelty, madness and incompetence, with only occasional
improvement. The Tsar was a ruler
appointed by God, who apparently approved of rulers such as these: -
“Peter the Great
tortured his own son to death while making
To anybody with our modern sensibilities the
wonder is not that they were overthrown, but that it took so long. Although I have no particular interest in
Russian history, seeing the world from the perspective of the Tsars gave me
fresh insights into the world of the Napoleanic wars
and Europe in the time before the First World War, and a fresh understanding of
the
Robert Barnes
Shapely Ankle Preferr'd
by Francesca Beauman,
published by Chatto & Windus,
Random House 2011, ISBN978 070 118170 3 and I don't know how and where I
acquired it
This book is subtitled "A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad 1695 -
2010"
I have a great aunt way out on my family tree
who, after a year or two of becoming a widow and living out in the backblocks
of Northland, New Zealand, acquired a second husband by way of a judiciously
placed advertisement looking for a suitable candidate to ease her loneliness.
Unfortunately for her, after eventually acquiring a daughter of the successful
candidate, she discovered that he had carelessly forgotten to dispose of a
previous wife. This caused great family embarrassment and this marriage was
conveniently annulled and swept under the carpet, never to be revealed. In
fact, the resultant daughter did not know of this family problem until, as an
adult, she tried to apply for a passport. Then I came along wanting to write
the family history and asked too many questions and the marriage was revealed
by a estranged relative. Of course, I diplomatically
failed to mention this marriage in my family history.
I was surprised to hear that these advertisements
were used in New Zealand although, just recently, I found that my great
grandfather had also resorted to this method of courtship.
This book is a very readable history of an old
method for advertising for love which is over three hundred years and now
replaced by Tinder and other such digital websites. It covers the whole gambit from advertising
for mistresses in the1700s, criminal scams of the 1890s and the sad appeals of
war widows. It shows how humans picked their mates and is a startling history
of dating, marriage and society over three hundred years.
This book is another one that helps to
understand the societies of the 1700s through to the 1900s and may explain one
or two mysteries in your family history. How did your ancestors meet?
I recommend this book.
Peter Nash
LONDONERS
by Craig Taylor, published by Granta Books, ISBN
978 1 84708 329 6 and was purchased in
This book is subtitled "The Days and Nights of London as told by
those who Love it, Hate it, Live it, Left it, and Long for it".
I have two children who live in London. I have
visited London many times over the years and spent two weeks there in June last
year. This time my wife and I kept away from the tourist traps and visited many
places that were recommended by our children. We ate at many back street cafes
and pubs as well as the high class restaurants. We travelled many suburban
streets in the search for a decent cup of coffee and found few - all were
operated by New Zealanders. We lived in small hotels and Bed and Breakfast
places. This last trip was the first visit that I enjoyed; every other left me
with bad feelings and experiences.
This book is a gem and a must read for those
who intend to travel to London or have experienced a visit. To quote a critic -
"Taylor's London is an inspiring feat of oral history condensed from more
than 200 interviews he conducted with London residents mostly...." He
interviews taxi drivers, the voice of the London Underground, a plumber, an
urban planner, a street cleaner etc etc. All give
their personal experiences and feelings for the metropolis. Each interview is
short and pithy allowing for a nibble here and a nibble there rather than a
front to back read.
This book is for travellers as well as
Londoners. You get a full picture not the cleansed version that you tend to see
as a tourist.
Peter Nash
LABOUR, The NZ Labour Party 1916-2016
by Peter Franks & Jim McAloon published by Victoria University
Press, ISBN 978 1 77656 074 5 and was purchased at Whitcoulls.
In a past life I was heavily involved in
This history starts in very early NZ and
explores the development of socialistic and radical ideas before the Labour
Party was formed. These ideas have now become fundamental to the New Zealand
lifestyle but were at first considered too radical for the class-based system
we had.
This book is a readable history and well worth
a read to realise how far our society has developed from that of our great
grandfathers and grandfathers. It is a book to that adds to our understanding
of the lifestyles our ancestors "enjoyed".
I recommend this book even though my name
doesn't appear anywhere in it.
Peter Nash
Notice that despite what I said in previous
newsletters I have managed to read at least three books. But I cannot resist
stating that I have another two reviews for next month. After
saying that I can leave this section feeling most sanctimonious.
In conclusion
A Bit of Light Relief
|
|
Was this our earliest ancestor? You won’t find it in your family album, but a tiny prehistoric creature with a bag-like body, a huge mouth and no anus has become the best candidate yet for our earliest known ancestor. Reported from Guardian Science, the blog that brought it to our attention suggested that such a creature with a huge mouth and no anus must have been the origin of management. |
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