Newspaper Research Tip

Newspapers.com Hammond Times,3 Feb 1941 p. 2. c. 6

I’d like to pass on this awesome tip provided by Andrea during a recent Genealogy Club meeting at the Garrett, Indiana Public Library. Andrea was informing the group about Newspapers.com, which is free in Indiana through local public libraries.

Andrea suggested searching by address. I never tried that before and thought it was a novel idea. I immediately put in my childhood address and was shocked to learn that my grandparents had placed an ad in the real estate section of a local newspaper in 1964 to rent out the home that I lived in. I had no idea!

I recommend also typing in your old phone number. That showed up in the classified ad.

I also discovered the clip above about my uncle who had been involved in a car accident in 1941. I would have never found that without the address as the article misspelled his last name.

When I entered my husband’s home address, up came his father who was a political delegate in 1971. By law then, delegates names, addresses, and phone numbers were publicized.

I tried the tip with chroniclingamerica.loc.gov but wasn’t as successful. I’m planning to use it with other sites, as well.

Give this a try and let me know of your wonderful finds!

New Genealogy Tips and Tricks

Courtesy of en.Wikipedia.org. Thinking of you, Ukraine!

I’ve been Spring Cleaning so I’m a tad late on posting today. I’m really supposed to be in a local genealogy society’s Zoom meeting but they are having tech issues so I decided to blog while I wait to be let in.

I’m excited to write that I have FINALLY finished scanning my older genealogy collection from my family. I had so much dust, bits of dried brown paper, even glitter from old greeting cards around that I spent the last week plus majorly cleaning. Amazing how those documents permeated nooks and crannies throughout my home!

After I get the outside pressure washed, my favorite job, I decided to scan additional documents, such as medical records, too. I’d like to go as paperless as possible going forward.

Here is some new genealogy news you might find interesting:

ROOTSTECH may be over but if you attended, you should be getting an email notification of your “cousins” that also logged on for the conference. Follow the link (which expires on March 25th) and then click “Roots Tech Relatives.” My relative number is 8,944 – those would be the people who also have a FamilySearch.org tree that matches the people I have in my tree. A map appears and you can click to see folks from your area and be able to contact them if you like. Another alternative is to scroll down the page and click in the Surname box – adding a surname you are interested in connecting with. The default is your current surname and if it’s like mine, Samuelson, is not going to find you much. There are loads of Samuelsons that aren’t related to us because of Swedish naming patterns. I plugged in my top 3 family surnames – Koss, Leininger, and Landfair and discovered that there were 5 Leiningers in attendance but no one with the other two names.

Have New York City families? Then you’ll love the fact that the vital records are 70% digitized and available for FREE. Check out the link. A list of all available records can be found here.

MyHeritage.com continues to improve its site. If you love timelines, you’ll enjoy their new color-coded ones with graphics. This blog article will explain it.

I’m not sure how I feel about their new Live Story which is a tool for you to make animated videos of your ancestors telling their stories. Personally, it’s a little too creepy for me but if you are into AI and liked Deep Nostalgia, this is definitely for you. Try it out here.

On the more traditional genealogy path, MyHeritage.com has increased its French records by adding Filae’s family trees. That 269 million! Read about it here and there is a link in the article to start researching the records.

Sigh, so many records, so little time. Have a wonderful week searching!

RootsMagic 8

Pop Up from New RootsMagic 8

New Settings for Links on RootsMagic 8Kind of apropos that RootsMagic decided to unveil their new software during the magical month of October. There are a lot of changes and I have only begun to learn the new software. Here’s my experiences so far…


A week ago Sunday I tried to purchase the new version via a link in an email I received. The link didn’t work. Since I’ve been a long time user of the program and wasn’t a new subscriber, I could simply purchase an update instead of the new version’s software. The prices change beginning on 10/17 so I wanted to take advantage of the special offer.


Since the email link didn’t work I Googled for the product. I was entering my info but when I clicked to complete the transaction I got an error message that my card didn’t go through. I tried again. It still declined. I then got a bank alert that they had put the card on hold – did I really make that purchase? After informing the bank I had, I thought that the transaction would go through.


By the following day it still hadn’t; after checking my credit card and seeing that the bank did not process the payment I went back to the site and tried again. Got the same decline message. I pulled out a different card and it went through with no problem as minutes later I had an email with my confirmation of the order and another email with the download instructions. Don’t understand why the first card didn’t work as I used it before and since with no problem anywhere else.


I went back to the site and tried to download. So far – so good!


The program looks very different. I thought I would try to link with Ancestry.com and download my Main Tree again as I had with the previous version. I knew I was signed out of my RootsMagic 7 link as I had tried that a week earlier and it would not allow me to sign back into Ancestry.


Every time I logged into Ancestry through Version 8 the program would freeze. Sometimes I got a runtime error, sometime I received a message that I was out of space. Other times it just stopped working and I had to shut the program down through Task Manager (control + alt + delete). Unbeknownst to me, Version 8 was moving everything from Version 7. Since my trees have a lot of data and images, this took time. I wish that information had been available because I wasted time over two days to try to get an Ancestry connection.


On the third day I discovered, while poking around the new software, that all of my trees from previous RootsMagic versions had been loaded into 8. I clicked on my largest tree to check to make sure everything had moved. It then asked me again if I wanted to link to Ancestry.com which I wanted. I went to bed before the program finished.


The next day, the program was again frozen. Yes, the Disney musical Frozen is Magical but what I was experiencing was not! I again closed it out and reopened it. I could see photos, which was a plus. Before I started clicking into individuals to verify that stories and research had also been saved, I received the popup at the top of this blog.


So, I followed the instructions above and signed into FamilySearch. I’m not sure how that’s going to work because FamilySearch does not allow you to permanently be signed in unless you have a church membership, which I do not. Maybe there has been a deal cut with RootsMagic that I’m not aware of.


The Ancestry direction is interesting as I would have had to spend a lot of time looking around the site to discover where the update for that was located. I don’t know why it wasn’t under Settings where you’d find the other companies. I also don’t understand why I have to keep signing into Ancestry.


There are several online courses to help users and I intend to view them soon.


If you are new to RootsMagic and this is turning you against buying it, that’s not my intention. I loved the past software and the tech support in the past. I expect it will continue but this new makeover is quite dramatic. This program does permit you to identify any changes you make to your Ancestry.com tree and add to your RootsMagic tree. It was time consuming if you didn’t do it periodically but it was a nice way to save all of your information on your desktop, external hard drive or another cloud in case there is a problem with Ancestry.com.


For the old time users, I’m sure we’ll get the hang of the changes soon; I just wanted to let you know where you used to get linking info is not where it now resides. Patience in genealogy is important and with this change, even more so.

Getting the Most Out of Online Genealogy Classes

A must have with your online classes!

Do you have Zoom fatigue? Does the thought of watching one more online class make you want to throw something at your computer screen? If so, this blog is for you!

I keep a record of the courses I take on my website for several reasons. As a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, I need to complete 12 hours of professional development yearly to renew. I participate in way over that requirement because I believe in keeping current and strongly support continuing education. Even in the most basic courses, I usually learn at least one new trick or I’m reminded of something I heard before but didn’t try myself. By keeping a list of the courses I’ve viewed, I can avoid re-watching those I’ve taken. I can look at what I’ve taken when I am approaching a new work task and refer back to the syllabus of the course that may help me with the task at hand. I can also determine if I’m lacking in an area so I can then actively seek out those areas to beef up on.

Personally, I’m loving the Zoom/Go To Meetings/Teams conferences and am actively advocating the organizations to which I belong to continue with at least a hybrid model when the pandemic is over. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel and to meet with other passionate family historians in person. I just don’t think that old thinking model is right anymore. Watching from your home is helping the carbon footprint. I’m saving lots of money by not having to pay for the travel expense, hotel accommodations and food. I’m also winning big on saving time by staying home. I can afford to attend more conferences than I would have before covid so I’m definitely ahead there. People from all over the world can attend, although the time differences are problematic and largely unfair to those not living on the eastern US coast. I’ve recommended that presentation times vary as this is just not fair to everyone. The online format is a win-win for both those who would have difficulty traveling because of a disability or childcare and for the organization who now has more participants. The voices of those who couldn’t attend before can now be heard.

For the conferences that offer breakout rooms, I have the extra advantage of still meeting up in a group and discussing the topic that we just viewed. If you are shy, no worries! It’s a great place to be a fly on the wall.You can turn your video off and just observe. I will bet there are many mouthy people like me that will be actively engaged and you’ll hear discussions and gain new insights by just listening.

For the conferences that don’t off that feature, I definitely use the chat function. Click to have the chat up and place it off to the side of the screen so you can follow along with the side conversations while the presenter is giving the information. This make me think of another plus for online classes. Remember attending a lecture in the past and the folks behind you that wouldn’t stop talking? You’d shift in your seat. Then you’d turn and give them the teacher look. They didn’t care and continued. Finally, you asked them nicely to be quiet. “Sorry,” they’d say but a few minutes later they were back to their sidebar discussion. None of that any longer! The chat is that conversation and if it distracts you, then just ignore it. At the end of the lecture, before you sign off, you can read it and take note of any web addresses that were posted. You can also copy and paste it. If your Zoom conference doesn’t have that option with the click of a button here’s another option – just hit the control + C to copy the info and then, in an open Word document, click and paste (control +P).

Here’s another chat hint – you can message the group or just an individual. A few weekends ago I took a class on the Chicago fire given by the Chicago Genealogical Society. Several of my husband’s cousins were in attendance. I sent them private messages in the chat. It was kind of like sitting with friends. If you know another attendee is watching this works well. If you don’t know if one of your friends is on, simply click in the chat box from All to Private and you’ll see a list of those who are attending. Scroll down the list to identify the folks you know and send them a personal Hello!

If there is a syllabus, I keep it electronically in Dropbox under a folder called Syllabuses (duh!). Inside the folder I have more folders for the offering organization, such as APG, NGS, etc. No more wasted paper or killing my printer ink. It’s much easier to find what I’m looking for quickly and using the control + F (find) helps me zero in to discover the exact item I’m looking for on the syllabus. That list I keep on my website is a time saver here as if I can’t quite remember which organization offered the class, I can look on the website for the topic and then find where I’ve filed it in the online folder.

While I’m watching the lecture on one screen, I have my second computer screen up and waiting to try out what the presenter is talking about. For example, this past week I watched the National Genealogical Society sponsored Ancestry course on the new update to their Freedmen Bureau records. I had Ancestry open on my second screen so as the two presenters were discussing how best to search, I was trying it out myself. I do that because I can still ask the presenters questions, either through the Chat or the Q and A feature before the class ends if I’m having difficulty in following what they suggest. This sure beats trying to check it out on my cell which is what I used to do with on site classes. I’m also getting practice which increases the likelihood that I’ll use the tool in the future.

Also in Dropbox, I keep an Excel spreadsheet called Help Ideas. It has only 3 columns – Topic, (web) address, comment. When I’m attending a lecture and the presenter recommends a specific website or archive to locate a record, I record the information on my Help Ideas spreadsheet. For topic, I might record “Blog”, record the web address and under comment, record the presenter’s name and date of the lecture. This has helped me with brick walls as no one can possibly remember everywhere to look. Sure the Familysearch.org Wiki is wonderful but it is not complete. Remember, I’m only recording info that is new to me or that I want to gain more information about later. When I need to research in an area I haven’t done in awhile, it’s simple to filter for that topic and instantly I have a great list of where I can research. Make sure you keep the list up so you can add to it while you’re watching.

Last but not least, if you are watching a pre-recorded lecture, definitely use the speed up button if available and if the presenter speaks slowly. This is my magic trick for how I get through so many lectures in a rainy afternoon. Trust me, you get used to the funny sounding speech after only a lecture or two. I always use this for classes that are more than 50 minutes and for those that might be on a topic I have a good knowledge base already. If the presenter does get to a part that is new to me, I can always return the speed to normal to make sure I understand the information. It’s simple to back up and listen again if you missed something.

Now go pop some popcorn, get in a comfy chair and watch those lectures you have on your to-do list.

Genealogy Pronunciation Trick

Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

My blog is late today as I had unexpected tech issues, the bane of my existence!  This past week, first my husband and then I, noticed an “enter code” button that appeared on any Microsoft product we were using on our desktops.  It finally dawned on us that the educator license we had with Microsoft was being removed since we both retired from our academic careers this month.  This was a totally unexpected situation as we had paid for a license for our computers that didn’t expire.  Microsoft only allows military veterans to continue and not educators.  Who knew?!  Took the time this morning to buy two new licenses – one for my business and the other for home use.  The Microsoft site was not working well and wouldn’t allow me to save my domain info so I’m going to have to go back on later.  After the slow download I freaked out when I opened Word and only documents from 2019 showed up.  I was able to open two docs from my desktop I just created in the last two weeks and once they opened, they showed in the list when I reopened Word. I then went to Dropbox and opened a pdf from January and a doc from last August.  Once opened, they show in the Word list.  I don’t understand this at all but as long as I can open older documents as I need them, I’m good.  

Here’s an update on my Bible blog from last week – got a heartwarming thank you from my distant cousin who will be receiving the Landfair Bible.  I’m so glad it found a good home, away from hurricanes, humidity and mold.  Remember this story this week when you run into a rude person – there are a lot of good people out there, just not everyone!

Now, for today….

I had a wonderful 2 day Professional Management Conference hosted by APG.  It was just awesome reconnecting with other professional genealogists in the break out sessions and the lectures were informative.  I plan to be adding a page to Genealogyatheart.com with my lectures soon.  Unfortunately, the terms of my retirement do not allow me to “teach” in any format for the next 6 months so that’s all on hold for awhile.  The conference did nudge me into making proposals to my state genealogy group with ideas for journal articles.  I’ll be writing 3 for upcoming issues.  Working on the first, along with the Bible interaction last week, gave me the idea for today’s blog.

Let’s think of the Louis Armstrong song, You Say Tomato.  Genealogy is fraught with pronunciation problems.  When I spoke to the lady from Ohio about the Bible, I told her I did not live close to either Lima (lee mah) or Celina (Seh lee nah).  She replied she didn’t either and then laughed.  In Ohio, those places are known as (lie mah) and (sel lie nah).  

This got me thinking about why it’s sometimes so difficult for us to find an ancestor’s former residence.  We aren’t seeing it in print – we’re hearing it.  Same issue with census enumerators hearing our ancestors and misunderstanding their English as a second language pronunciation. This week, I’ve been researching a local family from Greece.  Their name evolved from the original spelling from the first generation to how the name is pronounced in English for the second generation.  Loved the Find-A-Grave note that was added by the memorial creator explaining why the names were different!

To complicate the situation, the same word can be pronounced differently depending on the location.  One of my children spent time in both Grenada’s.  That would be Gre nae dah, West Indies and Gre nah dah, Spain.  

Next time you are stuck on a location or surname, try thinking about it in a variety of ways.  Type the word in Google and add “pronunciation.”  Try this for “Lima Ohio pronunciation” and Lima Peru pronunciation.” Pretty neat trick!

Fantastic Photos! MyHeritage.com Does It Again!

Do you have DAMAGED PHOTOS that break your heart because you can’t appreciate the picture while fixating on the ugly part?  I do and I was never able to use the photos in family projects because I couldn’t restore them to their former glory.

Thanks to MyHeritage.com, it is now simple, quick, easy and free (some limitations apply) to return the photos to better than new.  Here’s how:

First, upload your photo to be repaired by logging into MyHeritage.com and click on Photos in the ribbon, then click the Upload box on the right.

Once uploaded, the photo appears with your media items.  Now, click the photo needing to be repaired.

Above the photo on the right hand side, the following options are shown:  Repair, Enhance, Colorize, Animate.  To correct the photo it’s recommended you select options from left to right.

Once I click Repair and MyHeritage.com does it’s magic, the photo will be shown as follows:

Much improved but still not perfect.  Sure, I can clip out the damage to the upper portions of the photo but I want to restore the picture to as close as new as possible so here’s what I’m going to do – On the upper left hand side of the photo, click on the gear icon which is the settings option.  The photos are first repaired Gently – that’s the default setting.  I’m going to click the box Extensive Repair Option and Preview. Now look at what it does:

Isn’t that AMAZING?! You can stop there but I wanted to make the photo even more defined so I next clicked on Enhance.  Here’s what the result was:

Due to the size limitation on my blog, the subtle improvements are not as apparent as on my larger computer screen but when you try it you’ll notice the difference.
Next I decided to go ahead and colorize it. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of colorizing because I like to know FOR SURE if what I’m presenting in my research is accurate.  It is fun, however, to imagine what the original outfits looked like so I decided to click the Colorize button to see what the program would select:

I again used the Settings (gear icon) to tweak the saturation manually as the first colorization picture showed a pink hue on right side of the dress.  Knowing the individuals as I did, that wouldn’t have been the color choice.  The brown/silver grey was more in keeping with the time period (1917) fashion and the wearer’s preference.  
In my excitement to get the photo corrected I neglected to tell you who the people are!  This is a photo of my paternal grandparents, Edwin and Lola Landfair Leininger, and their oldest child, my dad, Orlo Guy Leininger.  He was born June 4, 1917 so I guess this must be a photo that commemorated his first Christmas.  Nothing was written on the photo back (of course).  I received the photo 5 years after my father’s death in a box that was kept in a damp unheated northern Indiana basement for probably at least 10 years.  I’m fortunate that the photo survived, albeit damaged.  I’m thrilled that it has been restored.  Thanks, MyHeritage.com for your new feature!
For the ethic minded, I also appreciate that MyHeritage.com acknowledges that the photo was altered.  You can see the After written in the upper left hand corner of the photo and on the bottom left, icons appear showing exactly what features were used to change the original picture.  
I’ve blogged before about the animation feature but it has since added many new features, too.  I couldn’t resist animating my Dad, I’m sure he would approve:

A Unique Genealogical Find on Christmas Night

I absolutely adore those unexpected finds, don’t you?!  During my two week hiatus I decided I’d try to solve a John Duer (1801-1885) mystery.  I wasn’t able to do that yet but I have made some tremendous progress and want to share how I came to put the pieces together to answer my question – Why is it written on Mary Jane Morrison Duer’s 1866 tombstone “Wife of John Duer” when John was married to Margaret Ann Martz Searight Duer at the time of Jane’s death? I have never found a marriage record for the 2nd marriage nor have I found a divorce record for the first wife.  Was there more than one John Duer? (Yes, there are many!) Was John polygamous?  (Could be but I haven’t found that in the Duer line.  They were Quakers, Presbyterians and then Independent Christians.) 

John and Jane are my paternal third great grandparents.  No one ever mentioned them but in all fairness, I was not close to my father’s side of the family so I never got much family information about anyone. Duer cousins I have connected with have no information, either.

I love researching the Duers for several reasons – 1.  They are complex in that they reuse the same names every  generation – John, William, Thomas, and they all have large families so separating who is who is a wonderful mind puzzle.  2.  Records are scarce – they don’t leave many records and they just disappear in thin air.  3.  Somehow, every time I go back to working on those lines a strange event occurs to help me find the information.  That kind of happened again Christmas night which I think was the most perfect gift I received.

The week before Christmas I re-analyzed all the information I had on the family and began to sort out some anomalies.  I discovered that a Find-A-Grave memorial for a John Fred Duer is in error.  I’ve written to my distant cousin to have it corrected.  The mistake was in plain site on the page and I’m embarrassed I didn’t catch it years ago.  The memorial shows that the man was 102-3 when he died – possible but unlikely.  Looking at the individual who requested the tombstone, I realized that two Johns – John Fred and John B. had been merged.  The birthdate for John B. was entered with the death date for John Fred.  The tombstone does not provide a birth date.  

John B. was John and Jane’s son; John Fred[eric] was the son of Charles Edward and Almeda Buckmaster Duer.  Charles Edward was the son of John and 2nd wife Margaret Martz Duer.  John Fred’s mother had requested the military tombstone for her son who had served in World War 1.  John B. was dead before World War 1 and too old to serve.

I can understand how the mistake happened – most of John and Jane’s children are buried in Kessler Cemetery, Mercer, Ohio.  John B., however, is not – he is buried in Backestro Cemetery, Adams, Indiana.  John and Margaret lived in Adams, Indiana so you would think they would be buried there but Margaret, Charles Edward and John Fred are buried in Kessler.  No one knows where John, husband of Jane and Margaret, was buried.  My guess is Kessler in an unmarked grave.  I’ve checked with those who oversee the cemetery and there is a depression next to Jane’s grave that was possibly an interment.  My guess is that the family didn’t pay for a tombstone.  More on that in another blog sometime.

My working theory is that some of John and Jane’s children were not wild about  his second marriage to Margaret.  Hence, they would put the “wife of John” on Jane’s tombstone to validate their mother’s marriage to their father.  I wanted to narrow down the time period of when the couple split and try to determine how John met Margaret since she was in the next state.  I’ll write more about that another time, too.

My thought was to check out, in detail, all of the players – meaning looking more closely at all of the children of the two couples and their spouses.  I used Excel to list all of them, the date and the place where I had a record they could be found.  I realized there was a lot I did not know.  I’ll be writing in the next few weeks about some of the interesting and sad finds I made but for now, back to the Christmas night find.

I was using FamilySearch.org image feature which I highly recommend.  If you haven’t used it you must because almost all of the wonderful information I have compiled lately on this family is from this unindexed, convoluted place.  You must try it! Images do not mean pictures as in photos. Images mean they are a picture of a document.  They look just like the other microfilmed documents that are indexed on the site.  The images are not always orderly, meaning you might find a death record next to a marriage consent.  You must take it slow, examine closely and click away.

To use images, sign into Familysearch.org, on the ribbon click “Search” and the “Images.” Under “Place” type whatever area you are researching.  In this case, I was looking for a deed record for Mercer County, Ohio because John and Jane were last found together there in July 1860 in the US Federal Census.  I entered in Place “United States, Ohio, Mercer” and clicked Search Image Groups. When I try to duplicate that search today, however, it will only let me enter Ohio, United States.  Don’t know why it’s been changed but no worries!  On the left hand side of the screen “Places Within” is a drop down so I will scroll to Mercer [County]. There are 321 record types to look at – woo hoo, that’s a lot of info that may or may not be relevant.  

The 1860 US federal census showed John and Jane living two residences away from their married daughter, Maria Duer Kuhn, in Liberty Township, Mercer, Ohio. Liberty Township should have been where I was looking for a record of the deed for the property but I didn’t find that township specifically.  (I first tried the Mercer County, Ohio property appraiser site and did not find the record there).  With the options limited, I clicked on FamilySearch.org on Celina, Land Record 1834-2003, etc.  I was thinking that Celina was the county seat and that’s where the deed may have been recorded. 

Remember, these images are not indexed so I decided I would open the page to as full a view as possible (meaning I clicked the > on the right hand side and was just mindlessly clicking image after image zeroing in on the years 1850 (when I last knew the family was in Killbuck, Holmes, Ohio based on the census and 1866 when John and Margaret had their first child together and Jane died. Sometime in those 16 years perhaps there was a deed in Mercer and I wanted to know which wife was on it.) Turns out that wasn’t correct but that’s another story…

It was a very good practice that I had first become familiar with children and their spouses.  After just a few minutes, on image 130 of 1112, I discovered the record at the top of the page.  Look at the second from last entry above for Grantees Ceraldo, John F. & Mary Ceraldo.    

John and Jane’s daughter, Mary Ann, has been elusive and here I found a deed record for her and her husband in 1887.  I about jumped out of my chair!  

All I knew of Mary was that she had married twice, to a James Furman in July 1875 and to John L. Ceraldo in April 1879, both in Mercer County, Indiana.  I can’t find her in the 1860 or 1900 census. There is a child, Daniel, listed with the couple in 1870 US federal census, however, it must be from a previous relationship of John’s.  That is the only record for the child I could find. No marriage record for a possible first wife.  No burial records.  Nada!

John Ceraldo was a naturalized citizen having been born in Mexico and serving in the cavalry for the Union during the Civil War.  He could not read nor write so his name is spelled in multiple ways in the few records found.  The couple eventually ended up in Michigan where Mary died in 1909.  Sadly, John, the informant, knew John Duer was Mary’s father but did not mention Jane as her mother.  The mother space is recorded as Unknown.  Jane, having died in 1866, probably never met John but why didn’t Mary ever talk about her?  This seemed to be a pattern with the younger children of John and Jane as James William and Angeline’s death certificates list an incorrect first name or record unknown.  More Duer mysteries!  Why was Jane forgotten by her youngest children?

What was so awesome about this find was that I wasn’t looking for it.  I also was able to place the couple in Ohio as they had not yet relocated to Michigan. The gap between 1880 and 1900 is large so any find in that period is just wonderful.  I also discovered they continued living in Jefferson Township, since at least 1870, and not Liberty Township where siblings had settled.  

I don’t know the relationship of Daniel Webster, also listed as a Grantee, is to the couple.  That’s another clue I have to pursue.  

I’m looking forward to more Duer finds this year.  Since my top 10 blogs from 2020 showed that my readers love the unexpected, I thought you might enjoy the following article in the Washington Post (3 Jan 2021) Near the End of life, my hospice patient had a ghostly visitor who altered his view of the world, by Scott Janssen, originally published in Pulse – Voices From the Heart of Medicine.  If only John or Jane would give me a visit!

Have an Enslaved Mystery? This New Online Site May Help.

On Tuesday, a new FREE database became available – Enslaved:  People of the Historic Slave Trade lists 500,000 individual names of the once enslaved.  You may browse by entering a person’s name, place, event or source.  I gave it a whirl yesterday and although I didn’t find what I was looking for, think it’s a wonderful source to add to every genealogists’ tool kit.

The site is definitely a work in progress but then, so is every genealogical database.  The goal is to enter as many names/places/events that documented an enslaved individual.  With many records held in private hands, that has made the endeavor all the more difficult.

It’s been estimated that there were over 10 million Africans who survived the passage to the new world in bondage.  The majority were transported to South America, Brazil in particular.  

The enslaved who resided in Roman Catholic areas were often Baptized.  Hence, names are more likely available. Unfortunately, that was not always the case.  Entering the search term “Brazil” in the database provided me with 45,753 responses but the majority do not provide a name for the enslaved.  Instead, a name of the seller or purchaser is given with a date.

I have been trying to identify the names of the enslaved individuals who were probably brought from Barbados to the New Jersey Colony by my 7th “great*” STEP grandmother, Thomasin Hassell Holinshead about 1720.  Thomasin’s father was a sugar planter in Barbados.  No records have been found of his death or the sale of his plantation although the location has been discovered on island maps.  

Thomasin’s husband, my 7th great* grandfather, Daniel Hollin[g]shead was not a man of means but happened to marry for the second time the sugar heiress’ daughter.  Within four years of the marriage they had relocated to New Jersey where Daniel sold vast tracks of wilderness.  He died intestate (of course!) in 1730.  

I only know of the enslaved individuals from Thomasin’s will of 3 Jan 1757 made in Somerset, New Jersey.  She interestingly selected her youngest daughter, Elizabeth, to serve as administrator.  Records exist that Thomasin was not pleased with her oldest son, Francis, who had served as administrator for his father, Daniel’s estate as he squandered most of the funds. Thomasin left him and her other surviving children 1 shilling, about $15.30 in today’s money.  Says alot!

The clip above shows the part of the will that provides me the clue that Thomasin had enslaved individuals.  I do not know:

  • How many?
  • Ages?
  • Gender?
  • Names?
  • How long they had been with her?

I have tried to find a will for administrator Elizabeth but her life is sketchy.  Mug books mention that she married late in life and had no children.  Her husband’s name has been recorded as Thomas Dean of Abington but that, too, is odd.  Elizabeth’s brother, William, had relocated to Bucks County, Pennsylvania and named a daughter Elizabeth.  That Elizabeth was the second wife of Thomas Bean of Abington.  I’ve seen dates of birth for Thomas Bean ranging over 20 years so maybe there was more than 1 as there was more than 1 Elizabeth Hollinshead.  No record for a Dean was ever found.  

I tried the enslaved database to see if I could find any sale for a Holinshead (with multiple spellings) for New Jersey or Pennsylvania.  Zilch.  Then tried for New Jersey which lists 78 people and Pennsylvania, showing 244. None were in the areas I was looking for – Somerset County, New Jersey and Buck’s County, Pennsylvania.  

Although I wasn’t successful I applaud the site for it’s compilations so far, ease of use and making it free which ironically, lists all those who weren’t.  

*NOTE – clearly they weren’t so great enslaving individuals and other records found show Thomasin wasn’t so great to my 6th great grandmother, her only stepchild, but that’s another story.  

DNA Ethnicity Surprises

Ancestry.com has again updated their DNA Results Summary.  Sure, it’s only as accurate as the number of people who have tested.  What my latest results tell me is that Ancestry has had a whole lot more Swedish, German and Slavs testing and not many Balkans.

I know this because the updated results show I am 42% Eastern European and Russian and 41% Germanic Europe.  

In Ancestry’s last update, I was considered French; today I am of German ancestry. 

My paternal line would not have thought much of that finding; with a name like Leininger they would have accepted the Germanic Europe as fact.  The truth is more complex – the ancestors that were forgotten most likely would have been livid with the designation as they considered themselves French. My two times great grandmother was christened as Marie Marguerite not the Germanic Maria Margarette.  Her spouse was christened Jean Leininger and not Johan.  They resided in the Palatinate, the region that flipped several time between what is now Germany and France. They wisely spoke both French and German. Funny that the land has stopped switching but the ethnicity indicators haven’t.  Ancestry would be smart to have a Palatine region noted instead of moving ethnicity results every update.

Interestingly, the results do include 5% of an ethnicity estimate as French and the region is the Riviera, where my Lamphere’s (Landfairs) did reside in the 1600’s prior to fleeing France for London and then Ireland and then Virginia.  It appears they intermarried with relatives and others who fled with them and that is somewhat supported in that I now have no Irish identified.  Well, that’s not quite true, either…

My Irish is encompassed under my Scottish designation.  

I also find it interesting that I have Welsh separated from England (which encompasses Northwestern Europe now).  I am most definitely Welsh with my people moving to Cheshire for a time.  That is shown in the map, along with the northwest section of France.  That is also correct as I have some William the Conqueror folks originating in that French region.  

My maternal line, though, would have my grandmother in requesting her money back.

Family stories shared by my grandmother say her side moved to the what is now the outskirts of Zagreb, Croatia around the time of Christ because of overpopulation on the island to the south where they once resided.  That would most likely have been Kos Island, part of Greece today.  The now defunct National Geographic project did route my ancestry on that trail.  Grandma said my grandfather’s people had already been in the Zagreb region when her people arrived and they had been Gypsies. National Geographic’s results showed that, too.  Using records, I can show that my maternal line was in the Zagreb region as far back as the 1600’s.  Based on a title the family was awarded, I can show some were in the region as early as the 1100’s.  For 900 years, they resided in a small area in what is now known as Croatia.  According to Ancestry, I’m 3% Balkan.  

Explaining to my grandmother how Ancestry obtains their results would have been maddening.  I’m sure some of you are going to have to try with an older relative.  I send you good thoughts in doing that!

I am quite impressed, though, with Ancestry and their Swedish results.  Look above as I have shown how Southern Sweden is shown by region.  I have worked very hard to get most of my husband’s Swedish lines identified and they are from the area Ancestry identified.  I’m looking forward to someday seeing a trend like this for my other ethnicities.

Ancestry has also released a section called StoryScout.  It’s housed under DNA and includes information that you may have provided in a tree.  I didn’t spend much time on this but I did take a look and it reminded me of something that is important to do and I honestly fail at it.

The section is based on census and military records from the 20th century.  Sure, I’ve saved those records to my ancestors 20 plus years ago.  I know where they lived, who they lived with, blah blah blah.  What gave me pause, however, was that it correctly showed my maternal grandfather and noted that his income was nearly twice that of an average man at the time.  He made $1400.00 per year when the average was in the mid $700.00’s.  Wow.  This explained to me why my immigrant family could afford a car in the 1920’s, a phone in the 1930’s, travel to California in the 1940’s and to Europe in the ’60’s.  Now I understand why grandma, when babysitting me, would drag me to the nice stores and dress shops and had her hair done each week.  Duh!  They never flaunted their wealth and dutifully shipped supplies several times a year back to the old country.  Thanks, Ancestry, for taking one small data point in the census and giving me an insight I hadn’t he thought about.  Try it, it might work for you, too.