Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Plans Do You Have to Pass On Your Genealogy Work?

I've been thinking about this for a while also, Randy, but it's good to prompt people with a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  What plans, or potential plans, do you have to pass your genealogy work to relatives and/or descendants, or posterity?

2.  Tell us about your plans to pass your work on in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

And just because I've been thinking about it doesn't mean I've figured out the answer yet.

Seriously, I have no idea.

So far no one in my family is interested in carrying on the work, that's for sure.  Whenever I stop, I'm pretty sure that'll be the end of adding information.

I've been sharing information with family members for literally decades now.  Every year for Christmas and Chanukah I used to mail updates to each family member I was in contact with for every family line that person descended from.  Some have become interested in specific people — for example, my cousin Yoni has developed a strong focus on our great-great-grandmother; my cousin Jeff was so struck by learning that his grandfather's family name had originally been Gorodetsky that he created that domain, but it doesn't appear that he has kept it — which is nice, but that's pretty much where it ends.  The information is out there, though, so it probably won't disappear entirely.

I suspect the best thing I can do for posterity is to create a "family report" style book that is well documented for each of my family lines and give copies of them to the FamilySearch Library.  That will help keep the information available to everyone, as I don't expect the LDS church to disappear.

The physical items that I have, particularly photographs, are likely doomed.  I don't think anyone else will want to maintain them, especially the ones that are still not identified.  "Why would we want to keep these?  We don't know who those people are."  My father's racing trophies?  They'll be gone.  Even my family ketubot will have trouble finding someone willing to keep them.

I better stop here.  I'm making myself depressed.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Do You Have Any Ancestors from Whom You Descend Two (or more) Times?

I wish I could answer the question from this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge in detail.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Do you have any ancestors from which you descend two (or more) times?

2.  Tell us how you descend from these ancestors on your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]

On my mother's side of the family, I am (as far as I know) 100% Ashkenazi Jewish.  Which means that it's highly likely that I have ancestors from whom I descend two or more times.

But because that side of my family is Ashkenazi Jewish, I don't have the documentation to show that.  And my DNA research is hampered by endogamy caused by the high likelihood that I have ancestors from whom I descend two or more times.

So to question 1, I say, "Hell, yes!"

And to question 2, I say, "I wish I could!"

But I can provide an example of this from my family.  My granduncle's wife filled out her Social Security application and listed the same surname for her father and her mother.  Apparently the person accepting the form commented that she was supposed to provide her mother's maiden name, because in the upper right corner of the SS-5, Beaty wrote a note:  "My mother and father were first cousins and had the same last name."

Sataurday Night Genealogy Fun: Have You Used "Helps" to Check for Errors in Your Family Tree?

Checking your work is always a good thing to do, and it's what Randy Seaver is discussing in this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun discussion.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Have you used "helps" such as Tree Checker on Ancestry, Consistency Checker on MyHeritage, or the Family Tree Analyzer program to check for errors in your family tree?

2.  Share about your efforts to use helps to improve your family tree in your own blog post or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]

I have never used aids such as Tree Checker, Consistency Checker, or anything similar to check my online family tree, as I don't have a family tree online.  I'll admit, I didn't know they existed, but I'm glad there is some mechanism available (even if it's obvious that a lot of people don't use them).

The only time I have run what Randy calls a problem search (the results of which Family Tree Maker, the program that I use, calls an error report) was when he made that the challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, which was almost a year ago, on October 21, 2023.  I did remember how to find it, something I worried about at the time, so I'll take that as a small success right there.  My list of practical problems was only five pages long, which I still consider to be pretty good overall.

The Family Tree Analyzer program that Randy mentioned looks as though it could be pretty useful, so I will put it on my to-do list to investigate in the future.  I don't want to try downloading and running it tonight just to post for the blog.  But I will try to write about it when I do use it, and I'm not surprised with Randy's assessment that it finds different problems than the other programs do.

I guess my short report means I'm not checking my work often enough.  Something else to add to the to-do list!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: How Many Known 4th-great-grandparents Do You Have?

Oh, this is not going to be pretty.  Randy Seaver has given a tough one (for me, at least) for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. 

1.  How many known ancestors (at least a name) do you have in your generation of 4th-great-grandparents?  What about your significant other's generation of 4th-great-grandparents?

2.  Tell us how you figured this out and highlight your most recent additions to your list.

3.  Share a link to your blog post, or your Facebook Status post, on this post.

Well.  Let's just spit it out.

I use Family Tree Maker 2019.  I highlighted myself and went to Publish.

Once there, Charts were automatically highlighted.  I clicked on Fan Chart and told FTM to create the chart.

Conveniently, the default was six generations, taking me back to 4th-great-grandparents.  Which I counted manually.

And I have a grand total of nine names for the 64 slots.  All of them on my father's side of the family.

I think the most recent additions were Stacy B. Lippincott and Alice Parker as the parents of Abel A. Lippincott.

I'm missing quite a few names because I have not yet identified my grandfather's biological father, so I don't even have a name for that great-grandfather.

If I include the information I have for Grandpa's adoptive father's family (the Sellers line), that's six more 4th-great-grandparents, for a total of 15.

Absolutely nothing on my mother's side.  I do have several 3rd-great-grandparents named, but nothing for the generation previous to that.  But her family was Jewish in the Russian Empire, and several of my lines go to Grodno gubernia, where it seems to be a black hole for records for Jews.  So I'm not surprised I don't have any names for that generation.

As for my ex, it's even worse.  I don't have the names of any 3rd-great-grandparents, much less 4th-great-grandparents.  But his ancestry is Irish and Indian (as in India), both notoriously difficult to research.

I suddenly feel very inadequate.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Is Your Significant Other's Matrilineal Line?

Well, this is an interesting challenge today from Randy Seaver for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Have you worked on the matrilineal line of your significant other?  Who are the mothers of the mothers of your significant other?

2.  Tell us about that matrilineal line in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

I haven't researched the family history of my ex for some time now, but I did get a few generations back.

My ex is Hugh Kartar Singh (1951– ), born in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, son of Karm Singh (about 1906–1984) and Mary Margaret McKenney (1914–1993).  His matrilineal line, as far as I have researched it, is:

• Mary Margaret McKenney (1914–1993), born in Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, daughter of Hugh Vincent McKenney (about 1886–1961) and Honora McSweeney (about 1879–1958).

• Honora McSweeney (about 1879–1958), born in Ireland (probably in Ballyvourney, County Cork), daughter of John McSweeney (about 1826–1911) and Catherine O'Leary (about 1834–1921).

• Catherine O'Leary (about 1834–1921), born in Ireland (possibly in Ballyvourney, County Cork), daughter of Arthur O'Leary (?–?) and Nora (Honora?) Twomey (?–?).

And that's all I have.  No research into Irish records as of yet and no DNA info.  My older stepson was interested in his family history for a while, but that petered out and so far has not yet reignited.  My younger stepson has not shown any interest to date.  And so far none of the grandchildren has expressed an interest.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your "7 Generations in 1 Chart"

We're digging deep into our genealogy databases for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun exercise from Randy Seaver:

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  The DNAsleuth (Ann Raymont) created a 7-in-1 chart showing seven generations of ancestors on one page several weeks ago.  See her blog post at https://dnasleuth.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/7-gen-1-sheet/ target="_blank".  In her post is a link to her Word document if you wish to use it.

2.  Linda Stufflebean's husband, Dave, took the concept a step further and created an Excel template for the 7-in-1 chart.  You can download Dave's file from my Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7rTacxacWVCWxUEWq5pAArJCv8mCZWT/view?usp=sharing.  Linda's completed chart is at https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/09/using-excel-to-display-7-family-generations-on-1-sheet/ (I opened it to "Editor" so you can download it and work with it).

Here is an image of the blank 7-in-1 chart:

As you can see, the left column is the generation number, and the other columns are for ancestors of Gen. 1 listed in columns for each grandparent.  So the chart covers Ancestors #1 through #127 in an Ahnentafel list or a large pedigree chart.

3.  The challenge tonight is to fill out your 7-in-1 chart and show it to us.  I used the spreadsheet, added the ancestor numbers while adding the names (starting with 1 = me, 2 = father, 3 = mother, etc.).   I added the names and birth/death years (if known) for the first seven generations.  Then I colored the boxes by birth place by countries and saved my chart as an XLS file.  I then saved my chart as a JPG by using the Windows Snipping Tool to create the image.  This task took me an hour to complete, so plan ahead!

4.  Show us your 7-in-1 chart in your own blog post or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link to your creation in a comment on this post.

Well, mine isn't nearly as well filled out as Randy's.

I filled out the cells with names and birth/death years, as Randy did, but I have a lot more unknown names than he does.  I also color-coded the cells by country; my color code is at the bottom of my chart.  I made a screen capture of the image using the native Mac OS capability, which automatically saves the image as a JPG.  I'm not sure how legible the image is, though.

I was doing well through the 3x-great-grandparents, but I pretty much fell apart on the 4x-great-grandparents.  Notice the entire right side is full of unknowns?  The left side isn't much better.

Ah, well, just more inspiration to continue my research, right?

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Is Your Birth Surname Henry Number?

Tonight for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Randy Seaver has us poking around in our genealogy databases.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music here), is:

(1) Do you know what a "Henry Number" is?  It is a descendant numbering system from a specific person.  The Wikipedia article for Genealogical Numbering Systems describes it as:

"The Henry System is a descending system created by Reginald Buchanan Henry for a genealogy of the families of the presidents of the United States that he wrote in 1935.^[3] It can be organized either by generation or not. The system begins with 1. The oldest child becomes 11, the next child is 12, and so on. The oldest child of 11 is 111, the next 112, and so on. The system allows one to derive an ancestor's relationship based on their number. For example, 621 is the first child of 62, who is the second child of 6, who is the sixth child of his parents.  In the Henry System, when there are more than nine children, X is used for the 10th child, A is used for the 11th child, B is used for the 12th child, and so on. In the Modified Henry System, when there are more than nine children, numbers greater than nine are placed in parentheses."

(2) Go to your earliest known ancestor with your birth surname in your software program and calculate your Henry Number from that person.  Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry Numbers.

(3) How did you calculate the Henry Numbers?  What do these numbers tell you?

(4) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook post.

2.  Well, my birth surname is the same one I have now, Sellers.  When I checked my database, I discovered that I have 575 Sellerses in there.  Going back in time from myself, the earliest ancestor I have with the name Sellers is only seven generations back, because before him the name was Söller (of which I have four generations in the database).  Here's my Sellers line:

1 John Sellers (1731–1783)
11 Abraham Sellers (1758–1831)
11X Peter Franklin Sellers (1800–1863)
11X1 Cornelius Godschalk Sellers (1845–1877)
11X12 Cornelius Elmer Sellers (1874–1918)
11X121 Bertram Lynn Sellers (1903–1985)
11X1214 Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. (1935–2019)
11X12142 Janice Marie Sellers (1962–living)

3.  I calculated the Henry Numbers manually.  I started with the first generation with the name Sellers and moved forward through time.  Not only is creating reports in Reunion something I don't enjoy, it didn't give me an option of using the Henry Number system.

Two things I had to contend with which are not described in the handy-dandy description that Randy quoted are an adoption and multiple marriages.  My grandfather was informally adopted by Elmer Sellers and was not his biological son.  Since Elmer was the only father my grandfather knew, however, and since neither my grandfather nor any of his siblings knew this was the case, I counted my grandfather as child #1.

My father was the first (and only) child of my grandparents, but he was my grandfather's fourth child, because my grandfather had three children with his first wife.  Since this system follows the father, I counted my father was child #4.

I was the first child of my parents, but my father and his first wife had a child before me.  Again, following the father, I am child #2.

4.  I have this blog post, a comment on Randy's blog, and a Facebook post!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Zigzag Ancestor Lines

There's probably an existing term for what Randy has come up with for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, but I don't know what it is.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

(1) What is your father's zigzag ancestor line (NOTE:  I just made that up}?  In other words, your father's mother's father's mother's etc. line back as far as you can go.

(2) Tell us in your own blog post (and drop a link here in a comment), or on Facebook with your response.

Okey-dokey, here are mine.

My Father:

1.  My father is Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. (1935– ) of New Jersey, California, and Florida.

2.  His mother was Anna Gauntt (1893–1986) of New Jersey, Florida, and Minnesota.

3.  Her father was Thomas Kirkland Gauntt (1870–1951) of Burlingotn County, New Jersey.

4.  His mother was Amelia Gibson (1831–1908) of Burlington County, New Jersey.

5.  Her father was supposedly John Gibson, about whom I have no additional information.

So I go back five generations on my father's line (and obviously need to do more research in Burlington County to get past that roadblock).

My Mother:

1.  My mother was Myra Roslyn Meckler (1940–1985) of New York, California, and Florida.

2.  Her father was Abraham Meckler (1912–1989) of New York, Nevada, and Florida.

3.  His mother was Mushe Zelda Nowicki (about 1880–1936) of Grodno Gubernia, Russian Empire and New York.

4.  Her father was Gershon Itzhak Nowicki (about 1858–1948) of Grodno Gubernia, Russian Empire and New York.

5.  His mother was Sirke (?–before 1893), for whom I don't even have a family name, much less the name of a parent.

And I go back five generations on my mother's line also.  I don't know if I'll ever find more information about Sirke, since Grodno Gubernia is the black hole of Jewish records.

I didn't do as badly as I thought I would.  I have one fewer generation for my father's family line than Randy did but one more for my mother's.