31 March 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 03/24/2024 - 03/30/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

How Big is Your Puzzle? by Valorie Zimmerman on South King County Genealogical Society blog

Intellectual Humility & Genealogy:An Answer to Family Feuds? by Thomas MacEntee on MyHeritage Blog

Introducing WATO+, a new tool for investigating family mysteries by Jonny Perl on DNA Painter Blog

The Art of Prompting: How to Effectively Communicate with AI by Dana Leeds on Genealogy with Dana Leeds

Episode 7 - Find a Grave by Danial Loftus on The Irish Genealogy Podcast

Google Search or AI Chatbot, that is the question by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 24 to 30 March 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — March 30, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

29 March 2024

Baseball in the Branches: Selva Lewis "Lew" Burdette Jr.

Image by stanbalik from Pixabay
Since opening day for the Baltimore Orioles was yesterday, I thought this would be a fitting post. Although the subject of this sketch isn't from my family, he's married into the adoptee (for a friend) tree I've been working on. So far, he's the closest to someone famous I've come across in any tree I've worked on. Selva Lewis Burdette Jr., more commonly known  as Lew Burdette, was a a right-handed Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher, whose career spanned over 20 years, Born on November 22, 1926, in Nitro, West Virginia, Burdette's journey in baseball would lead him to become a well respected pitcher and paved the way for his grandson, Nolan Fontana, to play professionally. 

Lew briefly served in the Air Force Reserves from April-November 1945. In 1946 he attended the University of Richmond (Virginia) for a year and a half. He was already in the Major Leagues by the time he married into the family tree I'm researching on June 30, 1949 when he wed Mary Ann Shelton in Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia, making him the husband of a 2C1R of my research subject. They were born and raised in the same county, Nitro and Charleston are only about 12 miles apart, and they met in a bowling alley. By 1950 they had left West Virginia and made their home in Florida. Together they had 4 children: 1 son and 3 daughters.

His career really began when he signed with the New York Yankees in 1947. However, it was with the Milwaukee Braves where he made his indelible mark. Traded to the Braves in 1951, Burdette quickly became a central figure in the team's pitching rotation. Perhaps the high point of Burdette's career came during the 1957 World Series, where he showcased his skills on the national stage. Burdette was instrumental in the Milwaukee Braves' victory over the New York Yankees, winning three complete games, including a shutout in Game 7. This amazing performance earned him the World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, securing his place in baseball history. He was also a two time All-Star (1957 and 1959).

Burdette was eventually traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1963. In 1964, he played with the Chicago Cubs and then the Phillies in 1965. He signed with the California Angels in 1966 as a relief pitcher, and finally retired in 1967. It would seem, as he came to the end of his career, the magic may have faded quickly. The average 20th century MLB career is just 5.6 years according to a 2007 study. 1in 5 players will have only a single year career. At the time Lew was playing, the average career length was estimated closer to 10 years, with "...a rarefied few enjoying 20 or more years of play..." according to the NCBI. He was an outlier by all standards with a 20 year career!

Over the course of his career, Burdette accumulated a record of 203 wins, 144 losses. At an imposing 6' 2-1/2" tall, he threw an amazing 1.074 strikeouts! There was some controversy around his pitching style though, and some debate as to whether he sometimes may have thrown "spitballs". His ability was evidenced by pitching 158 complete games and 33 shutouts Burdette was also known for his hitting abilities, a rare skill for a pitcher. With 12 home runs and 75 RBIs during his career, he was a versatile player. He was also "....a notorious prankster who did everything from slipping snakes into umpires’ pockets to intentionally posing as a lefty for his 1959 Topps baseball card" according to Alex Kupfer's article on SABR and was known for his nervous mannerisms his opponents found distracting when he was on the mound. 

After retiring, Burdette continued to influence baseball as a coach and scout, sharing his knowledge and passion for the game with the next generations. His legacy is not only found in the stats but also in the respect he earned from teammates, opponents, and fans. He was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and was also in the Braves Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Selva Lewis Burdette Jr. passed away on February 6, 2007, in Winter Garden, Florida. His cause of death was lung cancer. His contributions to the sport remain a part of its history, he showcased the spirit and dedication defining America's pastime. 

While I'd have liked to share a photo, all the ones I've seen are still under copyright, but if you'd like to see some images of Lew Burdette click here. I've also found one lone photo of his wife Mary Ann Burdette here. And if you're a baseball fan inspired to know more about Lew's life and career, take a peek at a more detailed article on SABR, Lew Burdette by Alex Kupfer.

Though I'm not a huge sports fan, I grew up watching the Baltimore Orioles play. I was fortunate to witness the sometimes amusing theatrics of manager Earl Weaver. Finding Lew Burdette in the branches of the family tree of my friend was quite exciting! It was a privilege to research him a bit more for this post. 

Image by stanbalik from Pixabay

27 March 2024

Finding Those Living Relatives

Image by MasterTux from Pixabay
Being a genealogist is a lot like being a detective. We search for clues, evaluate evidence and draw conclusions (hopefully based on facts). We have numerous resources and databases available to trace back in our family tree. But living people can be more of a challenge. Unless you're strictly creating an ancestor tree, you're likely also interested in descendants (and DNA matches). Information on these family members can be more challenging to find as less information about them is available on the big genealogy sites. Unless you happen to have relatives who can assist, you may need to locate other resources to find key information to place these people in your family tree.

For obvious reasons, the privacy of living people is extremely important. None of us want all of our private details out there for anyone to find. But the reality is, in the technological age we live in, a lot of our data is already out there and discoverable. I know it's not a reassuring thought, but it's reality. Unless you've staunchly stayed off the internet since its' inception, never been in trouble with the law, keep your money under the mattress, use a burner phone, have no email, don't have bills in your name and pay only in cash - it's likely there are breadcrumbs out there to some of your information. Do I sometimes look for this information on my relatives? Yes, I do. Do I make sure living people are listed as living so others can't see the information? Yes, I do. And if I find something more personal or sensitive, I save it in my offline software and mark it private so it doesn't upload to Ancestry (or any other site where I may use a GEDCOM import). Aside from verifying parents/relatives, birth date and possibly current city/state of residence, I don't really look for a lot of personal details (unless I have a very compelling reason). I urge you to treat information about living people with care and consideration, regardless of how you come upon their details.

Many obituaries are treasure troves of information, containing names of spouses, siblings, possibly parents, children and grandchildren. Often the siblings and children are listed with their spouses. But one issue I run into frequently, is the listing of given names only for some of the family members. It can be a real head scratcher to figure out who each "belongs to" in the family hierarchy. Sometimes our DNA matches have a very sparse tree, if they have one at all. We may recognize a name a couple generations back, but not have the details to fill in the gaps of the living generations we can't see to reach the DNA match. In these cases, we may need to turn to alternative methods of finding the details we need.

Certainly, social media is one option. However, doing a random search on a name (unless it's a very unusual name) is likely to return far more results than you can realistically review. And to be honest, how would you know if it was the right person or not? If you're already friends with some of your family members, depending on the chosen security settings of each person, you may be able to search their friends lists looking for specific living relatives. But this is dependent on them actually having a social media account and it being visible to others. It's possible some older living relatives have never been on social media. In some cases, you may be able to search the posts of family members to glean information like birthdates of their children or grandchildren. You might find posts about graduations, marriages, births, or deaths. All these are a lot of maybes and can take a lot of time. Have I been successful finding some details on social media? Yes, I have. But the information has been limited to a small handful of relatives and has been sparse at best. 

While there are lots of sites offering to search living people for a fee - I avoid them like the plague! Just as with social media, in order to really find relevant results, you need to have information. If you had it, you probably wouldn't be considering additional search tools. Enter FamilyTreeNow.com. If you have a name, and a possible location, you can do a basic search (on living or deceased people). This may still return a fair number of living people results, but using the potential location does narrow it a bit. You may have to pick thru the results to see if the person is who you're after. Or you may need to search again with another location, or potentially a maiden name. If you are lucky enough to have a bit more detail, an advanced search is possible on a limited number of additional fields to narrow the search further. 

This site uses primarily public records. The information you find may or may not be accurate (especially current address, phone and email). When I search myself, there are email addresses shown not relevant to me at all, and some of my possible associates are people I've never heard of. It's important to know you cannot depend on the displayed information unless you're able to back it up with additional documentation. You will NOT find documentation on this site for living people. They do pull from census records and some other historically relevant databases for people they show as deceased, but you're better off using Ancestry (or your preferred big genealogy site) for this information. While I do use the site frequently, it's for a very specific set of conditions where I believe the information I find can help me place some of my living relatives in my tree. I still need to go back and find additional proof to firm up my hypothesis on anything I find. 

When I use the site, I generally focus on living people records only. The types of information shown may include other names the person has used, addresses (past and present), phone numbers, email addresses and the most important - possible relatives. This is the section of the search results I use the most. Quite frequently, I'm able to pick out a parent, spouse or siblings. Clicking through to the related person may further assist me in making a determination if the person is who I'm looking for. 

Recently, I was working with an obituary where the person had 5 children. The problem was the 6 or so grandchildren listed only by given name. I was able to search the potential parents and, using the possible relatives section, I was able to determine the parents of 4 of the grandchildren pretty easily. The remaining 2 took a little more work (especially since one was listed with a nickname). I was ultimately able to discern one of the daughters had been married previously (in the obit she was listed with her current husband) and I was eventually able to locate where the 2 other grandchildren should be placed in my tree (as well as including the previously unknown spouse). I was able to find birth month and year, along with proper surnames for all 6 grandchildren. Another example of where I use this tool is when a child or grandchild is now married and listed with a new surname. I can search the name (and potentially location if it was included) and look for relatives of the approximate right age to be parents (or sometimes grandparents). I may also find names of current or previous spouses. Though it may take a bit of clicking through to various people, in conjunction with names I recognize from my tree, quite often I'm able to figure out the connection!

Depending on their age, filling in just name and birth month/year in my Ancestry tree may then bring up search results (usually public records or marriage records) so I can conduct more conventional research moving forward. In some cases it does not. If not, I usually add a private note for myself how I came to add the person to the tree, and I'll go back and do more detailed research in the future. I use this site as an accompaniment to traditional research, NEVER as a replacement. It's a source of breadcrumbs, not proof.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out FamilyTreeNow.com is not well liked by everyone. First off, they clearly scrape public records. Some people feel this is a privacy issue in and of itself. Personally, I simply accept some level of information about us is out there waiting to be found. They also collect data as you use the site (as do most websites). I would encourage you to read their privacy policy before using the site. While they indicate you can request to have your own personal information removed, they don't guarantee they can do it, I've read several instances where people complain they've been unable to have their data removed. The question really comes down to your personal comfort level. Data is out there about living people. Not looking for it isn't going to change the fact. But only you can decide if your comfortable sleuthing for it.

And finally, if I do use social media or FamilyTreeNow.com to fill in any gaps in my tree, and no new traditional records show up when I add a few key facts, I typically use a "generic" source in my online tree pointing only to the main website. I don't link to specific search results or profiles. I do save a screenshot of the information, but I do it only in my offline software and always mark it private. When searching living people, please respect the privacy of those in your tree (even if you believe the information is not visible to others). Data breaches can happen, and data we put online is never guaranteed to be 100% protected. While these methods can potentially help piece together the recent branches of your tree, it's critical to go back and try to support the information you find on quasi-questionable sites with traditional research. 

Image by MasterTux from Pixabay

24 March 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 3/17/2024 - 03/23/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

How to Split Names in Excel by Margaret O'Brien on Data Mining DNA

Editorial by Judith Batchelor on Genealogy Jude

10 Million Names Enslaved Project by Lori on Genealogy at Heart

23andMe’s Historical Matches on 23andMe blog

Old as Dirt: Four Dating Methods Used For Ancient DNA by Jim Brewster on FamilyTreeDNA

Check Out the FamilySearch Famous Relatives Feature by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 17 to 23 March 2024  by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — March 23, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

22 March 2024

A Legacy of Perseverance: William Jess Oakes

Representation of cotton mill 1900
Photo created with DALL-E Chat GPT
representation of cotton mill about 1900
When I'm having a bad day, sometimes it helps to stop and think about my ancestors and their struggles just to survive. Today, I was thinking specifically about William Jess Oakes, my great-granduncle. One of his census records has really stuck with me. Born approx. March 1, 1852 (there's some discrepancy on the year, but this seems to fit best with the age of his mother) in Georgia, he certainly didn't have it easy.

As the eldest of 7 children, his family probably depended on him when he was young. His father worked as a farm laborer and likely put in a lot of hours for not a lot of pay. At the time of the 1870 census, William could not read or write and was living at home. By the 1880 census, he was shown as being a servant in the household of William H Head (relationship unknown) in Trickum, Georgia - not far from where he grew up in Tunnel Hill, both in Whitfield County. Part of me wonders if this was his attempt to be independent, or if there simply wasn't enough room and/or money in the home of his parents. Either way, being a servant wasn't a luxurious life. He probably earned little more than room and board. 

In 1881, he married Elizabeth (Bettie) Bell and they started their life together. On an 1890 property tax digest, the aggregate value of all of his property was a mere $65.00. It really hits home - he had a wife and at least 6 children by this time (I don't know the dates of birth/death for 2 children who died prior to 1900). To put it in perspective, $65 in 1890 is about $2,217 today. I can't even imagine!

By 1900, he was still married, living in Trion, Chattooga, Georgia, with a growing family of his own. In the 19 years since his marriage, William and Bettie had 14 children, 12 of whom were living at the time of the census. The children ranged in age from 18 years down to 5 months old. All 14 family members lived in a rented house. By this time, William was shown as being able to read and write, although none of his children were attending school, and none of them could read or write.

It certainly makes sense why the children weren't receiving an education...they were busy working in a cotton mill! The 6 oldest children worked as spinners and oilers in the mill. William was listed as a weaver (also in the cotton mill) but was shown as being unemployed for 12 months. So, in all likelihood, it was the children supporting the family. When I first worked with this census record, I was really touched by how young the children were to be laboring in the likely awful working conditions in a mill. It was a dangerous job. Certainly, I was aware this was a relatively common practice - child labor was cheap and plentiful - but somehow it really struck home when I saw it in my own maternal line. 

I often wonder why William was unemployed. Did the factory just want to use the cheaper child labor? Did he have some kind of medical issue? Did he have trouble holding a job? Unfortunately, no records I've found give any clue to the goings on in his life at this point. But I'd imagine there was immense pressure on him with 14 mouths to feed.

1900 census

By 1910 the family had moved to Coldwater, Georgia - a considerable distance away. Here William was a farm laborer living with his wife, 8 of his children, plus 2 of his grandchildren. All but his wife and the grandchildren were working as farm laborers. In 1920, we find William and his daughter (along with her 2 children) still living on a rented farm, this time in State Line, Georgia. Interestingly, he's shown as widowed, but his wife didn't actually pass away until early 1924. We find Bettie living instead with one of her sons, 2 of her daughters and their children in Cave Springs, Georgia. She's also listed as widowed. Certainly not conclusive, but it appears their marriage may have been going through some struggles. Had she just been visiting at the time, I wouldn't have expected them both to be listed as widowed. Although William and his daughter did move at least 2 more times while residing in Rome, Georgia, he continued to live with her throughout the 1930's (working as a farmer) and into 1940.

Bettie's death certificate shows she died as a result of acute dilation of the heart and nephritis (a kidney issue) in March 1924. A copy of her funeral record shows she died in her residence, but there's no indication she was living with William at the time, even though she was listed as married. I've been unable to determine who she may have been living with, as the address on the funeral record doesn't  match anything I've found on censuses for any of her children in 1920 or 1930. But certainly it appears it was a family divided.

William passed away on July 16, 1941 after a long illness. Based on records I've found, he never owned his own home or farm. He relocated his family frequently. He probably struggled his whole life to support his family's basic needs, working well into his 70's. He persevered in the face of adversity. Thanks in part to his numerous children, his obituary showed he had 67 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren surviving him. 

Despite the struggles he faced, it's quite a legacy (and a LOT of people for me to find and place in my tree). So, when I'm thinking how hard my life is - I stop and remember William Jess Oakes, his children...and the cotton mill. Comparatively, my life is a cake walk. Despite being sparse on details, William's life helps me remain thankful for all I have and how fortunate I am. 

19 March 2024

Echoes of Valhalla

Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay
In addition to Ancestry, I've taken a DNA test with 23andMe. I've known for some time 23andMe showed my my maternal haplogroup is T2b4. Although my haplogroup traces back to a woman who lived more than 6000 years ago, I'm far more interested in the T2b part of it. This has been linked to a female Viking warrior from the 10th century! I find my Viking ancestry just as interesting as I did the (now debunked) Cherokee story. It's more interesting because it's linked to my DNA. There's no story here. No ambiguity. It's scientific fact - DNA doesn't lie.

Let me start by saying, I'm well aware I'm never going to find any written or oral history taking me back to the age of my Viking ancestors. Ancient DNA results are really just another type of entertainment value in genealogy for me. But since I've always been fascinated by the Vikings, I'll embrace it. When I first found this interesting tidbit, I also shelled out a few bucks and did the Viking index score at Living DNA (where I had previously uploaded my DNA results for free.)

The Viking index is a little bit convoluted. My score is 76% and showed me being most closely associated with the Vikings of Eastern Europe. The 76% is the tricky part. This simply means my DNA is more similar to Viking DNA than 76% of all Living DNA users in their database. The key here is how many users are in their database. It's not a number they actually promote. This makes the score very hard to interpret. If they have 10,000 users, it's a lot less impressive than if they have 100,000 users. None the less, I was secretly pleased when I showed 20% higher than my ex-husband. At least I know they don't give everyone the same score.... I've investigated some of the other sites who'll match your DNA to multiple ancient samples. Most are fairly pricey, and since it is just entertainment for me, I'm not going to drop hundreds of dollars to see the results. 

Today I was really excited! 23andMe announced they're providing historical DNA matches to 23andMe+ premium users. Currently, they have 335 potential historical matches. I eagerly logged in to see the secrets my DNA revealed. Historical matches can be seen by selecting Ancestry and then Ancestry Overview. There's a new section called "Meet your historical matches". I showed 7 matches. While none of them were famous people (though it would have been nice) all my matches were to Viking age individuals! They ranged in time from 652 CE to 1200 CE. 3 were seafaring warriors, the other 4 were simply listed as Viking age individuals. 

This doesn't mean I'm directly descended from these matches (in all likelihood I'm not). But it does mean we share a common ancestor. While I only shared 1 segment with 6 of the matches, I shared 2 segments with one match. Of course the match percentages were extremely low, ranging from .06% to .13%. 3 matches were from Estonia, the others Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Far from conclusive, this seems to indicate perhaps a connection to the Scandinavian Vikings is as viable as those from Eastern Europe. Since Vikings explored many regions and their range was much farther than most people generally realize, there's a huge margin for error when it comes to trying to establish locations for Viking populations.

None the less, I'm thrilled to have more proof of my ties to the Vikings. Does it change my research? Not one iota. Is it really interesting to me? Absolutely! Female Viking warriors are often depicted as Valkyries, the mythological women (often on horseback) who ushered the dead into Valhalla. For now, I'll just think about how these new DNA "historical matches" are truly the echoes of Valhalla swirling through the leaves and branches of my family tree.  

Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay

17 March 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 03/10/2024 - 03/16/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Simple Prompts vs. Prompt Engineering: A Genealogist’s Experiment with AI  by Dana Leeds on Genealogy with Dana Leeds Creator of the Leeds Method

Checking Out MyHeritageWiki by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

WWI soldier’s remains identified as Lieutenant Francis Hemsley by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

10 Million Names Enslaved Project by Lori Samuelson on Genealogy at Heart

Dual citizenship: 7 countries that offer a passport based on ancestry by Jennifer Graham Kizer on Simplemost

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 10 to 16 March 2024  by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème — March 16, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

14 March 2024

Bloggers and Vloggers and Podcasters - Oh My!

Image by inspirexpressmiami from Pixabay
Bloggers and vloggers and podcasters, oh my!...and social media creators too! I love to write and I love genealogy, so I was absolutely thrilled when I discovered GeneaBloggers. Established in 2007, it's a warm and constantly growing community of genealogy and family history content creators, spanning pretty much every media type As soon as I made the decision to launch A Tree With No Name last year, joining GeneaBloggers was at the top of my to-do list.

Let's face it, being a content creator isn't always easy. Sometimes the creative juices flow, and sometimes they don't. It takes time, effort and dedication. Have you ever wished you could network with other successful genealogy content creators? You can! Do you want to find more quality genealogy content to follow? It's there! Do you have a specific genealogical topic of interest? You'll probably find likeminded creators. Do you want to be motivated and motivate others to continue to share about genealogy? GeneaBloggers is for you! It doesn't matter if you're just starting out or you've been sharing content for years, every creator who loves genealogy and family history can benefit. 

Basic membership is free, It allows you to register your site in their member directory, so other GeneaBloggers can find you. Your site will be included in the monthly Blogiversary (blog anniversary) post. They also provide daily prompts and a calendar of ideas, because we can all use a little help coming up with content from time to time. Premium membership, is a bargain - (regularly $30US per year) currently only $20US! This membership level, in addition to the basic membership benefits, entitles you to include a description of your blog, a Blogiversary post about your site, as well as discounts from partner sites and other benefits.

If you're a genealogy or family history content creator and you've never visited GeneaBloggers, I encourage you to pop on and take a look. You literally have nothing to lose! The genealogy community, as a whole, is a robust, friendly and welcoming community. GeneaBloggers is another way to connect you to this community, bringing genealogy content creators together to share experiences, expertise and resources. I have absolutely no doubt, Geneabloggers has been instrumental in the growth of my readership this past year and I'm looking forward to being a member for....well, forever! 

I'd also like to say THANK YOU! I'm so very grateful to everyone who likes, comments, shares and interacts with me about my posts. You're all the reason why I keep writing!

Image by inspirexpressmiami from Pixabay

12 March 2024

Dead Fred Genealogy Photo Archive

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
DeadFred.com is one of those rabbit hole sites for me. It's a genealogy photo archive allowing users to search for, upload, and research historical photographs. It's a FREE resource for those interested in genealogy and family history, particularly identifying and preserving old family photos. Users can browse through a vast collection of photographs, including those submitted by other users from around the world. Photographs often include detailed information such as names, dates, and locations. The hope is to reconnect individuals with their past. While I've not found any confirmed photos of my family on the site (yet), I do so enjoy poking around and browsing aimlessly through their collections. I find it fascinating...especially period clothing!

Here are some of the features of the site:

Search Functionality: Users can search the archive for specific names, locations, or keywords to find photographs potentially related to their family. Currently, the site boasts 159,354 records!

Surname Search: There's an extensive surname list for photos where a surname has been provided. 23,354 surnames to be exact! Note: It may be difficult to figure out if the person is "the person" you're looking for. Don't assume just because the name is right, it's the relative you're seeking. Try to find corroborating evidence and keep in mind, the oldest surviving photo is from 1826. Photography really didn't take off until the mid 1800's. So if you find a photo of someone who lived before those dates, it's not the person you're looking for.

Photo Submission: Users are encouraged to upload their own old family photos to the archive, along with any known information about the photographs, to assist others in their research. You can even mail them old photos you don't want any longer and they'll add them to the archive.

Vintage Yearbooks: Yearbook photos from pre-1935 vintage yearbooks submitted to the site. (I'd imagine there's a potential for overlap with collections already available on some of the big sites, but you never know!)

Mystery Photos: Photos submitted without surnames are posted in a special section. These photos may be even harder to identify. But you might be lucky enough to spot one of someone you already know from existing photos and can give the person a full name. Or maybe you recognize grandma's house in the picture and can help establish a location.

Potential to Reunite Photos with Families: If you find you're related to someone in a photo posted on the site, and the photo is owned by DeadFred.com, you can request the original photo be sent to you. So far, they've reunited 3,347 photos! However, if the photo was posted by another user, it will be up to them if they want to reunite the photo. Either way, you can easily download a copy of any photos (for your personal use).

The only major site I'm aware of where Dead Fred photos are included in their searchable collections is MyHeritage.com. As of today, they show the collection having 65,976 items, less than half the total records on the site. Even if you're familiar with the database from MyHeritage, it never hurts to go direct to the source!

Dead Fred is a totally FREE site. They do not charge users to upload photos. Nor do they charge for reuniting photos. But since there are tangible costs associated with maintaining the site, they do take donations by check or PayPal if you want to support the project. Unlike many sites who reunite photos by doing extensive research themselves and contacting potential family members directly - an act of kindness many greatly appreciate - this site emphasizes collaboration, relying on its users to contribute content and providing any known details to help others in their research. The site aims to assist in the discovery of lost family connections and the preservation of historical photographs for future generations of genealogists. If you've never visited before, head on over to DeadFred.com and check it out.

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

10 March 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 03/03/2024 - 03/09/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know.

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Labs – Experimental Search by Marcia Crawford Philbrick on Heartland Genealogy

The Making of a Spy on AncestralFindings.com

Dig Deeper in Genealogy Research: Court Records by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Chronicling America Legacy Site: Data Freeze by Kenneth R Marks on The Ancestor Hunt

Exploring FamilySearch’s New Full-Text Search Tool & AI Transcription Comparison by Dana Leeds on Genealogy with Dana Leeds: Creator of the Leeds Method

Embracing the Future: How I Created My Genealogy AI Assistant by Carole McCulloch on Essential Genealogist Blog

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 3 to 9 March 2024  by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de This week’s crème de la crème - March 9, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

07 March 2024

Those Famous Relatives?

Image by Denys Vitali from Pixabay
The most "not quite famous" person I've been able to prove I'm related to is someone who handles snakes and alligators and was a contestant on one of those national TV talent searches. I know he's related because he visited my father years ago (and talked about himself a lot). The relationship was corroborated by a cousin who provided enough smaller details for me to confirm the relationship. To date, I've not found anyone else remotely close to "truly famous" in my tree. Now let's be honest, we're all related to someone famous in some way....but more likely than not, it's a very distant relationship and we're unlikely to share any significant DNA (if any at all). Sure, there are some folks who'll have more closely related famous matches...it's just how it works...but for many of us, sites promising to tell us our famous ancestors are only going to show very distant cousins.

Several years ago, Ancestry had an app called "We're Related". It was retired some time ago, but I always enjoyed looking at it. In fact, the app helped clarify the name of a great grandmother I was having a tough time with back then. It didn't necessarily "break down" a brick wall, just helped me get around an obstacle in my path. Still, I was grateful to have found a clue in an unexpected place. Despite the questionable accuracy of sites of this nature, it was still fun to poke around on. Alas...it is no more.

Recently, I was tempted by Geneanet's sister site, Geneastar. As far as the standard features, Geneanet (acquired by Ancestry in 2021) isn't terribly impressive. But Geneastar held a bit of allure for me. I thought it might be slightly better than the famous relatives you find on FamilySearch.org just because of the questionable accuracy of the one-world shared tree. We all know it has errors, and those errors will subsequently trickle down to the famous ancestors they say we might be related to. Geneastar is only available with a premium membership ($55US per year) and I decided to join, just for the entertainment value (not because I really expected to find anything amazing).

I tried several times to do a search, but each time, I was presented with a message saying the search would take a bit of time and I could leave the page and I'd be notified when it was done. Returning to the page always resulted in a banner saying a search was already in progress. I never received a single notification saying my search was complete and the banner never went away (unless I cancelled the search). To me, this indicated the search might never be finishing (perhaps something in the GEDCOM I uploaded was causing a problem?) 

I reached out on Facebook and was told premium members should submit a support ticket. I did this and was very pleased with the response time. However the representative simply said "we're sorry you don't have any matches with the Geneastar database". I wasn't really expecting much as far as famous relatives, but I did want an explanation why my search wasn't completing. After a little back and forth, I was asked to provide some screenshots. I did. The response was "This message shows up when you have a search for hints in process...We are sincerely sorry that you don't have any matches with the Geneastar database." They never did explain why the banner never went away. I already knew it was displayed because a search was in progress - the banner made it very clear. It doesn't matter to me if there were matches or not, I just wanted to know the site was actually doing the search at all and to verify it wasn't hung up in a never ending loop. I finally gave up and will most definitely not renew this subscription again! Lesson learned. I'm sure it works just fine for many people, but it certainly didn't for me.

The frustration led me to look for other entertainment value options and I landed on Relative Finder. It's still based on the FamilySearch tree (with all it's potential errors) but at least it's FREE and gave me a ton of possibilities. This begs the question, does Geneastar not have a decent size database of famous people if I'm not matching to any at all? FamilySearch matches me to over 50 potential famous people people, and Relative Finder to thousands (albeit mostly VERY distantly and a lot were LDS related. Still, with LDS filtered out, I had over 1000 matches). I have to assume either Geneastar is not nearly the site they hype it up be, or it simply doesn't work for me for some reason. In any case, I enjoyed checking out Relative Finder. They even allow you to export your results so you can open and manipulate them in a spreadsheet. They also include the common ancestor, theorized relationship and clicking on a match clearly presents the potential connection generation by generation. They include filters for everything from royalty to the Salem witch trials, providing a lot of room to narrow down potential results to areas of interest.

Though I won't spend any real time trying to prove any of these connections, I use these sites as a potential way to identify names or even parents of some of my more difficult to find ancestors. I never ever take the information at face value - everything MUST be proven! I just enjoy seeing the possibilities and if appropriate, maybe poking a little further into a name I haven't seen before just to see if it's viable. For me, it's not about saying I'm related to someone famous, it's about maybe finding a tiny clue to help me past a brick wall.

The moral of this post? Don't waste your money on Geneanet Premium (unless, perhaps, you're looking for information related to French ancestors). Stick with the free site Relative Finder or just use the activities tab on FamilySearch.org and choose the Famous Relatives option. I totally get I may not match with anyone in Geneastar's database, and it's ok.....but given the disparity between the results, it just seems awfully strange not to have even a single match. Have you found any famous relatives? If so, how did you discover them? Connect with me on social media and let me know! 

Image by Denys Vitali from Pixabay

05 March 2024

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Image by Hans from Pixabay
Many (if not most) of the people in our trees are "everyday people". Folks who were born, lived their lives, likely worked very hard, perhaps raised a family and ultimately died. I must admit, the vast majority of people in my tree are a bit...non-descript...perhaps even boring. 

Don't get me wrong! There are exceptions and they're usually the ones destined for a biographical sketch. Some of my ancestors led very interesting lives. A few made great contributions to their community. Several were savvy business owners. Many served their country bravely in the military. A smattering died in unusual or unexpected ways. I do my best to bring each and every person in my tree back to life as much as I can with the information available to me. But sometimes, there just isn't a whole lot to tell.

Now wouldn't it be interesting to find someone with a slightly checkered past? Perhaps something long hidden no one in the family talked about? Maybe an ancestor who was in prison or an insane asylum? Go back far enough and one might even find a pirate, an outlaw, a witch or an execution. But where do you look for records of this type?

Blacksheep Ancestors could potentially be the site to help unlock long hidden secrets! You'll find links for the United States, Canada and the UK. By far, the United States seems to have the largest number of links on the site. You'll find the following types of records:

  • Prison and convict records
  • Court records
  • Executions
  • Insane asylum records
  • Bios of famous outlaws, criminals & pirates 
  • And more!

You're not going to find all the secrets of your ancestors by using this site...but you might find a hidden gem you didn't expect! Especially if you hit a brick wall where a person seems to disappear, consider whether they might have run afoul of the law or been sent away to a hospital. Blacksheep Ancestors might just give you a nudge towards a record you hadn't considered or perhaps to a website you've not contemplated searching before.

This is one of those "down the rabbit hole" sites for me. Sometimes it's fun to simply poke around, even if it isn't about my specific ancestors. It makes me wonder, are any of my family members somewhere in these records? Some of the biographical stories are fascinating to read. If you have an ancestor who just disappeared, do a quick search at Blacksheep Ancestors. You might just uncover something unexpected.

Image by Hans from Pixabay

03 March 2024

5 Star Posts Week of 02/25/2024 - 03/02/2024

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Staying abreast of happenings in the genealogy community is vitally important to me. There are hundreds of posts each week to sift through, on a wide variety of relevant topics. I'm so thankful to all the geneabloggers (and other content creators) who educate, enlighten and entertain me by sharing not only their stories but information I need to know. 

Below are a few of the posts I think deserve "5 stars" this week and I'd like to share them with you.

Family Trees are not Fractals: Why duplicates in family trees should not exist  Genealogy's Star

Learning about AI by Dr. Margaret M. McMahon on A Week of Genealogy

Tackling Your Most Feared Genealogy Duty by Valorie Zimmerman on South King County Genealogical Society



Gamechanger!! by Judy G. Russell on The Legal Genealogist


Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week of 25 February to 2 March 2024 by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings

Friday Family History Finds on Sunday by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

This week’s crème de la crème - March 2, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

01 March 2024

MyHeritage: OldNews and Omni Plan Cost

Image by Krzysztof Pluta from Pixabay
MyHeritage.com announced a new subscription plan today in conjunction with the launch of OldNews.com. You can read more at Introducing OldNews.com, A New Website for Exploring Historical Newspapers. I'm all about newspaper archives. I personally find obits and articles to be a wonderful way to identify and add family members to my tree. But it wasn't just the newspapers I was after! By now you know my addiction to subscriptions...I wanted to know how much the new Omni plan cost and see the features included.

Let's start with what you get. This "superset" of the complete subscription includes:

  • Complete subscription from MyHeritage.com with all the features users have come to expect from this service level (regularly $299/year)
  • Access to OldNews.com (regularly $99/year)
  • Unlimited access to 2,000 online genealogy webinars for all levels on Legacy Family Tree Webinars (regularly $49.95/year)
  • Full access to all Pro features on Geni.com (regularly $149/year)
  • Unlimited use of all features on the Reimagine app (regularly $7.99/month - $95.88/year)
Since I already had a MyHeritage complete plan, I wasn't immediately presented with an option to upgrade. The cost for the Omni plan wasn't included in the blog post. I had to search on MyHeritage for a newspaper not previously on the site (I used the one shown in the post) so OldNews would prompt me to upgrade. Since I just renewed a few months ago, I was shown the amount remaining on my existing plan and the additional amount I'd be charged today. The only slight downside is now my MyHeritage subscription renews a little earlier in the year. Bottom line, just like supersizing your meal at the fast food restaurant, Omni costs a bit more, at $399 per year ($100 more than the existing complete plan) but it certainly comes with a lot of additional features. Omni is currently only available as an annual subscription. 

I do want to mention, MyHeritage is not my "go to" site for tree building. I find the interface less user friendly than Ancestry. But I do look for records, periodically upload my GEDCOM so I have an up to date backup location, sometimes use the tree consistency checker and utilize DNA matches and DNA tools. Do I get my money's worth? Maybe, maybe not. It's hit or miss, but I'm not planning on cancelling my membership any time soon. If you don't currently have a complete subscription, you may want to spend some time evaluating whether an Omni plan is right for you, or if you'd be better off just subscribing to OldNews if you want access to it.

Of course I subscribed to the Omni plan! Even though the current price for OldNews.com is 25% off the first year (if all you want is the newspapers), the Omni plan is like getting Legacy Family Tree Webinars, a Geni Pro subscription and unlimited use of the Reimagine app as a bonus. Yes, sure, you're paying for them one way or another, but bundled with a new newspaper archive is certainly great marketing. I won't say I was actually considering signing up for any of those additional sites/apps, but since I have access I'll certainly use them. I would likely have subscribed to OldNews anyway and this gives me even more new sites and tools to utilize. MyHeritage often adds new features with no upcharge (unlike some other sites who shall remain nameless, but we all know who we're talking about). MyHeritage is simply taking some of the sites they already own and "bundling" them into a new plan - a stroke of marketing genius likely to increase their subscribers. 

Image by Krzysztof Pluta from Pixabay