Ohio Research Resources: Wayne County Public Library

Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT

I have lots (and I mean LOTS!) of Ohio relatives and ancestors. One of the websites I've found very helpful in my own research is the Wayne County Public Library site. Local libraries offer a number of resources and Wayne County Public Library is no exception. 

Without a library card, from their database page you can access various free databases including:

• The Cleveland Necrology File containing local cemetery records and newspaper death notices for the following years: 1833, 1847-1848, 1850-1975
• Community History Archive of WCPL | Advantage Preservation including 26 different titles of Wayne County, Ohio newspapers covering the years 1836-2019. Newspapers were published in the communities of Creston, Dalton, Doylestown, Rittman, Shreve, West Salem, and Wooster.
• Digital Public Library of America, Historic digital collections from libraries, museums, and archives across Ohio and more.
• R. B. Hayes Ohio Obituary Index: This index covers obituaries, death notices, and probate notices from more than 60 partners across Ohio.
• Wayne County, Ohio Online Resource Center: Access to research databases, genealogy and local history information and more.

If you happen to live in Ohio, you can request a library card and unlock even more free resources (some available remotely, others are in-library only). In addition to the Wayne County, Ohio Online Resource Center they also have a Genealogy Portal with links to additional Ohio databases and resources, including Pioneer Families and other notable people/families. 

When considering additional places to expand your research reach, don't forget public libraries! You don't have to limit this to your local library. Check online for libraries in the areas you're researching for records availability. Some may offer collections online, others may not be digitized yet. But it's quick and easy to do a search to see if libraries in the areas where your ancestors lived might be an untapped resource for you. 

Finding Where Your DNA Matches Belong Can Be Challenging

Working with DNA can be a challenge. But it can also be very rewarding. It's a puzzle (more times than not). Sure, you might have a few matches you recognize and you plop them right where they belong. But that feeling of glee fades pretty fast when you realize you have 20,000 more matches (give or take another 20,000) and you have no idea who they are or where they fit in the puzzle of your tree.

I'm not going to lie and say there's some magic formula to make it simple. I consider myself lucky every time I place just one or two folks in my tree. But studying up on DNA in general can help make the process a little less frustrating. You may need to contact you matches or use some tools to figure things out. You may need to do some chromosome mapping, or upload to other sites to find even more matches to help you narrow down where a particular match may fall. And sometimes, you may not be able to figure it out at all. 

Here are just a few posts I've found helpful in the past to expand my understanding DNA:
A Genetic DNA Glossary
17 Best DNA Upload Sites to Upload Raw DNA Data
False positive match small segmentsDNA Testing Advisor - The Independent Guide To DNA Testing

I also find using obituaries helps a lot in the search for where my matches will go. Yes, mining obits for all the people included is time consuming, and it can add a lot of names to your tree at once. Sometimes, figuring out where all the names go is a challenge in and of itself - especially grandkids with no surnames listed. But doing this makes it considerably easier when you're investigating the trees of DNA matches. Some DNA matches don't even start a tree (not helpful). Some stop at only a few direct connections (potentially helpful). Don't discount these small trees if you've been adding all those names from obits because you'll likely be coming close (if not spot on to) the generations of people listed in the documents. You may find names you recognize, even though you're working with limited information in the DNA match's tree.

You may also find you have to work backwards. Sometimes, you may have to start a quick "dirty" tree from the match, and map out the various ancestors of your DNA match. Hopefully you'll find a familiar name. This may mean you'll be identifying people not relevant to you, so you may want to do this in a new private "working" tree just for this purpose. (It's easier to add the correct names to your main tree once identified than it is to go back and find and delete the people who turn out not to be relevant. A working tree removes the need to go "clean up" once you've made the connection.) I'll be honest, I spend enough time on my "known" family members, so I don't typically employ this method. But at some point, when I've run out of clear connections, I may have to start doing this. I've read posts by other researchers who've had very good success, and it's helped them get farther back in their own trees. The paper trail based on our own research alone doesn't always provide us with all the siblings or children of our known ancestors. Working backwards from a DNA match may just be the key to breaking down brick walls.

This past week, I was able to add 3 new matches to my tree. 2 are children (managed by a parent who I recognized as the spouse of a known DNA match) so it was easy to figure out where they go, even though the DNA kits only had initials and gender. The 3rd I was able to work out without too much effort because the surname was known to me, and I was able to work down from the last person in my tree with the same name to the DNA match. But it's not always so simple. I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out where DNA matches should be placed, but I do hop over every few weeks and see if I can work out anyone new. How much effort you'll expend depends on the purpose for your search. If you're building a tree to find biological family unknown to you, DNA matches will be much more important. For me, they're a "bonus". I enjoy adding them - it gives me a sense of satisfaction, but I find researching those I already know more satisfying. So while I recognize the importance of DNA and DNA matches, they aren't where I spend the bulk of my time.

Image by Elias from Pixabay

5 Star Posts Week of 05/19/2024 - 05/25/2024

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.

Crime and its Repercussions by Judith Batchelor on Genealogy Jude

AI in Genealogy: Copy and Save Your DNA Match List with ChatGPT! by Diane Henriks on Know Who Wears the Genes in Your Family

50 Fabulous Features in The Family History Guide by Bob Taylor on The Family History Guide Blog

Search the Largest Archive of Historical Newspaper Birth Announcements by Jenny Ashcraft on Fishwrap (The official blog of Newspapers.com)

4 Resources to Find Military Records by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 19 to 25 May 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 — May 25, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Bumps in the Road

Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT

I encountered a big bump in the road to my research last week. It's left me adrift and wandering. My closest sibling passed away about a week ago. It wasn't totally unexpected, but I didn't expect it so soon. I've lost a parent and a sibling in the span of 1-1/2 years. I have one older sibling left. Then it's just me and my male offspring in my direct line. For some reason, the eventual eradication of our leaves on the tree is hitting me really hard.

It started me thinking about my own mortality. I should put a genealogy will and DNA beneficiary agreement in place so my male offspring has access to my accounts. He's not into genealogy, but I'd still like him to have access to my research. If nothing else, he can pass it on to someone else in the family or donate it. And it would give him the ability to potentially remove my DNA from uploaded sites, should there be a reason to do so in the future. I have document templates saved specifically for a this task, I've just never gotten around to doing them. But now, this is moving up on my to-do list.

Then I started thinking about my tree. Do I go ahead and show by sibling as deceased? I'm trying to be sensitive to the rest of the family's loss as well (since my tree is public and some of them do genealogy on Ancestry). No one has updated him yet (and it's hard to say when they might....loss is a very personal thing). I've decided to give it a few more weeks and I'll revisit the topic. I know my tree is mine, but sensitivity to family members is still a concern for me. 

Then there's FindAGrave. Do I go grab a memorial so someone else doesn't beat me to it? I'd like it to be in the family, if nothing else. But again, a part of me feels I should leave it to the spouse to create a memorial. Thankfully (at least in some respects) no obituary has been posted, so none of the memorial hoarders have grabbed it up...yet. I wish I could broach the question directly, but I feel it's too soon. Unfortunately, delaying may mean someone else creates it. But, I guess, one of us can always go through the process of requesting it back if it happens.

I've been finding myself aimlessly scrolling through pages of hints on Ancestry for the last few days. Sure, I randomly attach a hint here or there, but I feel like I'm adrift in an ocean of hints. I'm having a hard time focusing. The other morning, I spent hours just poking around on our 2nd great grandparents, hoping to find more, or solidify some connections. I managed to fix one inconsistency with one of their children's birth dates, and identified one other potential issue (a child born a couple years before they were married). In the mother's obit, she was listed as a surviving daughter. It could be bad dates on records. It could be she was the product of another marriage, and my 2nd great grandmother was the only mother she actually knew. And to make it worse, there's a name discrepancy in some of the potential hints, she may have been adopted into the family, or maybe the hints are for a totally different person. I'm unsure at this point...so I finally gave up...for now.

I'm trying to remind myself, genealogy isn't a race. I don't have to research everyday (unless I want to). I don't have to attach some magical number of hints. The reality is, our trees are never "done". There's no finish line to cross. It's ok to take time to process whatever may be going on in life. But I'm still conflicted. My brain really wants to get lost in the routine of evaluating records and let time fly by almost unnoticed. But as I'm aimlessly scrolling, I'm unfocused and keenly aware I'm just spinning my wheels. There's nothing else I "need" to be doing right now, beyond letting myself grieve. I suppose if clicking thru hints aimlessly helps me for the moment, it's ok. Who knows, maybe one of those random clicks will open the door to something totally unexpected?

A Tale of Two Social Security Numbers

It is extremely rare for someone to have two Social Security numbers. More often than not, if one delves down far enough, we'll find there's something different between two records appearing to be for the same person. People can have the same name, the same birth date, and even the same location of birth....but be two completely different people. There are a limited number of reasons someone might be issued two different numbers, and it isn't common. I'm well aware of this, and generally, I try to prove one correct and disprove another. 

I've encountered times when someone has the same given and surname, but the middle initial may stand for a different middle name. Or two people with the same name, and different birth dates. Or same name and birth date, but different locations (one being completely different than any other records). It's generally pretty simple to disprove one of the potential indexed Social Security numbers as "wrong" for a person in my tree. I'll say hints are generally pretty good, and I don't run into it often, but when I do - it's not usually a big deal.

And then there's James Miles LeRoy. born February 23, 1892 (in Varner, Ripley, Missouri) and died Jan 2, 1986 (in Stevenson, Jackson, Alabama). Before I start this story, I'd like to point out, the subject of this post also lived in Tennessee as of the 1900 census, and Bridgeport, Jackson, Alabama (only about 6 miles from the Tennessee state line) for many years before his death.  This last residence complicates evaluating the records because my ancestors routinely travelled from Georgia and Alabama to Tennessee for important events like marriages, and draft registrations. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to leave out a few digits in the SSN, just because it feels strange to include the whole number, even though it is readily available in records.

The first record I encountered was in the Social Security Claims Index. It was listed under Jim LeRoy. The name didn't bother me, Jim is certainly short for James. The date of birth, Feb 23, 1892 was correct, as was the birth place of Varnor [Varner], Missouri. Now, to be fair, the parents names are spelled wrong. His father was Benjamin Franklin LeRoy, and in this record it's shown as Bengemon F Leroy,  but a simple misspelling here doesn't seem to be really "wrong". His mother is listed as Nancey Patterson (although it's usually spelled Nancy), otherwise, her maiden is correct. The SSN# on this record is 421-##-##11. It shows his name as Jim LeRoy as of July 1937.

The US Veteran's Administration Master Index shows James Leroy, date of birth Feb 23, 1892. His residence is shown as Bridgeport, Alabama. Military service is listed as January 14, 1919. We know he died in the same county and lived many years in Bridgeport, so....so far so good right? Here's where it starts to get odd.

The Social Security Death Index lists a James LeRoy, Social Security Number 411-##-##32 (very different from the other number, clearly not just a typo). His birth is listed as Feb 23, 1892 (same date), and the Social Security number was issued before 1951 in Tennessee. This fits with what I know about this person. In the 1950's he was living just a few miles from the Tennessee border. It's not a stretch to think anything "official" and important would be done there. The last residence is listed as Stevenson, Jackson, Alabama, the location other records show as his place of death. There is no day listed, but the month and year are correct with January 1986. See where it's getting a little murky now?

The Department of Veteran's Affairs BIRLS Death File lists James Leroy, date of birth February 23, 1892, date of death January 2,1986, with Social Security Number 411-##-##32. Date of military service is August 7, 1918 to January 14, 1919. At this point I'm starting to scratch my head. 

I looked for a SSDI entry for 421-##-##11 (the entry in the claims index) and nothing at all comes up. So I looked for claims for 411-##-##32 (the SSDI entry), and guess what? Nothing comes up. So each of the two numbers seems to play a part in this, as does the corroborating information from the VA and what I know of his parents. I can't satisfactorily "disprove" either of them! Given he lived to 1986, I can't imagine why there's no claim for the 411 number. And if 421 were the correct number, why is there no death information? 

The reasons for two Social Security numbers are generally:

• Sequential numbers are assigned to members of the same family
• More than one person is using the same number
• The person has religious or cultural objections to certain numbers or digits in the original number
• The person is a victim of identity theft
• There is a situation of harassment, abuse, or life endangerment

Sure, one of the first two reasons "could" be the issue. But I'd have expected a note in the Claims Index showing issuance of a new number. Given how often notes show a change of name for women when they marry, I'd expect correcting a nickname to given name would be pretty simple. Identity theft wasn't really something we heard about until more recently (though I'm sure it did exist, it wasn't as commonplace back then as it is today).

This is a conundrum and I'd be most interested to hear what you think. Is this truly a case where the Social Security Administration made an error and issued two cards? Did someone just type a completely wrong number in the claims index? Did he register twice? Once under Jim and once under James? Did he lose his card and just went in and applied for another and never said he had one previously? Was he trying to take on a new identity (of sorts) by securing a new number? Nothing else I'm finding about his life would give this indication. Or am I completely missing something here? Let me know your thoughts.

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

5 Star Posts Week of 05/12/2024 - 05/18/2024

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.

“Fishing or Researching?”, by the late Terrence M. Punch by Genealogical Publishing on Genealogical.com

Follow Up on Genealogy Clues and Leads by DiAnn Iamarino Oham on Fortify Your Family Tree

OpenAI’s New Model GPT-4o: Game-Changer for Free AI Access, Possible Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) Advance by Steve Little on AI Genealogy Insights

Mysterious Circled Xs, Cryptic Codes And Other Confusing Details In The 1940 Census Explained by Donna Streetenberger on Family History Daily

No Vital Records? No Problem! 12 Resources that Might Prove Family Relationships by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Finally a way to quickly identify and correct entries on the FamilySearch Family Family Tree -- Family Tree Validator by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star

New Geneagem: Linkpendium by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 12 to 18 May 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 — May 18, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Testing Ancestry's Photo Facial Recognition

One of the newer Ancestry.com updates is AI assisted facial recognition. I saw it mentioned in an email and quickly clicked on the button to test it out! I was directed to my media gallery, but was presented with no information on actually using the feature. A quick hop over to the help pages didn't yield any clues, so I started playing around.

From my media gallery, I selected a photo where I knew who was shown. In this picture is my mother as a young girl. To start facial recognition, first click on the "tag" button (shown with a red arrow in the photo).

Then click on the face of the person you want to search. A box will appear around the face and a pop up will appear where you can select someone in your tree, or choose "Recognize Ancestors". I chose "Recognize Ancestors". CAUTION: If you select someone in your tree, it will simply tag the selected person in the photo with the name chosen. It will NOT compare the photo to other photos of the person you may already have in your media gallery.

You'll be presented with possible matches for the person you selected, and an analysis of how viable the match suggestion may be. AI is searching other media in the database to look for potential matches. In this example, the top option is labelled "Great" for this match (but it does show it's a match to my own tree), none the less, it did match to the correct person, my mother, who was already in my tree. It matched her face to exactly the same photo, so it was easy to confirm AI did a good job analyzing this photo. 

While the first photo worked quite well, when I tried it on another photo of my mother, you can see from the results below, it did not do so well at all. I was presented with two potential matches, but none of the options were listed as "Great", only "Good" and "Fair". And none of the suggestions were actually the person in the photo. 

I tried the same test with 2 photos on another person in my tree, and I had the same results. It was 50/50 on how well the AI did. To use this feature, the media item must already be saved in your gallery. I tried this on a regular photo hint, but could not select to tag the person. It makes sense to only allow you to tag media you've already saved. But, on the flip side, it would be nice to be able to do facial recognition without actually tagging anyone at all, in advance of saving a photo hint. We all know, some photos are not of the person the original poster attributed them to, and it could potentially prevent (or at least limit) people from perpetuating incorrect information if they could verify before saving. To some extent, if you already have media saved, there's a reasonable chance you already know who's in the photo. But certainly, there are times when there are unknown people, or you take the details of a photo at face value, and would just like a way to see if the info may be correct.

The takeaway? While this is a great new tool to potentially help identify unknown people in a photo (or perhaps confirm your suspicions), it should be used with caution. Ideally, you'll be searching for people who you already have a photo of in your tree, where you'll be able to do your own comparison to see if you think the AI is correct. As with anything AI, it's best to double check everything. This is a big step in a new direction, but it's not a magic bullet.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Photos of Margaret Irene LeRoy are from my media gallery

30 Free Genealogy Glossaries, Dictionaries and Abbreviation Resources

Image created using DALL-E and ChatGPT

If you're just starting your genealogy journey, you'll likely encounter many terms you aren't familiar with. Even those of us who've been researching a decade (or many decades) run into words we aren't familiar with, especially as we move into using genetic genealogy in our research. I run into new terms all the time!

New words can pop up anywhere. It can be basic terms, genetic genealogy terms, abbreviations, occupations, diseases, military ranks, archaic terms....anything really. In order to make sure you're researching accurately, it's important to take a moment to look up new terminology. I'm not saying you have to memorize every single term you come across...it's simply not feasible and you can always look words again...but take a beat to be sure you're interpreting whatever you're working on correctly.

When you encounter these new and unfamiliar genealogical terms, where do you turn? Google is certainly usually my first step...but it doesn't always answer all my questions. In fact, sometimes I have more questions after a Google search than I had before! So for me, it's important to have a handy list of additional resources I can turn to.

Below are some sites where you can find great genealogical dictionaries, glossaries, information on abbreviations and much, much more! I've included Cyndi's List since there are even more references to be found there.

1. Ancestry's Glossary of DNA Terms
2. Ancestry’s Glossary of Genealogical Terms
3. Berks County Genealogical Society - Helpful Tips Genealogy Terms
4. Cyndi's List Genealogy Dictionaries & Glossaries
5. Family History Daily 300 Historical Abbreviations Explained
6. FamilySearch Research Wiki - A Glossary of Genealogical Terms
7. FamilySearch Research Wiki: Genealogical Terms
8. FamiyTreeDNA Glossary Terms
9. Family Tree Magazine Genealogy Terms Glossary
10. Family Tree Magazine Ultimate List of DNA and Genetic Genealogy Terms (+ Free Download)
11. Genealogy in Time First Name Abbreviations
12. Genealogy in Time Genealogy Word Dictionary
13. Genealogy in Time Latin Dictionary
14. Genealogy.com Genealogy Glossary
15. Genealogy Quest Glossary of Terms
16. Genealogy Trails – Genealogy Terms Encountered While Family Researching
17. Gramps Project Genealogy Glossary
18. International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki Genetics Glossary
19. MyHeritage Genealogy Glossary: Common Genealogy Terms Explained
20. MyHeritage Genealogy Glossary: Common DNA Terms Explained
21. MyHeritage Guide to abbreviations and key genealogy terms
22. National Cemetery Administration Headstone and Marker Inscriptions
23. PBS History Detectives Genealogy Glossary
24. Root To Branches Genealogy Terms Explained
25. Roots Dictionary of Genealogy & Archaic Terms
26. RootsWeb Genealogy Abbreviations
27. RootsWeb Genealogy Terms
28. The DNA Geek – A Genetic Genealogy Glossary
29. Thomber.net Glossary of Old Medical Terms
30. Treemily Comprehensive Glossary of Genealogical Terms

For convenience, I've included all these links on my Genealogy Toolbox page (and noted my go-to favorites). This is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just the ones I've accumulated in my own research. Doing a Google search on unfamiliar words may lead you to other sites better suited to answer your specific questions. You may find resources in varied and unexpected places! Just like genealogical research, we all think we'll remember where we found a particular detail, hint or website... only to find it eluding us when we later realize we need it. Don't forget to bookmark reference sites you may want to return to in the future.

Do you have favorite sites for terminology? Leave a comment and share them with me!

5 Star Posts Week of 05/05/2024 - 05/11/2024

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.

10 Company Blogs You Shouldn’t Miss by Bob Taylor on The Family History Guide Blog

What is the Furthest Anyone Has Traced Their Ancestry? by Mercedes Brons on Who Are You Made Of?

Who Do You Believe:? The Accuracy of Inherited Genealogy by James Tanner on Genealogy's Star

National Archives and Ancestry team up to digitize millions of records by Michael E. Ruaneon The Washington Post

Preserving the Story of America: Ancestry Announces Largest Archive Collaboration to Date with the National Archives and Records Administration by Ancestry (Ancestry Corporate press release)

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week:

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 5 to 11 May 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 — May 11, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

This Little Piggy

Sometimes, I think about very random things about my family tree. This morning, I was contemplating how my ancestors were not rich, far from it. A few (on my paternal line) amassed pretty impressive amounts of farmland, but I don't find anything to show they lived lavishly. Quite the opposite, in fact. Most of the family I've found appear to have been very frugal. Some branches of our family clearly had challenges making ends meet (just as many families today struggle month to month). Most certainly my grandparents and parents were very frugal. But somehow they all made it work...otherwise, I wouldn't be here. 

I moved on to thinking about how they repaired and reused items. Where we often toss old broken items in the trash bin, for my ancestors, throwing away was a last resort when every bit of usefulness from every possible part had been gleaned. Clothes were mended and handed down, not donated or thrown away. When no longer wearable, they became the foundation for quilts. Many, like the one I remember from my childhood and still have, are treasured heirlooms. Bits of the past, squares and triangles stitched together, a lasting memory of the garments they came from. They found multiple uses for everyday items. Today, we're wide eyed when we find "101 uses for" [whatever the item may be]. In some cases, a single alternate use for a item today is a big win right? Back then, they probably knew tens if not hundreds of multiple uses by heart, because it was their way of life. 

Today, we love to find recipes to feed our families for far less than we could have imagined and we're thrilled with the savings. Back then, they made everything they could from whatever they had. When my dad was a teenager, he got up every morning and jogged his trap line before dawn. Most of the meat the family ate came from whatever he caught (rabbit, squirrel, possum and even groundhog). A depression recipe I once stumbled on was Water Pie, and while I've not actually made it (yet), it's a reminder of the ingenuity of those who came before, finding a way to make something out of almost nothing. (I have an affinity for depression era recipes. I love collecting them. Simple meals are often the best in my mind.)

And then...my mind took a sharp turn...a trajectory to nursery rhymes. I was thinking about the "this little piggy". I know, it's totally random isn't it?! Now who doesn't know this rhyme? 

This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
This little piggy had none
This little piggy went ...
Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

We've probably all heard it at some point, and those of us with children have probably passed it along to them as babies. According to mudcat.org, the opening line goes back as far as 1728, with abundant iterations to follow. The well known version seems to stem from about 1760. Apparently, varying versions of the rhyme can cause dissent amongst spouses. I found a thread where one woman wanted others to settle a disagreement between her and her spouse over the "proper" way to say the rhyme. Why was I even thinking about this?...

Because it isn't the way I was taught this rhyme. Oh no! My little piggies appear to have made an appearance in written history about 1890. I know the rhyme like this:  

This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had bread and butter
This little piggy had none
And this little piggy went ...
Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

When my male offspring was a wee, I taught him the way I was taught. But my ex-husband always said roast beef. At some point, my son innocently asked why my piggies didn't eat roast beef? So I told him the truth - "they were depression era piggies". I'm sure he had absolutely no clue...but it likely sounded important, and it seemed to quell his curiosity. My version eventually won out in our home. 

The differences in the way of thinking and living, then and now, were swirling around in my head. I don't know if my ancestors felt like they were missing out, or if they were fairly content with their way of life. Some certainly seemed to have had it harder than others. But however they may have perceived their lives, I'm very thankful the frugal ways of the past were passed down through the generations to me. My ancestors passed on a fundamental foundation for living. In many areas of my life, frugality seems absolutely ingrained in my DNA. 

I've enjoyed, and passed on, the love of apple, honey and maple syrup festivals (instead of going to amusement parks). I research purchases, find the best value for the money and then keep items for many years. A handmade gift or card is more valuable to me (in most cases) than a purchased item. One of my favorite books is The The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn. (Not an affiliate link! You can likely find a copy at your local library, but sadly it has never been released on Kindle or as a eBook). I've read it cover to cover more times than I can count. I buy items on clearance. I stockpile consumables when on sale. I still struggle to throw away small amounts of leftovers (vs putting them in tiny Tupperware to save as a snack.) I still amass more mundane items than I need, because they might be useful one day. And my little piggies still have bread and butter. 

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

Finding Resources in Unexpected Places

Many years ago, I stumbled across the "Journalist's Toolbox". Since then, the site has rebranded as SPJ Toolbox, presented by the Society for Professional Journalists. While this site is geared toward journalists, there are some potential resources genealogists can tap into. 

I don't know about you, but I can get in a rut. I check the various big genealogy sites (sometimes endlessly) hoping a new record will appear for an elusive ancestor. Sometimes I stumble across something new, but sometimes I need a fresh approach. So I'll trek over to some of the smaller genealogy sites, hoping for a breakthrough in smaller databases. And every once in awhile, I'm reminded to try a site where genealogy isn't the staple. You never know what you might find buried in a list of seeming unrelated links.

The Journalist's Toolbox is one of these non-genealogy sites. First, let me point out it appears there hasn't been a lot of really recent updating on the site. I can find pages last updated early 2023, but I also find some dead links. The easiest way to navigate is to search for something specific, or browse all topics. Many of the genealogy-ish links are to sites you'll probably find elsewhere (like the National Archives) or you're already familiar with (like the link to Ellis Island records), but there could be something hiding in there you might find useful. Below are some of the potentially useful links for genealogists:

AI for Journalists
Biography Sites
Copyright issues
FOIA and Finding Data
History
Miscellaneous Tools
Public Records
Reference Books
Search Tools
Translation Tools

By no means is this a site where you're going to find link lists dedicated to genealogy. It's simply an "off the beaten path" site with some limited potential. For content creators, there are also links to digital tools, social media tools, writing tools and various productivity tools. So if you're into sharing your genealogy journey, you may very well find some additional items of use on this site.

Image by Peter Middleton from Pixabay

5 Star Posts Week of 04/28/2024-05/04/2024

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.

Ten Family History Bloggers You Should Know by Bob Taylor on The Family History Guide

2 Free Websites Compare Photos to See Who's Who by DiAnn Iamarino Ohama on Fortify Your Family Tree

DNA Painter: May Tech Moment by Linda Stufflebean on Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Beware of These “Red Flags” in Online Family Trees by Rachel Christian on FamilyTree

Transcribing Document Images with ChatGPT and Claude by Nicole Elder Dyer on Family Locket

AI’s Trust Problem by Bhaskar Chakravorti on Harvard Business Review 

Posts other Geneabloggers liked this week: 

Best of the Genea-Blogs: Week of 28 April to 4 May 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 — May 4, 2024 by Gail Dever on Genealogy à la carte

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Ancestry Hacks: Ancestry Hints by Specific Record Collection

I make research plans and I carry them out...for awhile. I tend to get restless and bored doing the same thing day after day.  I like to switch up how I'm attacking my research, and I generally like to keep working on all branches of my tree (backward and forward) at the same time. Some days, I work on a specific person until I'm done with all the green leaves and suggested hints. Sometimes, when I'm pressed for time, it's working through a few photo hints or other user trees. When I have good mental energy, it's attaching census records or obits (though they tend to take longer). And some days (like today) I choose to concentrate on a specific record collection. When I'm "in the zone" on a specific set of records, I feel like I can fly through hints (while still making sure each is correct and documented). 

One of the best "secret genealogy hacks" (ok, maybe not super secret) I've come across is Mining Ancestry.com Hints by Specific Record Collection - Updated by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings. This tip has been around years, and it still works! It's a trick I use quite frequently. He outlines how to search a specific record collection on Ancestry.com to find the people in your tree who currently show hints available in the specified database. This is done by using your Ancestry member tree number (treenumb) and the database number (dbas) in a carefully crafted URL. I won't go in to the specifics. Randy does a brilliant job of explaining the steps and I encourage you to read his post. It's a very simple trick to use. I want to tell you some of the reasons why I like it searching this way.

Have you ever wished, for instance, you could find all the yearbook hints? Those are fairly quick and easy to attach. Working thru quite a few in a single sitting is liberating (though still requires diligence to be sure you have the right person). Or Social Security Claims and Applications? Often a way to verify the child for a set of parents, along with the birth date, birth location, death date, social security number - and for females, potential other husbands surnames (from the notes). With a confirmed Social Security Number it makes working with SSDI records a breeze (cause you can easily confirm the SSN matches) and you often get the added state where the number was issued (and when) as well as the last residence/benefit address. Social Security records are some of my favorite record sets to work with when I want to make a small dent in my ever growing list of hints! Or all the FindAGrave entries or draft cards or....ok, ok, you get the idea. You can search for any database you want, so long as you know the number.

Any record set can be extra useful when narrowed down. Are you working on a specific branch of your family and want to see all the census records for a specific year? Perhaps you want to see who lives near who...or who moved away since the last census. Once you've narrowed to the specific database of interest, you can further narrow your search by first name, last name, or most recent hints (just like you can from the main list of all hints). This is a great way to focus in on specific parts of the family within a given dataset. Even public records, with the numerous addresses, when narrowed down, can help you figure out if the various people are all falling into the right place (pun absolutely intended). This isn't a magic solution to find elusive hints. Everything this search returns is already shown somewhere in your "all hints" listing. It just makes it easier to find the hints by filtering out the noise and letting you focus on a specific database for a period of time.

Randy provides a really good list of various database numbers to start you off. As I work, when I encounter a new database I'm running across frequently, I'll add the database number to my running list so I can go back and use it whenever I want. This "trick" has been around since at least 2013, and with a few tweaks to the original method over the years, it still works extremely well. It's definitely something you want to have in your genealogy toolbox. If you've never tried searching using this particular method, give it a go and see how you like it. Personally, I'm as excited about it now as I was when I first discovered it. Connect with me on social media (or leave a comment) and let me know how it works for you.

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay