The Silver Book for Mayflower Descendants

This past week has been an amazing journey for me.  On Monday I ran across something on Ancestry that peeked my interest.  I did some research on my own family records and discovered that I might be a descendant of the Mayflower passenger, and signer of the Mayflower Compact, Stephen Hopkins.  A real, honest to goodness Pilgrim!  Seriously, I was blown away.  I have just plain old ordinary folks in my lines.  Stuff like this just doesn't happen to me.  I've never won a prize except at a baby shower or something and never thought I was related to anyone famous.  Oh, I did win a statewide writing contest in 8th grade but that was it for me...my one claim to fame.

*****I must pause here and say that I did win the prize when it comes to my husband and children and grandchildren and other relatives I have known...but I never had any vision of that beyond the few. 

As I delved into it just a little more I realized it that everything I looked at made it look more probable. I was so excited but cautious in trusting my own discovery.   I was afraid to even speak it out loud for fear I was just wishing a little too fervently.  I called Bob Trapp and told him what I was suspecting and to tell him we are probably cousins.  Bob is a descendant of many of the original pilgrims so I knew he might be of help to me on this search.  

Lesson number one: You do not have to be an expert at everything when you are doing family history but it is a tremendous plus to know your resources.

 Bob was quite excited about this and told me he'd help me on Tuesday to see what we could find.  He introduced me to what he calls "The Silver Bible."  This is a series of books that he actually donated to the Oakland Library.  Wow, am I ever grateful.  Thanks, Trapps!  He promptly pulled out the volume I needed entitled, " Mayflower Descendants Through Five Generations."  Stephen Hopkins, Volume 6: 3rd Edition.  This was published in 2001 by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and considered The Authoritative Source."  He told me if I could tie into their findings...it was a done deal.

 Lesson number two: Not all important information comes to us in digital form. 
  Of course  it is all online but how can you really trust it without something to actually research.  You want to make sure when you connect generations that they actually do match up.

Lesson number three:  There is no easy street in this discipline.

 Do not be a gatherer of names without documentation because I guarantee you they will not be your family in most cases.  You might get lucky with a few but not many.  I was astonished to look at the actual records of a tiny village in Italy to see that even when a surname was shared in a small geographic area for generations, it was no guarantee of any relationship at all.  You need to research and work with actual records to get accurate results.  There is no other way.

Google Images

Mayflower

Bob and I made a preliminary assessment on Tuesday night.  High Fives~it looked right!   I needed to go home and sort it all out using the copied book pages as my guide to made sure what I was seeing on my records and Family Tree was accurate.  By Friday night I had confirmed it with absolute certainty.  I am indeed his descendant!

Lesson number four:  Family Tree prompted me to search for this in the first place. 
 
I love Family Tree!  It lead me to Ancestry which lead me to Bob and The Book.  Bob's expertise in Mayflower research and the book was something I trusted.  That and the large number of researchers who have been in Massachusetts combing the area for all the documentation that exists there to produced this amazing "Bible" of facts.  Then taking it one step further,  the people that looked at all the sources and came up with the standard used in the Silver "Bible."  I so appreciated all the help Bob gave me in deciphering that "Bible" that rivaled the Old Testament for lack of easy reading and comprehension. It is so nice to feel I did my research and the facts are proven, sourced and cited. 

Stephen Hopkins is my 11th great-grandfather born in 1581-82 in England.  I was crossed-eyed and exhausted but what a discovery!  The fun part is seeing how many others have descended from him that we all know like Sir Issac Newton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jane Austin, Agatha Christie, John Steinbeck.  I love that so many of them are writers.

The more important part is that I know the genealogy is correct as hundreds of professional researchers have blazed the trail, as admittance to the Mayflower Society is based on proven genealogy.  Now I am not sure that I will ever join the Mayflower Society but my real prize is knowing my family heritage and being able to pass that along to our children and grandchildren.  They will get this one line with 15 generations!  That is the grand prize, in my humble opinion.  And who knows, knowing more about who they are may prompt them to seek to become their best selves just a little more than they already do! A Mayflower scholarship for college might be a great carrot to dangle out there right now too, as some of them are approaching high school.

Lesson number five:  Never give up.

I started this line nearly 40 years ago never dreaming I could take it this far.  Another reminder to me that the Lord is in the details of our lives.  I use to think we were the only members of the church in our family.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Gordon B. Hinckley and Lorenzo Snow belong to the Stephen Hopkins family too.  Sometimes being wrong feels so right!  :-)

Passenger Lists and Immigration Part 2.2

The first thing you should do on this lesson is watch this Family Search video.

Family Search video on Passenger Lists and Immigration

http://tinyurl.com/cxemuru   Click on link or copy/paste

 as needed from the subscription feed edition.

This video gives an overview of some of the important information available about what is contained in the various passenger lists and what is provided during the various time periods and what you need to know to be successful in finding your immigrant. 

 

It also teaches us where to look on the various documents for specific information by showing us where the fields on the forms are located.  We become keenly aware of how lax the procedure of creating passenger lists was to begin with and how much more regulated it became as time passed.  That type of government regulation became very helpful to genealogists.

What I like about this presentation in particular was the information about where to find the lists and also the introduction of the stevemorse.org website which appears to have a wealth of information and options for researching.

By watching the video and doing the hands-on exercise we will all know a lot more about passenger list to find our our family immigrants and to assist others in doing the same. 

Just a personal aside (You get to do that when you have a blog) I wish Family Search would put a little more pizazz into the production of some of these videos.  Color, music in the background, animation or something!  OK, I've had my visual aids say.  I love these staff training lessons, they have been very helpful.  Thank so much, Linda.

	From Bonnie: "Passenger Lists and Immigration Lesson Part 2" Click here to view (Bonnie shared these files using Dropbox. Enjoy!)
From Bonnie: "Hand-on Case Study-Lesson 6 Passenger Lists and Immigration." Click here to view (Bonnie shared these files using Dropbox. Enjoy!)

Accuracy in Our Records

Jim's Photo

Oakland Temple & Fountain

Carol Holladay wrote such a beautiful Newsletter this week so I asked her if I could include it in the blog.  She kindly agreed. I want to keep it right here so we can refer to it whenever we choose.  Thank You, Carol!  And thank you, Marge, for your continual mentoring.  We miss you.

"Several weeks ago a young woman came into the library wanting to find her  great great grandfather and his family.  She knew he was born in Pennsylvania in about 1890 and had about 10 siblings.  I suggested she begin with a search of the 1900 census and follow him through each consecutive census.  When I checked back later, she had found not only her great, great grandfather, but his siblings and parents!  She was very excited that she met with success.  Checking the source of  her information, I found she hadn’t searched census record as suggested, she had found her great great grandfather and his family on an Ancestry family tree.  She was excited, her search was ended.  I had to pop her bubble and emphasize, her work had only begun; the names, dates and locations, need to verified for accuracy.  

“Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple…a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.”  Doctrine and Covenants, 128:24

 As I have pondered this scripture, I wondered, if I were to present my compiled “Book of Remembrance” to the Lord would it be “worthy of all” His acceptation?”  Are my entries accurate and complete as possible?  Whenever possible, have I used primary or secondary sources?  Are my entries documented?  Have I personally done the research or just imported information from someone else’s tree?  Are the names and dates complete and correct?  Are all spouses and children accounted for?  Where photos are available, have I attached them?  Are my entries sourced? 

In the temple we speak of “exactness,” would my records qualify as exact? This certainly gives us something to think about. 

In a talk by Russell M. Nelson he said, “I encourage you to study and to search out… your kindred dead.”  We have felt the “Spirit,” “that draws people to identify, document, and cherish their ancestors and family members, both past and present.” In the Church we refer to it as the “Spirit of Elijah,” “which bears witness of the divine nature of families.”  This is a most important work which requires the greatest accuracy and care.

Here’s a sobering statistic, some years ago, it was determined that approximately 75% of the work in the old family group sheets also known as the Family Group Record Archives had mistakes.  Some, as simple as spelling errors, but many had the wrong children to linked to wrong lines thus making everything after that incorrect.  These are the foundation of Ancestral File and thus family tree!  Don’t rely someone else’s records; verify whatever you add to your family tree.  

I can think of no greater reward than this, we will come to know and love those for whom we have searched.  Well known genealogist, Elizabeth Shown Mills said it so well; “A modern genealogy – appropriately done – is a history in microcosm. Our research projects study up close and personal small slices of the past.  We pluck individual from the nameless masses that historians paint with a broad brush.  We learn their names. We follow them from birth to death.  We see the actual effect upon human lives of the grand world events that historians write about wars, economic depressions, plagues, politics, and persecutions.  We see how one humble person and is or her neighbors can reshape a community, a state, or a country.  Then we repeat the process generation by generation.”

 Last, but not least I quote from Marge: “so, if we are doing that, if we are learning and studying and researching, and being the finely analytical scientist we should be as genealogist, why do we have a bad reputation among scholars in other fields.  I believe the same internet that has made research easier, that has brought wonderful resources to our very homes and finger tips, that has made it easier to co-ordinate our own research with others working on our lines; this same Internet had helped non-genealogist, the hunter-gatherers in our field, disseminate their junk into databases all over the world.  The same world-wide web that makes it easier to find good information makes it possible to fill cyberspace with incorrect information. In fact, the very act of publishing on the internet gives legitimacy to what is far from legitimate.” 

 

You get the point, let us teach our patrons through example and our research “containing the records of our dead…be worthy of all acceptation.”  

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 Bonnie here:  This reminds me of what my mother use to say.  Don't bother doing things half-way.  You'll just have to do it again.

I'll claim this one!

Oakland Temple Flower Bed

I am pretty sure we work at
 the prettiest place around!

Tips on Leaving a Legacy

Yesterday I had the opportunity to teach a community of Cambodians about creating their family history.  One of the things we talked about was writing your personal history and doing it in little snippets rather than overwhelming yourself with a whole life time of things you are trying to remember and record.  I shared this simple story with them that I wrote yesterday morning before my presentation.

It is not terribly important or earth-shattering.  It is not what I would call eloquent in any way.  It is just a straight forward memory from my childhood.  It gives an insight into my father, an ancestor of our children and grandchildren and helps to build his legacy one little item at a  time.  It has a little moral to the story but your snippets and memories do not require that.  Anyway, I am putting it here as an example of keeping it simple and just doing it.

What my "Pop" Taught me About 
California Poppies

When I was a little girl my father taught me a very valuable lesson.  Once in a while he would have lots of trimmings from our yard that needed to be disposed of and could not be taken by the garbage truck.  He would gather branches and twigs and his three children and off we would go to the dump.

Where I grew up, in Sacramento, California the dump was near the railroad tracks.  My little brothers and I loved to go play near the tracks with my father watching us.  In the spring we would see the beautiful orange poppies all around it.  I loved them and of course wanted to pick some.  My father explained that the poppy was our state flower and that they grow wild all around our state.  He then told us that it was against the law to pick them.  He explained that if every person in California picked just one they would all be gone.

I wanted to pick one so badly but I never did.  My Dad helped me to learn that even when we don't understand a rule or law we need to obey.  He helped me to learn that sometime what I want is not for the good of others.  He helped me to see that laws are to protect the common good and that I needed to be community-minded.

Whenever I see the California poppies in bloom each spring, I am thankful for these lessons  and so happy to see they still grow everywhere in our beautiful state.  I must admit I still always want to pick one but I have never done so.  My father taught me the importance of obedience in this simple way and I have never forgotten it.  I am grateful for a father that knew what was best and told me to do it.

Because of him I will never pick a California Poppy...

not even one.

Researching Passenger Lists

Pinterest 
 All other photos are Google Images

This week we are looking at a tutorial from Ancestry.com on Passenger Lists.  The Tutorial is entitled 10 Things to Know About Passenger Lists.  Ancestry has some very good tutorials and should be one of the places we go to learn more about the site, genealogy in general, topics specific to our task and for what is new. 

As an aside:
{Last summer I attended a lecture at BYU about how Family Search and Ancestry compare.  You can find it on this site http://tinyurl.com/bk9ul57   To return here just double click on the header photo above.  Each have their pros and cons but used together you get the best results most of the time.}

Passengers list vary greatly from various time periods.  Some of the little bit of indexing I have done has been on passenger lists.   The ones I have seen have been typed so they are one place removed from the original or primary source documents.

   
I often think about what it must have been like after a long voyage and finally arriving here in America.  The people must have been elated, apprehensive and even scared, not to mention exhausted, dirty and weary.  Being checked in was probably not what they wanted to do when they first arrived.  Think customs after a long journey, times several weeks crammed in steerage.  I have probably seen too many movies but I see them holding their baggage and kids' hands in a crowded line where there was a lot of noise and confusion.  Add in the various languages and dialects and lack of standardized spelling and I can only marvel that any of the information is accurate.  It is amazing that we can glean so much from these lists.

 Ellis Island 1904

Briefly here are the ten things to know to get started using the passenger lists:

1.   Dates:  The US Government did not mandate passenger lists until 1820.  Others exist from earlier dates but had little more than names and departure information and are usually found in books.  In 1893 the Government added sixteen new fields for various information.  Even more fields were added in 1906.

2.  Details:  The more details you have about your ancestor the better your chances of finding him/her on the passenger lists.  One thing to remember is to start your search broad meaning do not put in all the information you have gathered on him in the search fields at first.  You do not want to filter out your person by refining the search too much in the beginning.  Add in gradually and whisk together...kind of like cooking!

3. Timeline:  Take all the information you have already gathered about your ancestor and try to create a time line that will reduce the number of years he would most likely have immigrated.  It is like being a doctor, in formulating your diagnosis you need to rule out certain possibilities.

4.  Other Records:  Rather then starting your search with the passenger lists find other information on other records like the census, death records, etc to have something to work with before you search for your ancestor.  This is how you will create your timeline.

5.  Names Games:  Relax about the names that don't match up exactly as you think they should from a 21st century perspective.  Remember the crowded noisy line!  Search the web for ethnic equivalents and variations.  Did you know that the name Black may have once been its German equivalent Schwartz?  Who knew?

6.  Search Secrets:  Use wild card searches in which you replace some of the letters in a name to produce variations of that name.  You do this by replacing a letter (or small groups of letters) with an asterisk *  See examples in the lesson link below.  It seems like the consonants remain more with the vowels replaced by wildcards, at first blush.  That makes sense although more practice is needed.

7.  Relatives and Friends:  People often did not come over in neat, tidy, little groups like their nuclear family.  Often the husband would come alone and the women and children traveled over later.  Often times young adults and others traveled with extended family, in-laws, and even friends and neighbors from the little villages where they lived in the old country.  Also some people traveled back and forth several times and earned the distinction of being called "Birds of Passage."  

Read more about it here: 

 http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/italian_immigration.cfm and here http://www.italiamerica.org/id49.htm. 

So when you find someone on a passenger list it may very well not be their first time over.  Some never intended to make America their homes in the first place.  Many came with the thought of coming here to earn a lot of money for their family and then to return home permanently.  But it did not always happen as they had planned and many remained here for the duration of their lives.

8:   Canada: We always seem of think of Ellis Island and Immigration in the same breath.  However, it was a lot less expensive for passengers traveling from Europe to enter through Canada and then cross the border into America.  If your ancestor is not found in a port you are expecting him to be in, check all the ports of entry and the border crossings into America.

9.    Page After Page:  Some passengers lists are more than one page, especially after 1906 when more fields for information had been added.  So always page forward and backward to see if there is a page 2 (little forward a back arrows are found in the top right hand area of the form) where you may find more information about your ancestor.  Also in a similar way as you would do on a census record, be mindful of passengers from the same towns and villages as they may be related.  People traveled in groups often including family and friends.  Keep in mind that people on the same ship may have been in-laws and sometimes you can glean a maiden name this way.

10.  Tips & Clues:  This tenth entry on the lesson includes many little tips on how to read the passenger lists and look for clues about your ancestors.  Find it along with a sheet of actual entries where you can practice deciphering what you can use as clues in the link below.

 

http://tinyurl.com/aljnc5d

Next week we will have a second training on Passenger Lists with more hands-on experience.  Thank you, Linda!

Oakland Family Search Library Catalog~ Athena

Many times as family historians and genealogists in this digital age, we tend to think only in terms of online resources.  We forget that so many things of great value can be found on the shelves of Genealogy Libraries in our area.  Family Search Libraries have a wealth of important information all over the world.  If we go to Family Search ( familysearch.org ) and look at the home page there we can see a link near the top of the page that says catalog.  This link is for searching the actual reference materials, films, etc., housed in the Salt Lake City Main Family History.

The program we use here in the Bay Area for the same purpose is called Athena and can be accessed from the desktop of the Oakland Library computers by clicking on "Oakland." We can also access it from home on a version that is slightly different than the library version but can accomplish the same results by searching for what may be available in Oakland, Antioch, Concord, Danville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Pleasanton, San Francisco, San Francisco West, Santa Clara, San Jose, and San Rafael Family Search Libraries.  The website address is:

http://www.oaklandfhc.org  

After the link opens look in the blue box and click on catalog as seen below.

I  explored the page and found it has some great things that are kept current regarding the Oakland Library Events including that the library will be closed on Saturday, April 6, 2013 for General Conference, the classes coming up, and a lot of other things specific to the OFSL.

 Family Search ( familysearch.org ) never ceases to amaze me with its wealth of information.

 

You just never know unless you take the time to look.

familysearch.org photo

Some of the materials we can access through Athena for our area are books, microfilms and microfiche, CD ROM, Map, and Networked (a file on the computers in the libraries only)  The search will tell you which library has what you are seeking.   ** One thing to remember is that you cannot access the online web address for Athena inside the library.  You must go through the Desktop icon "Oakland" for the library edition. 

Look at the excellent tutorial that Linda has done for us using the search features of Athena in the lesson links below.  It is advisable to use the "advanced search."  There is some explanation of the Boolean search perimeters, "and" "or" and "not"  for filtering your search and some examples of standardized word search phrases that will be very helpful.  

It seems that the Athena Catalog is something we need to add to our list of resources for our patrons and help them become aware of it and some of the basics.  Then we can teach them to fish and let them go to work doing some research on their own.  Once they are aware and given a little training,  it just becomes  a matter of practice for all of us.  Our intent should be to help them help themselves so they can continue using this resource at home.  The nature of the challenge will not change but our ability to use it with ease is overcome in no other way then to learn, practice and then teach.

I love this, don't you?

******************************************************

This week I had some trouble with getting the Dropbox 
links in the little colorful box for you.  
I would like to blame the Dropbox Software but then was reminded....

Linda's lesson materials can be read, downloaded and or copied here if you are not able to attend the class this week or need it for future reference.  Thank you, Linda, so much!

Lesson Link Athena Topic:   http://tinyurl.com/bghffxt

Lesson Link for Athena Worksheet:   http://tinyurl.com/a4d555t

Here are some helpful hints on using Athena that I got from Our Assistant Director who has cataloged a lot of what is in Athena:  These are the things I learned when I actually put my hands on it and asked an expert in person that was sitting right beside me.  (So now I was not jsut learning visually but auditorally and tactally as well.  Using more senses helps us remember so much better in most cases. 

1.  Always use the advanced search option.  Quick search really limits your options and success.

2.  When searching,  Less is More.    Using key words from the broadest category to the smallest.  Example:  Illinois Mortality 1870.  Just put them on the first line of the advanced search box.  Try different variation of the key words, add to or subtract words, Etc.  And don't forget to see the list on Linda's handout that show broad categories that are common for certain types of records.  If you want a birth, marriage or death record from California as an example:  Search Vital Records California.  (Not marriage records California.)

The cataloging  is based on a library model so if you are looking for a book as an example, search by the author's last name not first and last.. From the worksheet you would look up Bailey not Fredrick Bailey.

3.  Once you find a reference in the gray box, click on it.

4.  When the reference page opens and you see more detailing, go to the tab that says Show Copies.  By keeping your search on the default "select all indexed" in the drop down menu you will see where the copies are and what format they are in i.e., Book, Microfilm, Fiche, etc.  AND where they are located with in the Bay Area FS Libraries.  

Once I understood these few things I was able to find all the things on the worksheet quite nicely thanks to Linda, Marge and Debbi.  You are all such great examples!   I cannot emphasize enough how putting your hands on it makes all the difference.

http://www.oaklandfhc.org 

 

Enjoy the journey...

Create Fan With Family Tree Data Base

This is what the fan chart looks like.  I am happy that FamilySearch has partnered with several affiliate companies.  It is a good thing to have a collaborative effort where family history and genealogy are concerned.  The synergy of people pulling together to accomplish something wonderful is always more effective that everyone running on parallel lines without connecting.  It produces so much duplication of effort that is a waste of our time.

TreeSeek.com has done a great job on this fan chart.  Unfortunately, at this time there is no access to this Create Fan Program directly in Family Search.  You have to go outside of FamilySearch for now to createfan.com  Then you must log in with your user name and password for FamilySearch.  TreeSeek can then take the information for your family from Family Tree.

So, what that means for us at this point is that no access to family tree=equals no access to the fan.  However...and this is big...We are right at the door of access for everyone.  Family Search has said February 2013.  That is now so it could be any day!

If you have questions about Family Tree please let us know as help can be provided as needed.

Below I have provided a link to the training materials for this lesson that Linda Baily has given us.  By opening  the link you can see the simple steps to creating the fan chart and you'll be off and running to help yourselves and our patrons with it.  We will be having a chance 'to put our hands on it' today in the library.  If you miss it then someone who does it today can walk you through it next week.  Doing=Learning.

You may subscribe to this blog by entering your email address in the box at the upper right hand side bar.  That makes it easy to receive the emails as they will land right in your inbox when a post is published.  It's easy...no url to remember or anything.

Bonnie used Dropbox to share a file with you! Click here to view.

Carol just sent this over and said I could include it for Printing the Fan Chart for someone with a different PID.  Thanks, Carol! Directions for printing a fan chart for someone other than the person who is logged in:  Go to:  Treeseek.com Click:  Start Now Click:  Log-in Below the Family Search not below the Geni Logo Input:  LDS username and password  Click:  Sign-in (Window closes when done)   Click:  Create Tree  Click:  On the link to the person whose chart you want to print or enter the PID# in the spot provided. Click: Create Data Set (Window closes when done) Click:  Create Chart Click:  Open or Save your fan chart.  If you do not save it, choose a meaningful name and location so you can find it again.