The Slovak Yankee

Stirnet.com

In the ongoing question of the Southill/Fulnetby connection I needed to consult the visitations again.   Sadly I no longer live near a library that has the visitations in print.  I used to work at Widener Library which had them or I could use them at the NEHGS Library in Boston.

But online, Stirnet.com has transcribed the visitations and made them searchable.  It costs money to see the results, but it was only about $20 for a one month subscription.

As I remembered, the John Fulnetby who marries a Dymoke is given as a son of another John Fulnetby and daughter of Gerard Sothill/Southill.  Also it gives that the John and Dymoke couple have a daughter Elizabeth Fulnetby who marries a Gerard Southill.  So  you can see that some connection between the Fulnetby and Sothill families exist but they are confused as to where and what generation.

The Gerard Sothill who married Elizabeth Fulnetby is given as the son of another  Gerard Sothill who married Muriel Slavin.  (In the Sothill visitation).  If the timeline holds then the Sothill daughter who married the senior John Fulnetby should be a daughter of Gerard Sothill and Muriel Slavin.  This would  connect Thomas Bradbury with further medieval ancestry.  The Slavins descend from the Ros family.

Stirnet was easy to subscribe to and easily searchable.  It is certainly worth the money for the  information it contains.

 

Ancestry.com Part II

After we answered the Aunt Agnes question with Ancestry I wanted to take advantage of my two weeks of free Ancestry.com.  I searched the database.  Using Ancestry I realize why I don't subscribe.  It's search engine doesn't allow nuanced searches for finite results.  I couldn't just search the 1841 UK census, but all censuses and then put in a timeline restraint.

I instantly found several documents for my grandfathers.  This is the type of record Ancestry does well.  WWII registration cards and such things.

I searched all my brick walls and alas, nothing new to be found.  I searched Michael's brick walls and two new clues were there.  They was also some of the worst genealogy I have ever witnessed.  You have to be extremely careful using user submitted information.  I will discuss the two new clues and why I see them as useful in separate posts.

They had some of the baptismal records from Slovakia available and searchable.  But from what I could see no marriage and no deaths.

In the end I canceled my subscription during the free trial.  Ancestry is not going to help me from what I can see.

Ancestry.com

Part of the reason for taking the Queen Mary 2 was to do a transatlantic crossing.  Michael's grandmother and great aunt traveled to Europe over a dozen times this was up to and in the 1960s.

After we got home Michael, who is now 67, regretted the fact that there is no one left to ask questions about such trips.  So I suggested doing a search on Ancestry.com.  It was easy to sign up to get a free two week subscription to Ancestry.com which included U.S. and international data.

A simple search of Agnes Berrigan in the ship's lists database returned over a dozen hits.  She made trips to Europe annually from 1925 to 1939 and again from 1955 to 1960 (which is the cutoff date for the database).  She was on ships such as the Berengaria, Maurentania, and Aquitania.  We know she finished her Ph.D. in English literature in 1931 in Dublin, Ireland, so many of the trips were for school.

There no doubt she was a frequent traveler and knew all about crossings.

 

Wikitree

I run google searches on my ancestors when doing research and just for fun. One site that comes up often is Wikitree.  I find Wikitree intriguing.  I  like it's setup with a pedigree format for ancestors.

I was using it for the Wilson family and generally speaking there's always more generations on a Wikitree than my database.  Wives have maiden names and generations extend one, two or more generations.  I never believe any of that.  In the case of  Gregory Belcher it had his mother's name, something I did not.  The page for her makes it clear that none of it could be true.  But someone did unearth a marriage record for a Thomas Belcher and Elizabeth Mason in nearby Mancetter which is where Gregory marries.  I find this compelling.  I also note they give burial dates for  both Thomas and  Elizabeth.  This is more information than I had.  Assuming no one is making this stuff up out  of whole cloth, these records exist.  As I stated in my own recounting of  Gregory Belcher, no one has done an article on his  English origins yet.  There seems to be good evidence of it.

But on the same thread, they had the parents of Nathaniel Spear who married Thankful Woodward as Ebenezer Spear and not Nathaniel Spear Sr.  This is demonstrably incorrect.  I couldn't see how to lodge a protest to correct it.

So I use Wikitree for clues.  Their medieval information is extensive but spelling and naming are not uniform so it can be difficult to navigate who is who.  It is a useful tool and more navigable that Ancestry's trees (which you have to pay for).

 

200,000 hits

I just passed 200,000 page views on this blog.  That means an indeterminate amount of people have clicked 200,000 times to get to my blog.  Now that's not a lot for some webpages that get 200,000 hits per day or per hour.  But for a  little genealogical blog it's interesting.  The  person who was #200,000 was searching for Shadrach Hapgood.  I hope he found the information useful.  In  fact, I hope  all the 200,000 hits found what I wrote useful and helpful.

I'm close to 1,000 postings also.

 

Youtubers that I subscribe to

This list is in no particular order.  The list is mostly travelers and gay influencers.

1. Flying the Nest.  A couple of Australians who travel.  They are expecting their first child in May.
2. The Life of Jord.  Englishman Jordan Simons travels continuously and has for five years.
3. Evan Edinger.  American living in London provides content comparing UK and USA.  I follow him because he is from New Jersey, a former boy scout, speaks German and has a travel channel too.
4. Evan Edinger Travel. 
5. Kara and Nate.  A Tennessee couple who travels.  Went to 100 countries in four years.
6. PJ and Thomas.  A Tennessee couple who flip houses and are now raising three foster children.  Many animals including cat Alystair.
7. Lingoni German.  How I keep up with my German.
8. AlexTheVagabond.  Traveler.  Part of the Vagabrothers (a separate channel).  Has a cute dog Lanka.
9. The Vagabrothers.  Travelers.  Brothers Alex and Mark travel the world.
10. MarkoAyling.  Traveler. Marko's solo channel.  Part of the Vagabrothers.  He also runs a book club.
11. Matt and Blue.  Colorado couple who have a child and multiple animals including Arliss the dog and Nelson the horse.
12. Tom Daley.  British diver.  Also raising a child now.
13. Uly & Ernesto.  Los Angeles couple about to get married.
14. Dominick Whelton.  Young Angeleno.  Gay life and living.
15. Fun For Louis.  Traveler.
16. The Travellers.  German couple from Cologne.  Videos come out in German and English.
17. ASAPscience.  Science news and education.
18. Hey Nadine.  Traveler from Canada.
19. Michael Henry.  Hysterical filmmaker from L.A.
20. Max Emerson.  Also based in LA, part traveler, part comedy.
21. CatPusic.  A cat from Minsk, Belorussia.  Lovable.
22. Rick Steve's Europe.  Traveler.
23. Adventures of Zach and B.  Gay couple in Oklahoma.  One is in the army.  The other is a budding filmmaker.
24. Justin and Nick.  A Richmond couple.
25. Greg and Mitch.  The gay Toronto couple who produce ASAPscience.
26. Probably This.  A New Orleans couple.

In addition to those I subscribe to, I follow several other stations from time to time.  No genealogists!!!

 

Social Media and me

My history of social media is long and checkered.  Shortly after Facebook was founded at Harvard, it became apparent that the students were communicating via Facebook rather than email.  So all the faculty and staff, including us librarians, were encouraged to join Facebook so that we could communicate with the students in their chosen venue.  So I joined Facebook in something like 2005 or 2006.  This way fine but by 2010 or so, the general population was joining Facebook and it became a problem.  You see, I have a unique name.  If you search it you immediately find me.  There is one other person on the planet that shares my name and he is Germany.  So many people found me and friended me.  All people from my past and mostly people I had left in my past for a good reason.  It was terribly hard for a person with anxiety not to friend someone when asked and even though I didn't want to.  So, I had left Harvard and I simply left Facebook.  Michael is still on Facebook, but not me.  Free, after all these years.

So I went through eight years or so without any social media and that was fine.  But I wanted to stretch my wings into something current so for a New Year's resolution in 2018, I opened an Instagram account.  Now I follow about 60 people neatly divided between travelers and gay influencers.  I enjoy Instagram, but really don't know how to use it.  Instastories are a mystery to me and I enjoy watching other people's stories I have too many hangups to share more of my life on stories even if I could.

I also subscribe to about 20 or so Youtube channels, again, neatly divided between travelers and gay people.  A few people don't fit in either group, but mostly everyone is in those two groups.

I don't subscribe to any genealogy Youtubers, if there are any, and only one genealogist on Instagram who is more of a friend.  I do post genealogy photos on Instagram though.  Especially gravestones.

 

Thomas Goble Redux

While fooling around after writing my previous posting on Thomas Goble, I ran into several websites that had his English origins.  This site has an image of the marriage record of Thomas Goble.  This site gives credit to the discoverer of this information.

So, I want to say the following:  Why didn't they do the hard work of publishing the results of this English origins?  I think they have it right.  Thomas Goble of Charlestown has a wife Alice and this is a marriage record between a Thomas Goble and Alice Brookman.  The year is 1619 and not too far off.  Thomas's baptism is also found in 1591 and jives well with the rest of the records.  Sadly, no one has done the hard work of publishing an article.  I know firsthand what terribly tough work it is to publish an English origins article of that caliber; I've done it twice.  But unless you do, this information is worthless.

Why?  Because you have it uncited in most cases.  You have people still confused between records of Thomas-1 and Thomas-2.  You still have the Mousall marriage mistake.  So, if they can't get the New England generations right, why should I believe the English generations.  Plus no one has done the hard work of wills and probate to shore up this identification.  All that's been done is a look at one parish records.  None of the adjacent parishes have been checked and therefore Alice Brookman's identity is not known.

I believe this is a wonderful clue and points towards the English origins of Thomas Goble.  Now the hard work must begin to fully prove it.

 

Internet Genealogy Is Still Not Scholarly

From the most recent issue of The American Genealogist which just arrived at my door yesterday, p. 157.  Speaking of the Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists:

"The only qualifications for a Fellow are the quality and quantity of his or her published genealogical work, usually compiled genealogy, not abstracts or methodology.  At the meeting this  year, it was proposed that "publications" include those online.  The Society had decided quite a few years ago that digital/online publications did not qualify as permanent contributions to the field.  At this year's meeting, much was said on both sides of the question: Online publication is becoming increasingly common and increasingly excellent, but it remains fluid and its permanence is uncertain."

I do find this sad, but certainly something I agree with.  I've tried to get people to up their games on the Internet and have only been met with indifference to hostility.  For the time being the real work remains in print.

Prince William Gets Engaged

How deeply ironic that four days after the death of Bill Reitwiesner, Prince William of Wales announced his engagement to Kate Middleton.  Bill and Gary Boyd Roberts literally wrote the book on the ancestry of Diana Spencer, Prince William's mother almost 30 years ago when her marriage was announced.  Of course, this current romance has been brewing for a while and it's no surprise that Bill had Kate Middleton's ancestry already online.  So when you next see some Ancestry person note the relationship of Kate and anyone or Diana and anyone, remember it's Bill's (and Gary's) work first, despite the fact you won't see their names given credit.

I will probably not live long enough to see King William V, but on that day, he will be the first British monarch in 300 years to be a descendant of Charles II and James II (the last being Queen Anne who died in 1714).  He will also be the first British monarch descended from George III who will be eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR).  So, there's a historical twist.  Lastly, it seems Kate may descend from Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey.  Catherine's mother was Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife and mother of Elizabeth I.  Catherine's paternity has long been in dispute and she may be the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII, which would add his blood back into the royal family. [the late Queen Mother may have been descended from this couple as well, and if so, then the current Queen would also be Henry VIII's descendant.]  Kate's closest royal ancestor is Edward III, the same as mine.  Of course, someday she will be Queen Consort.