The Slovak Yankee

Soundex at Familysearch.org

I can't find out but I assume that the search engine at Familysearch.org uses Soundex.  That is a system of finding names that are spelled differently with the same code.  So something like Stewart and Stuart are equal and appear in the same retrieved list.

But does that work for non-English language names?  I don't think so.  I've been researching the name Krc.  That is K620 in Soundex.  But variants of the name are Krcs (K622) and Krts (K632).  You have to search those names separately.

The names Szowiss is S222 but Szoviss is S212.  Soviss is S120 and Sowiss is S220. In German and Slovak V and W are the same but in Soundex V is not the same as W.

Tomecek seemed to yield all variants of T522.  Tomeczek or Tomezek.

It's interesting because they have the first names programmed.  A search for Jan (Slovak) yields Janos (Hungarian) or Johannes (Latin). 

And names like Waluch/Valuch or Walek/Valek are completely different.  Plus you run into the fact that the transcribers got their M's and W's mixed up.

The only safe way to travel is to read the church records on browse and not use the search engine.  A search for Pavel Holic in Myjava in 1860 failed to bring up his baptism record,  It got both his marriages and several children.  I really don't know what to say.

 

Third Largest Hobby?

I've seen it written that genealogy is the third largest hobby behind coin collecting and stamp collecting.  I'm not sure I believe that.

I have over 1500 DNA relatives on 23 and me.  None have contacted me.  They range from my sister to sixth cousins.  But  the 2nd and 3rd cousins intrigue me the most.

The women I am presenting with records lived over 200 years ago.  They have thousands, if not tens of thousands of descendants.  Why am I the only one researching them?  Why isn't this a team sport? I've had my data on the Internet since 2008 and yet, no one has said, I descend from them too.  Maybe I'm the only one who cares?

I still google names and the top choice is always my own postings.  It's just lonely.

FamilySearch.org

I have been using Familysearch.org for the past few days looking up Slovak records.  I go way back with these records when they were only microfilm and available in Salt Lake City.  As a matter of fact, I know I was the first to use the four villages of my paternal great-grandparents because I had to order each microfilm from "the vault" the off-site depository for the Family History Library.  In fact, it took me two visits to order all the films (I was working then and those were my vacations).

Eventually I used them all and even ordered them to New England via the NEHGS in Boston.  Now those records are digitized and searchable.   But are they?

I just ran a search on Matej (Matthias) Fusek.  The first plus (and all my opinions are solely based on the protestant church records of Slovakia) is that a search for the given name Matej (in Slovak) yields hits on Matthias (Latin) and Matthew.  Matej's marriage record is there from 1775 but his burial is not there from 1822.  I doublechecked the burial record and it is right there.

I ran a search for George (yielding Georgius in Latin and Jiri and Juraj in Slovak) Balaz.  You get 362 hits.  You find his 1824 marriage which gives him as 20 years old son of George.  But where is his baptism?  Well, I hunted through the records and found it in Dec 1803 and that never comes up in the searches.

Now there are variations in spelling of Balaz such as Balas, Balass, Bales, etc.  But the hits seem to pick up the soundex variations of spellings.

Nicely,the parish records are transcribed now when you browse them so that if handwriting is not clear you can get an approximation of the name you are looking at.

Over three days, I found several records that help me push my Balaz line back one generation.  All other searches for death records and baptism records failed.  Now the records may not exist.  But based on my searches, I am not confident that the search engine is returning all pertinent hits.

The search box is also basic.  First name, Last name, Place, and Year.  Something more robust should be offered.  For  instance I found the marriage record of George Balaz and Elisabeth Siska in 1824.  She is given as the daughter of Paul.  So I want to search all Elisabeth Siskas with a father of Paul.  I can't do that.  Just her name.  And when I search her for her marriage, it doesn't come up.  So is that you can search grooms and not brides? That doesn't seem right.  Or does the indexing be so literal that the record say Elisabeth daughter of Paul Siska and they don't index under her surname?

Questions, questions.  At least you can browse the records yourself.  It takes time but it is the most thorough way to do it.

 

250,000

I've hit 250,000 page hits.  Over sixteen years and over 1,200 postings.  Thanks for reading.

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!!!