a. How do you compile your genealogical medical histories of your ancestors?... b. Are there forms around the web that people can use to compile their own genealogical medical histories of ancestors?... Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.ai.mit.edu>

> > > I am looking for a group or list where members can post questions or > > share info about marital rites (...what made a marriage given a > > particular time and place, laws pertaining to marriage and family > > given the region and time period), rites of passage and general > > questions/info about customs. I looked at rootsweb. Didn't see a > > list dedicated to this. Anyone know of a list/group I should try or > > does anyone have a site to recommend? > > > > bransflakes > > As Cynthia (Roots Webmaster) says, it's long been a scholarly topic. > So, try Cultural Anthropology groups or Sociology groups. > > singhals@erols.com i'm late in this reply, but read the other posts...contacted a friend who works in cultural anthropology (oh, yea...he's a computer analyst, too...the guy has to make a living)...anyway, he asked if you had a particular country, region, culture, time period...and apparently it can vary widely between all those and, bad news, documentation varies widely, too. but he will try to help you focus your search if you want.....and i personally would also recommend emailing the state library of florida...the research staff there is top notch.... hope this helps, and if this is just of no use whatsoever, i'm sorry fsuedu@hotmail.com (fsuedu)

Ol' Bab wrote: > <snip> > But all the responses are much appreciated! > Here's an ID: David L. Babcock, Canandaigua, NY, USA, 14424. > There's two of us here, no relation, I'm the D L B that doesn't > teach music... If you take a look at how the others post here in this newsgroup, you'll notice that most of them use their real names instead of anonymous handles. It would be as if you posted as "David Babcock" <olbabNO-SPAM@rochester.rr.com> instead of: "Ol' Bab" <olbabNO-SPAM@rochester.rr.com> It just seems to make them seem more like real people. :-) > <snip> > Robert: > Just for you I got the charts out: She found William Hyde, born in > England, died 1681 in Norwich Conn, and son Samual (1637-1677), born > and died in the same state, who is my 7g-grandfather. We could > fancy that Samual and Jonathan were cousins?? It's been a few years since I was looking into the Hyde lines and I don't know what, if any, connection there might be between the Norwich, CT Hyde's and my Newton, MA Hyde lines. It would probably have to be back in England and it's a fairly common surname. A Google search will show you a lot of the lines that have been researched including for Norwich families although I didn't see yours when I did a quick check. > This could be addictive... No! This IS addictive. :-) Bob Robert Heiling <robheil@attbi.com>

Janey wrote: > There is a tradition of American Indian ancestry in both my mother > and my father's families, but I have yet to find any proof of such > ancestry. Can DNA testing reveal that there is American Indian > Ancestry in families? That depends on when and who. If there is an unbroken mother-to- daughter line from an Indian to you, then your mitochondrial DNA should belong to one of the haplogroups common among Indians. If there are any males in that line of descent, though, your mtDNA would come from elsewhere and would not reveal the Indian heritage. Similarly, if there is an unbroken father-to-son line to your father, then his Y DNA should be characteristic. If neither of these is true, then there is a third possibility -- if a grandparent, or possibly even a great grandparent, of the testee was a full-blooded Indian, there should be discernable traces in the DNA, and there is a test for that now available (but the marketing hype for that test is egregious, even by the standards of DNA marketing hype). John Chandler "John F. Chandler" <JCHBN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>

Ol' Bab wrote: > this. The intent is to post the family data on the same site, > unless there's some incompatibility with the forum software (phpBB). > > Since he is the software expert, he will want a major say in program *TRY* your level best to impress upon him that the intent of the website is to SHARE data, not showcase his technological wizardry. Before he decides on a "forum" software, he should try his first and second choices on a WIN 95 box using a dial-up modem and outdated browsers of all sorts. There is one site that crashes my computers (ANY of 'em) everytime -- it loads the header ssi and the ad banners, and boom, I'm toasted. It would be a kindly touch if he didn't dump all 2000 of his pictures on his INDEX/default page -- or for that matter on ANY single page. Not everyone wants to sit here that long. OTOH, A *little* more information about each individual than name and dates is useful (I went to one site once where the opening page was elaborate and very nice (graphics-arts/ad wise), but when I clicked on H, I was taken to a "phone book" type listing of names with no other information. Choosing any name, I got a page with that name, the birth and death dates, centered on the screen. No parents, no spouse, no children. A quick check of a dozen other names on that page and more names from other randomly chosen alphabets showed the same results. Wizardry is wasted on those who can't see it. (g) Cheryl singhals@erols.com

Phil Stevens wrote in part: > Send for The Widows application file, She will > have had to prove her marriage to Him, She will have had to give > the Govement a copy of their Marriage License, AND quite possibly > prove the birth of ALL of their children, To prove she needed the > money to feed them, Stuff Like that !!!, You might even see mention > of HER parents The government needed copies of all relevant marriage records, but it would only support those of the pensioner's children who were under sixteen years of age. To the rest, the government had no legal obligation. So the file will include documentation (including supporting affidavits from physicians and other attendants) for births less than sixteen years before the father's death. If the soldier died leaving no children that young, at most you'll find that the children themselves signed affidavits in support of their mothers' widow's claims. Don't count on the pension board having entered a full copy of the family bible record. Austin W. Spencer "Austin W. Spencer" <AustinWSpencer@sdc.cox.net>

Someone who looks an awful lot like AEP <aepalmer@a-znet.com> wrote: > Newsgroups are generally not the source of spam. Open email > addresses within website ARE a problem. I disagree on the first point, but not on the second. I get roughly an equal amount of spam addressed to this address (about 50-75 a day, lately) as I do addressed to my website-listed addresses. My real personal inbox gets 1-3 spams a month, but it's never been used in public and I think they're being sent to a system alias that's forwarding to my inbox. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing about the web side of things, but in the test I've done (putting test addresses in headers, *and* in message bodies), all of them are getting parsed. Dave Hinz davehinz@spamcop.net

> Hi Polly, I have been sitting here waiting for someone to give you > the Correct Answer, but it ai`nt happened, SO, forthwith I will tell > you what to do. Send for The Widows application file, She will > have had to prove her marriage to Him, She will have had to give > the Govement a copy of their Marriage License, AND quite possibly > prove the birth of ALL of their children, To prove she needed the > money to feed them, Stuff Like that !!!, You might even see mention > of HER parents >>>>> AND Use your Credit Card to order the file, > They will send you the file and bill your card, SAVING YOUR SELF a 6 > months wait > > "Phil Stevens" <joephil@nwlink.com> Actually, several people did provide the correct answer. There is just one pension file that combines the file from the soldier and the widow's paperwork. Order a complete, full copy of the pension file and you will get everything they have available for the soldier and the widow, and sometimes even some children. Cyndi Cyndi Howells <cyndihow@oz.net>

> So I believe I'm stuck as to which of these slave owners to > concentrate on for further research. Also, I'm not sure which > records to check -- tax lists???? to hone in on the years 1861-1863, > before Baldwin died. It seems to make sense to research year by > year back from 1863, correct? > > Kdberr1@aol.com Some plantation records have survived and have been microfilmed. They can be good sources for slave records. Of course there are wills. Sale records often exist as well and also have been microfilmed. I have run across many such sales recorded in land and property records. The land and property records are usually indexed, so it is often easy to spot the family or families you think might have owned your ancestor. Janey E. Joyce in San Antonio, Texas Janey Joyce <jejoyce@sbcglobal.net>

> I am ordering the Civil War Pension files for two on my ancestors. > Their index cards came up in Ancestry.com and I need help deciding > what numbers I am supposed to put on the Form 85 in box 10., which > asks for the Pension File No. > > One ancestor has two entries on his card: > > Date of Filing Class Application No. Certificate No. State From > > Which Filed > > 1890 Sept 10 Invalid 811332 584693 N.Y. > 1900 Sep 19 Widow 726795 > N.Y. > > It seems that he applied for a pension in 1890 and his widow applied > for one in 1900 (he died in July of 1900). Do I have to file > separate Form 85s for each application number (and pay double) or do > I put both Application Nos. in space 10 and only pay for one file? > Does the Certificate No. have to go anywhere on the form? > > The card for the other ancestor shows that only the wife filed for a > pension so that one should be simpler. > > PollyH <phheld@twcny.rr.com> Hi Polly, I have been sitting here waiting for someone to give you the Correct Answer, but it ai`nt happened, SO, forthwith I will tell you what to do. Send for The Widows application file, She will have had to prove her marriage to Him, She will have had to give the Govement a copy of their Marriage License, AND quite possibly prove the birth of ALL of their children, To prove she needed the money to feed them, Stuff Like that !!!, You might even see mention of HER parents >>>>> AND Use your Credit Card to order the file, They will send you the file and bill your card, SAVING YOUR SELF a 6 months wait "Phil Stevens" <joephil@nwlink.com>

> I am ordering the Civil War Pension files for two on my ancestors. > Their index cards came up in Ancestry.com and I need help deciding > what numbers I am supposed to put on the Form 85 in box 10., which > asks for the Pension File No. > > One ancestor has two entries on his card: > > Date of Filing Class Application No. Certificate No. State From > > Which Filed > > 1890 Sept 10 Invalid 811332 584693 N.Y. > 1900 Sep 19 Widow 726795 > N.Y. > > It seems that he applied for a pension in 1890 and his widow applied > for one in 1900 (he died in July of 1900). Do I have to file > separate Form 85s for each application number (and pay double) or do > I put both Application Nos. in space 10 and only pay for one file? > Does the Certificate No. have to go anywhere on the form? > > The card for the other ancestor shows that only the wife filed for a > pension so that one should be simpler. > > PollyH <phheld@twcny.rr.com> I had a case like yours, and included both on the one submission, and they sent me everything (about 200 pages) incuding his attempts at a disability pension (for coughing somehow related to a case of the mumps LOL, while in the service), and later her widows applications. Good Luck!!

> <snip> > > So I believe I'm stuck as to which of these slave owners to > concentrate on for further research. Also, I'm not sure which > records to check -- tax lists???? to hone in on the years 1861-1863, > before Baldwin died. It seems to make sense to research year by > year back from 1863, correct? > > Kdberr1@aol.com If you know when any of the owners died, check for their wills, sometimes they name slaves specifically, including ages sometimes. I have come across a few in my research...

> I'm wondering where the original poster disappeared to and why we > have gotten no feedback so far from that original poster with a real > ID! (although possibly a munged adddress). I'm also wondering if > he/she has any connection to my 7g-grandfather, Jonathan Hyde > (1626-1711), who was born at Denton, Lancashire, England and died 05 > Oct 1711 at Newton/Cambridge, Middlesex, MA. > > Robert Heiling <robheil@attbi.com> Been busy as a one-armed paperhanger. Also, put off a bit when my post didn't show up for several days, I thought I'd been rejected by your (non-existant?) moderator. Some glitch.... [ The moderator exists. He just disappears from time to time to lead folks to the tops of mountains (my *other* life) ... -Mod ] But all the responses are much appreciated! Here's an ID: David L. Babcock, Canandaigua, NY, USA, 14424. There's two of us here, no relation, I'm the D L B that doesn't teach music... I didn't mention that Mother died in the sixties, and frankly nobody thought much about that big box until my eldest son suddenly found a need for roots. He's been scanning hundreds of old and very old photos, and posting the results on a website (forum) he set up for this. The intent is to post the family data on the same site, unless there's some incompatibility with the forum software (phpBB). Since he is the software expert, he will want a major say in program selection -I have been delegated the reseach function, especially since he has a great distaste for newsgroups. He says they are almost as big a black hole for time as chat rooms. (Well, they ARE, aren't they!!) (He has a job, I've retired.) So I will be condensing all your posts into a large email to him soon. Tonight maybe. But I invented procrastination... Robert: Just for you I got the charts out: She found William Hyde, born in England, died 1681 in Norwich Conn, and son Samual (1637-1677), born and died in the same state, who is my 7g-grandfather. We could fancy that Samual and Jonathan were cousins?? This could be addictive... Ol' Bab "Ol' Bab" <olbabNO-SPAM@rochester.rr.com>

John Hansen wrote: > > My father who's given name is "Jimmie" quickly chose to use Jim as > his name. As an adult, he assumed the name Jim. > > I had no problems finding records because he chose to identify > himself on legal doc's as "Jimmie". Because everyone knew him as > Jim, should I use that name in my family tree and other records? > Should this be considered a nickname or an AKA? Is there a right or > wrong way to handle this? It depends on the genealogy program you are using. In The Master Genealogist I can have both variations. I would normally make Jimmie the primary name as it is his real name and Jim a name variation or a nickname. bob gillis bob gillis <rpgillis@bellatlantic.net>

AEP wrote: > > Singhals at singhals@erols.com wrote: > > Dunno -- my spam generates from another source, not the newsgroups. > > Newsgroups are generally not the source of spam. Open email > addresses within website ARE a problem. There are many web crawlers > that harvest these URLs and guess who gets swamped. You can reduce > the problem by using NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW commands in META TAGS and by > using the ASCII equivalents for your URL to hide it from the > crawlers. Making it difficult for the 'bot to find your addy on a website *ALSO* makes it difficult for legitimate contacts to find it. Some of those legitimate contacts have vision or mobility issues that make "fixing" the addy difficult to impossible. The point of posting a website from which no one can contact you eludes me. Cheryl singhals@erols.com

> > What is coming back is run-on sentences that seem to say > > > > "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> > > Isn't there a Latin expression for this type of argument? > Oh, now I remember -- 'argumentum ad hominem' > > Tom Morris <tmorris-NOSPAM@spamfree.nh.ultranet.com> I don't think he's attacking the person, he's pointing out that whatever point that person is trying to make, is made more difficult to understand because of the poor writing. [ OK, everyone, let's move back towards more constructive discussions ... Thanks, Mod ] davehinz@spamcop.net

My father who's given name is "Jimmie" quickly chose to use Jim as his name. As an adult, he assumed the name Jim. I had no problems finding records because he chose to identify himself on legal doc's as "Jimmie". Because everyone knew him as Jim, should I use that name in my family tree and other records? Should this be considered a nickname or an AKA? Is there a right or wrong way to handle this? TIA John Hansen "John Hansen" <HansenJC@Deletethis.Ameritech.net>

JoAnn said: >> > I'm not the person you quoted, Heather, but it might help to have >> more than one TMG user handy, depending on what your questions are. > > You'd probably be surprised at the number of TMG users on this list. And the developer, even. But as someone else said, this may not be the place for an extended discussion of TMG features. It seems as though a variety of users have answered the questions that you posed but if you have any others and they are deemed off-topic for this list, then you are welcome to write to me directly. [ Moderator here: as always I'll try to adjust the content of Methods to match the desires of the participants, but my general sense is that the discussion of software features that directly affect the our ability to record research results is *on* topic and OK. - Mod ] Bob Velke Wholly Genes Software "Bob Velke" <bvelke@whollygenes.com>

Joan Best wrote: > State archivists invited to restore and preserve some four million > court documents left unexamined for over a century in file cabinets > in the St. Louis Courthouse have found nearly 300 lawsuits by slaves > seeking their freedom between 1809 and 1865. Thanks to Joan for the Freedom Lawsuits website. I was able to find 3 lawsuits there concerning one of my ancestors, and also more concerning related families. Although not exactly pleasant reading these documents are providing me with good genealogical information re my ancestors travels, and the names of material witnesses to the cases, some of which are known to me, but some of which I need to explore to discover the connections. I still need to read through them all, and decipher the handwriting, but I have already obtained information that I didn't have before. Not to mention a glimpse into the political and social realities that slaves faced at that time. So, thanks Joan! http://www.stlcourtrecords.wustl.edu/index.cfm Ray Shoemaker <raywshoe@yahoo.com>

> > I'm not the person you quoted, Heather, but it might help to have > > more than one TMG user handy, depending on what your questions are. > > > > Diane Sibert Huyer You'd probably be surprised at the number of TMG users on this list. I saw one of the most powerful, power users name in a GM note very recently. <g> I have been using TMG since version 1.2, 1995. I don't even use all of the features the program is capable of doing - but, it will do everything I need/want. >I understand that I can keep my 'whole' family in one file, but have >subgroups so that >if I want to exchange info I can export only the subgroup that I >need. I this true? Yes. >Also, I understand that there is a way to save variations of surname >spellings, so that you can still search and find, my current program will >not find someone with a MUNDAY and >MUNDY as being connected. Will TMG solve this problem??? Absolutely! This way you preserve the original spelling found in a piece of evidence, but can have a 'common' spelling for sort purposes. This is one of the features I really appreciate. No one has to be told how many different ways a name can be spelling through time. And you never have to make the decision of which spelling is correct -- since each was 'correct' at the time it was spelled whichever way. <g> >Also, can TMG print out charts on one page??? Or at least let you preview to >fit the screen so that you have some idea of what is being printed. It would depend upon the chart -- there is a variety of charts and reports TMG will make for you - but, you can print preview. >Thank you to All TMG users If you have not joined the TMG users list, you might like to do that. Introduce yourself and ask all of the questions you have. Remember too, if for any reason, you don't find TMG to be the program for you, return the program (90 days, I think it is) and they will refund your money . To subscribe from TMG-D, send a message to: TMG-D-request@rootsweb.com that contains in the body of the message the command: subscribe JoAnn