OK everyone......The Ancestry/ TGN line is getting more toward personal opinion than staying to helpful information. .... Let's get back on track and move on to old fashioned genealogy. GenWeb is'nt going anywhere, just some sites are moving to a new URL. Be sure to check the bookmark/favorites URL of any sites you use frequently. Re do them if they have moved. Betty List Admin -- *Betty bettylt@verizon.net* *Professional Genealogy Research* - http://mysite.verizon.net/bettylt/ Wicks,Hammond, Heintz,Bradfield,Walbridge - http://BettyT.tripod.com <http://bettyt.tripod.com/>Summit City Singers - http://summit-city-singers.tripod.com <http://summit-city-singers.tripod.com/>*GenWeb Coordinator for:* Genesee, NY http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenese <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enygenese>Wyoming, NY http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywyomin <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enywyomin>Worcester, MA http://www.rootsweb.com/~maworces <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Emaworces>Commonwealth of Massachusetts - http://mysite.verizon.net/magenweb/

That is what the agreement was; however features of donated and/or transcribed & donated databases such as state census etc once searchable and/or browsable--if you notice, that feature among many others have disappeared from RootsWeb. Other features are so convoluted and/or next to impossible to use even with their directions that what once could be accessed with a point a click will take considerably longer if you can access it at all. This was not done by mistake. I am very hopeful the the LDS material remains at a reasonable rate. Presently if you go into the library or one of the centers you can view what they have free and order in for a nominal fee copies of the original micro film, fidhe, or documents which you need to view at the library or center. True, not as convenient as from your own PC, but the price is a pittance when considering what is now going on with Ancestry and all it's owned affiliates. Sandy Blakley wrote: > >From what I understand, the agreement between rootsweb and ancestry when rootsweb sold their site to ancestry was that all of their databases would remain free to view (though filled with tons of ads from ancestry) and anything donated to rootsweb would remain free to view. I hope they continue to honor their agreement. > > Ancestry is very agressive. But they will have some competition soon as the LDS Church, who originally donated alot of their work to ancestry, is currently working on digitizing all of their records in the Salt Lake City Library to bring online at their own website, www.familysearch.org and has a huge volunteer operation going on now that anyone can help with to create indexing for all of these images. They are working presently on all of the censuses. If you want to help, go to www.familysearchindexing.org and it's simple to get going. They give you free software to download and tutorials on how to use it. Then you download an image at a time to do at your own pace. Usually takes about 45 mins. to do a page. You have up to a week to do each image, so you can squeeze it into your spare time. Each page is done by two different people and then compared. If there are any differences, it goes to an arbitrator to decide which interpretation is correct, so the greatest possible > accuracy is their goal. It will be wonderful when all of their resources are available to view, and it will be FREE to everyone! I've already seen a few images popping up in their library catalog which you can see online at www.familysearch.org It's really exciting! > > The clock is ticking for ancestry.com! If you've ever wondered why it is so hard to find names in the indexes for ancestry, it's because they hire cheap help from India and other Asian countries to do their transcribing. It's hard enough for us to read some of the old handwriting on faded films in our own language, but add into the mix someone coming from a foreign language background and you have a mess! One of our Italian families from Worcester, Pasquale and Christina DeBonis, came up totally unrecognizable in their index, when we finally found it!! I knew the family was there, ever since they arrived from Italy til the day they died, they lived on the same street, in the same house, but I could not for the life of me find them in the index. Finally I had to resort to using advance searching methods, and go through the individual family names one by one until I finally found one that connected us to the right family. Whew! I notified ancestry, and they put a note on it > for an alternate transcribed name so others could find it more easily in the future. > > Sandy > > > > Sandra Lee Blakley > 336 South 30th St. > Philomath, OR 97370 > 541-929-2259 > > > --------------------------------- > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Very interesting, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. But do you have a source for the information that Ancestry has outsourched their transcribing? I'd really like to know. Karen -----Original Message----- From: maworces-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:maworces-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Sandy Blakley Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 3:18 PM To: Massachusetts Worcester Subject: [MAWORCES] Ancestry.com >From what I understand, the agreement between rootsweb and ancestry when rootsweb sold their site to ancestry was that all of their databases would remain free to view (though filled with tons of ads from ancestry) and anything donated to rootsweb would remain free to view. I hope they continue to honor their agreement. Ancestry is very agressive. But they will have some competition soon as the LDS Church, who originally donated alot of their work to ancestry, is currently working on digitizing all of their records in the Salt Lake City Library to bring online at their own website, www.familysearch.org and has a huge volunteer operation going on now that anyone can help with to create indexing for all of these images. They are working presently on all of the censuses. If you want to help, go to www.familysearchindexing.org and it's simple to get going. They give you free software to download and tutorials on how to use it. Then you download an image at a time to do at your own pace. Usually takes about 45 mins. to do a page. You have up to a week to do each image, so you can squeeze it into your spare time. Each page is done by two different people and then compared. If there are any differences, it goes to an arbitrator to decide which interpretation is correct, so the greatest possible accuracy is their goal. It will be wonderful when all of their resources are available to view, and it will be FREE to everyone! I've already seen a few images popping up in their library catalog which you can see online at www.familysearch.org It's really exciting! The clock is ticking for ancestry.com! If you've ever wondered why it is so hard to find names in the indexes for ancestry, it's because they hire cheap help from India and other Asian countries to do their transcribing. It's hard enough for us to read some of the old handwriting on faded films in our own language, but add into the mix someone coming from a foreign language background and you have a mess! One of our Italian families from Worcester, Pasquale and Christina DeBonis, came up totally unrecognizable in their index, when we finally found it!! I knew the family was there, ever since they arrived from Italy til the day they died, they lived on the same street, in the same house, but I could not for the life of me find them in the index. Finally I had to resort to using advance searching methods, and go through the individual family names one by one until I finally found one that connected us to the right family. Whew! I notified ancestry, and they put a note on it for an alternate transcribed name so others could find it more easily in the future. Sandy Sandra Lee Blakley 336 South 30th St. Philomath, OR 97370 541-929-2259 --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

to China - 1930 Census were indexed by the Chinese. No wonder I still can't find certain families in 1930 census. I found out from another lady who went to FGS conference and learned about this. This has you wondering.... who did those lousy census indexes 1790-1870 and 1890-1930. I wonder about those state census indexes, too. W. David Samuelsen SAMPUBCO K. Sullivan wrote: > Very interesting, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. But do you have > a source for the information that Ancestry has outsourched their > transcribing? I'd really like to know. > > Karen

LDS Church never donated anything to Ancestry except two indexes to 1881 British and 1880 US Census. Much of stuff you see in Ancestry were from various places and certain unsavory individuals who have already been identified by LDS' Security and stopped. That's why there is this policy notice against wholesale copying for such companies. What Ancestry is doing right now is in direct competition with LDS' FamilySearch now. W. DAvid Samuelsen Sandy Blakley wrote: >>From what I understand, the agreement between rootsweb and ancestry when rootsweb sold their site to ancestry was that all of their databases would remain free to view (though filled with tons of ads from ancestry) and anything donated to rootsweb would remain free to view. I hope they continue to honor their agreement. > > Ancestry is very agressive. But they will have some competition soon as the LDS Church, who originally donated alot of their work to ancestry, is currently working on digitizing all of their records in the Salt Lake City Library to bring online at their own website, www.familysearch.org and has a huge volunteer operation going on now that anyone can help with to create indexing for all of these images. They are working presently on all of the censuses. If you want to help, go to www.familysearchindexing.org and it's simple to get going. They give you free software to download and tutorials on how to use it. Then you download an image at a time to do at your own pace. Usually takes about 45 mins. to do a page. You have up to a week to do each image, so you can squeeze it into your spare time. Each page is done by two different people and then compared. If there are any differences, it goes to an arbitrator to decide which interpretation is correct, so the greatest possibl e > accuracy is their goal. It will be wonderful when all of their resources are available to view, and it will be FREE to everyone! I've already seen a few images popping up in their library catalog which you can see online at www.familysearch.org It's really exciting! > > The clock is ticking for ancestry.com! If you've ever wondered why it is so hard to find names in the indexes for ancestry, it's because they hire cheap help from India and other Asian countries to do their transcribing. It's hard enough for us to read some of the old handwriting on faded films in our own language, but add into the mix someone coming from a foreign language background and you have a mess! One of our Italian families from Worcester, Pasquale and Christina DeBonis, came up totally unrecognizable in their index, when we finally found it!! I knew the family was there, ever since they arrived from Italy til the day they died, they lived on the same street, in the same house, but I could not for the life of me find them in the index. Finally I had to resort to using advance searching methods, and go through the individual family names one by one until I finally found one that connected us to the right family. Whew! I notified ancestry, and they put a note on i t > for an alternate transcribed name so others could find it more easily in the future. > > Sandy > > > > Sandra Lee Blakley > 336 South 30th St. > Philomath, OR 97370 > 541-929-2259

if you means familysearch.org - everything will always stay FREE access and nothing to do with Ancestry David Samuelsen Susan Hedeen wrote: > That is what the agreement was; however features of donated and/or > transcribed & donated databases such as state census etc once > searchable and/or browsable--if you notice, that feature among many > others have disappeared from RootsWeb. Other features are so convoluted > and/or next to impossible to use even with their directions that what > once could be accessed with a point a click will take considerably > longer if you can access it at all. This was not done by mistake. > > I am very hopeful the the LDS material remains at a reasonable rate. > Presently if you go into the library or one of the centers you can view > what they have free and order in for a nominal fee copies of the > original micro film, fidhe, or documents which you need to view at the > library or center. True, not as convenient as from your own PC, but the > price is a pittance when considering what is now going on with Ancestry > and all it's owned affiliates.

>From what I understand, the agreement between rootsweb and ancestry when rootsweb sold their site to ancestry was that all of their databases would remain free to view (though filled with tons of ads from ancestry) and anything donated to rootsweb would remain free to view. I hope they continue to honor their agreement. Ancestry is very agressive. But they will have some competition soon as the LDS Church, who originally donated alot of their work to ancestry, is currently working on digitizing all of their records in the Salt Lake City Library to bring online at their own website, www.familysearch.org and has a huge volunteer operation going on now that anyone can help with to create indexing for all of these images. They are working presently on all of the censuses. If you want to help, go to www.familysearchindexing.org and it's simple to get going. They give you free software to download and tutorials on how to use it. Then you download an image at a time to do at your own pace. Usually takes about 45 mins. to do a page. You have up to a week to do each image, so you can squeeze it into your spare time. Each page is done by two different people and then compared. If there are any differences, it goes to an arbitrator to decide which interpretation is correct, so the greatest possible accuracy is their goal. It will be wonderful when all of their resources are available to view, and it will be FREE to everyone! I've already seen a few images popping up in their library catalog which you can see online at www.familysearch.org It's really exciting! The clock is ticking for ancestry.com! If you've ever wondered why it is so hard to find names in the indexes for ancestry, it's because they hire cheap help from India and other Asian countries to do their transcribing. It's hard enough for us to read some of the old handwriting on faded films in our own language, but add into the mix someone coming from a foreign language background and you have a mess! One of our Italian families from Worcester, Pasquale and Christina DeBonis, came up totally unrecognizable in their index, when we finally found it!! I knew the family was there, ever since they arrived from Italy til the day they died, they lived on the same street, in the same house, but I could not for the life of me find them in the index. Finally I had to resort to using advance searching methods, and go through the individual family names one by one until I finally found one that connected us to the right family. Whew! I notified ancestry, and they put a note on it for an alternate transcribed name so others could find it more easily in the future. Sandy Sandra Lee Blakley 336 South 30th St. Philomath, OR 97370 541-929-2259 --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

Ancestry owns RootsWeb, USGen Web, and has been goggling up many many small on-line genealogy sites, programs, databases, etc. It will be only a short time until they will have worse than a monopoly on the on-line information available--All of the volunteered family(s) information; all of the volunteered transcriptions, all of the volunteered public documents, all of it. I have been rattling my sabre about this and ancestry for some years now; I received all kinds of rebuttals as to perceptions of Ancestry's motives and costs in the name of public good. Bah--sheep to the slaughter is more like it. This is big business, we all are a part of it albeit very unwittingly early on. Watch for fees and increasing fees. The professional genealogists love it because it helps them and their fee schedules as well. We give up access but want more information--who do we turn to. Think about it. How many have bought ancillary information because it was less than a subscription to some of these sites where there may be only an index--on purpose I might add. Will it go away? NO, it won't unless everyone moves their sites, supports one another and there is whole sale exit from Ancestry and all that they own. The information already donated, however, will also remain with them for sale; and less and less of that information will remain free. alfred and arline larson wrote: > I have been wondering the same as Dick Bolt, because of the message Betty sent. Is Ancestry having a problem with rootsweb etc ? > Arline > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

I am in total agreement with Susan's comments.......I hate monopolies! Sherry Susan Hedeen <chantillycarpets@earthlink.net> wrote: Ancestry owns RootsWeb, USGen Web, and has been goggling up many many small on-line genealogy sites, programs, databases, etc. It will be only a short time until they will have worse than a monopoly on the on-line information available--All of the volunteered family(s) information; all of the volunteered transcriptions, all of the volunteered public documents, all of it. I have been rattling my sabre about this and ancestry for some years now; I received all kinds of rebuttals as to perceptions of Ancestry's motives and costs in the name of public good. Bah--sheep to the slaughter is more like it. This is big business, we all are a part of it albeit very unwittingly early on. Watch for fees and increasing fees. The professional genealogists love it because it helps them and their fee schedules as well. We give up access but want more information--who do we turn to. Think about it. How many have bought ancillary information because it was less than a subscription to some of these sites where there may be only an index--on purpose I might add. Will it go away? NO, it won't unless everyone moves their sites, supports one another and there is whole sale exit from Ancestry and all that they own. The information already donated, however, will also remain with them for sale; and less and less of that information will remain free. alfred and arline larson wrote: > I have been wondering the same as Dick Bolt, because of the message Betty sent. Is Ancestry having a problem with rootsweb etc ? > Arline > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I have been wondering the same as Dick Bolt, because of the message Betty sent. Is Ancestry having a problem with rootsweb etc ? Arline

Gosh, I feel dumb. I totally do not understand what this message is all about. What kind of grief? Karen -----Original Message----- From: maworces-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:maworces-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of dickbolt@his.com Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 12:54 PM To: maworces@rootsweb.com Subject: [MAWORCES] ROOTS & Ancestry.Com Hi, did I miss a post, is Ancestry.com giving ROOTS some grief I haven't heard of? Are Rootsweb sites safe for now? Dick ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi, did I miss a post, is Ancestry.com giving ROOTS some grief I haven't heard of? Are Rootsweb sites safe for now? Dick

Ancestry.com has decided that every single page that is hosted on Ancestry, and that means Rootsweb, will have to have an Ancestry.com banner across the top. There is a special banner that has been designed for the USGW sites. This banner says that USGW is a member of the Ancestry.com community. The banners will be put on the pages around mid-April. Go to the MAGen list archives and read all of the posts. There are CCs who are already moving their web sites. Betty Thomas, MA State Coordinator and Worcester CC, has moved the state site but will leave Worcester on Rootsweb for the time being. John & Jodi Massachusetts Vital Records Project Administrators - http://MA-VitalRecords.org > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [MAWORCES] ROOTS & Ancestry.Com > From: dickbolt@his.com > Date: Tue, March 11, 2008 9:53 am > To: maworces@rootsweb.com > Hi, did I miss a post, is Ancestry.com giving ROOTS some grief I > haven't heard of? Are Rootsweb sites safe for now? > Dick > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Ancestry.com owns Rootsweb... On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 9:53 AM, <dickbolt@his.com> wrote: > > > Hi, did I miss a post, is Ancestry.com giving ROOTS some grief I > haven't heard of? Are Rootsweb sites safe for now? > > Dick > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- A shameless plug for my web activities: Support Authentic Cherokee Art - ask for the Artist's Tribal registration number before you buy!! Cherokee Style, Cherokee Heritage and Cherokee Descent all mean non Indian! Indian Arts and Craft Act: http://nativeamericanlawus.blogspot.com Cherokee Basket Weaver's Association: http://www.cherokeebasketweaversassociation.org Cherokee Basketweaving Books: http://www.lulu.com/groups/indianbasketweaving Cherokee Artists Association http://www.cherokeeartistsassociation.org Cherokees of Orange County http://www.cherokeesoforangecounty.org Visit the Family History Store at LuLu: http://stores.lulu.com/pagesthroughtime or http://www.pagesthroughtime.us Can't find the records you need and you're a male surnamed Coats or varitation, order a DNA kit to join our DNA project: http://www.familytreedna.com/surname_join.asp?code=A59642&special=True Coats Archive http://www.coatsarchive.us

Hello Everyone, I have moved the MA GenWeb site to http://mysite.verizon.net/magenweb/ Please change your links to the state page. My contact email remains the same genweb04@yahoo.com The mail lists remain at rootsweb, as no better place at the moment. Any one have any FREE ideas? Anyone want to donate email space? One thing at a time is all I can handle right now!. Worcester county is staying at rootsweb for the time being. -- *Betty bettylt@verizon.net* *Professional Genealogy Research* - http://mysite.verizon.net/bettylt/ Wicks,Hammond, Heintz,Bradfield,Walbridge - http://BettyT.tripod.com <http://bettyt.tripod.com/>Summit City Singers - http://summit-city-singers.tripod.com <http://summit-city-singers.tripod.com/>*GenWeb Coordinator for:* Genesee, NY http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenese <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enygenese>Wyoming, NY http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywyomin <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enywyomin>Worcester, MA http://www.rootsweb.com/~maworces <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Emaworces>Commonwealth of Massachusetts http://www.rootsweb.com/~magenweb/ <http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Emagenweb/>

Does someone have access to the MASSOG naturalization index? If so please look up Thomas Burney. I would like to know the date of his naturalization and the volume and page reference to locate his naturalization. Thank you. Pat

Any suggestions on how to proceed with this mystery would be GREATLY appreciated! Findings to Date on William Walker FIRST CHURCH OF FALMOUTH: Baptisms and Admission from the First Church in Falmouth :Now Portland Maine ADULTS WHO acknowledged their baptismal covenants 1753-1755 Walker, George and Elizabeth his wife, c. William Walker was born Dec 17, 1754 in Falmouth (Portland) Cumberland County, MAINE William was later married in Bolton, Worcester Co, MASS, May 29 1777 to Elizabeth Stanhope who was born in July 16 1758 in Sudbury Middlesex Co MASS Samuel was the first born child, of many other children MARRIAGES: 1751: Any relationships to: Joseph Walker and Mary Rigs (also In First Church)? BAPTISMS: Walker, of George and Elizabeth, a child, 1752-1755. William, 1755. A child, Oct. 9, 1757, A Child, July 1759 (From Bolton Mass town clerk: In looking at our earliest date of records up to 1849, all I found was what you already knew. William Walker of Sudbury married Elizabeth Stanhope on 5/29/1777 - no Intentions were filed. I found nothing under Births or Deaths for either name and no reference of any other relatives.) Vital Records of SUDBURY (Middlesex Co)MASS: Marriage: STANHOPE: Elizabeth of Bolton, MASS, and William Walker, May 29,1777, in Bolton. (Mass) Births: Samuel Walker, son of William & Elisabeth, [born] 3 February 1779 In "Vital Records of Gill Massachusetts to 1850 " New England Historical Society (..data on the marriage of William Walker and Elisabeth Stanhope on Feb 3,1779 as well as the births of their children) WALKER (see Worker) Elisabeth (Stanhope), w. William Jan 16, 1759 Elisabeth, ch, William and Elisabeth, Nov 10, 1793 Lydia, ch. William and Elisabeth, May 8, 1787 Ripley, ch. William and Elisabeth, Dec 22, 1796 Samuel, son, William and Elisabeth, Feb. 3, 1779 buried in Burlington Flats, Otsego,NY William [ h. Elisabeth (Stanhope)], Dec 17, 1754, in Portland William, ch William and Elisabeth, Jan 22, 1800 NOTE: Any record of other children of William in Otsego? Any probate from William Walker Page 46 WORKER (see Walker), Minerva, ch, Samuel and Marther, Jan 24, 1809 NOTE: WHY "Worker"? Same Book page 46: GILL Marriages WALKER, Elizabeth and Isaac Millis, int. June 22, 1816 Lydia and Jesse Coy, int, Oct. 2, 1814 Samuel and Marther Green, June 13, 1808 (Known predecessor, married in Gill, Mass, buried with Martha in Burlington Flats Cemetery, Otsego, NY) Birth of their child Minerva on Jan 24 1809 Revolutionary War Pension Records William of New Lisbon, Otsego County was 78 in 1832 and ( born in Portland Maine?) buried in New Lisbon, Otsego, NY .very close to Samuel.buried in Burlington Flats He volunteered 3 times: June 1774 at Sudbury, MASS and marched to Concord 1775 Marched to Bunker Hill 1776 Marched to Ticonderoga (he married Elisabeth Stanhope of Bolton, Mass on May 29, 1777 (he was 23) Samuel born 1779 in Gill Franklin Co Mass William died in 1884 in New Lisbon, OTSEGO Co., NY Supposedly buried in New Lisbon (Otsego Co.) NY NOTES: 1. One George had been born in 1734, so this firms up that date, but IS this the correct George/William link? KNOWN WRONG PATH:One "family tree" showed a William from a George who died in Peru, Maine. Either a tree error or another William/George! One George and his wife were both born in Kittery Maine from at least 1734 to 1765, but have no concrete primary source birth, marriage, death or other records for him, his wife or predecessors from Kittery. One George was a drummer in Capt Isaac Ilsey's Back Cove Company. One George and his wife joined the "First Church" in Falmouth where a William was baptized Oct 9,1755.Evidently One George died before 1802 in Falmouth. (Must track back from William) 2. Last night I found images of a tombstone and epitaph of a John Walker in the cemetery of the First Congregational Church of Kittery Point stating that he died in 1746 at the age of 75. (No idea whether there is a connection here.) 3. William, who died in New Lisbon, WAS from Portland, but WHO was his father? Mystery:WHO WERE this WILLIAM's predecessors that can be documented with primary source links to the William who moved to Sudbury Mass and then to Otsego Co NY and died in NY? Whatever became of William's other children in NY? mensplace@bellsouth.net

In a message dated 3/4/2008 7:02:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, radiotest@cox.net writes: State-wide registration of vital records in Massachusetts was enacted by the General Court in 1842, and that act was strengthened in 1844. Greetings, I was inclined to think that a "return" was the reporting, to the Clerk's office, a birth, death or marriage, so that the information could be entered into the appropriate register. I am guess it is just a matter of semantics. This post, however, is an opportunity to point out that the important thing to remember is where that info came from. I am not sure of the collection methods used for birth prior to 1844, but the School districts were charged with the task of collecting birth information after that. Judging by the order in which the info was recorded in the clerk's register, the information was gathered much like a census. Thus the dittos were found in the "residence" column, and the "informant" column. The death information was, before and after 1844, reported to the clerk by sextons. The Catholic sexton in Worcester was Thomas Maginnis, (George Sessions handled the Yankees.) and he was the "informant" for Catholic deaths for many years.He was the informant even after a column for "mortician or physician" was added to the Worcester register in June of 1847. He did not always provide Worcester with info for every death he handled. Some of those Catholics that were residents of towns outside of Worcester, but buried in Worcester, did not have their deaths recorded in any town's register. It seems that the Worcester clerk found out about this over-sight and in 1863 he dedicated 7 pages to 'deaths that occurred elsewhere but were interred in Worcester.' The info he collected reached back only to 1857, so there is sure to be unrecorded Catholic deaths for many years. As for marriages, the informant was the person that officiated. In the case of Catholics in most of Worcester county this would be the priest(s) of Christ's Church?St. John's Church in Worcester. They did not always bother Worcester's clerk with info on marriages that involved those persons that lived outside of Worcester, nor did they provide the clerk with all of the information that the law required them to provide (after 1844). In fact from Jan. 1846 to the fall of 1849 Catholic priests did not make any marriage returns to any clerk. There were 430 marriages recorded in the Church register during that time. In 1849, the clerk of Worcester must have been very firm in his request to the priests of St. John's Church, for he was able to get the Church to gather-up some of the information and send it allong to the clerk. Here is what the city clerk recorded in the town marriage register that was 'closed' in 1848: "An informal list if marriages has been handed to me by Rev. Mathew W. Gibson, the Roman Catholic priest of this city which is on file of City Papers of the year 1848. Mr. Gibson stated that it is a copy of the Church Records; the marriages are from February 11, 1846 to September 7, 1848. Mr. Gibson said that some of the marriages were solemnized in his presence, some before other Catholic priests; some in this city and some in other places: but he could not tell who or which they were in a fraction of the cases." The lists (the clerk required the two priests at St. John's to each file there own) that were presented did not contain much info,(his and her names, date of marriage and sometimes witnesses). The lists and other returns filed prior to 1850 did not contain any mention of over 200 marriages that were recorded in the Church register to that date. The lists that were presented in 1849 were not transcribed into the register, but were stuck, loose-leaf, into the back of the town death register. The marriages were indexed many years later with the index that was created to cover the years that started with 1848. This created a bit of a dilemma for the indexers, as the marriages were not recorded in the City Register Book 1, 2 or 3, but rather in the last pages of the Town Register. They called the loose leaf section of that register "book 4*" and noted that the book they were referring to was in the Town Records. At the end of Rev. John Boyce's list presented to the clerk in 1849 was this: "In the future all marriage certificates presented to us shall be carefully kept, filled up, and forwarded monthly as the law dictates to the Town Clerk." That did not always happen. John **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)

Sorry I sent this to the wrong rootsweb group. Meant to send this to the New England societies group. Karen

Anyone go and listen to Walter Hickey last night at the Chelmsford library? There seemed to be a large turnout, as usual. I have listened to his lectures before, this was different than some other talks he has given. One topic was on the "OLD WAR"(War of 1812), Indian wars, & Mexican War. My great, great Grandfather fought in the Indian Wars in Florida in the 1830's. I found this out in his son's pension rquest files from the Civll War. Unforunately none of these war records have been microfilmed, however, it is possible to find their names on lists via Boston public library website and Heritagequest via US Congressional serial set. I found a Thomas H Stevens, who was in the navy which is what I thought he served in when I looked on Heritagequest; another clue. Bankruptcy Case Files of 1800, 1841, 1867 are available at the Nation Archives in Waltham(volunteers are transcribing these now). These are 2 of topics he spoke of, I don't have time to type up more. He speaks next Tuesday at the Andover Public Library at 7 Pm on "Researching a Revolutionary War Ancester." I plan on going, hope to see you there. Karen