Hi Bob, Thank you for sharing Col. Wissinger's obituary. I thought he may connect to Elizabeth Wissinger b. 1865 in Cambria Co., Pa. and married to Calvin William Wilson Leech but so far have not found a connection. Calvin Leech and I are 2nd cousins 4x's removed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Lona Laughlin Boudreaux Monroe, La. -----Original Message----- From: Bob Wissinger Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 7:04 PM To: PABLAIR-L@rootsweb.com ; PACAMBRI-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [PABLAIR] Burial of Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger, Sr. Dear Readers, Allen R. Wissinger was buried with full Military Honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, December 17, 2012. He was laid to rest in a beautiful ceremony in Section 64, grave #2451. I was fortunate to be able to attend. Pictures are posted on my Facebook account if you are interested. Regards, Bob Wissinger From: Bob Wissinger [mailto:bwissinger@att.net] Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 5:34 PM To: PABLAIR-L@rootsweb.com; PACAMBRI-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Obituaries - Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger, Sr. OBITUARY - Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger, Sr., The Altoona Mirror, Oct 5, 2012 Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger Sr., 74, formerly of Altoona, died Sept. 15, 2012, in San Diego, Calif. Surviving are his wife, Christa; nine children: Allen Jr., Theresa Schrimsher, Lawrence, Richard, Steven, Lisa Haussner, John, Janine Flecha and Miriam Candler; many grandchildren; and a sister, Roberta Powers. He was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Kathleen Wissinger; two sisters: Marjorie Hunter and Michelle Wissinger; a daughter, Suzanne Nicholas; and a grandson. Allen was a U.S. Army veteran. Burial will be on Dec. 17, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. OBITUARY - Allen R. Ret Col. Wissinger Sr., San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct 7, 2012 WISSINGER SR., ALLEN R.,RET. COL., Oct. 4, 1937 to Sept. 15, 2012 Allen R. Wissinger, Sr. passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones at the age of 74 in San Diego, Cal. Memorial services were held at Peace Lutheran Church of San Diego where he served as an Elder and member of the congregation. Burial will be in Arlington, Va. at the Arlington National Cemetery, December 17, 2012. May God rest his soul. To subscribe, unsubscribe or visit the PABLAIR mailing list archives, go to http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/usa/PA/blair.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PABLAIR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Mcdermottbrown@gmail.com Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID pacambri-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > >Today's Topics: > > 1. 1940 Census (Stephen Belin) > 2. Reade Twp High School, Mountaindale (marilyn) > 3. Ashcroft marriages (marilyn) > 4. Re: 1940 Census (Lisa Baker) > 5. Re: 1940 Census (W David Samuelsen) > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Message: 1 >Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 08:30:48 -0500 >From: Stephen Belin <belin104@verizon.net> >Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census >To: Cambria County List <PACAMBRI@rootsweb.com> >Message-ID: <5B62BA70-8F64-4080-963E-C559459414FE@verizon.net> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > >I, too, was an indexer for familysearch.org. There were a lot of complaints about the arbiters and they did get better as time went on. I am sure the index for Ancestry and familysearch are different. If you have trouble finding someone using Ancestry.com, try famiysearch.org. I have a much better success rate there. I beieve that Ancestry has improved the images and the ones at familysearch are the original scans from the government. Once you find the correct information on familysearch, you can easily find it on Ancestry and compare the scans. Another advantage of familysearch.org is that it is free. Other than being an indexer, I have no connection to familysearch.org or the LDS Church. > >Steve Belin >belin104@verizon.net > > > > > > >------------------------------ > >Message: 2 >Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:13:50 -0500 (EST) >From: marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> >Subject: [PACAMBRI] Reade Twp High School, Mountaindale >To: pacambri@rootsweb.com >Message-ID: <8CFADCED363FF53-CC8-3F1C8@webmail-m086.sysops.aol.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > >I found an article about the high school in 1959--it was still in operation. > >Marilyn Kline Washington > > >------------------------------ > >Message: 3 >Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:36:19 -0500 (EST) >From: marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> >Subject: [PACAMBRI] Ashcroft marriages >To: pacambri@rootsweb.com >Message-ID: <8CFADD1F6E9DF15-CC8-3F3FA@webmail-m086.sysops.aol.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > >These marriages were taken from Marriage Records of Clearfield County, Pa [Prior to Oct 1,1885] That is the date the State of PA started requiring marriage licenses. This book was compiled by Robert J. Allison of the Clearfield County Historical Society. > >This book was for sale and I had one. I imagine you could get a lookup for any early marriages by contacting the Clearfield Historical Society. > >Ashcroft, Henry + Adeline Pentico, Feb 11 1883 > >Ashcroft, James + Mary A. Smith April 16, 1875 > >Ashcroft, John W. + Sara B Hughes, May 21,1876 > >Ashcroft, Minnesota + Matilda Lantzy August 19, 1833 > >Ashcroft, Mississippi + Alexander McElwaine, September 15, 1867 > >Ashcroft, Rebecca + J. R. Hughes, April 1, 1881 > >Ashcroft, Richard T. + Mary E. Boyle, September 20, 1881 > >Ashcroft, Tennessee + William A Russell, October 5, 1867 > > >Question: Does anyone know of any other area where the names of the states were used this way? There is also another family with a daughter named "Nevada." > >Marilyn Kline Washington > > >------------------------------ > >Message: 4 >Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:42:23 -0500 >From: Lisa Baker <lisa_18406@msn.com> >Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census >To: "'Mary MacLeod'" <crwsggd@sonic.net>, <pacambri@rootsweb.com> >Message-ID: <SNT145-DS7235B6831ADBD27CCAF86B6350@phx.gbl> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > >It was interesting reading the responses of actual 1940 census transcription volunteers and all the steps involved. Kudos for your efforts. > >Like Lynne, I started by looking at the census on microfilm. I would order the film in to the main branch of the Columbus or LDS libraries or drive to the Cincinnati library, which 20+ years ago had a huge genealogical section at the main branch. In Cincinnati I could jump through multiple reels during the day. In the early years, their copies, the Ohio Historical Society or the State Library of Ohio were the negative reverse copy, white letters on a black background. Then I moved up a step and was able to purchase my own reels of the census microfilm, which I have for 1810-1930 Cambria county and portions of a couple other counties. > >I think all of us have had trouble reading any records, whether census, church, wills, etc., when we first started get started, or even after years of research when confronted with a new format. It takes time to get used to someone's handwriting, and if you don't know the surnames or background of the people you're looking at, you can only hope you're doing the transcription correctly. > >In the early part of the 1990s I worked for a computer firm that would let me borrow a laptop during lunch. I would go a branch library 2 miles from where I worked and ended up transcribing (in Word) several of the townships for the 1860-1870-1880 period. Then I found the Cambria website shortly after Diann and Lynne took it over, we figured out how to convert the Word documents to Excel, added the information I had left out and posted the files on the website census section. (We have the entire census transcribed through 1880 and portions up through 1930, with one so far for 1940.) > >For those of you who might not be aware, the USGenWeb Free Census Project has been transcribing census records for years. I get an email almost every week listing whatever part(s) of the country and decade have had a transcription released that week. Our Cambria website transcriptions are part of this national database of census records. This information can be accessed under the Census portion of the website. > >Part of my pot-shot at Ancestry was based on their use of volunteers, the number of genealogy websites they've taken over, what they charge people to use their service, and most of the time, even their 'free' weekend review comes with a 'give us your credit card number' so they can charge the unknowing before they realize their free review is up. > >-----Original Message----- >From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mary MacLeod >Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 10:18 PM >To: pacambri@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census > >Charles and Lisa, > >I'm almost positive that Ancestry got their index from familysearch.org, the LDS site. The entire 1940 census was indexed by volunteers through familysearch.org. Anyone can sign up to participate in a variety of record indexing projects at the familysearch.org site. I participated in the 1940 census indexing, but gave up in frustration after about twenty pages. The process was that an arbiter was to "proofread" the work submitted by each indexer. The indexer could choose the state, but not necessarily the county. There were a limited number of counties "offered" for transcription on any given day. The indexer was allowed to submit challenges to the arbiter's decisions, but apparently nothing was ever done with those. The arbiter's decisions seemed to stand in every case. > >My perception was that the arbiters, who were also volunteers, sometimes had not even read the directions provided by the project organizers. >Both indexers and arbiters were provided lengthy and detailed directions for how the indexing was to be done, what information was to be entered in each column and how to handle missing or confusing information. I assumed that the arbiters might have extra training or experience, but I quickly abandoned that idea. Each indexer could check the results of their submissions to see what "errors" the arbiter noted. I was seeing a higher than expected error rate and when I checked, the entries marked as errors were often related to the 1935 residence entries where it appeared that the arbiter had not bothered to read the directions supplied about how those entries were to be handled and how to handle entries where the census enumerator had not followed directions. So on pages where the enumerator had not followed the directions and the arbiter had not read how to handle that, I registered a very high error rate even though I had followed the directions provided. Also, I transcribe! > d several pages from California since I've lived here all my life, am familiar with Spanish place and surnames and took Spanish for three years. Many of the pages I read had large numbers of Mexican immigrants and their families. Clearly my arbiter for those pages was NOT familiar with Spanish names and changed a lot of my entries. There were so many mistaken changes made by the arbiter that it was taking me longer to submit challenges than it had to index the page in the first place and that was happening with page after page. Since nothing seemed to come of any of my challenges, I finally gave up in disgust and decided not to participate any further. > >It's not like I never made any mistakes. The entry form was such that it entered words in some columns based on the first letter typed, so if I didn't keep my eyes on the screen, sometimes terms were entered that I hadn't intended. There was also a share of terrible handwriting where I was totally guessing at what I was looking at, as was the arbiter. But most of the places where I disagreed with the arbiter were what I considered mistakes on the arbiter's part, either in procedure or in handwriting interpretation. I was very disappointed with the experience. > >So we got an index in a really short time, but I knew from my short experience that it was going to be riddled with mistakes. I remember thinking when looking at some of the name changes made by the arbiter that the person's family was never going to find them if the arbiter's version stood. > >Ancestry seems to be leaving all index correction submissions along with their incorrect original. And you are right, Lisa, some of the "corrections" submitted are incorrect, too. > >I'm not sure why familysearch can't at least screen those allowed to index/arbitrate based on a few practice pages. But that didn't seem to happen. So, Charles, I guess we got what they paid for... > >Mary >On 12/20/2012 5:09 PM, Lisa Baker wrote: >> When Ancestry first released the index, I looked up several families, both in Cambria and elsewhere, and compared against the census records I downloaded as zip files from the free government website. There's a Help section on the census image page next to the names where you can report errors to Ancestry and I reported several, some obvious, hey, it's Mary, not Hary, wife of William, and her age is 43 not 13, did you see the ages of her children? Or the last name is Walsh, not Malsh. But then the census takers (or the family) also made their share of errors. I couldn't find my great-grandfather Charles Kelly. Gave up on him and looked for my grandparents, and there he was, right next door to his daughter, where I knew he lived. But for some reason his surname was listed as Tilman, which happens to be his middle name. And yes, I gave Ancestry the correct surname. For earlier census records they haven't removed their original error, but have shown the correction. ! > (As I don't have a subscription, haven't checked them recently.) Then again, I've come across a few families where the original index was correct and someone gave them the wrong information, and I've reported that to them, so guess it's important to keep both versions there. And Ancestry did send me a thank you, about two months later, for the corrections I submitted. First time that has happened. >> >> I think they wanted the bragging rights to say they were the first out with the transcription, and they were under a lot of pressure to get it done as quick as possible. But you're right, don't think it was proofread. >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com >> [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CAGlasser@aol.com >> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 5:13 PM >> To: pacambri@rootsweb.com >> Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census >> >> I am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census. I find that I?m spending hours searching for people whose names are not even close to what?s written on the sheet. We?ve seen this in all census, but never to this extent. I?d say that at least 30% of the names I search are transcribed incorrectly in spite of the fact that many are clearly legible. I don?t know who they paid to do this, but I question the literacy of those involved, and there certainly was no quality control. Okay, I?m done venting. >> > > > > >------------------------------ > >Message: 5 >Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:35:51 -0700 >From: W David Samuelsen <dsam52@sampubco.com> >Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census >To: pacambri@rootsweb.com >Message-ID: <50D538A7.4050803@sampubco.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > >Ancestry didn't get their 1940 index from LDS at all. They hired and >used their own volunteers. > >FamilySearch 1940 is all volunteers with at least 3 volunteers per >batch. I worked as indexer and arbitrator. There are always those some >arbitrators who don't follow. Level 3 supervisors watch every one of them. > >Use feedback link tab to notify if you believe the spelling is wrong. >They will not change if the original says otherwise. They do accept the >feedback and respond. > >The feedback link is found in 3 ways. One is "Help", 2nd one is >turquoise colored tab near the bottom of the index page itself - on >right side. 3rd one is on some pages, at the bottom or the line just >above the taskbar. > >David Samuelsen > > > > > >------------------------------ > >To contact the PACAMBRI list administrator, send an email to >PACAMBRI-admin@rootsweb.com. > >To post a message to the PACAMBRI mailing list, send an email to PACAMBRI@rootsweb.com. > >__________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com >with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the >email with no additional text. > > >End of PACAMBRI Digest, Vol 7, Issue 390 >****************************************

Ancestry didn't get their 1940 index from LDS at all. They hired and used their own volunteers. FamilySearch 1940 is all volunteers with at least 3 volunteers per batch. I worked as indexer and arbitrator. There are always those some arbitrators who don't follow. Level 3 supervisors watch every one of them. Use feedback link tab to notify if you believe the spelling is wrong. They will not change if the original says otherwise. They do accept the feedback and respond. The feedback link is found in 3 ways. One is "Help", 2nd one is turquoise colored tab near the bottom of the index page itself - on right side. 3rd one is on some pages, at the bottom or the line just above the taskbar. David Samuelsen

It was interesting reading the responses of actual 1940 census transcription volunteers and all the steps involved. Kudos for your efforts. Like Lynne, I started by looking at the census on microfilm. I would order the film in to the main branch of the Columbus or LDS libraries or drive to the Cincinnati library, which 20+ years ago had a huge genealogical section at the main branch. In Cincinnati I could jump through multiple reels during the day. In the early years, their copies, the Ohio Historical Society or the State Library of Ohio were the negative reverse copy, white letters on a black background. Then I moved up a step and was able to purchase my own reels of the census microfilm, which I have for 1810-1930 Cambria county and portions of a couple other counties. I think all of us have had trouble reading any records, whether census, church, wills, etc., when we first started get started, or even after years of research when confronted with a new format. It takes time to get used to someone's handwriting, and if you don't know the surnames or background of the people you're looking at, you can only hope you're doing the transcription correctly. In the early part of the 1990s I worked for a computer firm that would let me borrow a laptop during lunch. I would go a branch library 2 miles from where I worked and ended up transcribing (in Word) several of the townships for the 1860-1870-1880 period. Then I found the Cambria website shortly after Diann and Lynne took it over, we figured out how to convert the Word documents to Excel, added the information I had left out and posted the files on the website census section. (We have the entire census transcribed through 1880 and portions up through 1930, with one so far for 1940.) For those of you who might not be aware, the USGenWeb Free Census Project has been transcribing census records for years. I get an email almost every week listing whatever part(s) of the country and decade have had a transcription released that week. Our Cambria website transcriptions are part of this national database of census records. This information can be accessed under the Census portion of the website. Part of my pot-shot at Ancestry was based on their use of volunteers, the number of genealogy websites they've taken over, what they charge people to use their service, and most of the time, even their 'free' weekend review comes with a 'give us your credit card number' so they can charge the unknowing before they realize their free review is up. -----Original Message----- From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mary MacLeod Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 10:18 PM To: pacambri@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census Charles and Lisa, I'm almost positive that Ancestry got their index from familysearch.org, the LDS site. The entire 1940 census was indexed by volunteers through familysearch.org. Anyone can sign up to participate in a variety of record indexing projects at the familysearch.org site. I participated in the 1940 census indexing, but gave up in frustration after about twenty pages. The process was that an arbiter was to "proofread" the work submitted by each indexer. The indexer could choose the state, but not necessarily the county. There were a limited number of counties "offered" for transcription on any given day. The indexer was allowed to submit challenges to the arbiter's decisions, but apparently nothing was ever done with those. The arbiter's decisions seemed to stand in every case. My perception was that the arbiters, who were also volunteers, sometimes had not even read the directions provided by the project organizers. Both indexers and arbiters were provided lengthy and detailed directions for how the indexing was to be done, what information was to be entered in each column and how to handle missing or confusing information. I assumed that the arbiters might have extra training or experience, but I quickly abandoned that idea. Each indexer could check the results of their submissions to see what "errors" the arbiter noted. I was seeing a higher than expected error rate and when I checked, the entries marked as errors were often related to the 1935 residence entries where it appeared that the arbiter had not bothered to read the directions supplied about how those entries were to be handled and how to handle entries where the census enumerator had not followed directions. So on pages where the enumerator had not followed the directions and the arbiter had not read how to handle that, I registered a very high error rate even though I had followed the directions provided. Also, I transcribe! d several pages from California since I've lived here all my life, am familiar with Spanish place and surnames and took Spanish for three years. Many of the pages I read had large numbers of Mexican immigrants and their families. Clearly my arbiter for those pages was NOT familiar with Spanish names and changed a lot of my entries. There were so many mistaken changes made by the arbiter that it was taking me longer to submit challenges than it had to index the page in the first place and that was happening with page after page. Since nothing seemed to come of any of my challenges, I finally gave up in disgust and decided not to participate any further. It's not like I never made any mistakes. The entry form was such that it entered words in some columns based on the first letter typed, so if I didn't keep my eyes on the screen, sometimes terms were entered that I hadn't intended. There was also a share of terrible handwriting where I was totally guessing at what I was looking at, as was the arbiter. But most of the places where I disagreed with the arbiter were what I considered mistakes on the arbiter's part, either in procedure or in handwriting interpretation. I was very disappointed with the experience. So we got an index in a really short time, but I knew from my short experience that it was going to be riddled with mistakes. I remember thinking when looking at some of the name changes made by the arbiter that the person's family was never going to find them if the arbiter's version stood. Ancestry seems to be leaving all index correction submissions along with their incorrect original. And you are right, Lisa, some of the "corrections" submitted are incorrect, too. I'm not sure why familysearch can't at least screen those allowed to index/arbitrate based on a few practice pages. But that didn't seem to happen. So, Charles, I guess we got what they paid for... Mary On 12/20/2012 5:09 PM, Lisa Baker wrote: > When Ancestry first released the index, I looked up several families, both in Cambria and elsewhere, and compared against the census records I downloaded as zip files from the free government website. There's a Help section on the census image page next to the names where you can report errors to Ancestry and I reported several, some obvious, hey, it's Mary, not Hary, wife of William, and her age is 43 not 13, did you see the ages of her children? Or the last name is Walsh, not Malsh. But then the census takers (or the family) also made their share of errors. I couldn't find my great-grandfather Charles Kelly. Gave up on him and looked for my grandparents, and there he was, right next door to his daughter, where I knew he lived. But for some reason his surname was listed as Tilman, which happens to be his middle name. And yes, I gave Ancestry the correct surname. For earlier census records they haven't removed their original error, but have shown the correction. ! (As I don't have a subscription, haven't checked them recently.) Then again, I've come across a few families where the original index was correct and someone gave them the wrong information, and I've reported that to them, so guess it's important to keep both versions there. And Ancestry did send me a thank you, about two months later, for the corrections I submitted. First time that has happened. > > I think they wanted the bragging rights to say they were the first out with the transcription, and they were under a lot of pressure to get it done as quick as possible. But you're right, don't think it was proofread. > > -----Original Message----- > From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CAGlasser@aol.com > Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 5:13 PM > To: pacambri@rootsweb.com > Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census > > I am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census. I find that I’m spending hours searching for people whose names are not even close to what’s written on the sheet. We’ve seen this in all census, but never to this extent. I’d say that at least 30% of the names I search are transcribed incorrectly in spite of the fact that many are clearly legible. I don’t know who they paid to do this, but I question the literacy of those involved, and there certainly was no quality control. Okay, I’m done venting. >

These marriages were taken from Marriage Records of Clearfield County, Pa [Prior to Oct 1,1885] That is the date the State of PA started requiring marriage licenses. This book was compiled by Robert J. Allison of the Clearfield County Historical Society. This book was for sale and I had one. I imagine you could get a lookup for any early marriages by contacting the Clearfield Historical Society. Ashcroft, Henry + Adeline Pentico, Feb 11 1883 Ashcroft, James + Mary A. Smith April 16, 1875 Ashcroft, John W. + Sara B Hughes, May 21,1876 Ashcroft, Minnesota + Matilda Lantzy August 19, 1833 Ashcroft, Mississippi + Alexander McElwaine, September 15, 1867 Ashcroft, Rebecca + J. R. Hughes, April 1, 1881 Ashcroft, Richard T. + Mary E. Boyle, September 20, 1881 Ashcroft, Tennessee + William A Russell, October 5, 1867 Question: Does anyone know of any other area where the names of the states were used this way? There is also another family with a daughter named "Nevada." Marilyn Kline Washington

I found an article about the high school in 1959--it was still in operation. Marilyn Kline Washington

I, too, was an indexer for familysearch.org. There were a lot of complaints about the arbiters and they did get better as time went on. I am sure the index for Ancestry and familysearch are different. If you have trouble finding someone using Ancestry.com, try famiysearch.org. I have a much better success rate there. I beieve that Ancestry has improved the images and the ones at familysearch are the original scans from the government. Once you find the correct information on familysearch, you can easily find it on Ancestry and compare the scans. Another advantage of familysearch.org is that it is free. Other than being an indexer, I have no connection to familysearch.org or the LDS Church. Steve Belin belin104@verizon.net

When I first started researching genealogy many years ago, online there was a site, can't recall the name, where if you transcribed bits and pieces of a census, they would let you have "free" minutes to search their site. I believe these census images may have been the 1940 census. The census images were from all over the United States and had nothing to do with the families or the area you were researching. There was very little or no interest in what the census data was and it was limited to one family. This may have had something to do with the errors in spelling and information found on the census.

iF YOU ARE REQUESTING PDF copy of the Romp, do yourself [and me] a favor and do not hit the reply button to the post on the list here. Start a NEW EMAIL; send that to enter36@hotmail.com in that email request a copy. Otherwise you will probably not get a copy. ***************** jim miller/ 2589 Skidmore Rd. ********************** greensburg pa 15601

When Ancestry first released the index, I looked up several families, both in Cambria and elsewhere, and compared against the census records I downloaded as zip files from the free government website. There's a Help section on the census image page next to the names where you can report errors to Ancestry and I reported several, some obvious, hey, it's Mary, not Hary, wife of William, and her age is 43 not 13, did you see the ages of her children? Or the last name is Walsh, not Malsh. But then the census takers (or the family) also made their share of errors. I couldn't find my great-grandfather Charles Kelly. Gave up on him and looked for my grandparents, and there he was, right next door to his daughter, where I knew he lived. But for some reason his surname was listed as Tilman, which happens to be his middle name. And yes, I gave Ancestry the correct surname. For earlier census records they haven't removed their original error, but have shown the correction. (A! s I don't have a subscription, haven't checked them recently.) Then again, I've come across a few families where the original index was correct and someone gave them the wrong information, and I've reported that to them, so guess it's important to keep both versions there. And Ancestry did send me a thank you, about two months later, for the corrections I submitted. First time that has happened. I think they wanted the bragging rights to say they were the first out with the transcription, and they were under a lot of pressure to get it done as quick as possible. But you're right, don't think it was proofread. -----Original Message----- From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CAGlasser@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 5:13 PM To: pacambri@rootsweb.com Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census I am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census. I find that I’m spending hours searching for people whose names are not even close to what’s written on the sheet. We’ve seen this in all census, but never to this extent. I’d say that at least 30% of the names I search are transcribed incorrectly in spite of the fact that many are clearly legible. I don’t know who they paid to do this, but I question the literacy of those involved, and there certainly was no quality control. Okay, I’m done venting.

Dear Readers, Allen R. Wissinger was buried with full Military Honors at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, December 17, 2012. He was laid to rest in a beautiful ceremony in Section 64, grave #2451. I was fortunate to be able to attend. Pictures are posted on my Facebook account if you are interested. Regards, Bob Wissinger From: Bob Wissinger [mailto:bwissinger@att.net] Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 5:34 PM To: PABLAIR-L@rootsweb.com; PACAMBRI-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Obituaries - Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger, Sr. OBITUARY - Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger, Sr., The Altoona Mirror, Oct 5, 2012 Retired Col. Allen R. Wissinger Sr., 74, formerly of Altoona, died Sept. 15, 2012, in San Diego, Calif. Surviving are his wife, Christa; nine children: Allen Jr., Theresa Schrimsher, Lawrence, Richard, Steven, Lisa Haussner, John, Janine Flecha and Miriam Candler; many grandchildren; and a sister, Roberta Powers. He was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Kathleen Wissinger; two sisters: Marjorie Hunter and Michelle Wissinger; a daughter, Suzanne Nicholas; and a grandson. Allen was a U.S. Army veteran. Burial will be on Dec. 17, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. OBITUARY - Allen R. Ret Col. Wissinger Sr., San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct 7, 2012 WISSINGER SR., ALLEN R.,RET. COL., Oct. 4, 1937 to Sept. 15, 2012 Allen R. Wissinger, Sr. passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones at the age of 74 in San Diego, Cal. Memorial services were held at Peace Lutheran Church of San Diego where he served as an Elder and member of the congregation. Burial will be in Arlington, Va. at the Arlington National Cemetery, December 17, 2012. May God rest his soul.

Charles and Lisa, I'm almost positive that Ancestry got their index from familysearch.org, the LDS site. The entire 1940 census was indexed by volunteers through familysearch.org. Anyone can sign up to participate in a variety of record indexing projects at the familysearch.org site. I participated in the 1940 census indexing, but gave up in frustration after about twenty pages. The process was that an arbiter was to "proofread" the work submitted by each indexer. The indexer could choose the state, but not necessarily the county. There were a limited number of counties "offered" for transcription on any given day. The indexer was allowed to submit challenges to the arbiter's decisions, but apparently nothing was ever done with those. The arbiter's decisions seemed to stand in every case. My perception was that the arbiters, who were also volunteers, sometimes had not even read the directions provided by the project organizers. Both indexers and arbiters were provided lengthy and detailed directions for how the indexing was to be done, what information was to be entered in each column and how to handle missing or confusing information. I assumed that the arbiters might have extra training or experience, but I quickly abandoned that idea. Each indexer could check the results of their submissions to see what "errors" the arbiter noted. I was seeing a higher than expected error rate and when I checked, the entries marked as errors were often related to the 1935 residence entries where it appeared that the arbiter had not bothered to read the directions supplied about how those entries were to be handled and how to handle entries where the census enumerator had not followed directions. So on pages where the enumerator had not followed the directions and the arbiter had not read how to handle that, I registered a very high error rate even though I had followed the directions provided. Also, I transcribed several pages from California since I've lived here all my life, am familiar with Spanish place and surnames and took Spanish for three years. Many of the pages I read had large numbers of Mexican immigrants and their families. Clearly my arbiter for those pages was NOT familiar with Spanish names and changed a lot of my entries. There were so many mistaken changes made by the arbiter that it was taking me longer to submit challenges than it had to index the page in the first place and that was happening with page after page. Since nothing seemed to come of any of my challenges, I finally gave up in disgust and decided not to participate any further. It's not like I never made any mistakes. The entry form was such that it entered words in some columns based on the first letter typed, so if I didn't keep my eyes on the screen, sometimes terms were entered that I hadn't intended. There was also a share of terrible handwriting where I was totally guessing at what I was looking at, as was the arbiter. But most of the places where I disagreed with the arbiter were what I considered mistakes on the arbiter's part, either in procedure or in handwriting interpretation. I was very disappointed with the experience. So we got an index in a really short time, but I knew from my short experience that it was going to be riddled with mistakes. I remember thinking when looking at some of the name changes made by the arbiter that the person's family was never going to find them if the arbiter's version stood. Ancestry seems to be leaving all index correction submissions along with their incorrect original. And you are right, Lisa, some of the "corrections" submitted are incorrect, too. I'm not sure why familysearch can't at least screen those allowed to index/arbitrate based on a few practice pages. But that didn't seem to happen. So, Charles, I guess we got what they paid for... Mary On 12/20/2012 5:09 PM, Lisa Baker wrote: > When Ancestry first released the index, I looked up several families, both in Cambria and elsewhere, and compared against the census records I downloaded as zip files from the free government website. There's a Help section on the census image page next to the names where you can report errors to Ancestry and I reported several, some obvious, hey, it's Mary, not Hary, wife of William, and her age is 43 not 13, did you see the ages of her children? Or the last name is Walsh, not Malsh. But then the census takers (or the family) also made their share of errors. I couldn't find my great-grandfather Charles Kelly. Gave up on him and looked for my grandparents, and there he was, right next door to his daughter, where I knew he lived. But for some reason his surname was listed as Tilman, which happens to be his middle name. And yes, I gave Ancestry the correct surname. For earlier census records they haven't removed their original error, but have shown the correction. ! (As I don't have a subscription, haven't checked them recently.) Then again, I've come across a few families where the original index was correct and someone gave them the wrong information, and I've reported that to them, so guess it's important to keep both versions there. And Ancestry did send me a thank you, about two months later, for the corrections I submitted. First time that has happened. > > I think they wanted the bragging rights to say they were the first out with the transcription, and they were under a lot of pressure to get it done as quick as possible. But you're right, don't think it was proofread. > > -----Original Message----- > From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CAGlasser@aol.com > Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 5:13 PM > To: pacambri@rootsweb.com > Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census > > I am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census. I find that I’m spending hours searching for people whose names are not even close to what’s written on the sheet. We’ve seen this in all census, but never to this extent. I’d say that at least 30% of the names I search are transcribed incorrectly in spite of the fact that many are clearly legible. I don’t know who they paid to do this, but I question the literacy of those involved, and there certainly was no quality control. Okay, I’m done venting. > > > > - - - - - - - - - - > > Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: > http://www.camgenpa.com/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

As difficult as it can be with these transcriptions, I keep remembering back to how I originally had to look at the census -- order the microfilm rolls from the library (at $6 a roll -- and Cambria County was 2 or 3 rolls), waiting for it to arrive at the local library; sitting there at the library, hour upon hour, day after day, handwriting everything because there wasn't a printer on the microfilm reader, having to hurry because the library could only hold it 3 weeks.  Much as I agree with you about the infuriating transcription errors (I found a 6-month-month-old working in the mines), things have improved.   Lynne From: "CAGlasser@aol.com" <CAGlasser@aol.com> To: pacambri@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 5:12 PM Subject: [PACAMBRI] 1940 Census I  am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census . . .

Thanks. I do know that cemetery as my grandmother is from Westover area--Five Points. It is not only used by Baptists. Her family [Woods-Rorabaugh-Wagner] I can now say after extensive research was Albright Evangelical [Harmony Church] which merged with East Ridge Brethren to now be East Ridge United Methodist. Both of those had/still have cemeteries. The church at Five Points was originally Brethren and at least my grandmother attended there--have Sunday school cards. I don't think Five Points ever had a cemetery. [It is now a Bible Church and at a newspaper article said it was Presbyterian at one point.] The Kitchen [or Drunker] Church and Cemetery is/was on the road between Harmony and Five Points. Church long gone, but cemetery still has burials. The Kitchens had over 10 children, so they were probably the most numerous members, hence the name "Kitchen" Church. The church used the creek there for emersion baptisms. The biggest problem with records is the location of all these churches, which is right at the corner of Cambria, Clearfield and Indiana, and the Methodist Conference [to which all the merged churches] now belong, has been both the Central and Western Conference. Would anyone know where the records of the closed or merged churches might be? Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: Frank Bobak <fbobak@verizon.net> To: 'marilyn' <marilynkwash@aol.com>; pacambri <pacambri@rootsweb.com> Sent: Mon, May 14, 2012 9:33 pm Subject: RE: [PACAMBRI] Cemeteries along the Cambria - Clearfield Border, including East Ridge, There is also a Westover Baptist Church Cemetery/Clearfield County on Find A Grave at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1283493&CScn=Westo&CSc ntry=4&CSst=40&CScnty=2257&. It looks like there are about 989 internments listed. Frank -----Original Message----- From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of marilyn Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 7:08 PM To: pacambri@rootsweb.com Subject: [PACAMBRI] Cemeteries along the Cambria - Clearfield Border, including East Ridge, I was asked specifically about the Westover Baptist Church Cemetery, but I am not sure it is on line. You can look at the address below. If you do not find it there, the place to ask is the Clearfield County Historical Society. If you do approach the Society, be sure to ask about the existence of an old Works Progress Administration reading. [WPA, the Depression Era public works program in the 1930s]. These readings, when they exist, predate the wearing of the stones from acid rain. This is the only county I have found such lists. This is the equivalent of the Cambria Roots Web site in Clearfied. If a cemetery is online, it should be listed in the following: http:www.pa-roots.com/treasurers/pa/clearfield . The site is called Treasurers of the Past. The cemeteries are listed by townships and/or towns. There are several complete History of Clearfield County books on line. There is also a site like this one, where you can ask questions. East Ridge Cemetery [formerly called Sylvis, for the area around it] is almost on the Cambria County line, and many non-Catholic burials from the Barnesboro and Susquehanna Township area have been made there. It is in Burnside Township. It was the earliest non-Catholic cemetery in the area, so many early citizens of Northern Cambria County are buried there. The Burnside Cemetery and the Harmony Cemetery are also nearby, listed under Burnside Township. Marilyn Kline Washington - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Thanks. I do know that cemetery as my grandmother is from Westover area--Five Points. It is not only used by Baptists. Her family [Woods-Rorabaugh-Wagner] I can now say after extensive research was Albright Evangelical [Harmony Church] which merged with East Ridge Brethren to now be East Ridge United Methodist. Both of those had/still have cemeteries. The church at Five Points was originally Brethren and at least my grandmother attended there--have Sunday school cards. I don't think Five Points ever had a cemetery. [It is now a Bible Church and at a newspaper article said it was Presbyterian at one point.] The Kitchen [or Drunker] Church and Cemetery is/was on the road between Harmony and Five Points. Church long gone, but cemetery still has burials. The Kitchens had over 10 children, so they were probably the most numerous members, hence the name "Kitchen" Church. The church used the creek there for emersion baptisms. The biggest problem with records is the location of all these churches, which is right at the corner of Cambria, Clearfield and Indiana, and the Methodist Conference [to which all the merged churches] now belong, has been both the Central and Western Conference. Would anyone know where the records of the closed or merged churches might be? Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: Frank Bobak <fbobak@verizon.net> To: 'marilyn' <marilynkwash@aol.com>; pacambri <pacambri@rootsweb.com> Sent: Mon, May 14, 2012 9:33 pm Subject: RE: [PACAMBRI] Cemeteries along the Cambria - Clearfield Border, including East Ridge, There is also a Westover Baptist Church Cemetery/Clearfield County on Find A Grave at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1283493&CScn=Westo&CSc ntry=4&CSst=40&CScnty=2257&. It looks like there are about 989 internments listed. Frank -----Original Message----- From: pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:pacambri-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of marilyn Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 7:08 PM To: pacambri@rootsweb.com Subject: [PACAMBRI] Cemeteries along the Cambria - Clearfield Border, including East Ridge, I was asked specifically about the Westover Baptist Church Cemetery, but I am not sure it is on line. You can look at the address below. If you do not find it there, the place to ask is the Clearfield County Historical Society. If you do approach the Society, be sure to ask about the existence of an old Works Progress Administration reading. [WPA, the Depression Era public works program in the 1930s]. These readings, when they exist, predate the wearing of the stones from acid rain. This is the only county I have found such lists. This is the equivalent of the Cambria Roots Web site in Clearfied. If a cemetery is online, it should be listed in the following: http:www.pa-roots.com/treasurers/pa/clearfield . The site is called Treasurers of the Past. The cemeteries are listed by townships and/or towns. There are several complete History of Clearfield County books on line. There is also a site like this one, where you can ask questions. East Ridge Cemetery [formerly called Sylvis, for the area around it] is almost on the Cambria County line, and many non-Catholic burials from the Barnesboro and Susquehanna Township area have been made there. It is in Burnside Township. It was the earliest non-Catholic cemetery in the area, so many early citizens of Northern Cambria County are buried there. The Burnside Cemetery and the Harmony Cemetery are also nearby, listed under Burnside Township. Marilyn Kline Washington - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

  Please send to  dpitts2217@sbcglobal.net.  Much of my family (Reese/Rees) came from Cambria Cty.n the 1770's  Reese station, and Upper Reese station, were on my grgrand fathers property,  I believe it was on the old Frankstown Road.  David Pitts  Costa Mesa, Ca

I should have posted this with the prior post: enter36@hotmail.com ***************** jim miller/ 2589 Skidmore Rd. ********************** greensburg pa 15601

Holiday Greetings. Several weeks ago I made a PDF copy of my book, A ROMP THROUGH EARLY CAMBRIA CO. , available to list members for free. There was a good response. I decided to make the offer again for those who missed it. It is a history of East Central Cambria. I researched, illustrated and wrote the book. It is now out of print, so the PDF version is all that is available. The book is indexed and has a good number of illustrations and maps. If you are interested, pls. respond in a SEPARATE email rather than in a reply to this post. That makes it simpler for me. Your computer should have an Adobe Reader to open the file; they are available free at adobe.com, but most computers already have one. ***************** jim miller/ 2589 Skidmore Rd. ********************** greensburg pa 15601

I am so disgusted with the quality of the transcription for the 1940 Census. I find that I’m spending hours searching for people whose names are not even close to what’s written on the sheet. We’ve seen this in all census, but never to this extent. I’d say that at least 30% of the names I search are transcribed incorrectly in spite of the fact that many are clearly legible. I don’t know who they paid to do this, but I question the literacy of those involved, and there certainly was no quality control. Okay, I’m done venting.

In answer to your comments, in some areas the speaking of German did not change after WW1. My husband grew up in a German community near Niagara Falls, NY. Although the families had come to America in the 1840s his first language was still Plattdeutsch, low German, spoken in Northern Germany. At the Lutheran school, when he started in 1926 the language was high German and English. His school, Holy Ghost Lutheran, established in 1847, is still in existence today as are many other Lutheran schools in the Niagara region. In the 1840s there were still many people speaking German. Today, it is no longer used although there is a small group who get together occasionally to continue the speaking of Plattdeutsch. barbsmoll@aol.com Barbara Moll -----Original Message----- From: marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> To: jlockey1947 <jlockey1947@yahoo.com>; pacambri <pacambri@rootsweb.com> Sent: Fri, Dec 14, 2012 5:40 pm Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] german records and names I thought it was jag-er, from the verb to jag or poke or prick. It might be German though, as everyone in my family is German. Three of my four grandparents grew up speaking German at home till they went to school. One of my grandmothers said she heard her parents discussing changing the home language to English to make it easier for the children. That family emigrated in 1817 and were still speaking German at home in 1900. Someone corrected me when I said there were corps of [German] soldiers called Jagers, but there were. [I looked it up.] I think they were hunters or guards for the local lords' game lands. Jager is also and mostly a generic word for hunter. >From reading the school attendance and and academic records published in the local weekly papers, I think that all the six year olds started school--often 80 or more in the first grade in the town of Hastings--and just stayed there till they learned enough English to be passed on to second grade. There would be fewer than 30 or 40 in grade two. I couldn't believe that many students would be academic failures until it occurred to me it might be knowing English. Some schools were taught in German [St. Benedict's in Carrolltown at first] or in Slovak or Polish. I think Barnesboro had a Slovak school and Windber had both. It was World War I when things changed. More "foreign" students attended Catholic schools than public because the priests more or less forced the parents to send them. I have friends in Wisconsin and they had a lot of Lutheran schools taught in German. I would be very interested in anyone who might know about that. All the relevant teachers I could ask are dead. Many parents from the "old country" objected to their children attending school. The felt the family needed the children to help support the family and that they didn't need to know how to read or that they would learn too many new things. In PA the children had to be in school by age eight [six was usual] and had to stay in till sixteen. This gave them eight years of school. Of course, PA only had common [tax supported public] schools after 1839, and the student didn't go to school during the agricultural year--they had to help on the farm. Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: Judith Lockey <jlockey1947@yahoo.com> To: marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> Sent: Tue, Dec 11, 2012 11:58 am Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] german records and names I wonder if that Jager is why my folks called berry and other thorned bushes jager bushes? --- On Mon, 12/10/12, marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> wrote: From: marilyn <marilynkwash@aol.com> Subject: Re: [PACAMBRI] german records and names To: jwilkinson3@triad.rr.com, pacambri@rootsweb.com Date: Monday, December 10, 2012, 2:41 PM Many of the German names were translated in America. "J" and "Y" were often interchanged: Jonner=Yahner, Jager=Yager, Jung=Young. A Jager was a special type of soldier, generally a hunter. "D" and "T" are often interchanged, as are "E" and "I". Most of the original spellings of the German names are found in the Catholic Records, as most of the early priests were German or German Benedictines. Surprisingly to me, they could spell Eastern European names, but couldn't spell Irish names. St Patrick's in Newry had Irish priests as did St. Aloysius in Cresson, so most of the Irish names there are spelled correctly Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: elaine wilkinson <jwilkinson3@triad.rr.com> To: Cambria Co. PACAMBRIA <pacambri@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wed, Dec 5, 2012 6:53 am Subject: [PACAMBRI] german records because a lot of us are German in this area, because: Father Lemke (a Loretto priest) went to Germany and "recruited" Bavarian families to come to his Parish. I wanted to tell you that familysearch.org now has german baptism and marriage records. because spelling of a name is always an issue, I put in Engelbert Young and up came Engelbert Jung, with the children's baptism and his marriage records, two of them. if you are hunting german ancestors, try it out. Elaine - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message