Learning Evernote

Rootstech finally spurred me into actually using Evernote. I downloaded it a while ago, but couldn't figure out how to use it for my genealogy. After listening to Caroline Pointer's Evernote Hangout I finally understood how to set up the Evernote in a useful way for me. Above is a video I made about how I am using Evernote.

Here are the steps for creating Notebooks for you research:

Step 1. Click file then new notebook
Step 2. Name your notebook. Right now I am making surname notebooks for each surname.
Step 3. Open the drive location with the folders you want to put in Evernote and view this side by side with Evernote.
Step 4. Click file then new Note
Step 5. Drag the folders to Evernote
Step 6. Right click on the file in Evernote and tag it with a more specific description.
Step 7. If you have a number of files with the same tag click on tag in left side window and drop the files there.
Step 8. Sync to the Evernote server by clicking on sync. You can only see the files from online on any computer if you sync it. You also need to sync in order to start the clock which allows you to upload 60mb per month.

This is what the online page looks like

My favorite Rootstech 2013 tips

1. Archive Grid for searching for manuscripts
2. Zendone sounds like a great way to keep track of your progress with your to do list. It's based on the "Get things done" productivity methodology.
3. Duck Duck Go search engine is one to me. It presents slightly different results than google, with a nice easy to read layout.
4. Use the phrase "cemetery near" to display all cemeteries in an area at google maps. I was very surprised to find hundreds of small family burying grounds in southern Virginia and northern Tennessee.
5. GeoNames is a map site I've never used before.
6. I need to use the source box at Family Search to add sources for tree.

Little dots are all cemeteries or family
burying grounds

Looking forward to the Fan Chart at Family Search. Love those Fan Charts.

The session  Paper Piles to Digital Files was excellent . I am always looking for quick ways to organize. The presenter gave some wonderful tips. It inspired me to finally use Evernote. I bit the bullet and learned to use it. Is is a great place to organize and plan future research. Now that I understand it I like it.

One of my new Evernote notebooks

My first gleanings from RootsTech 2013

RootsTech 2013 Conference began today. I thought the keynote speeches were wonderful! It's true that we need to preserve the details of our families everyday lives. I put together many of the anecdotes and stories my mother told me about her family, and uploaded the finished product to Archive.org : http://archive.org/stream/CharlesAndGracielaForgeyBookIiRevised61012/RevisedCopyCharlesAndGracielaForgey61012#page/n0/mode/2up

When the Italian project at FamilySearch Indexing was mentioned it brought to mind that I might have some Italian blood through Central America? It seems the name Granzio might be Italian? I already know we have some German through a Central American line.
I've read through some of the posted online syllabus material already. I am attending the conference virtually and will only be able to see those sessions that are streamed. I found two great websites listed in one syllabus that I never used before. It was for the session Five Most Important Resources http://s3.amazonaws.com/rootstech/original/Five_Most_Important_Resources.pdf?1359704536 Searching one of these, Archive Grid, I found that there are some Susan Forgey letters at Duke University which might provide great insight into the family from the Civil War to the early 20th Century. These letters are a part of Cornelius Miller Pickens' Papers (see image above).
I also saw an image of the above chart on another syllabus. I love charts and had to print one for myself. I found out that it came from the Progeny Site . I downloaded the free trial. It pulls the information from your FamilySearch Tree. This software does produce some nice charts and reports.
So I have have picked up some tidbits already, and the conference has just started.

My Irish Townlands

I looked up my family's Irish townlands at google maps. I only know about the two that the Mullens and Huvanes lived in for at least a couple hundred years if not much longer? Irish townlands range in size from as little as an acre to thousands of acres.

Ellen/Helen Mullen/Mason she was born and
raised in Pollaturick

I had not idea that they now have outlines of the Townlands at google maps. The nearly octagonal shape of Fallakeeran is very interesting to see.
I then switched to street view to take a tour of the area. I now would love to know which properties belong to the Mullen and Huvane families. There are still some older buildings in the area. I am hoping some of the old homestead survives. I do have some contacts in the area. I better hurry up and ask because my best source of information in the area is elderly.
Pollaturick was the townland where my great-grandmother Ellen/Helen Mullen was born 26 December 1880.

 Pollaturick now:

Fallakeeran Today

 

FamilySearch Tree: Deleting a bad connection

One year after my invitation to the New FamilySearch Tree I'm finally rockin'n rolling. I now see that you can make all the corrections you want. If you go into an ancestor's profile page and click on the hyperlinks for each fact you can change everything from the spelling of the name to individual facts. I also discovered a very important tool which allows you to delete incorrect relationships. I found a glaring mistake in that my ancestor William McPike's parents were given as Jesse McPike and Matilda Meadows. This was Matilda's second marriage so her name was Dayton when she married Jesse. They must have been drinking that day at FamilySearch because Jesse and Matilda were married in 1840 and their supposed son was died 46 years earlier in 1794. Jesse was actually William's grandson instead of Father. Oddly it states that FamilySearch added these wrong parents?
Here's how you delete an incorrect relationship:

First click on the person's name and go to their profile

I decided to correct from Jesse McPike's profile page. When you hover of their child's name you see the link to edit relationship appear.

We click on edit relationship. This relationship needs to be trashed so we click on the trash can to delete the relationship. We have to provide a reason for the deletion.

After the process is complete this is the screen you get.

  

The Committee Tree at Family Search

"A mule is a horse designed by a committee." The Family Search tree is a tree designed by a committee. It is a little awkward, like the mule too. One of my Facebook friends posted a link to the fancreate web page . It draws the information needed for creating the Fan Chart (see above) from your Family Search tree. When I created a chart from my Family Search shared tree (shared meaning it can be edited and changed by anyone) I found quite a few wrong family connections on the chart.
On the upside someone added to one of my lines and this addition may actually be correct!! I will check the tree at Family Search more often for possible extensions of some of my lines.

The new line I found seems plausible so I decided to leave it as it is on the chart. I had seen a number of trees state that Nathan Browning's mother was Rebecca Unknown. It appears her maiden name was McKaughan. Her mother's name was Boyd. It's interesting that I matched several people who had Boyds in their family tree at FT DNA.
Some paperwork was generated by descendants of the family who were looking to inherit money from an ancestor who owned a glass factory in Belfast. An 1873 statement by a family member, Joab Brooks, gave some interesting details about the early family.
For some reason all of the corrections I made at Family Search never showed up on the charts I created. Some of my corrections would show up, but others remained uncorrected. I decided to just cross then out. One of these stubborn errors was the parentage of Andrew Forgey Sr.. His parents were given as Hugh Forgey and Sally Everman. Hugh Forgey was born about 1754 and his supposed son was born in 1732. Don't now how they became linked this way?
Another error occurred when Jesse McPike was entered as father of William McPike when Jesse was actually his grandson.

This 9 generation chart provides such a nice view of where my Family Search tree stands. I hear that many people aren't interested in charts, but I don't think you can know where you stand without them? I am finding the disinterest in this aspect of genealogy is leading to oddly formatted entries. You don't hear many people discussing how to properly enter names. I am finding entries like John Sr. Browning, instead of John Browning Sr.. When a mother or wife's name is missing I find, for instance, Mrs. Samuel Hicks entered when I think the space should be left blank.
I still have to verify some of the information I've found on the Family Search tree. These kinds of collaborative trees can be useful, as long as you verify the information using original documents.

FANing with Evidentia: Breakthrough

FAN is an acronym for friends, acquaintances, and neighbors. I've recorded the names and number of years, those who provided affidavits, had been acquainted with Jesse Callahan and his wife Eve Urmey. I noticed Edward Kindred had been acquainted with Jesse Callahan for 69 yrs.. I realized, if correct, they had known each other in childhood back in Kentucky. We, the Callahan researchers, had assumed that the family came from Mercer County, KY. I looked up Edward's family and found out his family was from Jessamine County, KY which borders Mercer for a small stretch. I wonder if Edward Kindred may actually be a relation? An A. Brenneman was an administrator of  Edward's father's estate which may have been Eve's grandmother's maiden name. The Kindred family may help my trace the Callahan's back farther?

War of 1812 Evidentia Report

Still learning how to use Evidentia. I noticed that I should separate every assertion. I combined 2 in several claims. Each assertion should be evaluated separately for source quality. I accidently created several Eve Urmey's that had to be merged, so I believe that's why I have some duplicate entries?

The reason for the generation of over 100 pages of  material in this Widow's Pension is the fact that Jesse and Eve married at a time before marriage records were kept intact. Either there marriage record was lost or never created. Eve Urmey/Callahan said she married on Oct. 5, 1814, which was supported by Catherine Miller who may have been her sister? Other friends and neighbors were asked to submitted statements in which they stated they had known Jesse and Eve to be husband and wife.

No marriage record could be located

Using Evidentia to Comb thru War of 1812 File

Not sure what claim type to use for the affidavit people. I did add a category Friendship

I may have solved a brickwall in my Urma/Urmey line using the War of 1812 Widow's Pension file of Eve Callahan nee Urma/Urmey. I had not been able to locate her parents based on other documents. Many trees online listed her as a child of  Jacob Urmey and Susannah Brower. Eve was not mentioned in Jacob's will so I assumed she was not actually his daughter. Going through the pension I noticed that Jacob's daughter Catherine was present at the marriage of Jesse Callahan and Eve Urma/Urmey. A long time friend of the family Edward Kindred said he heard about the marriage from Eve's brother Jacob. It looks like there was only one Jacob in the area and he was the son of Jacob Urmey and Susannah Brower. So Eve may indeed be the daughter of Jacob and Susannah after all.

1831 Will of Jacob Urmey, Washington County, IN

I've collected up the names of everyone who submitted an affidavit on behalf of Eve. I used Evidentia to record all of the pertinent facts I've found in the Pension file. I plan on doing more research in Washington County, IN records and
hope to be able to confidently add Jacob and Susannah to my tree in the future.
It was so interesting to read what the neighbors and family members had to say about Jesse and Eve. They lived in the Houston area of Jackson County, IN for more than half a century and made many friends.
 Eve told the attorney that she finally yielded Jesse's "persuasion" and married him. One neighbor stated she was present at the birth of Jesse and Eve's daughter Mary.

A description of the reason Eve married Jesse

Edward Kindred had a great deal of useful information

This is what my tree would like like if I can prove Eve's parents

Mary Croucher was present at birth of Mary Callahan