Use eGENEe to Search for Genealogy Websites, Resources

by

I am a regular reader of Dick Eastman’s Genealogy News. In February 23, 2016, he posted an article about eGENEe, a website containing a catalog of genealogy and history websites. (To read his post, go here: http://blog.eogn.com/2016/02/23/use-egenee-to-search-for-genealogy-and-history-websites-and-resources/)

He explains that Anita Brubaker, the owner of eGENEe, says she began keeping a list of useful, reliable websites in 2010. It was first a spreadsheet and later became a true database as the number of entries grew. It now has become eGENEe. The web site currently contains more than 150,000 links for US websites, and that number is growing daily. Currently only the United States is available, but there are plans for additional countries in the future.

Dick further explains that eGENEe has a user interface that is very easy to use, noting that you can search for web sites by locality, years, categories, name, title, price, URL, or any combination of these factors. Searches can sometimes come up with some obscure resources. For instance, I did a search for my own last name. The results included this newsletter and also the Eastman Dental Center Archives at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Eastman Institute for Oral Health. I doubt if that site has patient records available due to privacy issues but does have information about dentists and other staff members.

Dick found that searching for a surname is not really productive. You can try it, he writes, but you probably won’t find meaningful results. Instead, eGENEe is an excellent tool for finding sources of records. Dick suggests searching for the name of the town or county where some of your ancestors lived.

Dick searched for “Penobscot County, Maine” and got back 40 online web sites that have information about that county. Not many of our readers are interested in Maine so I tried one for Cuyahoga County, Ohio..

Search Window image

This straight-forward search with only two search fields filled in returned 1412 items to check out. Using the various search fields can winnow down the number of “finds” to those of most interest to you.

As Dick points out, the sites found might be difficult to find with a simple Google search. As Dick points out, many of the results found would be difficult to find with a simple Google search.

eGENEe is available free to use at: http://eGENEe.com.

The Family Dinner

by

Lately, with all the focus on the runup to the 2016 Presidential Election, I have been somehow reminded about my family sitting around the dinner table in the mid-1950s discussing topics ranging from family developments to national news of the day. Mind you, I don’t recall any specific topics, but only that Dad and Mom and my sister and brother shared information and opinions. I doubt that we got into any heavy political discussions during this period which encompassed the presidency Dwight Eisenhower.

We did sit around the kitchen table for dinner on a pretty regular basis–and that is what I remember.

Today, I ran across an article produced by National Public Radio (Tuesday, Feb 16) entitled “No Place For Discontent’: A History Of The Family Dinner In America.” It began thusly:

In homes across the United States, families sit down around their dining tables to share a meal together known as the Family Dinner. This can be a joyous occasion or a contentious one. Whether you feel warm and fuzzy or grit your teeth at the thought, the family dinner is an opportunity for familial communication that didn’t always exist.

The article went on to discuss how the family dinner table came about in America, and how it was idealized during the 1950’s:

The 1950s emphasised the importance of a happy nuclear family. And what better place to showcase it than at a dining room table? Father sits at the head of the table; mother is at the opposite end. They’re flanked by their docile children, as shown on TV shows like Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best.

You might want to go here to read the online version of the report to learn how the family dinner tradition began in American. Also, for the historical illustrations, photos, and a video that illustrate its development.

 

 

 

Learning about Genetics and Your Physical Fitness

by

At one time, about 25 years ago, I was quite concerned about my physical fitness. I was running at least 3 miles every other day, and even doing some body-building routines. If I had had available the following blog posting, “How Much Does Genetics Really Affect Your Fitness?” I would have been all over it. Today, I am not so much interested in physical fitness per se.

But I was attracted to the article from the standpoint of genetics, however, especially since I have been working with DNA tests.

So who provided this blog posting? It was written by Beth Skwarecki, for the Fitness category of the blog, LifeHacker. According to an entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehacker):

Lifehacker is a weblog about life hacks and software which launched on January 31, 2005. The site is owned by Gawker Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft Windows, Mac,Linux programs, iOS and Android, as well as general life tips and tricks. The staff updates the site about 18 times each weekday, with reduced updates on weekends. The Lifehacker motto is “Tips and downloads for getting things done.”

The central idea of the posting is that there are a lot of things that enter into your conditionng along with genetics: “your diet, your exercise schedule, and the types of workouts you do, to name a few. But genetics is also a big factor.”

Skwarecki writes “There are genes for aerobic fitness and for muscular power, for adaptability to training, and for the size and shape of your body. To understand how your DNA affects your fitness, we talked to someone who has extensively studied this exact question: Stephen Roth, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland. The gist is this: We each draw something different in the genetic lottery, but we can always improve on what we’ve got.”

Here are some ballpark figures on heritability of athletic traits. The higher the heritability, the more you can blame genes, rather than training, for the difference between a couch potato and a star athlete.

●Aerobic fitness: about 40-50% heritable
●Strength and muscle mass: about 50-60% heritable
●Your mix of “slow twitch” and “fast twitch” muscle fibers (basically, whether your muscles are better at endurance or sprinting): about 45% heritable
●Height: about 80% heritable
●Competing in sports, at all: 66% heritable.
Trainability itself has a genetic factor, too. If you and your gym buddy follow the exact same program, starting at the exact same fitness level, one of you might end up stronger than the other.
,,,
Here’s one more complicating, but hopeful factor: Athletic talent has many components. Maybe you can’t run as fast as one of your soccer teammates, but you have a better eye for where the ball is going to be and a more powerful kick once you’re there. Or maybe your cardio endurance isn’t great, but you have long legs and an efficient running stride. So don’t give up, even if you’re convinced you got a few dud genes.

Genetics is hard. Out of 20,000 human genes, Roth points out, only hundreds have been studied, and only dozens carefully studied, for their role in exercise. Just because we know a gene exists doesn’t mean we understand how it works, or what turns it on.

To read the LifeHacker blog posting, go to http://vitals.lifehacker.com/how-much-does-genetics-really-affect-your-fitness-1747333767

If you are interested in exploring LifeHacker, or signing up for emails, go to http://lifehacker.com/

Ancestry Responds to Concerns of Users of New Ancestry with Updates

by

Hard on the heels of the reminder notificati0n that Ancestry.com was moving completely to the “new” Ancestry website on 15 Dec 2015, and the announcement that it was ending sales of the personal genealogical database program Family Tree Maker, the genealogical database provider put out a new list of updates and changes to the “new” Ancestry with the 11 Dec 2015  Feature Update posted to the Ancestry Blog. (Posted by Ancestry Team on December 11, 2015 in Ancestry.com Site, Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, United Kingdom)

I personally was happy to see this posting as I was unaware of some of the changes (improvements?) even as I used my Ancestry.com subscription during the day of the 11th. Here is the text for that posting (to see the announcement in its entirety complete with helpful images, go to http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/11/the-new-ancestry-december-11th-feature-update/):

Welcome to our weekly update on the new Ancestry website. Last week we posted an article that covered the upcoming features and this week we introduced several important enhancements to the Person Page, Facts view and media experience in the new Ancestry.

As always, we have also included links to articles and videos at the end of this post that will help answer your questions and provide more tips on the new site. We appreciate your feedback, please submit it via this form.

Features we introduced:
Navigational changes on Person Page, Tree Viewer and Media – We introduced some additional navigation options. With these shortcuts, you can get to your endpoint more easily and quickly.

List of All People – This previously was only available from the Tree Viewer. Members suggested it would save time to have this available on the Person Page, so we added it there too. In addition to easier access to the List of All People, we added the option to navigate directly to the home person of the tree. Click on the icon to access “Home Person” or “List of All People.”

Trees Pages return to the Person Page – The Tree Pages menu options are now available on the person page. To access this, select the name of your tree. To view your tree you can either select the first option in the tree pages menu or the tree icon to the left of the tree name.

Tree Header Updates – In the Tree Viewer, the tree pages menu has been moved and is accessible by selecting the tree name. For visual consistency, we’ve updated the look of the Find Person tool in the Tree Viewer. Other pages from the tree pages menu, such as the Tree Media Gallery, Tree Settings and Tree Overview will get the same update as the Tree Viewer.

Media Viewer “Delete or Save” to Desktop Menu – You can now quickly access options for downloading to your desktop or delete from Tree with this menu.

Tree Owner Information – We added the tree owner information to the person pages. When you are viewing a tree that you’re not invited to, the “guest” badge will no longer show – some of our members expressed confusion about this, and we agree that it’s important to know the owner of the tree in addition to your role.
Hide/Show Family Events to Customize LifeStory and Facts View –The configure icon for hiding and showing the Family Events and Historical Insights has been changed to “Show” and is consistent with filtering for the media gallery. Checkmarks indicate what content will be shown on the page.

Media Enhancements

All Media Types Available on Facts view – If you have previously attached stories, audio, or video recordings to a fact, these will now show as attached to that fact. In addition, any media that you have attached to the person is now available to add to all the existing and new facts you create.

Link Story
Undo “Crop” on Profile Image – You can now undo the crop by selecting “Use Full Image” to use the full picture as the Profile Image.

Mobile-Friendly Media – Now you can see the pictures or their details easily on your mobile devices.

Mobile-Web-Media
Mobile-Web-Media-Details
Enhanced Designs – We’ve streamlined the person page with a few minor visual design updates. Text size has been increased, and contrast has been improved. There is also more visual separation between navigation elements and the vital information about your ancestor.

Person Header Updates – We’ve removed the background texture from the header of the Person Page to increase readability. The tab background has also been lightened.

Less scrolling on the Facts View – Name & Gender are collapsed by default. This way, more of your ancestor’s timeline is visible on the screen. You can expand the name and gender to edit them individually. The display of family events on the Facts view of in your ancestor’s timeline is now more condensed. This allows you to see more information on your screen, with less scrolling.
Features we will retire:

Features we will retire:

It’s difficult to lose any features on our site, however, after exploring a myriad of use cases and analyzing how our members conduct genealogical research on the site, we made the decision to retire Story View:

Story View – On the Person Page from the old Ancestry, we had a feature called Story View. This view helped us continue to refine how stories could be generated based on information about an ancestor and how users could refine those stories. Those learnings have been applied into LifeStory in the new Ancestry and as we move forward with all users in the new Ancestry by December 15th we will be retiring these pages. Stories, photos and records created in your Story View have already been migrated to the LifeStory view in the new Ancestry. Links to the old Ancestry Story View of an ancestor will not be available in the new Ancestry but you will be able to continue to access that view via the links that were created and shared until March 15, 2016. After that time, Story View will be officially decommissioned.

Features we are still working on:

Continue Search – Option to keep searching from within your tree versus right clicking to open new records.

Family Group Sheet – The functionality of the current Family Group Sheet is duplicated with that of the Facts view, so we do not plan to carry forward the current Family Group Sheet. We will however, introduce a new Family Group Sheet report that offers more information about a family in one glance, and it will be similar to a traditional family group sheet report.

We appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep submitting it. What do you love about the new website? Did you find a bug? Something doesn’t quite work like you think it should? Please submit it via this form. Thank you. We will be providing more updates over the next couple of weeks.

Ancestry.com to Stop Selling Family Tree Maker

by

The following rather surprising, even shocking, announcement was posted by Kendall Hulet on December 8, 2015 in Australia, Canada, Family Tree Maker, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom – See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/#blogComments

Ancestry is proud to have made a significant investment this year to bring valuable new content and records to the Ancestry site. In 2015, we’ve made 220 million searchable historical records from Mexico available, more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of U.S. will and probate records, among others. We’ve also introduced new features such as Ancestry Academy and major advancements for AncestryDNA.

We remain dedicated to helping people gain new levels of understanding about their lives, and who and what led to them, harnessing the information found in family trees, historical records and genetics. As a company, we’re also continually evaluating ways to focus our efforts to provide the most impact and best product experience for our users through our core offerings.

True to this focus, we’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015.

Our subscription business and website, on the other hand, continue to grow and we are doubling down our efforts to make that experience even better for our Ancestry community. Ancestry will continue to support current owners of Family Tree Maker at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™, will continue to work, and Member Services will be available to assist with user questions. We will also address major software bugs that may occur, as well as compatibility updates.

These changes are never easy, but by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on continuing to build great products for our loyal Ancestry community.

If you have inquiries regarding Family Tree Maker, please reach out to our Member Services team. We’ll also provide updates on our blog as needed leading up to January 1, 2017. – See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/#blogComments

By 11 am today, more than 5,500 comments had been registered, mostly expressing disappointment, and many stating that they wouldn’t be renewing their Ancestry.com subscription.

The New Ancestry Will Replace Old Ancestry as of December 15th 2015

by

On 16 Nov 2015, I received an email from Ancestry.com stating that it is switching all accounts
over to its “new” Ancestry.com website on 15 Dec 2015. The “old” Ancestry.com will no longer be
available.

The most significant advances claimed for the new website are on the person page. The person page is organized into four tabs: LifeStory, Facts View, Gallery, and Hints. (see screen capture).

In a YouTube post, the company says “The new Ancestry has been designed to transform how you can discover and tell your family story. We like to listen to and share stories, but it can be hard to unravel and tell the stories behind all the facts and information you have gathered in your tree. With new storytelling features and a streamlined design, the new Ancestry helps you weave together richer stories that can bring you closer to knowing your ancestors as people. It’s your family story, reinvented. Learn more here: http://home.ancestry.com/
NewAncestry”

Ancestry.com has issued no press release on this development that this writer could find. Millions of people are reported to be using the new Ancestry site, but the company is getting a lot of blowback from disgruntled users on a variety of blogs. From what these users are claiming, many expect to cancel their subscriptions.

Ancestry claims that “All the research and information you have now will be on the new Ancestry. “Personally, I have found no serious problems with the new Ancestry.com on a desktop PC, a laptop PC, an Ipad, and an IPhone. I suspect that a big motivation for the redesign was the growing use of mobile devices at the expense of PCs. In a FAQ listing, Ancestry states “The new experience was designed to work better across all mobile devices. You’ll be
able to see the media gallery, Historical Insights, and LifeStory, too. More improvements for the mobile experience are planned.06

Here is a partial view of the profile that I have created for my great grandfather on the “new”
Andestry.com:Ancestry Profile of Otto Huuskonen

On 6 Dec 2015, on the Ancestry Blog, the Ancestry Team posted to following note:

As a reminder, as of December 15th, 2015, the old website will be retired and the new Ancestry will be the only Ancestry website. We will continue providing these posts as needed to ensure you have the latest update on the features available and the features the team is working on.

 

My Absence from Posting on Collecting Ancestors

by

It has been awhile since I last posted to this blog–since July to be exact.

I have been dealing with some family health issues. I can’t say they have been resolved, but I am better organized to handle them.

As a result, I am going to begin again to post more regularly on this blog. There’s a lot happening in genealogy these days, and I am discovering new facts and data about my family history.

As they say in broadcasting, Stay tuned!

Evert Huskonen – Laborer, Farm Operator, Farm Owner, Retired Farmer

by

When my grandfather, Evert Huuskonen, emigrated from Finland in 1902, he left his occupation as a farmer. In America, he worked as a laborer in a railroad car shop, as reported in the 1910 census. The 1908 and 1912 Ashtabula City Directories listed Evert and Ida as living at 11 Bell St. in Ashtabula, presumably so that Evert could be close to his workplace. Both city directory listings reported that he was working as a laborer in a car repair facility.

The Bell St house was relatively small according to a 1909 Sanford Fire Insurance map of the area. It measured about 30 feet wide by 40 feet deep, with a second story measuring about 20 ft by 10 feet. It also had a small front porch. In the 1910 Census, Evert, Ida, and five children were  enumerated as living in this house with its approximate 1500 sq ft of living space, along with three male boarders from Finland, aged between 21 and 26.

Evert Huuskonen moved his family to at least one farm before he was able to purchase his own farm in Williamsfield Township, in southeastern Ashtabula County. A family photograph taken about 1915 shows eight family members posing in front of a brick farmhouse along with an unidentified young man who probably was a farm worker. The location of this farm is unknown.

By 12 Sep 1918, when Evert reported to Draft Board No. 2 in Jefferson, the county seat for Ashtabula County, to fill out a World War I draft registration card, he was living in Simons, a populated place in the southeast corner of Williamsfield Township, Ohio. He was 44 years old, and listed his occupation as self-employed farmer.

The location of that farm was identified in the 1920 Census as on Center Road East in Williamsfield Township. Evert and Ida were living there with three sons: Emil, Hugh, and Walfrid. Evert was listed as a farmer on a dairy farm.

By 1930, Evert and Ida had moved to another farm on North Simons Rd, still in Williamsfield Township, according to the Federal Census. Son Walfrid was living with them in the household. Evert was listed as a farmer.

In the 1940 Census, Evert was aged 66 and apparently retired since there was no occupation listed for him. He and Ida were living in yet another location on Rt 7 North in Williamsfield Township. The 1940 Census also asked people where they lived in 1935 and the answer for Evert and Ida was “same place.”

In the 1940 Census, the citizenship status for Evert was marked NA, the abbreviation for “Naturalized,” which represented a change from earlier censuses where he was listed as AL for “Alien.” Ida continued to be listed as an Alien. The naturalization papers for Evert do not give a specific addresses for him other than RFD No. !, Andover, on his Declaration of Intent in 1935 and RFD No. 7, Andover, on his Certificate of Citizenship in 1938.

Sometime after 1940, Evert and Ida moved to a cottage of three rooms plus bath on the property of their son, Walfrid Huskonen, at 496 South Main St., Andover.

Evert died at home in Andover on August 14, 1947, at the age of 73 years. Ida continued to live in the cottage for a few more years until she moved to Ashtabula to live with her oldest daughter, Edith Nikkari.

Grandpa Evert Huuskonen’s Journey to America

by

On Oct 6, 2011, I posted an article about how my grandmother and her four children traveled from Finland to America. It involved some records research, some detective work with maps, and some speculation about details. I also wrote an article about the details of my grandfather’s journey to America but hadn’t posted it until now. The journeys were separate because my grandfather emigrated from Finland in 1902 and my grandmother followed the next year.  The reason for the difference: my grandmother was still pregnant with my Aunt Mary when it came time for Grandpa to leave. Ironically, Aunt Mary was born in Vesanto, in central Finland, on the same day that Grandpa Huuskonen boarded a ship in Hanko, a port in southern Finland, to sail to England for his transatlantic voyage.

Here is my article about Grandpa Huuskonen’s journey

On 26 Sep 1902, Evert Huuskonen, aged 29 years, obtained Passport No. 456/1902 in Kuopio, the capital city of Kuopio Province, to travel from Vesanto, Finland, to the United States of America. His destination was Ashtabula, Ohio. He indicated that he planned to stay for 5 years. His intended companions were his wife Ida maria and four children.

The timing of his planned departure suggests that the summer farming season was over and he had saved up enough money to make the trip.
When it came time to make the final arrangements, Evert bought only a single ticket (the ticket price was 216 Finnish maarka–marks in English) no doubt because Ida Maria was expecting a child within a month or so.

It’s likely Evert left home on the 9 or 10 of October, traveling by train toward Helsinki from Kuopio, or even more likely from Suonenjoki, which is a main stop on the Kuopio-Helsinki rail line, and is only about 54 kilometers (34 miles) from Vesanto. At Hyvinkaa (where the railroad to Hanko branches off from the Kuopio-Helsinki line), he no doubt transferred to a second train bound for the Finnish port of Hanko on the Baltic Sea at the very southern tip of Finland.

As it turned out, Evert departed from Hanko on the same day as his daughter Mary’s birth, 11 Oct 1902. He sailed from Finland on the steam ship Arcturus of the Finland Steamship Co. bound for Hull, England.

Upon his arrival in Hull, he boarded another train for the approximately seven-hour trip as a transmigrant westward across England to the Atlantic seaport of Liverpool. There, he boarded the S.S. Tunisian of the Allan Line on 16 Oct 1902 for the voyage to North America.
The Emigrant Register does not list a destination port for this ship, but the passenger manifest for the S. S. Tunisian is on microfilm among the St Albans District records in the U.S. National Archives in Washington. It sailed from Liverpool, 16 Oct 1902, arriving in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 25 Oct 1902.

The manifest lists the following particulars for Evert Huuskonen: male; married; age 29; occupation, laborer; able to read and write; nationality, Finnish; final destination, Ashtabula, Ohio. It further indicated he had a ticket to that destination; paid for by himself; he was in possession of at least $20; and he was joining a friend, Vieko Pietihani [?], whose address was Box 115, Ashtabula. Evert was listed in good health on the ship’s manifest.

We can assume that once he arrived in Quebec City, he immediately boarded a train, again as a transmigrant, bound for the United States and Ashtabula, Ohio.

Evert and Ida Huuskonen from Vesanto and Rautalampi, Finland

by

For years, we wondered about why Grandpa Evert Huuskonen moved from Rautalampi to Vesanto in Finland. The two towns are about 45 km apart. After learning the history of Rautalampi Parish and its daughter parish, Vesanto, we concluded that the Huuskonens did not move at all, but that Evert Huuskonen and his wife Ida simply were transferred to the rolls of the Vesanto Parish in 1893.

Vesanto Parish was  formed when a new church was built in the small town of the same name near the Huuskonen farm. The new parish was formed because the Rautalampi church was 45 km (about 28 miles) away, a long way to travel to church on the very primitive roads of the late 19th century. The Huuskonen family simply chose to maintain affiliation with Rautalampi Parish even though there was a church much closer.