Jim Panttaja’s Genealogy Research

There are a couple of services that let you publish ‘books’. The one that I have the most experience with is Lulu. With this service, I can take a book that I have created using Family Tree Maker, upload it to Lulu.com, and then order printed copies of the book to share with my relatives. I could also choose to allow others to order copies directly either in printed form, or download a PDF file.

The process if fairly simple, and the books are quite inexpensive. I often print copies for myself that are spiral bound. The binding let’s me easily review them, mark them up, or use them for reference on a trip to the library. I often end up giving them away when I visit relatives. For smaller family groups, I have had them printed in booklet form (a staple in the middle like a magazine. I just order the latest revision that I have created of my personal genealogy (356 pages) in ‘perfect bound’, which is sort of like a paperback book.

The perfect bound is about $12/copy for 356 pages.

I usually request one first - take a look at it, make sure that the pages are right (odd numbered pages on the left), and proof it one more time. Then I order several (might be Christmas presents - or maybe some copies for my local library).

One trick you will have to overcome is to make sure that the fonts are all embedded in the .pdf file. I accomplish this by opening the PDF file on my Mac using PDFPen (which also let’s me do some simple editing - Family Tree Maker sneaks in a blank page for me at page 3 on all of my documents. I haven’t figured out how to tweak Family Tree Maker to not do that - so I just remove the page using PDFPen). Having opened the file, I ‘print to PDF’. That gets the fonts embedded, and I am good to go. On a PC, I had to use to accomplish the embedding.

Here is the cover of my book on John Miller Camron.

Recently I was researching one of my sister-in-law’s ancestors, and I ended up on a site that was in German. The site is genealogy.net. In the entry for Matthias Schmeisser, I found the following text:

“Sein Grabstein steht noch heute auf dem Friedhof von York; dort und auf Wolf’s Friedhof ruhen fast alle Smyser aus York und Umgebung. Matthias Schmeisser wanderte im Jahre 1731 mit seiner Mutter, seiner Schwester Anna Margaretha und seinem jüngeren Bruder Georg nach Amerika aus. In seiner Heimat hatte er den Beruf eines Webers erlernt und betrieb nun in der Neuen Welt - mit 16 Jahren- einen Textilwarenhandel in Kreutz Creek Yalley (York County).- Bald aber kaufte er, am 3. Mai 1745- mit bestem Grund und Boden- drei Meilen westlich der Stadt York eine grosse Farm, die 100 Jahre später, beim ersten grossen Familientag Smyser (Schmeisser) am 3.5.1845, zu Ehren seines Geburtsortes einstimmig den Namen “Riegelbach” erhielt. Matthias muss ein besonders gewandter, tüchtiger und fleissiger Mann gewesen sein, denn ersterworbenes Land tauschte er immer wieder gegen besseres, bis es ihm dann -14 Jahre nach der Einwanderung- möglich war eine Farm von ca. 500 acres (über 20,000 Ar), günstig zur Stadt gelegen, aufzubauen. Er selbst bewirtschaftete diese Farm vom 3. Mai 1745 bis1771, dann übergab er sie seinem Sohn Mathias, blieb aber bis zu seinem Tode dort wohnen.”

It has been a long time since I studied German in college. At least I could recognize it as German, and thought that I could sort it out with a dictionary. But them I remember Altavista’s Babel Fish. This site let’s you enter text in one language, and it automatically translates it to another. On the website, they support translation between English, and about a dozen other languages, as well as translation between some of those other pairs of languages. I cut and pasted the text above in to Babel Fish, and received this translation:

“Its gravestone stands still today on the cemetery of York; there and on Wolf’s cemetery nearly all Smyser from York and environment rests. Matthias Schmeisser emigrated in the year 1731 with his nut/mother, his sister Anna Margaretha and his younger brother George to America. In its homeland he had learned and operated the occupation of a weber now in the new world - with 16 year a textile trade in Kreutz Creek Yalley (York County). - Soon however he, on 3 May 1745 with best reason and soil west the city York a large farm, bought three miles which received 100 years later, at the first large family day Smyser (Schmeisser) to 3.5.1845, in honours of its place of birth unanimously the name “latch plate brook”. Matthias must have been particularly more turn, efficient and industrious man, because it exchanged firstonly country for better, to it it then -14 years after the immigration possible was a farm of approx. again and again. 500 acres (over 20,000 acre), favorably to the city convenient to construct. It managed this farm from 3 May 1745 bis1771, then it handed it to its son over Mathias, remained however up to its death living there.”

The translation is not perfect - but it is enough to get me going. It also helped me with some of the specific words on the site like geboren (born) and gestorben (died).

A quick google search of “Finnish to English” yielded links to dictionaries as well as online translation tools. So regardless of the languages you need to deal with, the internet may provide tools for you.

[Update 11/1/2007]

I am surprised that I missed this - but there is a translation feature in Google. Here is the German to English translation from that web site:

“His gravestone stands today in the cemetery of York; There and at Wolf’s cemetery almost all the rest Smyser from York and the surrounding area. Matthias Schmeisser emigrated in 1731 with his mother, his sister Anna Margaretha and his younger brother George to America. In his hometown, he had a professional weaver learned and now operated in the New World - with 16 Jahren- a textile trade in goods Kreutz Creek Yalley (York County) .- Soon, but he bought on 3 May 1745 - with the best soil and ground three miles west of the city of York a large farm, the 100 years later, the first big family Smyser (Schmeisser) on 3.5.1845, in honor of his native town unanimously named “Riegel Bach” was . Matthias has a particularly gewandter, competent and fleissiger man, because ersterworbenes country he exchanged repeatedly against better until he then -14 years after the immigration was a farm of about 500 acres (about 20.000 Ar) , favorable to the city, build. He even managed the farm of 3 In May 1745 bis1771, then handed it to his son Mathias, but remained until his death there live.”

This looks at first glance like a better translation.

Another tool that I use for my research is Google Notebooks. This allows you to create an online notebook. Whenever you are browsing the internet, and come across a page that you want to look at more (this could be part of a web page - or a lookup you have just done in ancestry.com), you can highlight some of the text, and then hit ctrl-mouseclick (on my Mac - a PC might be different) and choose “Note this (Google Notebook)”. The text, and a link to the page are inserted in to a notebook page.

Here is a sample. I found my William Berry in ancestry, but didn’t have the time to capture all of the information right now. So I highlighted his name, and hit ctrl-mouseclick to copy this to my notebook. Later, I can click on the link in my notebook and go right back to the page.

Here is another example of a reference you can insert. I was looking up William Scudder, and found this will in Google Books (This site is also searchable through World Vital Records which I mentioned in a previous post).  I can insert this image of the book in to my notebook (or in to a blog as I have done here) by selecting the ‘click’ icon on the Google Books page, and selecting the part of the page that I want to capture.

This ability to insert images in to Google Notebooks is currently limited to pages you find in Google Books. This is what the click icon (in Google Books) looks like:

And if you want to have text instead (or in addition), you can insert that. Of course it isn’t a perfect translation to text - but it is a good start.

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register WILLIAM SCUDDER of Darenthe Kent yeoman 27 July 1607 proved 4 November 1607 My body to be buried solempely according to the custom of the church of England within the parish churchyard of Darenthe as near as may be unto my father’s grave To wife Margery all my lands and tenements whatsoever and whereever during only her natural life After that to Parnell Scoodder my eldest daughter my lands in Dartford and Wilmington now in the tenure &c of James Pindén with remainder to Mary Scudder my youngest daughter To my two next daughters Margaret aud Joane Scudder my messuage of tenement called Frog Lane with mault houses &c belonging now in the tenure of John Ellis fee in Sutton at Hone To daughter Mary a parcel of land called Prieles Meade six acres or more in Sutton at Hone with remainder to Parnell my daughter And if they two both happen to die without issue &c to my other two daughters If all my four daughters shall happen to ffithout heirs of their bodies lawfully begotten then I give Parnell’s to Henry Scudder son of John Scudder my natural brother de i aj d to his heirs forever The lauds aud tenements bequeathed my Margaret and Joaue I then give to Henry aud Thomas Scudder

I have several Google notebooks, and can easily move among them - inserting text and links as I browse the internet. It keeps me from losing track of great sites that I come across.

World Vital Records has been adding databases at a dizzying rate (They say they have thousands of databases, and hope to add 10,000 in the next few months). Often they are available to everyone who accesses the site for free for a period of time. But it is only $49.95 for a two year subscription to the service – and it is well worth the price. In the last couple of weeks, they announced access to Find A Grave. Although you could find this, and search it yourself, I hadn’t found it… And the access to this data through World Vital Records does not require you to pay a fee to World Vital Records. I looked up one of my problem ancestors, Noah Scudder. It found him on the Find A Grave site – and not only identified where his grave is (something I already knew – in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Chester, New Jersey), but it also showed a picture of the head stone. It also has his wife, Chloe Topping Scudder. Here is the link to Noah Scudder in World Vital Records, that you can click on to get the data at Find A Grave.

Of course I could just go to Find A Grave, but with World Vital Records, as new sources are available, a look up will find those new sources as well.

A search of the Pleasant Hill cemetery records at Find A Grave, yielded the following:  Entries for Noah, Chloe, and their children Harriet, Joseph S., Sophia and William. It is interesting that Harriet had married James Howell - but is buried as Harriet Scudder. James had gone to California and died in Plumas County California in 1854. Harriet’s son Matthias, and brother Jacob also went to California. There is also an entry for their daughter Nancy Scudder Drake.

There are a total of 510 entries for Scudders at Find A Grave.

One of the tools that I use for my genealogy research is Gensmarts. I got a copy of it when I purchased Family Tree Maker 16. I have used Family Tree Maker for many years - but decided to buy a new copy (rather than upgrade), partially because Gensmarts was bundled with it.

Gensmarts looks at your data file (for Family Tree Maker, as well as a number of competitive products), and identifies possible errors, as well as items for research. I use it with my Ancestry.com account to look up data that it suggests. I have about 8000 people in my Family Tree Maker database. When I first pointed Gensmarts at my database, the To Do list showed over 32,000 items to research. Fortunately, you can use radio buttons to limit the list. I started by only looking at information tied to my direct ancestors, that are available on Ancestry.com. I then moved on to items that fill missing data, and that are available to me on Ancestry.com.

Gensmarts uses the information in my database to project what records might be available. It suggests which states the person might be found in for a given census year, and also suggests things like birth and death records if it knows these are available for actual (or likely) years of birth or death.

I work my way down the list of suggestions - using Ancestry.com to look for the records.

Gensmarts hasn’t yet provided mappings to all Ancestry.com data. But I have found its suggestions on Census records, California birth and death records, and marriage records in a number of states to be very useful. I also look at the full search results from Ancestry.com for other records that might be useful. I tend to work through the list of suggestions from Gensmarts alphabetically by surname. This let’s me focus on a related family, and often find additional records.

There are a couple of other capabilities in Gensmarts that are useful. It’s Data Cleanup tab shows locations that probably aren’t correct (in my case, typos, or sometimes cities without states), or it suggests the appropriate county, given a city. I wish that it would let me choose some of its suggestions, and have it apply the changes to my Family Tree Maker file, rather than make me do it with find and replace - but the information is very helpful.

I am sure as I finish the 1100 remaining suggestions, I will find other ways to use Gensmarts to help me add to my research.