Bad News, I got my second "rejection letter" from the National Archives. Thomas Coope of the 11th Ohio Cavelry was not our guy. There was no Thomas Cooper in the 8th MI Cal and no Thomas Cooper in the 3rd Ohio Cal. I'm not sure what the next step is.
I have not heard anything back about Milo's records but I am keeping my fingers crossed and hopin' and prayin' and all that. I'm not sure where to go from here if he doesn't work out. There is a Freeman Family in Pennsylvania that is looking good these days.
I'm waiting for Ancestry to make some changes to their DNA ordering system so that we can upgrade to the next set of Markers (I think it's 48). I heard a rumor that will happen soon.
Showing posts with label ancestry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancestry. Show all posts
Monday, June 9, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Bad Census Pages
I found this in my Ancestry Weekly Journal, it's quite helpful when dealing with Images. Most of my problems lie in the way Ancestry Indexes things. Like Cordie Russell being listed as Eva Russel in 1920.
Help for Hard-to-Read Images
by Juliana Smith
So you’ve found what you think might be your ancestor in the census. The problem is, when you view the image, what you find sends your heart plummeting. The image is a) too dark, b) too light, or c) looks like a chimpanzee with writer’s cramp wrote it. So what’s a twenty- first-century family historian to do? Let’s explore some options.
Image EditingMany of the records we use today were microfilmed when that technology was in its infancy. So it’s no wonder we run across faded images or dark, hard-to-read records. Photo-editing tools are great for optimizing record images that are in digital format. I use Photoshop Elements, but many of the photo-editing programs out there have the same or similar options. Here are a few ideas for sprucing up those difficult to decipher images:
Darken highlights. I had a really faint 1910 census entry for my great-great-grandmother. Using the “Darken Highlights” function that is available in the Quick Fix mode, I was able to make the image much more readable. (View before and after images on the blog. The “before” image is in the center so that you can compare it with both of the edited images I’ve posted.)
Invert. Another option for lighter images is to invert the colors (i.e., the background would change to black with white writing on it). (I’ve also posted an example of this using the same example--see the bottom sample.)
Lighten Shadows. Another census image, for my Dyer family, had the family enumerated on the bottom of the page. The corner was very dark and writing from the other side of the page bled through. I used the Lighten Shadows tool and it helped remove some of the darkness. You can also play around with exposure tools to help clear out a little more of the “clutter.” (The second grouping on the blog has an example of this.)
Crop. This won’t really enhance readability, but by cropping black edges off of digitized images, you can save a ton of ink when you print a copy for your files.
Save a Copy of the OriginalWhenever I’m editing a record image, I make a copy of it first. I always save a file with the original image and then save it with the same title, adding “_edit” at the end. Sometimes the edits will help one portion of the record, but make another portion harder to read so it’s good to have that original to refer to.
When It’s the HandwritingWhen we’re dealing with “chimpanzee writing,” there are low-tech options that can help us decipher letters and numbers. The easiest is to compare the character in question--whether it’s a number or a letter--to others on the page that are more readable.
At Ancestry on each of the main census search pages, you’ll find a box on the right with a link to a pop-up “Handwriting Help” box. It contains several handwriting samples for every letter in the alphabet and by leaving it up in the background, you can compare the samples to the records as you are searching.
Also look for marks that are carried down from the line above or up from the line below. If the bottom of a fancy J spills down and overlaps the name you are trying to interpret, you may be misled. So with hard to decipher names or words, look at the lines above and below too.
Another technique is to trace the letter. Sometimes retracing the path of the enumerator’s pen may give you that “Aha!” moment.
Some commonly misinterpreted letters include:
T and F
J, G, and Y
I and J
K and R
O and Q
P and R
U and W
(From The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.)
Help for Hard-to-Read Images
by Juliana Smith
So you’ve found what you think might be your ancestor in the census. The problem is, when you view the image, what you find sends your heart plummeting. The image is a) too dark, b) too light, or c) looks like a chimpanzee with writer’s cramp wrote it. So what’s a twenty- first-century family historian to do? Let’s explore some options.
Image EditingMany of the records we use today were microfilmed when that technology was in its infancy. So it’s no wonder we run across faded images or dark, hard-to-read records. Photo-editing tools are great for optimizing record images that are in digital format. I use Photoshop Elements, but many of the photo-editing programs out there have the same or similar options. Here are a few ideas for sprucing up those difficult to decipher images:
Darken highlights. I had a really faint 1910 census entry for my great-great-grandmother. Using the “Darken Highlights” function that is available in the Quick Fix mode, I was able to make the image much more readable. (View before and after images on the blog. The “before” image is in the center so that you can compare it with both of the edited images I’ve posted.)
Invert. Another option for lighter images is to invert the colors (i.e., the background would change to black with white writing on it). (I’ve also posted an example of this using the same example--see the bottom sample.)
Lighten Shadows. Another census image, for my Dyer family, had the family enumerated on the bottom of the page. The corner was very dark and writing from the other side of the page bled through. I used the Lighten Shadows tool and it helped remove some of the darkness. You can also play around with exposure tools to help clear out a little more of the “clutter.” (The second grouping on the blog has an example of this.)
Crop. This won’t really enhance readability, but by cropping black edges off of digitized images, you can save a ton of ink when you print a copy for your files.
Save a Copy of the OriginalWhenever I’m editing a record image, I make a copy of it first. I always save a file with the original image and then save it with the same title, adding “_edit” at the end. Sometimes the edits will help one portion of the record, but make another portion harder to read so it’s good to have that original to refer to.
When It’s the HandwritingWhen we’re dealing with “chimpanzee writing,” there are low-tech options that can help us decipher letters and numbers. The easiest is to compare the character in question--whether it’s a number or a letter--to others on the page that are more readable.
At Ancestry on each of the main census search pages, you’ll find a box on the right with a link to a pop-up “Handwriting Help” box. It contains several handwriting samples for every letter in the alphabet and by leaving it up in the background, you can compare the samples to the records as you are searching.
Also look for marks that are carried down from the line above or up from the line below. If the bottom of a fancy J spills down and overlaps the name you are trying to interpret, you may be misled. So with hard to decipher names or words, look at the lines above and below too.
Another technique is to trace the letter. Sometimes retracing the path of the enumerator’s pen may give you that “Aha!” moment.
Some commonly misinterpreted letters include:
T and F
J, G, and Y
I and J
K and R
O and Q
P and R
U and W
(From The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.)
Monday, May 12, 2008
For Those Of You Just Tuning In
Depending on who you are:
Grandpa Russell (Vern, for most of us) was born in April of 1929 to Milton Jerome Russell and Judith Rogers (The Real Grandma Russell, for most of us). Milton was the fifth son of Cordy Russell and Maude Smith and he was born in Oakland county on 17 FEB 1910 and died in 1969 in Michigan. Cordy Alvin Russell was born on 04 APR 1881 in Oakland and died 01 FEB 1965. He was the last child of Frank Russell and Lydia Powell.
After the Russell Genealogy Team established those facts they were unable to move forward. It was as if someone was lying about who they were. A Y-chromosome DNA test was done and confirmed the life long suspicion of many that indeed, we are not Russell's. Although nothing is 100% in DNA (no really, it's true) some things are known. What I mean is, we may not be able to prove who we are through DNA alone but we can prove who we are not.
When comparing ourselves to other Russell's it must be noted that we have few genetic similarities. When comparing ourselves to all other surnames floating around in various DNA, Surname and Family Projects the family we matchis the Freeman's with the haplotype E1b1b (or the Haplotype Formerly known as E3b).
That is where we are with our research.
Grandpa Russell (Vern, for most of us) was born in April of 1929 to Milton Jerome Russell and Judith Rogers (The Real Grandma Russell, for most of us). Milton was the fifth son of Cordy Russell and Maude Smith and he was born in Oakland county on 17 FEB 1910 and died in 1969 in Michigan. Cordy Alvin Russell was born on 04 APR 1881 in Oakland and died 01 FEB 1965. He was the last child of Frank Russell and Lydia Powell.
After the Russell Genealogy Team established those facts they were unable to move forward. It was as if someone was lying about who they were. A Y-chromosome DNA test was done and confirmed the life long suspicion of many that indeed, we are not Russell's. Although nothing is 100% in DNA (no really, it's true) some things are known. What I mean is, we may not be able to prove who we are through DNA alone but we can prove who we are not.
When comparing ourselves to other Russell's it must be noted that we have few genetic similarities. When comparing ourselves to all other surnames floating around in various DNA, Surname and Family Projects the family we matchis the Freeman's with the haplotype E1b1b (or the Haplotype Formerly known as E3b).
That is where we are with our research.
Friday, March 28, 2008
DNA
DYS19A=13
DYS19b=-
DYS385A=13
DYS385b=15
DYS388=12
DYS389I=14
DYS389II=30
DYS390=23
DYS391=9
DYS392=11
DYS393=13
DYS426=11
DYS438=10
DYS439=10
DYS441=15
DYS447=23
DYS448=20
DYS449=32
DYS454=12
DYS455=11
DYS458=17
DYS460=11
DYS461=13
DYS463=18
DYS464a=14
DYS464b=16
DYS464c=16
DYS464d=17
DYS464e=-
DYS464f=-
YCAIIa=19
YCAIIb=22
Y-GATA-h4.1=22 (7 for YSearch)
Haplogroup E3B
DYS19b=-
DYS385A=13
DYS385b=15
DYS388=12
DYS389I=14
DYS389II=30
DYS390=23
DYS391=9
DYS392=11
DYS393=13
DYS426=11
DYS438=10
DYS439=10
DYS441=15
DYS447=23
DYS448=20
DYS449=32
DYS454=12
DYS455=11
DYS458=17
DYS460=11
DYS461=13
DYS463=18
DYS464a=14
DYS464b=16
DYS464c=16
DYS464d=17
DYS464e=-
DYS464f=-
YCAIIa=19
YCAIIb=22
Y-GATA-h4.1=22 (7 for YSearch)
Haplogroup E3B
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
DNA Companies
DNA Heritage is the same company that brought us the best (and only) tutorial available. Here is a page with their rates. They answer many Frequently Asked Questions in this section and this test would tell us enough about who we are to know if we are Russells or not.
Family Tree DNA is another group also available for tests. The FAQ is here and the prices are here. You can view information about the Surname Projects they host here.
Ancestry also has their own DNA test and it's cheaper than the others but price isn't the most important thing, accesibility is. If you have results for another company you can enter them here on ancestry. Their FAQs are available here. They even have the Ancestry DNA Blog! This is a blog entry about the number of markers available and what the differences are.
Family Tree DNA is another group also available for tests. The FAQ is here and the prices are here. You can view information about the Surname Projects they host here.
Ancestry also has their own DNA test and it's cheaper than the others but price isn't the most important thing, accesibility is. If you have results for another company you can enter them here on ancestry. Their FAQs are available here. They even have the Ancestry DNA Blog! This is a blog entry about the number of markers available and what the differences are.
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