Educational Opportunities in Houston in November: TSGS Annual Conference and FTDNA Project Administrator's Conference

I hate it when two events I really want to attend happen at the same time. But two great conferences will be held in Houston during the first weekend of November. The Texas State Genealogical Society (TSGS) Annual Conference and the Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) Project Administrator's Conference.

The TSGS conference starts on Thursday, November 3, with a writing workshop by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG^SM, sessions at Clayton Library on using FamilySearch.org, and an ice cream social. Free to the public, the vendor hall will be open on Thursday evening with many booths of interest to genealogists and historians: book vendors like Maia's Books, the Texas General Land Office, and many others. Three different tracks of sessions are offered on Friday covering many topics, including one I will present on DNA and genetic genealogy. It will cover basics of Y-DNA, mtDNA, and autosomal DNA testing. Other sessions on Friday include Civil War, Hispanic research, African American research, school records, the Texas General Land Office, artifacts, foreign records, immigration, and special collections of the Houston Public Library system including Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research.

Paula Stuart-Warren, CG^SM, is the featured speaker on Saturday covering WPA records, Southern deeds, railroad records, and finding and using manuscripts. Paula is the author of Your Guide to the Family History Library, Minnesota Genealogical Reference Guide, Paula's Genealogical Eclectica blog, and the FGS Conference News Blog. She specializes in Midwestern research, unique resources, major United States repositories, and Midwest and Plains Indians

The Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) will be offering free one-on-one consultations on Friday to help solve your genealogical problems. You can come prepared for a consultation by reading about the process and bringing a form with you, or get a form at the Lone Star Chapter of APG booth after you arrive. Appointments are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

Online registration for the TSGS conference is available at txsgs.org and a PDF copy of the brochure can be found at the main TSGS website.

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The Family Tree DNA Project Administrator's Conference begins with a reception on Friday evening. Topics are not published yet, but the featured speakers on Saturday and Sunday include:

• Spencer Wells, PhD (author of The Journey of Man and featured in the PBS series of the same name, geneticist for the National Genographic Project )
• Stephen P. Morse, PhD (known to genealogists as the author of the One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse and to technologists as the father of the Intel 8086 microprocessor)
• Bruce Durie, PhD (founder of the Genealogical Studies program at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, and a member of APG)
• Michael Hammer, PhD (FTDNA's Chief Scientist, and member of the Scientific Advisory Board)
• Bruce Walsh, PhD (FTDNA's Chief Population Geneticist and member of the Scientific Advisory Board)
• Doron Behar, MD, PhD (FTDNA's Chief mtDNA Scientist and member of the Scientific Advisory Board)
• Jessica L. Roberts, JD (University of Houston Law Center, Health Law and Policy Institute

The FTDNA conference is open to project administrators and guests. The registration page is available through the Group Administrator Pages.

Certified Genealogist (CG) is a registered Service Mark^SM conferred by the Board for Certification of Genealogists® to associates who meet rigorous ethical and competency standards in accord with peer-reviewed evaluations every five years. The Board was founded in 1964 to promote excellence in genealogical research, teaching, writing, publishing, and librarianship. http://www.bcgcertification.org/

Full disclosure: I am the DNA project administrator of the TSGS TXStateGS project at FTDNA and the president of the Lone Star Chapter of APG. Some expenses related to the TSGS conference may be reimbursed by TSGS or Lone Star Chapter of APG.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Another Good Reason to be in Boston

In addition to the Boston University, Certificate Program in Genealogical Research, here's another great reason to appreciate living near Boston. The Boston Early American History Seminar is open to the public and free (unless you pay the reasonable fee of $25 to receive advance copies of the papers to be discussed and to support the buffet supper served after meetings). This forum for early American history has several sessions of particular interest to genealogists. Also notable is the interest of these professors in both history and genealogy.

6 December 2011, 5:15 p.m.
Abigail Chandler, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and Ruth Wallis Herndon, Bowling Green State University
Panel Discussion on Colonial Family Law
Comment: Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut

Chandler's faculty page has bare details, but her thesis is online and looks very interesting:

• "At The Magistrate's Discretion: Sexual Crime And New England Law, 1637-1718"

Herndon's faculty page lists several interesting books and projects:

• Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001)
• Children Bound to Labor: Pauper Apprenticeship in Early America (Cornell University Press, 2009), co-edited with John E. Murray
• "collaborating with Dr. Ella Wilcox Sekatau, medicine woman, ethnohistorian and genealogist of the Narragansett Tribe, on a project to re-tell New England history using both Euro-American and Narragansett sources"
• "Children of Misfortune: The Fates of Boston’s Poor Apprentices," a study that traces the lives of children bound out from the Boston almshouse in the eighteenth century

6 March 2012, 5:15 p.m.
Karin Wulf, College of William and Mary
Ancestry as Social Practice in Eighteenth-Century New England: The Origins of Early Republic Genealogical Vogue
Comment: Laurel Ulrich, Harvard University

Wulf's faculty page lists several interesting books and projects:

• Milcah Martha Moore’s Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America (Penn State, 1997), with Catherine Blecki
• The Diary of Hannah Callender, 1758-1788 (forthcoming), with Susan Klepp
• Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia (Cornell University Press, 2000)
• a study of the relationship between genealogical practices and political culture: “Lineage: The Politics and Poetics of Genealogy in British America, 1680-1820”

Thanks to Legal History Blog for a heads up on the seminar

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Texas Genealogy Event, 21 October 2011

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) will host a Genealogy After Dark event on Friday, October 21, from 6:30 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. At the same time, the West Waco Library Genealogy Lock-In will be held. Attendees in Waco will have access to resources in the state library and those in Austin will have access to resources in Waco. The Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) will be providing free consultations during the event. A test is now being performed to see if the professional genealogists in one location can offer consultations to attendees in the other location using tools like Skype. It should be an interesting event.

According to this Central Texas Genealogical Society page the event there will include "the traditional training and informational resources of past years. All the computers in the library will access the genealogical sites and there will be ample help from volunteers and staff for research all evening."

You can sign up for e-mail notifications from the Texas State Library at this page to learn about events even before the forms are posted on their website. I attended the Genealogy After Dark event in February and it was wonderful to have access to all of the library and archive resources with one-on-one help available from the librarians and archivists who stayed after hours just to serve the patrons.

For more information on the Lone Star Chapter of APG and chapter events such as the Ancestor Roadshow consultations see this page. The chapter provides the free consultations as a community outreach program to assist researchers in furthering genealogical research.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Law and Kinship: 1211 vs. 2011

History-Net has a review by Arlene Sindelar (University of British Columbia) of
Sam Worby, Law and Kinship in Thirteenth-Century England (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Royal Historical Society/Boydell Press, 2010); 198 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-86193-305-1.
The Amazon link is here. A Google search on the book title turns up some other interesting reviews and comments. And I am very thankful for previews on Google Books.

My first response was that this was pricey for my personal library since I haven't traced any ancestors back to medieval England yet. But the reviews and the preview on Google Books make it very enticing. The nearest library with a copy, according to WorldCat, is 120 miles away in a location where I don't have anything else to do. My recent studies have focused on Spanish influences in historical Texas laws. Hmm, maybe reward points will bring this down to a price I can justify because I need to learn more about canon and English common law.

Any book that discusses kinship in this way will likely be useful to genealogists:

Kinship is many-layered. This book will descend through layers from the formal and written to the practised (p. 3)
...
an informal pattern of kinship knowledge existed beneath the laws (p. 4)
...
a way of thinking about and narrating bonds between people in terms of a recognised biological connection or analogy with biological connection. The term 'recognised' is used here because, for example, not all children are biologically related to both of their 'parents' (p. 5)
...
A particularly dangerous term in any exploration of medieval kinship is the word cousin since it can be used both specifically and vaguely to encompass a general sense of relatedness ... Cousin could be used as a word for almost any kinsman, but could also be a term of art (p. 6).

Its sounds like the theories and analysis presented in the book apply to kinship research today as well as in the thirteenth century and all the times in between. Aside from the introduction, conclusion, and a ten page bibliography that will probably cause more items to be added to my book wish list, the chapter and appendix titles are:

Chapter 1: Canon Law Kinship Structures
• Chapter 2: Common Law Kinship Structures
• Chapter 3: The Dominance of Canon Law Kinship Ideas
• Chapter 4: Kinship Laws in Practice
• Chapter 5: Trends Underlying Legal Kinship Structures
• Appendix 1: Raymón of Penyafort's Quia tractare intendimus
• Appendix 2: The historical introduction to Sciendum est
• Appendix 3: Common law adaptations of canon law treatises Quibus modis
• Appendix 4: Common law adaptations of canon law treatises Triplex est

Maybe I'll write a review from a genealogist's point of view after I read the book.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Lone Star Chapter of APG Meeting, May 6

We have an active chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists here in Texas—named the Lone Star Chapter for reasons obvious to any Texan. Despite the name, our membership includes those in surrounding states where there is no local chapter.

We have several exciting events planned for 2011. Most of our events and meetings are open to guests and visitors. (One event is for chapter members only. Members should get some benefit not available to guests, right?) Our meeting topics and speakers are usually aimed at those who have genealogical businesses or wish to transition to doing research as a professional. Some topics may be of interest to advanced level researchers who aren't interested in starting a business.

Our first public event this year presents Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, and Pat Oxley, President of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), discussing "Writing a Winning National Conference Speaker Proposal." This topic is interesting to anyone who might wish to speak at the national level. See our chapter events page for details on this event and other upcoming events.

We encourage everyone who enjoys this presentation, or has an interest in American history, to contribute to a project that is near and dear to the hearts of Paula and Pat. The National Archives and FGS have teamed up on a project to "Preserve the Pensions, War of 1812." Check out the sample pension files on the FGS site. The bicentennial of this war is quickly approaching. With your help the goal of digitizing all the pension files by 1815 can be achieved.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Texas Tax Rolls - Online Access

Don't you love tax records? Don't you love it when original records are available online? Don't you think you should contribute to the genealogical community by making it easier to find those original records?

Why do I love tax records so much? Taxes were collected every year. Where they still exist, the story of your ancestor's life becomes much more defined than by the facts collected every ten years on a census. Farmers who didn't meet the criteria to be recorded on an agricultural census will probably be listed in the tax rolls. If a courthouse fire burned the deed records, the tax roll may indicate how much land your ancestor owned and its general location. If there's no cemetery or death record for your ancestor, an approximate date of death can sometimes be calculated based on what is and what isn't found in the tax rolls. These are only a few of the ways tax records contribute to understanding our ancestors.

The Texas State Genealogical Society (TSGS) is partnering with FamilySearch to index the "Texas County Tax Rolls, 1837–1910." TSGS's own Scott Fitzgerald is administering the project for FamilySearch Indexing. Project information is available at this shortened URL http://tinyurl.com/3b4ksdr which links to this full URL https://indexing.familysearch.org/projtab/viewProject.jsf?url=USTexas-CountyTaxRolls1837-1910PartA/ProjectHelp1.html. There's even a YouTube video on this project at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm-BHjS1Pg0.

Many of the more than four million images in this project are already available in a browse mode. Browse by going to http://familysearch.org/. Scroll down to "Browse by Location" and click on "USA, Canada, and Mexico." Scroll down to "Texas County Tax Rolls, 1846–1910" and click on "Browse." (Different years are displayed in the two links.) You'll see a list of counties for which the images are online. If the county or page of interest isn't available yet, check back. It is amazing how many new images have been added within the last three weeks.

It's easy to contribute to the project by indexing a few pages each week (or each day). You can sign up as an indexer at http://indexing.familysearch.org/. I did my first batch in less than an hour and this included pages with faded ink that was difficult to read. A small investment of time now will reap big rewards later.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Educational Sources for Historical Context

You still hear some genealogists bragging about the number of names in their database. It happens less frequently now than a few years ago. Good genealogists are more interested in learning the life story of ancestors than in adding more names to a database with nothing more than birth, marriage, and death dates.

Good genealogists are historians. We focus on history in the micro. Instead of studying history's big picture and bigwigs we want to know about the activities of the little man or woman. What was daily life like for a poor farm family in rural East Texas? What was the work day like for those in the East Texas lumber industry and sawmills? How did a young man meet and marry a young woman who lived more than fifty miles away in the days before he could jump in his Chevy pickup and be at her house in less than an hour?

Knowing more about history in the macro can help us answer those questions. But what if we weren't interested in history all those years ago when we were in school? You might be surprised how the information schoolteachers use today can add life to our family history. In addition to providing fun for students the lesson plans and school field trips might lead to just the information we need to spice up a family narrative. Here are a few examples of places to find that information to bring your family story to life.

Living history museums not only offer exhibits, many demonstrate activities with hands-on participation. In Nacogdoches, Texas, Millard's Crossing offers tours of many period buildings. In addition to seeing the buildings and furnishings, the tourist washes laundry on a scrub board and runs it through a hand-powered wringer before pinning it up on a clothesline, uses a push plow to create a furrow in the soil and plant seeds, shells (not shucks) corn, and writes with a quill pen. Just comparing the trip up the stairs in an 1840s cabin to the stairs in a modern home can bring insight into the daily life of the woman cleaning that cabin or caring for a sick child in the upstairs bedroom.

Books written for the public or children often have photos and give a good overview of a scholarly topic. The Early Settler Life Series: Early Loggers and the Sawmill by Peter Adams (Toronto and New York: Crabtree Publishing Co., 1992) shows how the men worked in the forests and sawmills, how the fallen trees were moved through the forest and down the river, the importance of the support staff that kept the loggers fed, and how both families and single men lived in the logging camps. Historic Communities: Tools and Gadgets by Bobbie Kalman (Toronto and New York: Crabtree Publishing Co., 1992) illustrates tools used by the farmer, his wife, the doctor, the miller, and even the toys the children played with.

Lesson plans written to help teachers can help family historians, too. Government and private projects make this information freely available online, often through universities and state archives. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has a new online project, Texas in Transition: Railroads, Oil, and the Rise of Urban Texas. In addition to links to historical facts, there are links to great maps.

Need an 1874 map of Texas railroads to see how that young man traveled to meet his future wife? See "Texas New Yorker's Railroad Map of Texas," published 1874; Texas State Archives Map Number 0945, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin; digital image, Texas State Archives Map Collection ( http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/railroad/beginnings/map0945-display.html : accessed 12 April 2011).

Need an 1891 map of Dallas to determine the distance between the homes of two ancestors? How about this one linked from the section about the growth of Dallas: Theodore Schauseil, cartographer, "Revised Edition of Murphy and Bolanz Official Map of the City of Dallas and Suburbs/1891" (Publisher: J.P. Murphy and Charles Bolanz, Real Estate Brokers and Investment Bankers, Dallas, 1891); Texas State Archives Map Number 2346, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; Texas State Archives Map Collection ( http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/cgibin/aris/maps/maplookup.php?mapnum=2346 : accessed 12 April 2011).

These are only a few of the resources to help understand the lives of our ancestors. Be creative when looking for information. It isn't just the scholarly publications by learned historians that can give you what you need to write a great story.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

More "Genealogy Worlds"

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings wrote an interesting post on the Three (or more!) Genealogy Worlds?. Recently I saw these worlds collide and can add a fourth world. The fourth world is "traditional, but experienced."

The "traditional, but experienced" world consists of some who haven't quite embraced the "online" and "technology" worlds described by Randy. But they are much more active in genealogical research than the "once or twice a month" folks Randy describes as "traditional." Many of these "traditional, but experienced" researchers manage small genealogical collections or branches associated with larger institutions, some review lineage society applications, some manage genealogical societies. These researchers know more than the new or casual researcher. But some are not conversant on developments in advanced genealogical research.

I attended an orientation session on resources available through a small-town East Texas facility. Most of the audience were "traditional" and a few were "online" researchers. (I was one of only two in the room who love "technology" and I still haven't advanced to the Twitter and iPhone stage.)

During the presentation the research tips offered made me realize how far apart these worlds can be. For years now the national conferences and institutes have taught that we have original and derivative sources that provide primary (firsthand) and secondary (secondhand) information that becomes direct or indirect evidence based on analysis and relevance to our research question. At the orientation outdated terms were used—primary and secondary sources were discussed. I was encouraged that the presenter did explain some records, such as death certificates, include both primary and secondary information. I was discouraged when "primary sources" were defined as government and church records and "secondary sources" as tombstones and Bible records.

Technology philosophies also collided. Advanced genealogists are taught to "write as you go." Productive researchers use a computer with a word processor open in one window to write analysis while viewing a document image on microfilm or online. Writing as you go ensures critical analysis doesn't slip your mind, saves time, and ensures you actually document the analysis before you get caught up in other tasks. At the orientation session one "traditional, but experienced" presenter wondered why anyone would bring a computer to the library where it could be stolen. Maybe she's never seen a computer lock. All three of the presenters agreed that "professional researchers use paper and pencils, not computers."

Why is this collision of worlds important? The thirty-something man sitting next to me who said he had been interested in genealogy since he was fourteen years old walked out before the end of the presentation. He lives in this small town and I have never seen him at genealogical society meetings. He is missing out on what he could learn from experienced researchers, even those who aren't using the latest terminology and technology. The older researchers are missing out on the benefits of modern technology they might learn from someone who knows what an IP address is and understands why it was relevant to a discussion of network access restrictions.

There may be more "online" and "technology" researchers than Randy estimated in his article. We don't know about them because they don't attend society meetings and maybe haven't attended national conferences due to conflicts with job and family and money. Those of us who have embraced advancements in genealogical research and technology need to make more of an effort to communicate the advantages to the "traditional, but experienced" researchers. We all need to publicize the things we learn at national conferences and institutes to those who are unable to attend. The more we all share our knowledge, whatever our experience level, the better off we all will be. And maybe we'd attract some of those younger genealogists who can keep our organizations alive when we are gone.

©2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Texas History: Myths, Facts, and a new TSLAC Digital Display

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has a new digital display celebrating the 175th anniversary of Texas independence from Mexico. Having grown up in Texas I never knew other states celebrate the date of admission to the United States. The TSLAC Web page indicates "instead Texas celebrates March 2, 1836, the date that a band of American and Mexican rebels declared independence from the autocratic rule of a distant government." I grew up learning all of those great Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto heroism stories. (And it was always pronounced san juh-sin-toe with a definite "j" sound. It wasn't until I went to Arizona that I heard san huh-sin-toe.)

TSLAC displays images of "A Dozen Documents that Made a Difference" along with transcripts and explanations of the story surrounding the document. Sometimes the true story knocks down a great Texas myth. Read the story of the "Yellow Rose of Texas" in the link displaying the passport of Emily West.

The Texas history I am learning as an adult does not exactly match what I learned as a student in Texas history classes in the 1960s and 1970s. Texans sometimes have a hard time giving up the myths. The stories are compelling. But knowing our true history, warts and all, is better than believing an untruth. If you want to read about three Texas heroes with the good and the bad traits discussed check out Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis by William C. Davis (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998). Don't miss the 160 pages of endnotes and the 26 page bibliography. There are more derivative sources than an advanced genealogist would use, but there are lots of references to newspapers, diaries, manuscript collections, and deed books, too.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved

Growing Through Learning

As a rebellious teenager I was not an enthusiastic student. The run-of-the-mill curriculum in Texas was boring even all those decades before the war between science and religion in schools. As an adult taking evening classes after a full workday I came to appreciate formal education. I take pleasure in learning from great teachers in a classroom environment.

The importance of learning advanced and efficient techniques from an experienced practitioner cannot be overstated. Rapid advances in computer technology meant spending much of my previous career in training classes. My genealogical experience has been much the same. Newly discovered records, access methods, and evolving standards and research techniques have led to great progress in genealogical research. Trying to keep up through magazine articles and blogs is practically impossible when client projects and volunteer activities need our attention. But good professionals and advanced researchers understand the importance of allocating time and money for education.

This month I attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) sponsored by the Utah Genealogical Association. I took the "Advanced Methodology" course coordinated by Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA. Some sessions were presented by Rick Sayre, CG, and Claire Bettag, CG. These are all top-tier speakers in the genealogical community. No one in the class was disappointed. Even sessions on topics I had attended before had updated material that I would have never known about if I didn't place such a high priority on continuing to educate myself. Practical hands-on exercises helped cement the concepts being taught.

For my money, institutes are a much better investment than conferences. Conferences are great for networking and getting an introduction to a topic. Institutes give in-depth exposure in a cohesive, coordinated group of sessions. In 2003 I took the "Advanced Methodology" course taught by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR). Although the two courses have the same name and cover some of the same topics, any serious genealogist should consider taking both courses. Mills and Jones are both highly-respected researchers using advanced techniques. But different examples and different viewpoints expose us to more ideas. We learn not everyone works the same way. We see things that will improve our work procedures and some things that may not work so well for us. We can synthesize all we learn and come up with a procedure perfect for our own situation.

So, do you prefer the icy conditions at Salt Lake City's SLIG in January with the bonus of having the Family History Center a block away? Or the hot, humid atmosphere of Birmingham's IGHR in June with the bonus of a great university and law library? Or a third option, Washington, D.C.'s National Institute of Genealogical Research (NIGR) in July with access to the National Archives? There are "bonus points" for achieving a trifecta and attending all three institutes in one year. IGHR and SLIG both offer classes for researchers at all levels from beginner to advanced and professional. NIGR is designed for experienced researchers.

CG, Certified Genealogist, and CGL, Certified Genealogical Lecturer are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® (BCG), used under license by professionals who pass periodic competency evaluations by the Board.

© 2011, Debbie Parker Wayne, All Rights Reserved