GeneaTech

The topic for the 43rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Technology. I do not use a computer at work and consider myself tech-challenged. But I really didn't start my genealogy quest until we got our first home computer and now it's hard to imagine not having one.

Picking one piece of hardware, other than my computer has been incredibly difficult.

Resist the urge to dilute the impact of your 3 choices by mentioning several others you use and appreciate as well.

So being able to only pick one, I will pick my 8 gig flash drive. I can backup all of my files to it. Losing all that I have work to learn would be devastating, so this is my pick.

The others were very easy for me.

My one piece of software is Family Tree Maker 2005. I have two other programs but I am most familiar with FTM so I stick with it. I can easily add notes, sources and pictures and have them all organized in one place. I can easily figure out who was (or wasn't) related to who. I can see an entire line in a few clicks rather than going from one paper file to another.

For my one website there is no question - The US GenWeb Project. With ancestors that marched across the country, this site has been indispensable to me. Most know about the individual state and county sections but many overlook the Archives and Special Collections. Everything on the site is free and new files are continuously added. You can also share any records you may have with others by submitting them.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

David recently suggested "Shampoo" as a reminder to look again and referenced Craig's reminder back in December. They were both talking about rechecking online data bases. I've been doing just that in preparation for my trip to Michigan. Turns out I should have spent some time rechecking records I already had!

I have an old photo of the headstone of David Glover, my 3rd great-grandfather. The photo isn't very good and shows tall grass in front of the stone. On the back was written, "Around Mottville, left hand side going in small County cemetery." Mottville is in St. Joseph Co., MI and I hadn't been successful finding an online cemetery listing when I last tried a couple of years ago, so I decided to try Find A Grave. I entered his name and Viola!, there was his listing in La Grange Cemetery (aka Whitmanville) in Cass Co. Previously I had a death date of 28 Aug 1848, obtained from family records. The listing here gives 10 Aug 1852 so I will have to resolve the dates but the birth date matches what I have from several different sources.

David's daughter, Louisa Lambert Glover, married Daniel Carlisle and died, presumably in Cass Co., between 1850 & 1852. I looked at all the entries for the cemetery hoping that she would be found here also. No luck. I went back to David's record and clicked on the link for the person that had submitted the info. She stated that she had gotten the information from the Cass Co GenWeb page, so I headed over there.

There I found the Whitmanville Cemetery transcript, listed by rows. Viewing the record in this manner the name Melvina, listed just above and again below David's, jumped out at me.

Knapp, Melvina "Our Mother" 22y 9m 7d Feb 21, 1872
Glover, David May 11, 1775 Aug 10, 1852 77y 2m 29d
Parker, John (a mason) 64y 5m 19d Aug 25, 1863
Parker, Melvina F 75y 8m 19d Mar 15, 1884

Another of David's daughter's was Malvina F. Glover, born 26 December 1807, Milford, Worcester, MA. I had no idea what might have happened to her and in all honesty I never looked very hard. The dates for Melvina F. Parker did not match up exactly with what I had but they were close enough.

A few minutes searching at Ancestry and I found this:

The family of John & Malvina Parker is listed just before the family of Daniel & Louisa Carlisle. I have had a copy of this census page for years and I never noticed the obvious! David had another daughter named Mentoria and it appears that Malvina may have named a daughter for her also. Mentoria Glover was born 18 Sept 1818, Phelps, Ontario Co, NY and is another of the family I never tracked down.

I still don't know when Louisa died or where she is buried. I have a lot of leads to track down on Malvina and her family. I also found the transcription of the Edwardsburg Cemetery on the Cass County GenWeb page, so I know where to look for other members of my Glover family.

I will be revisiting much of my research for my Southern Michigan lines over the next few weeks. I hope to visit several cemeteries and will take lots of pictures in the hopes of being able to "pay forward" the help I received from the kindness of strangers.

Erie Canal Museum - Lecture Series, Part 2

Yesterday I took my oldest grandson, Mike, to the Erie Canal Museum. I rarely get to spend time with my grandchildren individually, so it was a wonderful day for me.


The topic was Canal Basics, presented by Assistant Director/Curator, Andrew P. Kitzmann.

I grew up in Syracuse and having studied the canal in school and more recently in the course of my family history research I wasn't expecting to learn anything new. I was wrong. In the course of an hour and a half I learned quite a few things and it was an enjoyable lecture.

Mr. Kitzmann was kind enough to include Mike, the only child in attendance, by talking about the roll children played on the canal. Boys as young as eight were expected to work two 6 hour shifts each day traveling with the mules on the towpath. Adding an hour before each shift to feed the animals and an hour at the end of the shift to clean and care for them resulted in 16 hour days. When asked if he'd rather work on the canal or go to school Mike was quick to vote for school. Something that I was not previously aware of was that men would meet the immigrant ships in New York City to find boys to work on the canal. This has me rethinking the family story that has been handed down that Michael Camfield was indentured to a farmer and then went to work with horses on the towpath.

In 1800 New York was a wilderness of old growth forest, something that is nearly impossible to envision now. Prior to the building of the canal it took 6 - 8 weeks to travel from Albany to Buffalo. The canal shortened the trip to 6 - 8 days. I can now drive from Albany to Buffalo in 6 hours or less.

If you had ancestors that migrated across New York at any time in the 1800's there is a good chance that the Erie Canal and/or one of the feeder canals played an important part in their lives. My ancestors worked on the building of the canal. Later they owned businesses or worked along the canal.

There are three more lectures left in the series:

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.
Art Cohn, executive director of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.

Saturday, March 11, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.
Randy Duchain, author of "New York Waters," with book signing to follow.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 10:30 a.m.
Andrew Kitzmann, Erie Canal Museum, "Canal Inspired Architecture."

Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Boulevard East
Syracuse, NY 13202

Mon.- Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sun. 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.

Academy of Genealogy and Family History

The Academy of Genealogy and Family History first awards ceremony was a success with 23 inductees receiving iGene awards in 5 categories. Your Master of Ceremonies for this, the 42nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, is Jasia! Stop over at Creative Gene for your introduction to all of the deserving winners. Now is the time to make sure you didn't miss any of the best posts of 2007.

The topic for the next edition of the COG sounds easy - until you start to think about it!

And now it's time for a Call for Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Technology. What technology do you most rely on for your genealogy and family history research? Select one piece of hardware (besides your computer), one piece of software (besides your internet browser), and one web site/blog (besides your own) that are indispensable to you. Resist the urge to dilute the impact of your 3 choices by mentioning several others you use and appreciate as well. This is an exercise in appraising the technology you use/recommend the most. The deadline for submissions is March 1st.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Non-fiction meme

Lori, at Smokey Mountain Family Historian, has tagged me for the non-fiction book meme created by Gautami.

What issues/topics interest you most--non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that have nothing to do with novels?

Mostly history and gardening these days. I occasionally read some psychology books and technical manuals.

Would you like to review books concerning those?

Nope! I'm way behind on my writing as it is.

Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.

I could probably be persuaded to write reviews if I were paid or received free books.

Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

I do recommend books to friends if I've enjoyed them.

If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.

The only review I've written was for a garden book.

This meme seems to have made the rounds! With a tag of 10 if all of the genealogy bloggers haven't been tagged yet they soon will be! So I'll tag Mrs. Mecomber at New York Traveler and anyone who hasn't been tagged yet.

Housekeeping

Last week was one of those stressful winter weeks were I couldn't seem to get much accomplished and had an inability to write, or at least write well. I'm not happy with what I wrote about Sgt. Van Orman's sad homecoming but it affected me deeply so please take a look anyway. It was one of those cases where I wasn't sure where to post it.

Saturday I visited my sister and tried to help her set up google reader. She still has dial-up. Have you ever watched paint dry? DSL has just become a possibility for her and I hope she can get hooked up soon. But it occurred to me that if she has trouble loading my pages other might too so I have shortened the number of posts on my page to three so there isn't so much to load. I am also using widgets in my sidebar when possible in the hopes that that will help the page load faster.

I am using google reader to generate my blogrolls. My sister pointed out a couple of links that I didn't switch over. I think I have things right now but if I've left you off please let me know!

Terry alerted me that my email was bouncing last week. There was a three day period where I didn't get notification about comments too. This morning my cousin let me know that emails were also bouncing from my other aim account. I'll get a button up with my gmail address soon but meanwhile it's Apple194. If you did send something and it bounced please do try again. It's odd because I was receiving mail, just not all of it.

To address the comment notification problem I have subscribed to my comments so they now show up in my reader. I didn't know how to do this but I noticed that by accessing my dashboard through blogger in draft I could add subscription buttons for both posts and comments in one easy step. A couple of other new features at blogger in draft are a blogroll generator (I like the google option better) and the ability to schedule your posts. I haven't tried that yet but it would have been handy back in December!

And the Winner is.....

The iGene awards are brought to you via the 42nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

The judging for Best Picture was tough as many pictures are personal favorites but only one may be chosen so the award goes to the picture of my Uncle from Carlisle Family Home. From the straw hat to his not so happy expression, right on down to his bare little feet, this picture is a family treasure.

For Best Screenplay the award goes to A Very Special Christmas Stocking. A drama with a happy ending, maybe the Hallmark channel will pick it up. Based on facial recognition software Sissy Spacek will play my part.

The award for Best Documentary goes to My First Job. Tobacco farming in the 1970's was an experience I'll never forget.

In the Best Biography category there was only one entry last year. I was surprised that I only wrote one but pleased that Ruby Blanche Camfield was later featured at WeRelate.

The final award of the evening, for Best Comedy, goes to Dis(co)location. This was inspired by Janice and I had fun creating it. Go ahead and have a laugh with me. I will be returning to the scene of the crime in August for my niece's wedding reception. Will history repeat itself?

Carlisle Family Papers: University of Michigan

Back in November I asked what would happen to all of my genealogy work and family treasures down the road. Shortly after that Janice suggested that we start donating things now. It turns out that in 1972 my family did just that.

I'm not certain of the details but my grandmother required nursing care and moved out of the family home sometime in the 1960's. I remember visiting her in the nursing home in 1968 or 1969. Care of the house fell to my uncle and eventually it was torn down. Papers relating to my family's history were boxed up and donated to the University of Michigan. They now reside in the Bentley Historical Library, Ann Arbor, MI. They are safe there and have benefited many people researching women in the Civil War, but they have been frustratingly unavailable to me.

I first discovered that these papers existed several years ago while doing an online search for Hannah Carlisle. Imagine my excitement when I found this:

The papers of the Daniel Carlisle family of Buchanan, Mich. include thirty-two family letters (Aug. 17, 1862-Apr. 7, 1866) relating to Mrs. Hannah L. Carlisle, who served as a nurse during the Civil War. Seventeen of the letters were written by Mrs. Carlisle. They are chiefly from the Post Hospital at Columbus, Ky., where she was matron. She expresses her dislike of Copperheads and Secessionists. She tells of troop movements on the river, raids of guerrilla bands, the destruction of Secessionists' homes, hospital life, food and a Thanksgiving dinner, the celebration at the fall of Vicksburg, and the capture of Jefferson Davis. She often comments on the weather and the plague of mosquitoes. Later Mrs. Carlisle was in charge of a Columbus, Ky., school for the American Freedmen's Aid Commission, and she tells of the clashes between military and civil law officers, the plight of the Negroes, and the rough treatment accorded them.

I knew about the papers several ears ago when I took Mom on a trip to Michigan to visit my aunt and uncle. They shared family photos and what history they knew. We visited the cemeteries and toured the area. From a research standpoint it was a very fruitful trip even though Mom wasn't up to a detour to Ann Arbor. I did call the library to see what it would cost to have the collection copied and mailed to me. I think it took me a week to recover from the shock!

The time has finally come and I will traveling to Ann Arbor in April. I have been looking at the library's catalog and found this:

The Carlisle family collection consists of two feet of material dating from 1860 to 1972. The papers relate to various members of the Daniel Carlisle family of Buchanan, Michigan. The collection contains correspondence between Hannah L. Carlisle and her husband, Daniel Carlisle. Include as well are letters and eight of Hannah Carlisle's diaries, written between 1885 and 1900 and largely concerning her life in Dead wood, South Dakota.

Other family members represented in the collection are William and Phyllis Carlisle and Vivian Carlisle. The letters of William D. Carlisle concern his service in the US Navy during World War II. The letters of Phyllis Carlisle relate both to her student life at the University of Michigan during the early 1940s and to her service in the Waves during the war. The letters of Vivian Carlisle were written while a student at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University during the 1940s.

Other items of interest is a folder of genealogical material and a letter written by Francis A. Carlisle while serving in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, describing his experiences.

I'm not sure how Mom will feel about the fact that the library has letters that she wrote but I am very excited that I will get to see them. I can't wait to see what is in the "folder of genealogical material" I know that Isaac Ashley Carlisle was a Spanish-American War veteran but this is the first I've found that indicates that his son Francis served too.


Here's where I need help.

The only library I have ever been to is the Onondaga County Public Library in Syracuse. I have no idea what to expect from a large research library. The family papers take up 1.5 - 2 linear feet of shelf space. Mom thinks there may be some old pamphlets that were donated as part of the collection but even so the size sounds overwhelming. The main focus of the trip is to view and copy as much of this collection as I can but I would also like to have time to visit my aunt and uncle and make a few stops in Berrien and Cass Counties too.

I only have a week and I need two full travel days. How many days should I plan to spend in Ann Arbor? Will it takes days to make copies or will I be done quickly? I think the letters will be quick but eight diaries! There is no indication how large the folder of genealogical material is.

What questions should I ask the library ahead of time?

What do I need to take besides a notebook, my computer and a flash drive?

Any other thoughts or tips would be much appreciated!

Anticipating Another Snow Day

We used our first snow day last Friday and it looks like we may being using our second tomorrow. If the forecast for more freezing rain holds I'll be spending the day tomorrow catching up on some reading.

The 41st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy was posted today by Jasia at Creative Gene and it is huge! This edition was fun, picking four ancestors to have dinner with. I've read many of the submissions already and I can tell you they are not to be missed. I must have been having another of my senior moments because I forgot to submit mine :( You can find it here. The next edition will be a retrospective. Will I remember to submit this time? Maybe Thomas will start a pool.

And now it's time for a Call For Submissions! The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: The Best of The Best! It's Academy awards time... time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History aka AGFH (an esteemed organization that all genea-historian bloggers who participate in this next edition of the COG will become founding members of) to honor their best blog posts of 2007* in the following 5 categories:

Best Picture - Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in 2007. Tell us which you liked best and why.
Best Screen Play - Which family story that you shared in 2007 would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members?
Best Documentary - Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in 2007?
Best Biography - Which was the best biographical article you wrote in 2007?
Best Comedy - Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in 2007?

Lisa posted the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Irish Culture and History last week at Small-Leaved Shamrock. I didn't have anything to contribute to this edition, dealing with Irish Places so I'll be reading up to learn more! The 4th edition sounds like fun:

Here's the scoop:

March is Irish heritage month in many places, thanks to the feast day of St. Patrick, beloved saint of Ireland. Our topic for this month will be anything and everything about Irish heritage, genealogy and culture. Posts about St. Patrick will be appreciated, but posts related to any meaningful aspect of Ireland's heritage are welcomed. To borrow an idea from Bill West's genealogy parade, we'll have our very own virtual St. Patrick's Day parade!

The deadline is March 14, 2008. Submit your parade entry here. Then come join us for the parade on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2008. On the feast of St. Patrick, everyone likes to be Irish, at least for one day. Hope to see you at the parade wearing your green!

The 3rd edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern Genealogy was posted last week by Jessica at Jessica's Genejournal. I haven't done any research in this area so I haven't had anything to contribute. Hopefully this Carnival will pick up and I'll have a new learning opportunity. While you are visiting for the Carnival be sure to check out all of the changes Jessica has made to her blog. The next edition will be a carousel edition:

The topic for the next carnival is a carousel. Article topics for this carnival can deal with stories, traditions, food, history, etc. of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The deadline for the next edition of the carnival will be February 18th. You can submit your article here.

Donna has done a roundup of the posts for Where Our Ancestors were in 1808 at What's Past is Prologue. I never got to this one but the answers were varied and interesting.

I don't know where I'll find the time after all that reading but I really need to do some writing! I'm planning my first ever research trip, I'm way behind on Miriam's prompts, I've made some (slight) progress on my Graham line and I really need to get back to the series on the Wisner's that I started last month!

A New Mystery

I seem to have a new mystery to ponder. My Carlisle family is mentioned on pages 158-159 of:
Massie, Larry B. Potawatomi Tears and Petticoat Pioneers: More of the Romance of Michigan's Past 1992.

I knew that my great-grandfather, (Issac) Ashley Carlisle and his older brother Orville D. Carlisle both served in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, Co. L. Their aunt/step-mother, Hannah Glover Carlisle, followed the company and later served as a nurse and I wrote about that here. What I hadn't previously heard was that Daniel & Hannah Carlisle objected to Ashley's enlistment and went to Niles and brought him home. He ran away and rejoined the regiment. Hannah decided if she couldn't stop him, she would join him and followed the regiment, cooking, washing and nursing. When Col. Philip Sheridan took command of the regiment Hannah and the other civilians were sent home. It was after this that Hannah went to work for the Sanitary Commision and later the Freedmen's Bureau.

The book says that William Carlisle, age 20, of Edwardsburg joined Company L first. "His cousin, Orville Carlisle, from Buchanan, followed him into the same company." This creates a new mystery for me, as I have nothing about a cousin William.

Daniel Carlisle was born 22 Sept 1797 in Westmoreland County, New Hampshire and died 31 March 1782 in Buchanan, Berrien County Michigan. He was the son of Daniel Carlisle (1767-1822) and Zipporah Wheeler (1772-1831). To the best of my knowledge he was the only son of Daniel & Zipporah. Was there another son that I am unaware of or would William be a more distant cousin?

On the 1860 census I found William Carlyle, age 19, born in Delaware, in Milton, Cass County, MI. He was a farm laborer listed with the family of Jacob Butts or Betts. Also in Milton was the family of James Carlyle, age 36 with wife Rachel, age 35; children, Mary age 16, Robert age 10, Rachel age 8 and Adda 6/12. All were born in Delaware. There is no other Carlyle/Carlile/Carlisle family listed for Cass County. If James and Rachel are the parents of William they were only about 17 & 16 years old when he was born. James could be a brother or cousin of William. I have not located this family on the 1850 census yet but they do not come in a search for Berrien, Cass or St Joseph counties. James and Rachel are still in Cass County in 1870 and I found cemetery records there for them also. I have found no further record for William.

I haven't found any reference to any of my Carlisle line ever living in Delaware. But they did live in Cass County, Michigan for a time.

Daniel and Zipporah Carlisle were married 17 Dec 1795 in Westmoreland, NH. About 1810 they moved to Genesee or Ontario County NY and it is believed that they died in New York. Their son Daniel moved to White Pigeon Prairie, St Joseph County, Michigan in 1839. From 1840 to about 1845 he lived in Edwardsburg, Cass County, Michigan. From 1845 to about 1855 he lived in LaGrange, Cass County, Michigan. From about 1855 until his death in 1872 he lived in Buchanan, Berrien County, Michigan.

Was William really a cousin? Is it possible that based on the names an assumption was made and found it's way into print? I'll be spending some time working on this puzzle I think.

Michigan Biographical Index

A week ago Miriam passed along a link to the Michigan Biographical Index. Thank you Miriam! From the index I learned that several members of my Carlisle family were listed in the index to: Massie, Larry B. Potawatomi Tears and Petticoat Pioneers: More of the Romance of Michigan's Past 1992.

I quickly found the book listed on half.com for a very reasonable price and ordered it. It came today and although they were only mentioned briefly, on two pages, it was a very interesting read. I need to check some of the facts as they differ slightly from what I've read before and I'll be writing more about that in a day or two.

Now that I've skipped to the part about my family and satisfied my curiosity there, I'm looking forward to reading more about the history of Michigan.