Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Is #42 on Your Ahnentafel?

Well, I'm a little confused by parts of this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver, but I shall press on and attempt to do it anyway!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) Have you identified #42 on your ahnentafel list?  If not, how about #21, the mother of #42?  If not, how about #10 on your ahnentafel list?  Do you even have an ahnentafel list?

(2) Anyway, tell us about your #42 ancestor (or #21, or #10, etc.):  full name, parents, spouse, children, birth, baptism, death, marriage, burial, etc.  

(3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

So, I'm confused because I thought ahnentafels increased the numbers as they went backward in time.  If that is the case, then #21 wouldn't be the mother of #42, she would be the daughter of #42 (which is what my ahnentafel indicates).  So maybe Randy just mixed that part up?

As it so happens, I know next to nothing about my #42 ahnentafel ancestor, and not much more about #21.

Mr. #42 on my ahnentafel is my 3rd-great-grandfather John Gibson.  I have no birth or death information for him, merely his name.  His wife, my 3rd-great-grandmother (#43 on the list), was said to have been named Mary, and that's all the information I have on her.  I'm pretty sure they were born and died in New Jersey, but that's an educated guess.  I have looked for more information about them online, but with no success.

Their names were gleaned from the death certificate of my 2nd-great-grandmother Amelia Gibson (#21), who married James Gauntt.  Amelia's death certificate states that she died June 19, 1908.  Her birth, which I have as June 1831, was found in the 1900 census.

Obviously, I don't have much information on the Gibson branch of my family.  Yet another reason I need to find a lot of time to spend conducting on-site research in New Jersey.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: When You First Left Home

I tend to think of people leaving home when they go to college.  I wonder if that's most of what we'll see with posts for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun exercise from Randy Seaver.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) When did you first leave your parents' home?  Why did you leave?  Where did you move to?  What was it like?  What did you learn?

(2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

Of course, the main reason I think of people leaving home to go to college is because that's what I did.

I left home permanently in 1979, when I was 17 years old.  I graduated high school in June, and I left in August.  I never again lived with my parents, but I did visit several times over the years.

I graduated from Niceville Senior High School in Niceville, Florida.  (Yes, that's really the name.)

I was accepted to all of the universities to which I applied:  University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles; University of Chicago; University of Miami (Florida); and Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.  I restricted my list to universities which would allow me to use my National Merit Scholarship and which offered a sufficient number of foreign languages, because that's what I wanted to study.

For many reasons,  I didn't want to stay in Florida, so that knocked University of Miami off the list.  (I think I applied there only because my mother wanted me to, so that I would stay in Florida.)  I wasn't crazy about the prospect of living in Texas, so there went Trinity.  And my mother talked me out of the University of Chicago, because she didn't think I would deal well with the winters (I have figured out since then that I probably would have been fine).  And that left USC.

My mother traveled with me to Los Angeles for freshman orientation; I think it was in July.  I packed up all my belongings in suitcases and brought them with me on the trip.  (Well, everything except one very large, unique bookcase, which when my parents moved from Florida to San Antonio I begged them to bring with them, because I really, really wanted to keep it.  They didn't.)  From there we went to Las Vegas, where her parents lived.  I stayed with them until the fall semester started in September.  My grandparents drove me and my material belongings (and a bicycle that my grandfather bought for me for $25, so I would have transportation) down to Los Angeles when it was time for school to start.

During my four years of undergraduate school, I lived in dorms.  My freshman through junior years I had roommates, and my senior year I had a room to myself.  In the dorm I didn't do any cooking (although I already knew how to), because the rooms came with meals plans for the cafeteria, which was conveniently downstairs.  The dorm also had laundry facilities, so I didn't have to go anywehre to wash my clothes.  Lounges had TV sets, so I had entertainment.  So my life was pretty self-contained on campus.  When I graduated I continued at USC as a full-time employee and found a place to live near campus.

Why did I leave my parents' home?  Not only did I want to go to college, but I wanted to get out of Florida.  I hate humidity, and I hate 95/95 weather (95°, 95% humidity) even more.  I'm from California originally, and I like that weather a lot better.  Plus the part of Florida that I was in was the first place that I experienced anti-Semitism, and I didn't feel like sticking around for more.

What did I learn?  During my undergraduate years I had the opportunity to meet a much broader range of people than I had known previously, and that even takes into account the fact that I had lived in another country for two years when I was younger.  I had Philippino, Chinese, and Black roommates over the years.  I learned that I can support myself, because after my freshman year I didn't get financial assistance from my parents, even though USC is a grossly expensive private school.  I had scholarships and financial aid through the university, but I also worked 40 hours a week during the school year while carrying a full academic load and 60 hours a week during the summers.  And I learned that I really, really don't think life is worth living without a cat (no cats in the dorm, of course).

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: How Many Trees or Bushes Are in Your Family Tree Database?

Hmm, I don't think I'm doing very well with this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) Almost all of us have genealogy software that we use to manage our research and our family tree.  Some researchers use only an online family tree.  What do you use?

(2) For this week's SNGF, tell us how many "trees" (or "bushes") you have in your genealogy management program database.  How did you figure it out?  Also, where do you have online trees?

(3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

1.  Well, I am still stuck using Reunion for Mac for my desktop family tree program, not yet having been able to reinstall Family Tree Maker.

2.  I have not yet mastered Reunion, and I can't find anything that tells me how many trees I have in the program.  As far as I know, I have only one, as I don't believe I have any disconnected individuals in the database.  So I figured that out by guessing.  If anyone can advise me on how to find the information in the program, I would appreciate it!

Using the List > Index function, I was able to tell that I have 9,052 people in my Reunion database.  That's not all the people I had in my Family Tree Maker database before it crashed.  The most recent back-up I had when that crash happened was only a couple of weeks old, but I had done a tremendous amount of data entry during those couple of weeks, and none of the new work was backed up.  I don't know how much work was actually lost.

While looking through the commands, I discovered that my Reunion has a tutorial, so maybe I should run through that and learn more about the program, seeing as how I think it will still be a while before I have FTM back.

I have no trees online at any sites.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Three Things about Your Mother

It's the day before Mother's Day, so of course Randy Seaver has us thinking about Mom for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) Sunday is Mother's Day in the USA, and usually a time for memories and gratitude to our special birth person.

(2) For this week's SNGF, tell us three things about your mother that are special and memorable  to you.

(3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

My mother was Myra Roslyn (Meckler) Sellers Preuss (1940–1995).  She was born in Brooklyn and lived in New York, Maryland, Florida, California, Australia, Florida (again), Texas, and Florida (redux).  She may even have stayed for a while in Chicago.  She married my father, Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. (1935–2019), in 1961 in Miami, Florida.  I am her oldest child, with a younger brother and sister.

1.  Like Randy's mother, my mother was also very smart.  Even though she flunked out of Florida State University her one semester there (her only passing grade was in Physical Education), I think she was going through an "I'm out of high school and on my own" party phase.  She was conversational in more than one language, she was a whiz at crossword puzzles, and she was great at bookkeeping.  She was big on learning and also was knowledgeable about history, literature, geography, sports, and many other subjects.

2.  My mother was big on family history way before it became popular.  She knew both of her grandfathers and one great-grandfather (everyone else from those generations had passed away before she was born).  She and her mother told stories about family members all the time, so I grew up knowing everyone's names, birthdays, and marriage anniversaries.  I knew who her favorite (Harvey) and least favorite cousins were.  She kept track of my father's relatives better than he did.  If it hadn't been for her, I probably would not have gotten into genealogy.

3.  My mother was a force of nature.  Serene?  Oh, no, not my mother.  She could get incredibly angry about something, but then she vented and it was done.  She told you how she felt, but she didn't hold grudges.  She could be blunt, but you didn't have to wonder about where you stood with her.  (I might have gotten that from her.)  She was also very giving and forgiving.  She took people in like stray animals and gave them a place to stay.  (I might have gotten that from her also.)  My half-sister and her mother (my father's first wife) lived with us for a while; how many women would do that?

Wordless Wednesday

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Are Your Top Autosomal DNA Matches in Your Tree?

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver has us checking results in our DNA databases.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) Have you done an autosomal DNA test?  If so, at which testing company/ies?  

(2) Of your top 10 DNA matches on any site, how many are known relatives, and are they in your family tree?  No names, but give a known relationship if possible.

(3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

Okay, here we go!

1.  I have done autosomal DNA tests at AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, and 23andMe.  I have also uploaded results to MyHeritage.  (And one of these days I really need to send in my already-paid-for test from LivingDNA.)

2.  My top 10 matches at each site:

AncestryDNA:  I don't see anything that says how many matches I have.  Maybe someone can tell how to find that.  My top 10 matches are:
• Sister
• Brother
• Half-sister
• Half-aunt
• 1st cousin 2x removed
• 2nd cousin
• 1st cousin 1x removed
• 1st cousin 2x removed
• 2nd cousin
• 2nd cousin

I know who all of these people are, and all but the last are in my family tree.

Family Tree DNA:  I have 15,552 matches (very easy to find!).  My top 10 matches are:
• Father
• Half-aunt
• Half-aunt
• 2nd cousin 1x removed
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown

Those six "Unknown" relationships are listed as 2nd–4th cousins by FTDNA.  They're all on my Jewish side and are likely further back than that, maybe about 4th–6th cousins.  I will probably never know exactly how I am related to them.  (One of them shows as a match to me in three different databases.)  The first four on the list are in my family tree (and I know them), and none of the rest is.

23 and Me:  I have 1,500 matches (also very easy to find!).  My top 10 matches are:
• Half 1st cousin
• 1st cousin 1x removed
• Half 4th cousin
• 2nd cousin
• 2nd cousin
• Unknown
• Unknown
• 2nd cousin
• 1st cousin 2x removed
• 2nd cousin 1x removed

The two "Unknown" relatives in this database are both listed as 2nd cousins.  One is on my paternal grandmother's side, which could mean I have him in the family tree, but he is listed without a surname on 23 and Me, so I can't pick him out.  The other is on my mother's side and is almost definitely not in my tree.  The eight identified relationships in the top 10 are all in the tree.

MyHeritage:  I have 29,679 matches, almost twice as many as on FTDNA!  My top 10 matches are:
• Father
• Father (with different stats!)
• Sister
• Brother
• Nephew
• Half-aunt
• Half-aunt
• Half-aunt (same as one just above, again with different stats)
• 1st cousin 1x removed
• Half 4th cousin

I know all of these individuals but the last one, and all are in my tree.

Although not one of the questions Randy posed at the beginning, what does this indicate?

• I appear to have tons more matches than Randy does. :)
• On Ancestry and MyHeritage, I know who my top matches are (although I don't know why two of them are duplicated on the latter).
• I know most of my top matches on 23 and Me.
• I have more matches unknown to me on FTDNA because of Jewish endogamy.
• I need to do more with my 23 and Me matches because of the cool tree they've etxrapolated based on matching segments.  That could be helpful to my research.