New London Parish Records Available Online

pA record of Charles Dickens' marriage in Chelsea in 1836, William Blake's burial in 1827 at Bunhill Fields, and the baptism of Jane Randolph (the mother of American President Thomas Jefferson) in Shadwell, East London in 1721, are among the one million new London parish records available online at a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.ukFindmypast.co.uk/a as part of their new a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/media/news/news-item.jsp?doc=LondonCollection.html'London Collection,'/a launched this past week. The collection includes:/p ul lia href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0#038;event=DCity of London Burial Index/a - records from all the churches in the City of London from 1813 to 1890 /li lia href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0#038;event=MWest Middlesex Marriage Index/a - detailing 84,863 marriages in 61 parishes from 1538 to 1837 /li lia href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0#038;event=BLondon Docklands Baptisms/a - comprising 407,558 baptisms for London's docklands areas 1712 to 1933 /li lia href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0#038;event=DLondon and West Kent Probate Indexes/a - mainly detailing wills and administrations from 1750 - 1858 /li lia href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.uk/other-records-collection-search-start.action?event=OThe Matchworkers' Strike/a - listing participants of the strike of over 700 men, women and teenage boys and girls working at the Bryant and May factory in East London in 1888, the same year as the Jack the Ripper murders/li /ul pIf you aren't familiar with a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.findmypast.co.ukFindmypast.co.uk/a, it is a subscription-based site with over 24 million English baptisms, marriages and burials dating from 1538, in addition the the England #038; Wales Civil Registration Index, all available British census records, and a wealth of other online records and resources for tracing British ancestors. General searches are free, but results in the form of transcriptions and/or images, are available through pay-per-view and subscription options./p p style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/23/new-london-parish-records-available-online.htm"New London Parish Records Available Online/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 10:58:47./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/23/new-london-parish-records-available-online.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/23/new-london-parish-records-available-online.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/23/new-london-parish-records-available-online.htmzItl=New London Parish Records Available Online"Email this/a/p

Fab Forty Genealogy Blogs

pI can't honestly say that I wasn't disappointed not to find my About Genealogy blog included in a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.familytreemagazine.comFamily Tree Magazine's/a list of 40 Best Genealogy Blogs, but not so disappointed that I'm going to pass up an opportunity to point out all of the delightful genealogy blogs that did make the list! Since I didn't do any self-promotion during the voting process, I can't even remember what category my blog was included in. I think it may have been News #038; Resources, while I would have classified it as How-To or, possibly, All-Around./p pDisappointment aside, the a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/Fab-FortyFab Forty Genealogy Blogs list/a really highlights the best of genealogy, covering the gamut from research guidance and news to heritage and heirlooms. Most of my favorite genealogy blogs are on the list, and I personally enjoy reading each and every one of them. Check out all of these very deserving genealogy blogs (including the runners-up) and feel free to share your favorite genealogy blogs in the comments below./p p style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/22/fab-forty-genealogy-blogs.htm"Fab Forty Genealogy Blogs/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 14:24:20./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/22/fab-forty-genealogy-blogs.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/22/fab-forty-genealogy-blogs.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/22/fab-forty-genealogy-blogs.htmzItl=Fab Forty Genealogy Blogs"Email this/a/p

Who was Ella Burnham?

pimg src=http://z.about.com/d/genealogy/1/0/x/Y/Ella-1874-diary-p1big.jpg alt=Diary entry by Ella Burnham, 1874, Vermont width=200 height=150 align=right border=0 hspace=4 /Once I uncovered the name of the author of my stronga href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htmmysterious 1874 pocket diary/a/strong, I of course wanted to learn more about her family and, hopefully, track down a living descendant so that the diary can find a good home./p pI began by searching for Ella Burnham in the a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://pilot.familysearch.com/recordsearch/start.html#p=recordimage;c=1438024;r=639106215;role=principal1870 Vermont census/a and quickly found an Ella M. Burnham of about the right age living in the household of Loomis S. and Luthera Pierce in Calais, Washington, Vermont (not far from Barre, Vermont, listed as the place she visited her mother in 1874). Tracing the family back through marriage and census records, I discovered that Luthera was born as Luthera Nelson to Alva Nelson and Millie Ainsworth. She first married Charles Burnham and is found living with him in the a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://pilot.familysearch.com/recordsearch/start.html#p=recordimage;c=1401638;r=555205603;role=principal1850 census of Woodbury, Washington, Vermont/a. According to this a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/VTWASHIN/2003-05/1052334918post on the Washington Vermont message board/a hosted by RootsWeb, Charles Burnham and Luthera Nelson married on 16 Oct 1850 in Calais, Washington, Vermont. This is a bit of a conflict with the 1850 census entry which has Luthera listed with the last name of Burnham as of the June 1 census date, so I would pursue further by obtaining the original marriage record (except that this actually isn't the correct family as you'll see below). Charles apparently died prior to the 1860 census, where Luthera is a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://pilot.familysearch.com/recordsearch/start.html#p=recordimage;c=1473181;r=684868539;role=principallisted as a head of household/a in Woodbury, Washington, Vermont with children Harriet, Ella and Harry. On 2 Sep 1867, Luthera married her third husband, Louis Pierce - the Loomis Pierce she's living with in 1870./p pThis Ella M. Burnham, however, seemed just a few years too young to be my M. Ella Burnham, so I was not at all confident that I had the right family, despite the coincidence of name, age and location. Good thing, too! a href =http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/256411.htmRead more.../ap style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/16/who-was-ella-burnham.htm"Who was Ella Burnham?/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 08:23:07./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/16/who-was-ella-burnham.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/16/who-was-ella-burnham.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/16/who-was-ella-burnham.htmzItl=Who was Ella Burnham?"Email this/a/p

Can Genealogy Searching Make You Smarter?

pAs genealogists we often spend oodles of time searching the Web, so I find it promising (and somewhat justifying) that research suggests that Web searching is excellent for stimulating your brain (makes sense, doesn't it?). According to Gary Small, M.D., author of iiBrain/i and director of the Center on Aging at the University of California, Los Angeles, a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-10-14-ibrain-internet-reading_N.htmWeb searching appears to activate areas of the brain responsible for decision making and reasoning/a, more so than reading online. Brain activity more than doubled during Internet searches compared with levels recorded when reading in book format (P0.05), according to a research study reported by Dr. Small and colleagues in the iAmerican Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry/i. In the functional MRI study, searching for information on the Internet also activated a greater range of brain regions, but only among subjects already accustomed to using the Internet. pIn a a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019134707.htmsecond, followup study/a, participants with minimal Internet experience were able to boost brain function and cognition with minimal training and practice in Web searching./p pJust one more reason I love genealogy! The increased mental stimulation will hopefully help to stem some of my age-related cognitive decline.../p p style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/15/can-genealogy-searching-make-you-smarter.htm"Can Genealogy Searching Make You Smarter?/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 15:25:29./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/15/can-genealogy-searching-make-you-smarter.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/15/can-genealogy-searching-make-you-smarter.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/15/can-genealogy-searching-make-you-smarter.htmzItl=Can Genealogy Searching Make You Smarter?"Email this/a/p

Excerpts from Ella’s 1874 Pocket Diary

pThe a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htmdiary kept by Ella Burnham/a during her time living in Williamstown, Orange County, Vermont in 1874 is full of names and interesting tidbits of her life and the life of town residents. While traditional records can tell us a lot about our ancestors, there is no substitute for reading about their life in their own words. Ella's diary also highlights the importance of using records created by other people to learn about your ancestors. Not only do we learn a lot about Ella, but we also learn about her family, her scholars, the people she boards with and her friends./p p31 January 1874br / emThere is no school today so I did not get up very early this morning. I washed out my clothes after breakfast did not get my head combed till dinnertime. It has snowed all day. Mr. Bohonon's folks have tried hard to make me enjoy myself today, especially Wille, and I have enjoyed the day and evening but I received a letter from William on this evening that makes me feel bad he does not want to be married for six or seven years. Why I cannot tell unless I give a reason which appears to me evident but which I do not want to think of him. I laid awake and thought about till it seemed as though I should never get to sleep. I made up my mind it should be just as he wishes but he will probably never marry me./em/p p21 March 1874br / emThe last day of school has again come around and how have I dreaded it. I went up in the woods with Barnet Jane and Alma this mornin and enjoyed a nice ramble and picked my first beechnuts there before school./em a href =http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/256416.htmRead more.../ap style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/12/excerpts-from-ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm"Excerpts from Ella's 1874 Pocket Diary/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 14:43:30./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/12/excerpts-from-ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/12/excerpts-from-ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/12/excerpts-from-ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htmzItl=Excerpts from Ella's 1874 Pocket Diary"Email this/a/p

Ella’s 1874 Pocket Diary

pimg src=http://z.about.com/d/genealogy/1/0/w/Y/Ella-1874-diary---memorandu.jpg alt=1883 Postscript from Ella's 1874 Pocket Diary width=170 height=270 align=right border=0 hspace=5 /After leaving a fun antique store in Fort Ann, New York, this past Sunday, my husband surprised me with a great early Valentine's Day present - an 1874 pocket diary filled with handwritten entries. A first glance offered no name or location for the author, but did mention other names and places throughout the pages. I was instantly intrigued.../p pFlipping through pages in the diary, one of the first things I ran across was a postscript near the end, stating that it was written nine years after the rest of the diary entries./p blockquotepiNine years have passed and I am a contented happy wife and mother among these very people among whom I spent a large share of this year/i [apparently referring to the year 1874 when she kept this diary]i; the same yet has changed. 8 years ago Emma Martin passed triumphly over the river and had an abundant entrance into the mansion over there. Her husband Gurdon Martin is now my husband. I am living in her home, and would that I was taking care of her three boys. I am the mother of four children of whom one little girl goes to school in the same schoolhouse where I taught so long ago. Of my scholars, Albert, Barnet, Alma, Satira and Lucy are married. All are living Christian lives except Will Bohonon, Charles Roberts and Charlie Davis./i/p /blockquote pI wasn't sure on the spelling of Gurdon or if I was just misreading Gordon, but it turned out to indeed be Gurdon which made my search much easier. I began by searching the 1880 census for a Gurdon/Gordon Martin in the Vermont/New York area because Barre, Vermont was mentioned as a nearby town in one of the diary entries, and the diary itself was found just across the New York/Vermont border in Fort Ann, New York. Sure enough, a simple search brought up a Gurdon Martin living in Williamstown, Orange County, Vermont, with wife M. Ella, and five children from the age of 10 down. M. Ella was listed as keeping house and not as a school teacher, but this wasn't surprising given that she was married and had four children of her own by this point if she is indeed my diary's author./p p a href =http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/256393.htmRead more.../ap style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm"Ella's 1874 Pocket Diary/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:01:30./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/09/ellas-1874-pocket-diary.htmzItl=Ella's 1874 Pocket Diary"Email this/a/p

Is this Annie Moore?

pimg src=http://z.about.com/d/genealogy/1/0/u/Y/is-this-annie-moore-sm.jpg alt=Is this Annie Moore? A possible photo of Ellis Island immigrant Annie Moore with her two photos. Public domain. width=170 hspace=4 align=right border=0 /Genealogist Megan Smolenyak is always curious, and that curiosity has led her to once again ask for help regarding a mystery surrounding a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2006/09/16/meet-the-real-ellis-island-annie.htmAnnie Moore/a, the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island. In an article in this week's a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak/historical-photo-is-this_b_446799.htmlHuffington Post/a, she outlines her case for this photo being one of Annie Moore with her brothers upon their arrival at Ellis Island and asks for help from anyone who might be able to provide a clue. What do you think? Can you help?/p p style="background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;"a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/04/is-this-annie-moore.htm"Is this Annie Moore?/a originally appeared on a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/"About.com Genealogy/a on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 16:10:12./ppa href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/04/is-this-annie-moore.htm"Permalink/a | a href="http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/04/is-this-annie-moore.htm#gB3"Comment/a | a href="http://genealogy.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/02/04/is-this-annie-moore.htmzItl=Is this Annie Moore?"Email this/a/p