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South African Records Online and Facebook Groups

Apr22

Someone on one of my many genealogical facebook groups mentioned that South African records were online these days and originals could be had for a small fee. Since two of my great-grandmother’s brothers went to Johannesburg to make their fortunes, I could not resist trying out the site at http://www.ancestor.co.za

I searched on the surname “Langerman” and sure enough my great-great-uncles Max and Jacob Langermann appeared in the search. From the dates, these are death records. Note that I have increased the contrast from the original web site (click on the image to see the actual screen shot) as the colors left something to be desired.

LangermannSearchSmll

I ordered the record for Jacob a few weeks ago and paid about $5.00 US. My first search effort ended too soon, 1900, so I did not see Max. The next time I tried it, I used a better search and ordered the record for Max.

Today I got an email that the document for Jacob was ready plus they have found a few more documents!

Continue reading →

I am a cousin, even in my DNA!

Apr12

A recent email informed me that my brother and I had a DNA connection to A.J.Jacobs, the writer and Esquire editor who read the whole Encyclopedia and lived a biblical year among other creative endeavors. Having had dinner with this fascinating fellow at my brother’s house during the last Rootstech, I was extremely pleased.

A.J. Jacobs and Shipley Munson

A.J. Jacobs with my brother Shipley at Rootstech 2015

A.J.’s latest mission is pursuing the fact that we are all related, by throwing the biggest family reunion ever on June 6. This is sponsored by most of the major genealogical companies and is a fund raiser for Alzheimer’s, which as A.J. said in his email “hits genealogy particularly hard, since it erases family memories.”

Happily for me, there will be a branch party at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree where I will be on that day.

His TED talk explains it better than any post I could write: http://globalfamilyreunion.com/ted-talk

This is what I read in the email:

With the help of dozens of scientists and volunteers, my family and I are putting together a world-wide event on June 6 that will unite cousins from all over the globe. You can watch a TED talk about it here. Or hear it on NPR here.

Our partners include the top firms in the field, including: FamilySearch, Geni, MyHeritage, Findmypast, 23andme, Family Tree DNA, and WikiTree.

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Rootstech 2015: my Wrap up

Feb16

Rootstech was held in conjunction with the FGS conference and was bigger than ever. Something like 25,000 people. The Expo Hall was twice as large as last year and full of a wide variety of interesting genealogical products in addition to the big companies.

Rootstech Expo HallAnd there was the temptation of the Family History Library just a block away. Many like me came a day or two early in order to enjoy research time in the library. And yes I did a happy dance when I found my new 3rd cousin’s grandfather’s farm entry showing his mother was indeed the expected sister of my gg-grandfather.

Judy Russell did a really good blog post on all the DNA news at the conference. I am very excited that Family Search will be partnering with Family Tree DNA to link from the FS tree to DNA results from ftDNA. Initially this will only be for Y and mtDNA. Plus testers at Family Tree DNA will have an icon that will link to their tree at FamilySearch when there is one.

A few of the Rootstech talks are available as videos at this url: https://rootstech.org/video/4050134760001 – I particularly recommend geneablogger Thomas MacEntee‘s talk of about his genealogy tool box on that page.

Fellow San Diegan blogger Randy Seaver did a comprehensive listing of Rootstech blog posts Continue reading →

Rootstech 2015: My One World Tree Presentation

Feb13

Well I think my one world tree talk was a success, although the web site I used for my presentation – slides.com – went down or was just inaccessible via the internet in the presentation room here at Rootstech. Perhaps it was the Amazon s3 site where the images are stored that was the problem.

LandfillFortunately I had downloaded a PDF version as a backup so I used that. Maybe next time I will try the google presentation software instead.

I think my main point, that the most compelling reason to add your research to a one world tree is to keep it from ending up in the landfill the way my cousin’s did, came across well. My girlfriend Rochelle, who I am staying with, was convinced to add her research to one and even got herself a familysearch id today.

I have uploaded the rough draft of what I expected to say, much more wordy than what I actually said, to my downloads page under presentations. The URL for the slides which go with those words is
http://slides.com/kittycooper/one-world-one-tree#/

The side by side comparisons of the three one world trees start on slide 11
http://slides.com/kittycooper/one-world-one-tree#/11

The comparison chart is kept up-to-date in my one world tree blog post.

And I will be doing this talk again for the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego on the third Saturday in May.