RootsTech 2020--Day 4-- Sat. Feb 29th

Day 4 of RootsTech 2020. Here is my take on Saturday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech

Saturday's Live Streams

Ancestry On the Go: Ancestry App Suite

Ancestry App:  Allows you to review hints on the go and / or just in your spare time.  You can add pictures to the gallery of your tree and also tag people in your tree.

AncestryDNA App:  Gives you a deeper look at your DNA results and is the fastest way to activate a DNA kit by scanning the code on the test rather than having to type it in.  You can view the map and the Genetic Communities on the App.  Also allows for easy sharing of ethnicity results. You can see DNA comparison and there is messaging within the app.

Peter Drinkwater talked about FindAGrave and the FindAGrave App.  It's hard to believe that the site has been around for 25 years.  You can browse the cemeteries, add photos and GPS coordinates.

FamilySearch App for Intermediate/Advanced Users—Todd Powell
Several great features on the app

• Relatives Around Me
• Map My Ancestors
• My Contributions
• Find My Ancestor(New User)

Using multiple screens, descendency research, and Source linker are easy to do on the go using the FamilySearch App.

General Session featuring Emmitt Smith
Emmitt Smith told the story of finding his ancestors who came from West Africa to Mecklenhurg VA on to Cleveland Alabama and on to Pensacola Florida where Emmitt's story began.  Be prepared to change and broaden your perspective. 

Healing and Family History-The Emotional Side of DNA—Robin Wirthlin
Families that have been separated for various reasons can heal as DNA can reunite the descendants.
Unexpected results cam cause many emotions.  It's not always a happy time.  Time can heal many wounds. 


Introduction to What Are the Odds? (WATO)—Leah Larkin

WATO is a sketch and share program that uses probabilities with DNA data to compare likely hypothesis for ways a targeted person is likely to connect to the Most Recent Common Ancestor that the DNA matches all have in common.   I use this tool when I'm helping other DNA testers with their unknown lineage/relationshps. 

Saturday's Hottest News
RootsTech 2021 will be Feb 3rd-6th with registration beginning in September of 2020.

A big THANK YOU to all who helped make RootsTech and #NotAtRootsTech possible. Be sure and check out the recorded sessions posted at RootsTech.org

RootsTech 2020--Day 3--Fri. Feb 28th

Day 3 of RootsTech 2020. Here is my take on Friday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech

Friday's Live Streams

Discover Your Family with Interviews and Sources—Mat and Rachel Trotter
Great ideas for questions and people to interview.  She also mentioned a book called  My Life Story Question book.  Use a digital recorder and also take notes. Saving your work.  Thumbdrive, Google Drive Dropbox etc. FamilySearch Memories App lets you record memories.  Don't put off
A source is anything that has information in it. Census records, marriage records, newspapers can add a great deal of color and context to your ancestors stories.


2019: Year of the Copyright—Judy Russell
What is copyright is and why should we care?  Judy told us why the years 1909, 1976; and 1998 were so important.  Currently everything before 1925 is now in the public domain.  Copyright protection is automatic no mark is necessary. Common misconceptions were addressed.  You might want to download the handout for this session to refer to when you have questions on copyright.

General Session featuring David Kennerly—Sponsored by Canon
MyHeritage's  Aaron Godfrey told us about some of the latest happenings at MyHeritage(today's sponsor)  They have added 1.3 billion records from 25,000 directories covering the years 1860-1960.
If you haven't used the MyHeritage In Color™ tool to colorize your black and white photos you are missing out.  I used it to take the horrible cheeto color out of some of my color photos that were taken in the 1970s. MyHeritage also announced that they will be launching Genetic Groups for those that have DNA tested.  It groups DNA testers together by area with a visual display on a map.
David Kennerly gave a great talk and shared with us many of his great photographs.The history that he has covered with his photography is incredible!

City Directories and Other New Collections on MyHeritage—Mike Mansfield
An overview of the City Directories at MyHeritage and what information might be available in them.   Some of the larger cities in Europe published directories early on and I did not realize that.  Also they have added more newspapers.

Preserving the Fabric of our Families—Jennifer Hadley
This session was very informative and got me thinking about what I need to do to preserve items I've cross-stitched or embroidered.  Temperature, Humidity and Light all can cause damage.  While light causes fading, it also causes structural damage as well. 

Friday's Hottest News

For me the Hottest News of the day was Ancestry's announcement of the Civil War Stories project. 
You can find out more by visiting the Project Regiment page at Fold3 where they will post updates about what's out there and what's coming.  Also so those who are experts who wish to contribute information for the project you can do so by visiting Civil War Stories and taking the survey.  During the time of the Civil War all of my living direct ancestors were living in Tennessee which was pretty much a statewide battlefield and that is why this project is of such importance to me.  I want to know their stories.

RootsTech 2020--Day 2--Thur. Feb. 27th

Day 2 of RootsTech 2020. Here is my take on Thursday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech

Thursday's Live Streams

Unlocking the Power of the FamilySearch Wiki—Danielle Batson, Jenny Hansen, Jeff Svare
This session was awesome!  Chocked full of great information about the vast number of pages and historical records articles available to help you with your research.  I love the Guided Research experience. While this is is great for the new researcher I feel like it would also keep any researcher on track.  I really had not realized how much information they had out there on the wiki.  Incredible!

German Research for the Everyday American—Karynne Moses
Items key to German research are

• finding the spelling variations of the name
• Learning to recognize/read the handwriting
• Locating the town in Germany from which they came
• Finding records for that home area
• Navigating the records

Search for German Hometown  variations
https://www.meyersgaz.org/
A subscription site with German records
https://www.archion.de/en/ a subscription site of Protestant records

General Session featuring Leigh Anne Tuohy

6.4 Million family tree added by users
108 million photos and documents added by users
1.8 Billion records added by Ancestry
There are now a total of 24 billion records available at Ancestry
All of the WWII Draft Cards are available on Ancestry

Leigh Anne Tuohy who is an advocate for adoption and whose story was the basis for the film "The Blind Side" gave a very inspirational talk.about what happens when you "invest time in someone and offer them hope." 

DNA, Genealogy, and Law Enforcement: All the Facts—Blaine Bettinger

This talk is not meant to be for or against LE using DNA databases or about whether you should or shouldn't opt-in but is to give you information about what is involved so that you can make an informed decision on what is right for you. Informed Consent is key.  Each of the DNA databases(This includes the 4 major testing companies and GEDmatch)  have their rules for how they deal with Law Enforcement  This is a complicated subject and you really need to download the syllabus in order to review them all  Get the RootsTech app and download the handout for this session. 

Tackling Difficult Chapters of our Family History—Cheri Daniels

Humanity is Complex.  Let's try to be empathetic because we really don't know what a person has been through on their journey.  Great points Cheri made.  I think one thing that she pointed  out which struck me was that we should resist the urge to hide the difficult chapters.  I firmly believe this.  

Thursday's Hottest News
For me today's biggest news was Ancestry's DNA Match tool which Crista Cowen introduced on Facebook Live Event  from the Ancestry booth at RootsTech today.  I think it's supposed to start rolling out over the next week.

Check out the recorded sessions posted at RootsTech.org

RootsTech 2020--Day 1--Wed. Feb. 26th

Day 1 of RootsTech 2020. Here is my take on Wednesday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech

Wednesday's Live Streams

Making a Masterpiece:  How to Capture the Best Family Portraits--Jens Nielsen gave us a bit of background on the camera and photography and also had a very moving story about his Mother an why a photograph is so important to him and should be to us.  He says, "Genealogy without photography is like movies without sound."  David Ward talked more about the type of light and how it affects the outcome of our photographs. Drake Buseth talked about portraits--the photographing of people and how to add gestures to bring life to the photograph.  I know nothing about photography but they made it very interesting for me. 


What’s New at Ancestry—Crista Cowan
This was mostly a review of what Ancestry has added over this last year. The amazing thing is that they have added 1.8 Billion Records that's the most records ever added in a year. This includes updates in indexing to FindAGrave,  U.S. School Yearbooks, and Newspapers.com Obituary index as well as records relating to the persecution of Jews.  You can find these Jewish records here along with many others.  A good majority of the records including the new Jewish resource previously mentioned do not require a subscription. 

Also featured were updates by Ancestry which were brought about by user suggestions.  Among those were updated profile page, improved member searches, and  a new message center.  Most US members should already have the new messaging center with a few exceptions.  (As of today I'm one of those exceptions)

Improvements were also made to the Family Tree portion of Ancestry including a new Hint management system which rechecks or refreshes the hints you receive.  Using DNA filters in tandem is now an option and you may search for your matches many different ways.  Filters are also available in the Thrulines portion of your account if you have DNA tested and have a linked tree.
There is also a  new map enhancement for the Ancestry App.  There are More announcements coming from Ancestry Thursday which Crista hinted at but could not talk about.  I'm really looking forward to hearing about those.

The Story of You on FamilySearch
A review of some updated features on the FamilySearch site including fan chart views.  Also the importance of recording our memories was stressed as well as what is happening with us today. One day we will be the ancestors.  FamilySearch also has a mapping feature that you can use to map your ancestors lives.

Adding Branches to Your Family Tree Using DNA—Angie Bush
Angie Bush discussed the tools available at AncestryDNA, MyHeritage and 23&me that you can use to combine your DNA results and your family tree research.    23&me's tool is Your Family Tree(currently still in beta) and is based solely on DNA. MyHeritage has Theory of Family Relativity™ and AncestryDNA's tool is ThruLines™ both of these require that you have a tree attached to your DNA test   I would love to be able to reject Theories or Thrulines that are incorrect but you cannot do this at either site yet as was pointed out.  You still need to evaluate the suggestions made by any of these tools.

Finding Your Elusive Female Ancestors—Julie Stoddard
Key Points:  Timelines are critical for researching female ancestors.  Search specific records.  Studying her family associates and neighbors with whom she interacted.  Find your female ancestor on every census record taken during the time she was living.  DNA evidence can be very helpful in researching an elusive female ancestor.  Obituaries can also be very helpful in determining the ancestor's maiden name.  Indexes are great but can cause a loss of context.Always look at original records.


Wednesday's Hottest News
For me today's hottest news has been the DNA Painter's New Feature. Jonny Perl announced that DNA Painter now allows you to overlay a selection of traits onto your chromosome map.

Purchasers at Noah Putman's Estate Sale Hopkins Co KY

A true amt of the sale of property of the estate of Noah Putman deceased.

Elizabeth Putman
Joseph Hight
Simson Putman
F.G. Creek
John Stuart
Miles Putman
J. M. Lamb
David Clark
B. M. Harris

Returned and Recorded 10th of December 1855.

Source:
"Kentucky Probate Records, 1727-1990," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9P39-95XZ?cc=1875188&wc=37R2-SP6%3A173386001%2C173992901 : 20 May 2014), Hopkins > Will records, 1854-1857, Vol. 8 > image 116 of 251; county courthouses, Kentucky.

I thought maybe the Simson might be Simeon Putman son of Noah but that seems a bit young to be making purchases so perhaps that is Simpson Putman brother of Noah(see Noah Putman's will linked below).  I believe that the Miles Putman is Jesse Miles Putman son of Hiram Putman.  Miles would be Noah's nephew.  As always I'm open to discussion.

Links to this and other documents from Noah Putman's estate.  These links are from FamilySearch and you will need to create a guest account to view if you do not already have one.  That is free though and no membership is required.

Noah Putman's Will

Inventory of Noah Putman's Estate

Noah Putman's Estate Sale

Purchasers from Estate Sale of John Hight--1796

Those who purchased from the inventory of the
estate sale of John Hight 11th of February 1796. 
Franklin County, North Carolina.

Please note that some persons may have purchased multiple items.
See original list at the source listed below.

David King
John Finch
Harbert Hight
John Hight
John Pardue
Littleton Fuller
Philemon Hawkins
Daniel Ball
Henry Fuller
Solomon Bobbit
John Peace
Isaiah Smith
Charles More
Joseph Fletcher
Edward Finch
Samuel Young
Lweling? Jones
Jonathan Hight
Nathaniel Jarratt
William Hight
John Forkner
Samuel Young
John Goodloe
Shim Cook
John Parham
John Loyd
Turner Bobbitt
Devereaux Jarratt
Ezekial Hayes
Joseph Mangum
Gideon Macon
Daniel Ball

James M Daniel(maybe McDaniel)
George King
John Lawrence
Thompson Glenn
Robert Jones
Benjamin Hayes
James Hunt



Source: 
"North Carolina Probate Records, 1735-1970," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-VV93-WT?cc=1867501&wc=32LK-166%3A169768401%2C170208501 : 21 May 2014), Franklin > Inventories, 1789-1800 > image 72-74 of 104; county courthouses, North Carolina.