After the story on the local TV News, our local newspaper contacted my dad to do a follow–up story on the efforts to recognize the names of the 74 men lost onboard the USS Frank E. Evans. The reporter Stephanie Weldy did a really nice job on story. You can read a copy of the article here.
Marin IJ article featuring my dad, and the story of the 74 men of the USS Frank E. Evans.
William Golden was born sometime in 1740 and baptized on November 7, 1740 in Seal, Kent, England.[1] Seal is a small village in the district of Kent in England, located about 30 miles southwest of London. Seal is an ancient village, having been recorded in 1086 in the Domesday Book, a survey of England completed by William the Conqueror.[2] At some point, William Golden came to the colonies and settled in New York. William presumably died sometime between 1810 and 1820. He last appears in the 1810 US Census, with his family, in Westchester, Westchester County, New York. Living in his home at the time are; one man over the age of 45 (William); one woman over the age for 45 years (Annie); one boy between the age of 10 and 15; three girls under the age of 10; one girl between the age of 10 and 15; one girl between the age of 16 and 25. Also listed within a few entries of William Golden are other Golden families (presumably sons): Isiah Golden, notated as 26-45 years old and Simmonds Golden, notated as 16-26 years old.[3] Listed as neighbors in the few pages of the 1820 U.S. Census covering the town of Westchester were some well-known founding New York families, including the Leggett, Hunt, Bathgate and Drake families.
Excerpt from: Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. “Map of the county of Westchester” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed February 22, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-f277-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
[1] England and Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906, Seal, Kent, England, 1740-1741, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2008)
[2] “Seal, Kent,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal,_Kent, Accessed: 3 January 2016.
“Domesday Book,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book, Accessed: 3 January, 2016.
[3] 1810 US Census: New York, Westchester, Westchester, Roll 37, Page 1152, Image 0181391, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010).
First let me say – I have no connection to Papaly.com, other than I recently discovered the website and really like how I can use it to organize my online bookmarks. I have tons of websites that I’ve bookmarked, but it almost becomes pointless at some point because it’s too hard to find anything. And once it becomes hard to find a bookmark, I end up re-bookmarking websites, which just exacerbates the problem!
So I started looking for another solution and I found Papaly.com. Here’s what I like:
The one thing I didn’t like: it made itself my default new tab when I open a new browser window without asking me. And finding the setting to change that was a little difficult.
So here is how I’m using it to organize my bookmarks:
Papaly.com
I’ve been working with my Genealogy Source Checklist (see previous post here). I’ve made a couple of modifications, and actually combined it with my Ancestry Document Download spreadsheet (see previous post here). To combine them, I added a column for tracking if I had downloaded all the documents from my Ancestry account for that ancestor, along with a column for linking to the file location where those files are saved.
As an aside: I save all my computer files to a Dropbox account and for the spreadsheet, I went to the web interface and used the URL for the file location for the ancestor in question. I actually used a bit.ly short url for the spreadsheet so that I didn’t have long, messy links in my file.
Excel
As I worked on my checklist here are some additional changes that I’ve made:
I added a hyperlink to each ancestor name that points to the Ancestry profile page for them in my tree. To add a hyperlink, highlight the cell > right-click and select “Hyperlink”. Copy and paste the URL of the Ancestry profile page into the dialog box and click OK.
Excel
I added a column for the surname. This allows me to sort by the surname if I want to work on a particular family line. For family members who I don’t have a surname (mostly wives whose maiden names are unknown), I put in the surname of the husband, so I can keep track of those people along with the rest of their family group.
Excel
I also added a column for tracking if I’ve completed downloading the documents for that ancestor. I use three options: Complete, Not Complete and None.
Excel
And as I’m working through downloading the documents from Ancestry, I’m also using that opportunity to clean up my online family tree. I removed a whole bunch of disconnected who are no longer connected to my family tree as I had eliminated them as being a part of my family. I also decided to trim down who I include in my collateral relatives. I realized when I was looking at the profile page for the “maternal grandfather of the mother-in-law of the husband of my great aunt” that I really didn’t want to spend the time tracking, researching and organizing for that distant a relation, who is only related through marriage. I decided to draw the following line:
In the end, I ended up with 1130 people in my current tree – which is still a fairly good number of people to research, track and organize! 672 of them are on my maternal side, 444 are on my paternal side and 14 are what I termed as immediate family.
I’ve updated the available templates here (though if you are already using the spreadsheet, just add the following columns:
Jannetje Zweersen was born on 8 February 1713 in Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands. She married Sjouke Sijes Noteboom in Amsterdam, where they lived for awhile. They were both members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Jannetje gave birth to thirteen children. Her oldest, Jan, was born in 1734 and lived for 78 years. Sije, the second son, was born in 1735 and lived 64 years. Jacob, was born in 1737 and died as a young child at the age of 6. Fennigje, her first daughter, was born in 1739 and died in 1744 at the age of 5. Atje was born in 1741 and died eight years later. The second Jacob was born in 1742 and died in 1746. Fennigien was born in 1744 and her fate is unknown. Jakobus was born in 1746 and lived for 77 years. Sijke was born in 1748 and her fate is unknown. Attie was born in 1749 and her fate is unknown. Sjouke was born in 1752 and died as an infant. The second Sjouke was born in 1753 and lived to be 41 years old. Harmanus was born in 1754 and died in 1808 at the age of 54. Jannetje died in 1799 at the age of 86 years old. She outlived at least 7 of her children.
Coat of arms of the Dutch municipality of Zwolle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)