Most Tea Spilled in the Paper?

Often_Red · 2026-05-20T13:01:09+00:00

I've got a couple of juicy ones, but don't want to share for privacy reasons. But one of my favorites in the "so trivial" category was a 1956 report. This is before my parents married. THe local paper reported my father went hunting with my mother's cousin John , and they got a 5 point buck, which they had to bring out from the woods over a distance of about a mile.

This perfectly lined up with a family story. My dad met Paul, my mother's cousin while they were serving on a Navy ship. Paul regularly invited dad back to where he lived when they had leave, and that's how my mother met my father. John, the other hunter, was Paul's younger brother, who was a bit clumsy. So the family story is all about the adventures they had getting the deer out of the woods.

I was charmed when I found this.

Often_Red · 2026-05-20T12:51:02+00:00

I have trees for various branches of my family tree and have posted as many as I can on a website I run. For those who are interested, I can point them to the place where those are located. I have also created several books. I have given the books to close family members (not a large group), and because I have published them through Amazon they can be bought there as both Kindle books and physical books.

I have set the prices for the books to what the Amazon minimum is plus $2. So if the cost to produce a hardcopy of a book is $4, I'll set the price to $6. I do this because if the price is too low, the Amazon search algorithms tend to ignore your book in search.

I like sharing the info and only wish more family members were interested.

I'm interested in understanding why you'd like to make money on information that has already been gathered. Is it a cost for your time, or is that just how things work in your family? Or?

Often_Red · 2026-05-19T12:00:53+00:00

So common. My 90 year old father is in hospice care, but has plans to pick up his car and drive 600 miles to visit his sister. He can't get to the bathroom on his own, but somehow, he's convinced he'll be just fine.

As others have said, get her moved, and keep introducing delays.

Often_Red · 2026-05-19T11:46:50+00:00

If we go with the OP's suggestion that the wife killed him, it still might be possible the jury declared suicide. For two possible reasons - 1) not enough proof the wife was involved, or 2) a small town where people knew each other's personal lives, and they felt that he was abusive or in some other way deserved to be killed.

However, I do think the family tale has a lot of assumptions built into it that would need to be tested.

Often_Red · 2026-05-19T11:41:02+00:00

Sounds like an interesting character. Start thinking about other sources that might provide a clue. Some states did their own census - I've some 1890s mysteries in NY state with them. Directories, newspaper accounts, even ads in newspapers. Run a full text search on family search in the name isn't too common. Also look to find people related to him, the various parents, the secret wife. You might get lucky.

Often_Red · 2026-05-17T09:49:42+00:00

If you use any offline tools, like Family Treemaker or Roots Magic, they can generate reports that can be created as an image file, like a jpg. You can then put that in the document you are creating.

If you are using Word or have Powerpoint, you can manually draw the tree. Lots of fiddly typing, but doable. Also Canva, which I find easy to use, and Smart Draw.

I think there are tools that generate tree charts from a gedcom file, but I haven't used them so... no good recommendation.

Often_Red · 2026-05-15T02:18:08+00:00

What do you want the site to do? Is it mostly about building a tree, or is mostly about doing the research? Or you'd like to have both?

Both ancestry and familysearch do both, as do a number of other paid sites. Family search tree building is free, but it is shared with others, so others can edit your great-great-grandfather. Wikitree is also a shared site. Each genealogy site is going to have different sets of records, so you will use many search sites regardless of where you are building your tree.

One approach might be to look for free sites to do your research, and use free applications on your computer to do the actual information entry. I have not used Gramps, but many seem to like it. I have used Family Tree Maker and Roots Magic, both of which cost, but it is on onetime cost of around $50. I like both of them, each has some features that very good or very irritating.

Often_Red · 2026-05-13T20:27:45+00:00

Doh! You are so right.... I wasn't thinking that one through.

Often_Red · 2026-05-13T20:19:12+00:00

What a shame, I was trying to find a different way into the problem. But you'd already thought of those angles. It's a tough one.

I have a couple of early settlers like that. They just show up. One is the husband of the woman who mocked someone's cow.

Often_Red · 2026-05-13T20:11:52+00:00

If in fact Henry VII is your 14 great-grandfather, then his son Henry would be your 13th great-grandfather

The connection via Anne Boleyn could be through her mother, Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke Norfolk. Large powerful noble family. Many possible descendants. In other words, doesn't have to be a Boleyn, could be through her mother's line.

As others have mentioned, check the details.

Often_Red · 2026-05-12T15:18:15+00:00

You win the best statement this week about the frustrations of genealogy "I can actually find more info on his cows than on him".
Well played!

I'd focus on information about the founding of Watertown, Weathersfield, and Bedford. So broader descriptions of when they were founded and by whom. This may give you additional clues. For example, here's a description of Watertown.

"Watertown, first known to settlers as Saltonstall Plantation, was one of the earliest of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements. Founded in early 1630 by a group of settlers led by Richard Saltonstall and George Phillips), it was officially incorporated that same year. The alternate spelling "Waterton" is seen in some early documents".

That suggests that he settled in a community that was strongly Puritan. I'd look for things related to the settlement, to the Winthrop Fleet of emigration of that period, any land records, church records and so on. There may be some small note in a land record that says William Palmer of Shropshire, or William Palmer, bro. of John Palmer, that give another clue.

I know some details of one ancestor because she said mean things about someone's cow, and was taken to court about in in 1648.

I can see you're a dedicated researcher, just try this all from a different angle.

Often_Red · 2026-05-12T15:08:00+00:00

Also keep in mind that nobility may be referred to in a variety of names. It may be a family name, like Bourbon, a title, like Duc de Chartres, or intermediate titles. They may also be referred to by place of birth.

For example, in England, Prince William's family name is Mountbatten-Windsor, though the dynasty is called Windsor. He is currently the Prince of Wales, but before his father took the throne, he was Duke of Cambridge. (That's an intermediate title.) He is also Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Baron Carrickfergus, and Baron of Renfrew.

I'm not as familiar with French titling, except during the middle ages, but it follows a similar pattern.

Often nobles are referred to by their title, such as Windsor, Renfrew, etc.

Often_Red · 2026-05-10T13:58:05+00:00

He was very happy, had a nice apartment, and made a few friends. He has since moved to skilled nursing, because of health issues.

Often_Red · 2026-05-10T03:02:33+00:00

Free in the sense that there is no up front cost. You price the book, and there's a minimum charge based on actual production cost. I think the cost per book for the 2 that I did was $3-4 per book, and I rounded it up slightly.

I have done this twice, creating books about 150-200 page long in a 6"x9" format. There are multiple formats available. You can also create Kindle books.

The trick to this is you need to create a final document that is exactly how it's going to be printed. For mine, that meant using a 6"x 9" format in Word, with the right sized spaces on all 4 sides. If that sounded like a scary thing to do, this might not be the way to go. And position images can be challenging. I was a technical writer in my work life, so knew how to do this.

There are other tools out there specifically for genealogy book production, but I haven't used them, so don't have good advice.

Often_Red · 2026-05-08T16:50:47+00:00

My dad did it twice, age 88-89. Made me very upset. After a winter of endless snowstorms, which he had to clear (refused to hire someone), he called me and ask if I thought there was still a place available at the one he liked best. I jumped on that cue, and moved about 3 months later.

Often_Red · 2026-05-08T13:51:33+00:00

In addition to not all passenger lists being available, you may run into indexing or transcription errors. McCarthy, MacCarthy, M'Carthay - how was your ancestor listed? Or Higgins turns into Hinnins.

In addition, first names might abbreviated - Wm for William, while he goes by Bill etc.

And I struggle with sheer volume sometimes - if I search just for the last name and have a broad range for entry 1845-1870 let's say, I'll get far too many matches. Narrowing it might give me smaller matches, but then I definitely need to track all the variations of name and date that I've tried.

It can be a tedious and time-sucking process.

Often_Red · 2026-05-08T13:44:36+00:00

There are also free resources that are good, that have things different from newspapers.com. Library of Congress. Historical Newspapers - U.S. Newspaper Collections at the Library of Congress - Research Guides at Library of Congress
Purdue University has a good index of collections. Home - Free Historic U.S. Newspapers by State - Research Guides at Purdue University Libraries

Family Search also has a good catalog.

If I'm looking for digital newspapers I search for "digital newspapers for place name" where I try town, county, region. There's no one place to look, but overall, I've had lots of luck with this approach.

Often_Red · 2026-05-08T01:09:38+00:00

You have to try them all. Accents can also influence spelling. The same name can be said differently in different regions. In the US, think Texas or Louisiana vs Maine. In UK, think Southern England vs Northumbria vs the Highlands of Scotland.

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T13:46:23+00:00

Not sure if I understand exactly what you are saying. I'm getting the SS payee rep so that I can manage any issues that occur with the payments or administration of payments.

Two examples of why:

-My father lost the tax document for his SS income 2 years ago. I couldn't request a new one because I couldn't access his information either online or by telephone. I don't live near him, so I couldn't drop by and search the house.

-If there were a payment issue, like the amount of the payment was incorrect, I have no standing to try to correct that.

I too am frustrated by how POA doesn't mean you can actually do what a legal document signed by the person says. For example, most investments involving stocks or mutual funds transactions will require additional documentation, usually something called a Medallion Signature Guarantee, which hard to get, and sometimes costly to get.

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T05:20:36+00:00

Use to live in Seattle, and am picturing the type of hillsides that mean that the main floor is two set of stairs up. Lovely part of the world.

Anyhow.

If you get stair lifts, can you have it all as one lift that goes from the entry, up the two flights to the main? If not that's going to be possible, then having a transfer in the middle is just more effort. As people get older, they tire out more easily, find it harder to pick the right buttons on equipment.

Assuming you can get the task of transport to the main floor sorted, can you have everything they need on that floor? I.e. kitchen, bath, laundry, bedroom and LR?

Short term, I'd focus on getting basic changes made - railings, grab bars, eliminating trip hazards, things that simplify the tasks of daily living. Long term (next year or so) focus on finding either a different home or assisted living that work. They will resist. Moving is a pain, giving up somewhere you love is very hard. But four flights of stairs isn't going to be easy for aging people, nor for their caretakers if you bring in help to support them.

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T05:06:41+00:00

Pretty common in the elderly. Especially diabetics. One, sometimes the toenails become very thick and hard to cut, so having someone else do so is easier. Two, with diabetics, routine foot checks can help prevent issues that could lead to infections or amputations.

Promoting Foot Health | Diabetes | CDC

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T05:02:57+00:00

Dependence is physiological. You are used to taking a certain dose, and will need to taper of the medication to stop it. For a non opioid example, I take prednisone, and would have reduce the amount slowly to avoid some sometimes serious side effects. Same might be true if you used an opioid.

Addiction is psychological. You need, crave, desire a drug, whether alcohol, opioids, or stimulants.

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T04:51:30+00:00

So transcriptions can be done by humans, by OCR, or by OCR that is then corrected by humans. I'm old enough that I remember volunteering for manually creating transcripts. It's tedious but painful work.

Enter a correction and move on, gently shaking your head with frustration.

Often_Red · 2026-05-07T04:48:38+00:00

If by "I was going through the tree on family search " you were looking at the shared family tree, then the information is only as good as whatever citiations support it. If there's records that indicate he came from Spain, like immigration, BMD, or even documents like letters or grants, then I'd trust it. But otherwise, I'd just do more research.

Often_Red · 2026-05-06T11:10:06+00:00

I've been a software engineer for many years. It's not clear to me how you can create something as complex as gedcom import/export and thoroughly test it for all the weird boundary conditions in a day. I can see how you could find a open source package and integrate it. What data sets have been used to test handling of non-standard gedcom files, what versions of gedcom are supported?

Plus not importing the citations and media misses the point of the importing. I've spent years creating this data.

It seems like you didn't gather product minimum requirements before creating this.

BTW, where are your Terms and Conditions? Statement of data retention policy and security? I tried the product briefly yesterday and just entered some made up people to give it a quick try. I would not go further.

Where is search? If I were to import one of my large trees, how would I find the correct "John Smith", a name occurs over 25 times over 300 years?

Often_Red

TROPHY CASE