The Livermore Roots Tracer Volume 26 Number 1 February 2006 Editors:  Marie Ross, Lois Barber, Jane Southwick, rootstracer@l-ags.org Web Editor: Vicki Renz, webmaster@l-ags.org

The Roots Tracer is the quarterly publication of the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society. The mission statement of the Roots Tracer is: "Instruct. Inspire. Inform." In keeping with this mission and in the spirit of our Society's motto, "Members Helping Members," we encourage members to submit articles for publication. Material can be e-mailed to: tracer@L-AGS.org or mailed to L-AGS, P.O. Box 901, Livermore, CA 94551-0901.

The deadline for each quarterly issue is the 15th of the previous month. Submissions must contain the name of the submitter, as well as the name of the author, publication and date of any published article that is being quoted.

Queries are free. Please send your queries to querymaster@l-ags.org.

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Welcome to Our New Members

We are grateful for the generosity of these members of L-AGS:

Benefactors
James Bahls, Sandra Caulder, Sandy & DeLynn Clark, Ted & Gail Fairfield, Dick & Wanda Finn, Dick & Jean Lerche

Membership Report As of January 30, 2006

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This is the beginning of a new year in which to find many ancestors. May you have successful forays into many places and events, and discover many interesting things about your families. May your brick walls come tumbling down.

We have had interesting speakers the last three months. Frank Geasa presented a talk in November about the Pleasanton Library where our genealogy collection is kept. He explained the many resources that are available and also how to work with the vast collection of CDs. Frank is one of our docents, along with Connie Pitt, Leo Vongottfried, Patrick Lofft, Lois Barber, and Dick Finn. Jane Everett and Glynice Pomykal also serve, representing DAR as well as L-AGS. They serve the public each Wednesday by helping to answer genealogy questions and explaining how to use the computers. These volunteers deserve a big Thank You for the work they do.

Bob Dougherty, of the San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society, spoke to us in December about Genealogy in the Digital Age. He showed us many of the tools he used on a genealogy trip to Montana. He showed why using these digital tools made such a trip more successful.

At our January meeting Barry Schrader talked about family treasured heirlooms and picture albums and how to pass them down to heirs. It is important to make a written or taped record of these items so children and grandchildren can cherish these memories and stories.

If you were at our meeting in December you probably took part in a "Get Acquainted" Bingo game. Mary Ann Loss presented us with Bingo cards that required you to talk to many people to get answers to fill up the card. In this way, you became more acquainted with other members. Hopefully, you will continue to talk to members you don't know well, and learn more about them and their genealogy while you share yours with them.

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Edward Albin Pyle 1917-2005 By Shirley Siems Terry

Another of our founding members, Edward Pyle, died in Livermore 4 December 2005. Ed was a quiet and unassuming man who, in early 1977, taught the genealogy class from which our group formed. L-AGS was originally the Amador Genealogical Association. After a couple of years, we changed the name to the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society because of confusion with an Amador County group.

At the time Ed was asked to teach genealogy at the Livermore Adult Education Center, he was working at the Lawrence Lab in Livermore (1962-1990) in photographic problem solving. Ed had graduated from the University of California before taking 27 months of photography at an art school. During World War II, he interrupted his schooling to work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C., among other locations. He later operated his own photography studio.

As first president of AGA, I was helped (and pushed) along by Ed Pyle, Gayle Pipes and Bill Wolcott, all wonderful men who have gone to meet their maker. These men were instrumental in establishing a firm foundation for our wonderful genealogical society.

Our membership increased in those early years from Ed's continuing genealogy classes. He also sometimes gave talks and demonstrations at our meetings on using photography in genealogy, and occasionally brought his equipment to make negatives and copies of our old photos.

My husband's work with Chevron meant moves all over the country and back home again to San Ramon. During those years away, I corresponded with our members and wrote articles for the newsletter. When I wrote that I was teaching genealogy in New Jersey, Ed sent me a packet of "Vugraph" material that he had used in teaching.

I was grateful for his interest and used some of the content even though my lesson plans were a little more structured. Besides, at that time I had never used an overhead projector so stuck with what was comfortable for me. But this shows what a thoughtful and giving person Ed was. Those of us who knew him will miss him.

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As of January 31, we have not heard from some of you regarding the renewal of your membership. So before more time passes why don't you take a minute to renew your membership? An individual membership is $18.00 and family memberships are $25.00.

Please mail your check made out to "L-AGS" to L-AGS, P O Box 901, Livermore CA 94551-0901.

Thanking you in advance...........

Marilyn Cutting, Membership Chairman

Volunteer Opportunities By Dick Finn

L-AGS has a number of interesting opportunities for members to help in the collection and publication of historical and genealogical information. Most of you know about the obituary, cemetery, newspaper and church record collections that have been transcribed and indexed and then published in both printed form and on our website. You can view the ones that are online at http://www.l-ags.org/databases.html.

Another opportunity to help in this line of endeavor is to be part of the on-going Tri-Valley Heritage Families Project. For this project, we are collecting data, photographs, and histories of pioneer families of the Amador, Livermore, and San Ramon valleys. This new database will be shared with everyone interested in the history of our Valley.

We believe the Heritage Families Project will be of potentially great benefit to all Valley history centers, genealogical groups, museums and libraries, as well as to individual historians and genealogists.

Where you can help is in doing lookups in local newspapers, on microfilm held at the Livermore Library and the Livermore Heritage Guild. We have almost 13,000 names in our database already, but need to double-check and add information found in local papers. The names we are interested in have been identified, as well as the exact date, paper and page that the information will be found on. And — you will not believe some of the things that have already been found. Very interesting!

Please email or call Dick Finn (rwfinn@wecare.net) if you can help with this important project.

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Published census indexes cover one geographic location, usually a state or county, for one census year, and are arranged alphabetically by surname. If a surname is misspelled for any reason, the researcher may never find the individual. Part one of this article showed how the addition of two search variables, given name and location, to the online census index improved the chances of finding any given household in the original census. Post-1840 censuses included the names of all members of the household, as well as additional significant information useful for identifying subjects in an index. Both online indexes provide even more search variables for these censuses: place of birth, age, gender, and race; and the Ancestry search forms include several more that vary by census year. Search parameters can be constructed using any combination of these variables.

An effective search parameter, or filter, is one that yields results large enough to include the desired subject, but small enough to allow quick and accurate study. Fill in too many search variables and you may find no matches; fill in too few and you may find thousands. The following search examples were chosen because they illustrate common index problems that were solved through the use of variable search parameters available only in online indexes. In all instances, the Advanced Search form in HeritageQuest and the Exact Search form in Ancestry were used.

Given the fact that Ancestry's indexes, with the exception of 1910, are every name indexes, most searches for a specific family should begin with this resource. Searches were duplicated in available HeritageQuest indexes as necessary.

Example 1. From the time of his marriage in 1879 until his death in 1934, James H. Olney, born ca. 1857 in New York, resided in Tioga, Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

Both online indexes provide a way to search for a name in all available census years at once. Ancestry allows you to limit this search by location and name only; HeritageQuest allows you to add place of birth to the search parameter. A Soundex search for James Olney in Tioga, Pennsylvania, yielded only two results, one in 1900 and one in 1930. Removing the given name did not give any additional relevant results. Because Olney's place of residence was known, a search for the common given name, James, in Tioga, Pennsylvania, was performed. If this yielded too many results, a year-by-year search for James, born 1857 ± 2 years, was planned. This search was unnecessary as no year produced more than 65 results. James H. Olney was found by a given name search in each census. In all three instances, the indexer had copied the name as it appeared in the original.

1880: James H. Alvey, b. NY; problems: possible phonetic spelling transcribed incorrectly; unexpected initial capital

1910: James H. Ohay, b. PA; problems: surname transcribed incorrectly; wrong birthplace

1920: James H. Onley, b. NY; problem: letters transposed in microfilmed census

Example 2: Ezra Horton, b. ca. 1844, in Wisconsin, married Mary --?--, ca. 1866, probably in Kansas, where their first child was born.

Mary was b. ca. 1849, in Iowa. The family included two children, Ira and David, in the 1870 census, but they couldn't be found in 1880.

Failed search parameters: Horton (Soundex or wildcard); Ezra in Kansas, born 1844 ± 2, Ezra born Wisconsin; Ira and David born Kansas; Mary yielded too many results.

Idea: The 1880 census index allows a search by parents' places of birth. A nation-wide search for anyone born in Kansas with father born in Wisconsin and mother born in Iowa yielded only 153 results. Among them was Larria, son of Esra and Mary Whorton. This proved to be the correct family. The enumeration for this household contained at least one error in every search parameter, among them: the initial letter of the surname was incorrect, so neither Soundex nor wildcard search worked; the given name Ezra was misspelled and his birthplace entered as New Jersey; Mary's birthplace was entered as Wisconsin; Ira's birthplace was entered as Iowa; the given name David was misread by the indexer as Larria.

Example 3a. Elon Crane and wife Betsey lived in Cook County, Illinois from 1840 until their deaths. The common phonetic and visual spelling variants for the surname Crane usually show up in a Soundex search: Crane, Crain(e), Cram(e). Although Elon is not a common name, there are many spelling variations: Elon, Ellon, Elin, Ellin, Elan, Eland, Elen, Elend, etc.

The family was found easily in 1840 by a Soundex search: Elon Cram, Lake Township, Cook County, Illinois, living next to John Miller, and four names from S. Case, his brother-in-law.

Elon was dead by 1860, but his widow was easily found: Elizabeth Crane, Chicago, Illinois, confirmed by age (67) and birthplace (New York), living with Maria, age 46, Winfield, age 14, Harry, age 12. Maria was assumed to be the widow of the Cranes' son Orren J.

Failed search parameters for 1850: Although the search was limited to Cook County, Illinois, the Soundex search for Crane yielded too many results; nothing relevant was found when the Soundex search was limited by age and/or place of birth; nothing (or too many) found under first name search variants. Nothing relevant was found for any Elon spelling variation.

Successful parameter: A wildcard search, Cra* plus born in Vermont, yielded E. Cramer, age 60, b. Vermont, and Mrs. Cramer, age 57, b. New York. The couple lived next to John Miller, whose family matched the pattern of the 1840 John Miller, minus a wife, apparently deceased. Problems solved: Cramer is not the phonetic equivalent of Crane, so the federal census copy was probably transcribed incorrectly. Most of the wives in this census were entered as "Mrs.", whether by the original census taker or the subsequent transcriber is unknown. Most given names were indicated only by initials.

Example 3b: An attempt to find Orren J. and Maria Crane in this same census failed. Orren's birth date and place were unknown and Maria could not be found. A given name search for Winfield failed. A given name search for Harry, born 1848 ± 1, in Illinois, yielded only 11 results, including a Harry Gant. When this was investigated, the family proved to be O. J. Crane, Mrs. Crane, Winifield, and Harry. The problem here was a misreading of the original census by the indexer.

Example 4: Philip Case, born 1792 in New York, was easily found in all censuses except that of 1860. Most of his life was spent in Troy, Pennsylvania.

Failed search parameters: Surname Case by Soundex search did not locate him; the visual search variant, Car*, did not locate him; 1860 search form requires a specific age, not a range, so this limitation is tedious to use.

Successful parameter: Given name Phil*, residing in Troy, yielded only ten results. One of those, Phillip Williams, was born ca. 1791 in New York. The head of household was Oliver Williams, and all family surnames were dittoed after his name. The household includes Betsy, age 62, known to be Oliver's mother, and Phillip, age 68. Although it's easy to assume Phillip was Betsy's husband, a study of the family in all other records identifies him as her brother, Phillip Case. The problem here was a result of the recopied census. The copyist's practice of dittoing sometimes dittoes a different surname out of existence.

Example 5: Searching for a specific family is usually more successful when using Ancestry and its more extensive features. Searching for a class of people may be more successful with HeritageQuest's more accurate index and consistent results output. This brief chart compares the two indexes when searching for all Case people born in Vermont, residing in Albany County, New York, in 1870.

In a subjective analysis, HeritageQuest provides a more accurate index than does Ancestry. Its search form is consistent and its search results always appear in the same manner. These results can be viewed by census year, by state, and by county, making this online index ideal for quickly viewing migration patterns and surname concentrations. Although they are initially sorted by surname, results can be resorted by a different variable, given name or location, for example, providing researchers an additional analysis tool. HeritageQuest's method of indicating illegible names, usually three questions marks (???), makes those names easy to locate in the index and investigate in the original record. HeritageQuest is limited, however, by its lack of wildcard and Soundex searches, and by its incomplete coverage. It does not include indexes to the 1830 through 1850 and 1880 censuses, provides only a partial index to the 1930 census, and indexes only heads of household and strays.

Ancestry's better search tools help counteract its higher error rate. It includes a surname Soundex search and a wildcard search available for all text fields, although the latter is limited by its requirement that the wildcard be preceded by at least three known characters. Searches for initial letters instead of given names are handled well, and Ancestry retrieves given names easily, even if abbreviated in the original. Ancestry also provides more search variables than does HeritageQuest. Its coverage is impressive. Not only does it provide every name indexes to all censuses except 1910, it also includes indexes and images of the 1890 Veterans' Schedules, the 1850 through 1880 Mortality Schedules, and the 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedules.

As can be seen, the most frequent problem encountered in any index search is operator error. To reduce this, a researcher should:

Keep a record of all failed searches, to avoid repeating them.

Become familiar with all spelling variations for every surname and the most effective ways to circumvent them.

Become familiar with frequent transcribing errors, whether by census copyist or by indexer.

Take advantage of search variables, such as given name, place of birth, even township or county, when all surname searches fail.

Always assume your subject is in the index. You'll work harder to find it.

The more you know about a family, and the more creative you are in using online census index tools, the more likely you are to locate that family in an index. In fact, you should be successful in at least 99.5% of your searches. If you still say, "I cannot find Smith Horton in the census index," does that mean it's safe to conclude that the census taker missed him? The answer to that question is, "No." What you do next, though, is a story for another day.

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Seminars Compiled by Eileen Redman

April 22, Santa Rosa. Barbara Vines Little will be the featured speaker at Sonoma County Genealogical Society's Annual Seminar. More information can be found at http://www.scgs.org/ or by sending an e-mail to Lois Nimmo or by telephoning Audrey Phillips.

June 7 – 10, Chicago. The National Genealogical Society and a number of Chicagoland genealogical societies will host the 2006 NGS Conference in the States. More information can be found at the society's Web site http://ngsgenealogy.org or by writing to National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4304.

August 30 – September 2, Boston. The 2006 Conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEGHS) will be the largest genealogical event ever held, with more then 370 educational opportunities in classes, workshops, and luncheon presentations. More information can be found at http://www.fgs.org or write to FGS/NEHGS Conference, P.O. Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940.

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In The Livermore Roots Tracer dated May 2005, I wrote an article titled Fact or Fiction? Imagine my surprise when I heard from Patrick Manning, a resident of Virginia, telling me that E. O. Sloulin (not A. O. Sloulin as I had stated in my story) was his great-great uncle. Patrick's mother has the stamp Erick Sloulin used in his photography business. Of course, Patrick cannot help me to identify the lady in the photograph, but it was wonderful to hear from him and we have exchanged several messages regarding the family home, the family farm and their family plot in the cemetery. You just never know what may come your way from an article in the Roots Tracer. This is made possible by the fact that Google, and maybe other search services, regularly index the Tracer and post their indexes on the Internet. Patrick evidently searched for any mention of the surname "Sloulin" and hit on our periodical.

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If your ancestors are from Ireland, you might enjoy this Library Ireland site offering access to a growing collection of digitized out-of-print Irish books and other reading material including several County Dublin and 1910 Ulster town directories.

http://www.libraryireland.com/

 

The Tennessee State Library & Archives has indexes of state deaths 1908-1925 and extensive military service indexes online at this site.

http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/index.htm

 

The 1911 Canadian census is now available at the Library and Archives Canada site. While the images of the population schedules are available, they are unfortunately searchable only by location. Help may be available however at the next site below.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1911/index-e.html

 

This site has a project underway for the volunteer indexing of surnames for the 1911 Canadian census and has complete indexes for the 1901 and several other censuses.

http://automatedgenealogy.com/index.html

 

The St. Louis County [Missouri] Library has a number of genealogical indexes including an unusual one of Civil War Slave Compensation Claims.

http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/indexes.htm

 

The City of Augusta, Georgia has an ongoing project to provide online access to burial records of city-maintained cemeteries. Surprise: the city's Tree & Landscaping Division runs this project.

http://www.augustaga.gov/departments/trees_landscaping/graveside.asp

 

If you have an ancestor who served as a Hessian soldier in the American Revolution, you might be interested in this site of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association. It includes several lists of these soldiers and often gives some biographical data.

http://www.jsha.org/

 

This North Dakota Department of Health site has an online death index (1881- 2005) available.

https://secure.apps.state.nd.us/doh/certificates/deathCertSearch.htm  

 

If your ancestors were German Catholics living near Odessa, Russia during the period 1825-1915, the following site has some interesting genealogical lists including birth, marriage and military mobilization.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~odcolonies/

 

If your ancestors are from Kentucky you may want visit this site periodically. The ongoing Kentucky Vitals Records Project already has more than 32,000 deaths listed.

http://kyvitals.com/vis/search/search.php

 

This Pape Mortuary site contains a growing database of more than 105,000 records for the area of Danville, Illinois (East Central).

http://www.papemortuary.com/database.asp

 

Who knows whom you may find at this site with a growing collection of transcribed high school and college yearbooks from across the country?

http://www.old-yearbooks.com/

 

If you will be doing Hungarian research you might find the advice and links of this website helpful.

http://www.barbsnow.net/Hungary.htm

 

This site has a guide to the censuses taken by the various states themselves.

http://www.researchguides.net/census/state.htm

 

If your research includes Iowa, this site contains transcriptions of more than half a million names from the Iowa 1930s WPA Graves Registration Project. Transcriptions for 79 counties are complete and for some others are in progress.

http://iowawpagraves.org/index.php?cid=97

 

Also visit the sister site of the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project with photos of over 181,200 stones.

http://iowagravestones.org/index.php

 

Gravestone in Taylor County, Iowa

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My High School Reunion How I Tracked Down "Missing" Classmates By David Abrahams

I recently received a package of material from the organizing committee for my fiftieth high school class reunion (Burlingame, California, High, class of 1956). In that package was a list of "missing" grads, and instructions that if anyone had any information regarding them, would they please contact the committee. Members of the committee have already examined reunion-type Web sites, with some success.

Having a little spare time, I looked the list over to see if I could be of any help. The list consists of twenty ladies and nine men. My first instinct was to look in the Livermore telephone directory — you never know who your neighbor might be! That drew a blank. I then went to Zabasearch <www.zabasearch.com> and found two of the men. But so did another grad.

A major obstacle on this search is that we know only the maiden names of female grads. So, I then decided to look in county marriage indexes. San Mateo County has marriage records in the county recorder's office. I sent an e-mail to Cath Trindle, who does a lot of research in San Mateo County, asking her if there was an index available to the public. She e-mailed back with a website that has free searches for brides from 1949 through 1986 for California marriages. The URL is www.vitalsearch-ca.com.

This site can also be accessed through a link on the L-AGS website. However, there is no guarantee that this is a complete list.

So I plugged in each of the ladies' maiden names and looked to see what data I could find. The information that is shown includes the groom's name and age and the bride's name, age, date of marriage and county. This search resulted in six "hits." I then opened Ancestry.com, and went through all the names on the list in the "U.S. Public Records Index Record" search. I came up with eight "hits." Some of the Ancestry.com hits match the marriage index.

I went to the San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City to look at the indexes for marriages. They have four books that list marriages up to 1965. After that, the index is on their in-house computers. The four books are divided alphabetically, and then one section for grooms and one for brides. Looking in the brides section, I was able to find six marriages that occurred before 1965. Using the computer, I found no marriages for the ladies I was looking for.

I passed my search results on to the committee chairman. As a result of these searches, the organizing committee has confirmed nine of my "hits" as missing graduates; all are really pleased to have been found.

I have not had the opportunity to examine other Bay Area county marriage indexes; nor do I know at this time if any exist.

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Beth Twogood alerted me to an interesting seminar coming up in April in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dr. George Schweitzer is speaking on three topics: Virginia Genealogy, Civil War Genealogy, and Migration Routes and Settlement Patterns. So that you can have a good time learning, the professor uses historical reenactment, complete with appropriate costumes and accent. He is also a prolific author — we have 16 of his genealogy books in our L-AGS library.

When Dr. Schweitzer discovered some of his ancestors were prominent in scientific and religious development in early American days he caught the genealogy "bug" and pursued his hobby of historical-genealogical reenactments. He shares his expertise in many presentations.

The Spring Family History Seminar will be held 1 April 2006 at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino Conference Center. Early bird pre-registration postmarked by 18 March is $40, otherwise registration is $45 at the door. E-mail: mailto:CCNGS@cox.net for information. The seminar is sponsored by the Clark County, Nevada, Genealogical Society, PO Box 1929, Las Vegas, NV 89125-1929.

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	From France to The Azores to Livermore - Finally! By David Bettencourt Goularte
This is my grandmother Anna Julia Bettencourt at about 21 (1912). She left Livermore when she was 25 upon her marriage in 1915 to her cousin Andrew Peters. Her mother and his mother were sisters. This was not an uncommon custom at that time.

In the Roots Tracer for November 2005, David Goularte wrote about how and why he became interested in his maternal grandparents' history. Their parents had come to the Livermore and Pleasanton area in the 1870s and '80s from the Azores Islands. His grandparents had left the Tri-Valley area in 1915 but he knew there might still be family here and that his great-grandparents' 1870s ranch might still be in the family. He had lost track of the family and was trying to figure out how to make contact, as he couldn't remember the married names of the known surviving members. He wondered — what if he contacted some Livermore city groups?

I found some Livermore historic and genealogy sites on the Internet and narrowed down to writing to one, the Livermore Heritage Guild. A member, Dick Lerche, sent my request to Anna Siig. Anna, to whom I will be eternally grateful, wrote back to me. She offered to call local Bettencourts but was not successful. She encouraged me to continue to research and offered to help. I decided it was easiest to fly to California and meet Anna and her husband, Gary Drummond.

As I drove to Livermore from the airport that day in 2001, many memories came back. Arriving a little early, I went through downtown Livermore to the other side of the city to the road we would have driven from Modesto where I grew up. Driving back to Livermore from there, I recognized landmarks, though I had not been there for years. Livermore had changed considerably since I had last visited.

I came to the part where the street angled, remembering we had turned right here, turned and drove down Livermore Avenue. There they were, on the left, great-grandmother's house she had had from 1916 untll her death in 1929 and Grand Aunt Rosie's 1905 colonnaded bungalow.

I hoped that, if I would continue down the street out to the country, the ranch was still out there, if it had not been buried beneath housing developments. It was time to meet Anna and Gary, however.

It was a delightful meeting. We had much in common, including a love of history and of historic structures. They owned an historic house just as we did back in Olympia, Washington.

I told them what I knew, which was little. I had lost track of all my Livermore connections. Calls went nowhere. I talked about the ranch, saying I thought it was out the Livermore Avenue road, but that I had not been there for over 40 years. Gary generously offered to drive us out and look for it.

We drove out Livermore Avenue past the two former family houses. We drove a long way out. Nothing looked right, but it was still rural, which was promising. We kept driving; places didn't look "right" — the land seemed too "flat," yet I really didn't know what I was looking for. We passed house after house with no recognition on my part. Gary said, "Well, let's try this other road as I know a Bettencourt up there." That didn't look right either and we went back to the main road and drove on. I was ready to give up; we were literally at the end of the road, it having come to a dead end at another road. I said dejectedly, "We may as well turn back."

Gary said, "Let's take this road back — it also goes to town." We turned left at Collier Canyon Road and drove a little way past more houses. My eyes widened. I saw a newer house and barn but nearly yelled, "This feels right!!! The old house is gone and the buildings are new but this has got to be it!" The hills came down to the house, which was nestled in a hollow surrounded by trees, a feature no other place we saw that day had!

The gate to the drive was closed. All we could do was write down the number, as no name was shown. I was frustrated; to come so close and to think I'd have to wait longer to find out if I was right.

We drove on. After a short way, we saw an older woman in her front garden turning to go into her house. Anna said, "Let's stop and ask her." I was reluctant to "bother" her as she had gone inside. Anna would have none of that! Anna knocked on the door.

The woman came to the door. Anna asked her about the ranch down the road. "Why, that's the old Bettencourt place! The father is gone but one of the grandsons has it now. They're probably away for the weekend."

If one could "swoon" in this 21st century, I nearly did! The ranch was still in the family! I asked if she knew their mother. "Oh yes, she lives in town." Did she know Bernice's last name? "Oh yes, Bernice White." Anna and Gary had found my family! We were jubilant!

Anna phoned Bernice after locating her name in the book. A very skeptical Bernice agreed to come to Anna and Gary's house.

In a while I met a very shaken Bernice Bettencourt White. We had last met in 1961. She realized at once when I mentioned my mother and grandmother that I was indeed related. I learned some of Mother's other cousins were still alive. They were in their late 80s and 90s. I left Anna and Gary and drove to Pleasanton and Modesto and visited them. I picked up more information, much of it conflicting, to be sorted out later.

I visited some of my father's relatives that weekend since I was in Modesto. They unwittingly fitted another piece of the puzzle.

We were talking about the different islands. My father's siblings could speak the Azorean dialects of their parents. I noticed they pronounced Terceira as if it were "Terceda." I had a flash! "Beda." That was the name, as my mother pronounced it, of our ancestral village in the Azores. What if it were spelled "Beira"? I looked on the map. There it was, Beira, a section of Velas, St. George Island.

I now had family names and the village of origin of my maternal great-grandparents. I was on my way!

Back in Livermore, I went to the cemetery, but could not find my family's plots. Anna suggested calling the church. She was told if I could get right there they may be able to help as it was near closing time (and I had to leave for the airport in hours). There I managed to get the baptismal records of my grandmother and all her siblings but my great-grandparents names were not complete and I couldn't find death records then. They couldn't help me with locating the plots.

I had agreed to visit Bernice before I left for the airport. I told her I was not able to find the plots. She said, "They are all there," and told me how to find them. I went back and sure enough, they were there. I had missed them because they were practically in the front row in the earliest part of the cemetery and I had assumed they'd be in other areas. There was a very nicely designed stone marker (Did my grandmother have something to do with that, I wondered) and as I looked more closely, I realized a very important piece of information was listed! Their birthdates were there. That may help in spite of not having their full original names!

Those dates did indeed help locate my great-grandparents birth records in Beira. I now had my great-great-grandparents' names as well!

It is 4 years later. I have a gentleman, Joao Ventura of Terceira still researching "my" Bettencourts. He has reached the 1600s and they are still in Beira.

I have learned the Bettencourts founded Velas in 1556, so we are tantalizingly close to a possible connection to a recognized member of the ancient French family. The older the records are, the more difficult they are to read. Also, this society thought nothing of changing their names; several brothers could have different surnames. For this reason, Mr. Ventura has decided to research the entire genealogical history of Velas to sort it all out. It will help others as well. I must be patient.

I have found branches of my family in California, descendants of my great-grandfather's brothers. They did not know of "each other." I've learned many details and stories. I learned that not only were my maternal families both from Beira, but that my grandmother and grandfather shared a set of grandparents! I found that their mothers were sisters, making them first cousins. This means instead of four lines to research, I just have three.

It does not matter if I never find a connection. An ancestor may have been a servant in a Bettencourt household and was given or had taken the name — it happened. Azoreans were not class conscious. It doesn't matter because I have learned so much about my family, but more important, about the Azorean people.

I learned about their social structure, what their occupations were (farming, whaling, soap manufacturing) and of their cultural customs. I learned an Azorean's disposition and way of thinking is unique to their island, which I can observe in my own family. I learned of the various ways they came to the United States and how they fared here. I learned that because they came from a democratic society, it enabled them to assimilate unusually quickly into the US.

This whole saga has been a wonderful experience, not just for me, but also for all those who helped me along the way. Anna and Gary were just as excited when we found the ranch and Bernice. My family is fascinated by what I am finding out and am still finding out. It was gratifying to learn family stories were true and more so, to realize there were kernels of truth in disparate stories.

For instance, my grandmother said her father had come by whaler to San Francisco, liked what he saw, and decided to stay. Other family said, "Hogwash! He came through Connecticut!" When I found a descendant of my great-grandfather's brother, he told the exact same story Grandma had told about his own ancestor. It's almost as if the two brothers had come to California together on the same whaling ship! I don't know that for sure. However, that did not mean my other relatives were wrong. My great-grandfather had been in Livermore for some years before he went east by rail. He married my great-grandmother in Connecticut and they both came back by rail to the ranch to begin their married lives.

I also learned stories of their lives. In the church historical records there was a story related by Mary Serpa, a granddaughter of my great-grandparents. Mary told of her grandparents talking about the early days in Livermore, of how, in the years before St. Michaels was built, they had to travel to Mission San Jose by horse and buggy to hear mass there.

Most of all, I realized that many people may have a fascinating history they do not know about. I read that, for instance, today, there are 22 million descendants of the original Mayflower party and most of them do not know it. What marvelous opportunities there are for everyone to take part in the excitement of family history research!

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The California Information File – a Valuable New Resource By George Anderson

Our genealogy collection at the Pleasanton Library received a major new addition late last year when we added the California Information File (CIF), a set of microfiche containing about 1.4 million citations to California genealogy and history sources. The CIF was purchased at a cost of $500 by the Friends of the Pleasanton Library, acting on the suggestion of Judy Person, chairperson of the L-AGS Library Committee. L-AGS members are reminded again to show appreciation for the support of the "Friends" by joining that organization and volunteering to help in its twice-yearly book-sale fundraisers.

The 550 microfiche in the CIF are stored in the top drawer of the filing cabinet on which our CD carousels are located.

Kenneth Tessendorff, author of Genealogy Research in Northern California, has written a good description of the CIF, posted at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/NORCAL%20index/cainfofile.shtml.

Mr. Tessendorff states that, "For anyone doing genealogical research in California, especially if you are just starting to research your family history, one of the best available indexes is the California Information File. …"

According to Local History And Genealogy Resources Of The California State Library, edited by Gary E. Strong. California State Library Foundation, Sacramento, California, 1991, "The File includes indexing of early California newspapers, important periodicals, biographies, manuscript collections, and special files on California pioneers and other notables. … The file contains some 721,000 cards bearing about 1.4 million citations to information in California periodicals, newspapers, five hundred histories, theses, government documents, biographical encyclopedias, and special biographical files. Material cited dates from the 1840s through April 1986."

Obtaining the original full-text source material may require the help of a reference librarian, or a search of Melvyl ( http://melvyl.cdlib.org/ ), or a resort to the online book and newspaper resources on Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.

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The names on the gravestone pictured above are actual variations on my mother's maiden name, O'Dwyer, that I have found in use today. I created the imaginary tombstone in Photoshop and Word to illustrate what has happened when sons have scattered to the world and founded their own line of descendants.

The third name is one of several Irish Celtic versions. The last is French, and there is a bit of history here. Irish soldiers, especially the upper ranks, would flee to any nation fighting Britain after the British defeated them. Since France was most often the foremost nation fighting England, many of these Irishmen fled there. Some wound up as generals in the French, Spanish, Dutch and other armies.

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These items have been processed and are now available on the shelf at the Pleasanton Library. Thanks to Paula Brown, Barbara Hempill, Kip West and Ileen Peterson for their contributions toward these books.

Remember, the library is open 10-9 Monday through Thursday, 10-5 Friday and Saturday, and 1-5 on Sunday. Our excellent group of docents share hours on Wednesdays 10-1 and 6-9, and Saturday 10-1.

Here are short reviews:

Books

CDs

If you have suggestions for other items you think we should have, please pass them along to me at dnjperson@comcast.net.

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Haiku for you

You haven't published?

A pity! Who will read it

at the city dump?

Are you still considering editing your own family history newsletter? In "Creating a Family Legacy with Newsletters," The Livermore Roots Tracer, November 2005, I indicated that, if sharing genealogical research, finding distant relatives, becoming a clearing-house for family history, memorabilia, and photographs interest you, a family history newsletter may be just what you need.

Maybe you have already begun your first issue and realized some of the challenges. Allowing more time for proofreading — people love to see their names in print, but only if spelled correctly. How to fill all that space with relevant material, making it look interesting, making it look professional, but not overcrowded. If the first issue taught you something about yourself and the art of editing, wait till you get to the second, third and fourth issues.

I learned a lot about my word processing program that I had used for years. I learned that I work well under pressure most of the time, that I need the security of a backlog of content material on hand for future issues, that I make myself crazy about the presentation of the finished product. And it's simply a family newsletter.

To create an effective newsletter on any topic, you need three things: design, content, and readers. The design only needs to be a legible format and you certainly need readers. But you have to provide what your readers need or want; that makes content the most important thing.

In my newsletter, the Cuckler Family History, the focus is on one surname. I find a balance using one feature article on the surname family, hopefully not always written by me, and two or three lesser articles. These smaller stories may be simple how-to articles, a family member's research trip, general research, collateral lines, or history topics, queries, and other fills.

"From the Editor" is a regular column in my newsletter. Here I can beg regularly for submissions, give readers topic ideas and encouragement, and thank those who submitted something.

For a school project, my thirteen-year-old son wrote twelve lines of poetry on his great-grandfather's ancestry and life. I included it in the newsletter with the great-grandfather's photograph and biography.

This is one way to create fill and involve children in your newsletter. Remarkably, several readers commented on how their ancestor and this grandfather looked alike. And another article developed "Physical Family Traits," early Cucklers' facial features.

Because I have to write everything down, I carry a small notebook in case I get an idea I want to develop more fully. Sometimes a small piece of history or memory can develop into a feature article. A family member reminisced on a death that his father often recalled, "… carrying Elmon out of the house to his grave was the hardest thing he had ever done." I wrote an article after I researched this incident and discovered that three-year-old Elmon died in 1922 of spinal meningitis.

Several websites and e-mail lists provide genealogical and history newsletters that include newsworthy events and articles and some openly give copyright permission. Get on appropriate e-mail and regular mailing lists.

Articles that Michael John Neill has written for the Ancestry Daily News can be used by newsletter editors in their publication at no cost <http://www.rootdig.com/reprints.html>.

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter is a free e-mail genealogy newsletter. Be sure to read copyright guidelines. Dick Eastman gives blanket permission to reprint anything that he himself writes. He often carries articles in his newsletter by other authors. To reprint those, you need permission directly from the author <http://eogn.com/>.

Family Tree Magazine, offers, among many things, a free e-mail newsletter on news, tips, and worthwhile websites <http://familytreemagazine.com/>.

The editors of Family Tree Magazine also offer The Family Tree News Service, a wire service just like the Associated Press except that its articles are genealogy-related. They will e-mail you the latest news, top resources, book excerpts, tips, and include a copyright permission that you use in your newsletter with any of the articles you choose <http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ftns-subscribe.asp>.

Due to the unique background and the general historical timeline, there are many article leads concerning any one family. Brainstorm using your own family. Here are some leads using my family.

Make it a rule to give credit and get permission. I always asked for reprint permission on copyrighted material and was never turned down. Giving credit can be as simple as, "James Cuckler, who has been researching this family for ten years, found … "

Photographs, clip art, and line art break up text making your newsletter more interesting. These fills also give you flexibility in adjusting your newsletter layout. Too much, take fill out; not enough, put fill in. Copyright-free clip art is sold commercially in books or on computer disc and some websites provide clip art. Read their copyright use agreement. Line art consists of drawings, sketches, maps, and charts.

The Genealogy Newsletter Editor's Corner, hosted by rootsweb.com, offers press releases relating to genealogy, links to fillers, clip art, reference material and more. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bjstockton/editors/

Think of yourself as a reporter and develop a nose for news. Find and keep numerous fills, items you can use as needed, so you can concentrate on your feature article and know you have other items to use as fill. Here are a few suggestions for fills; some could be used occasionally or in every issue.

• Coupon style text box for change of address and subscription form
• How-to information for submitting articles and queries
• Index of back issues and how to request
• Photographs, drawings, maps, charts, family trees
• Clip art appropriate to content
• Family members who will do look-ups, and a list of their publications
• List family members who are researching the same direct line
• Death announcements, "in memoriam," and obituaries
• Announcements: milestones, births, family reunions, research trips
• Anecdotes, amusing stories, cartoons, or jokes about genealogy
• Poems, free verse, rhyming, haiku
• Family recipes or traditions
• Bulletins, special activities, or events appropriate to locality of readers
• Professional researchers or services family members have used with a good rating
• Definition of genealogical terms
• Outline of useful research forms
• Genealogical word puzzles (commercial software available)
• Copies of family documents, entries from bibles, diaries, journals, letters. certificates, wills, war and homestead files

I found the word or title "editor" was a little misleading. I thought family would send me information, and I would put it all together. They did, sometimes. But most of the time, I gather the information, write, edit, proof and print.

Oh, no! I feel another article developing, Three Things I Enjoy Most About Editing a Family History Newsletter, and maybe add in, Two Things I Enjoy Least About Editing A Family History Newsletter!

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The late Jon Bryan wrote an article for each issue of the Roots Tracer titled Life in the Past Lane. Jon would find stories in the local papers from years ago that were always interesting and often asked questions that we as genealogists should have been able to answer — but could not always.

In the November 2002 issue of the Roots Tracer Jon told the story of Mrs. Dolores Anistoble as written in the January 27, 1900 issue of The Livermore Herald. Briefly, the article told of the passing of Dolores Anistoble, the oldest woman in the Valley. The obituary stated that she was a member of the once wealthy and influential Higuera family, but over the years had become "very poor and during her later years she was dependent on the charity of friends and bounty of the country."

The newspaper story reported that as Dolores Higuera, she married one Antonio Messa (Mesa) who was a soldier under General Vallejo of Sonoma. Antonio owned "several hundred acres of choice land" in the Livermore Valley. After he died Dolores married George Anistoble who, it seems, left her and headed south to Arizona or Mexico.

As I remember it, both Jon and I spent some time trying to find out more about Dolores Higuera Messa Anistoble and had little luck.

Now, three years later, I think, like Paul Harvey, I can tell you the rest of the story — or at least more of it. As I have been researching pioneer Valley families for the Tri-Valley Heritage Families Project, I have come up with new sources of information and have become much more familiar with the spelling of the old Valley family surnames. It must be pointed out that spelling of names is a constant challenge.

It seems that Dolores was none other than Maria Dolores Higuera, born 20 August 1805, to José Loreto Higuera (b. 8 August 1778, d. 16 March 1845) and Maria del Pilar Maxima Sanchez (b. 2 June 1778, d. 9 June 1811). Her father was very well off, having been the grantee to three ranchos. Her grandfather, Ignacio Higuera, came with the Anza expedition from Mexico right through the Livermore Valley. (See California Colony by Doris Shaw Castro.)

In his article Jon asked questions such as, "Did she have children?" and "Where was she buried?"

We can report that Antonio and Dolores Mesa did have a number of children. The one most interesting to us is Maria Elena Aranzazu Mesa who married John Bagley. John and Maria in turn had a number of children, including Margaret Bagley. What makes this interesting is that in 1880 we find Dolores, giving her age as 70 years, living with the family of Jacob and Marguerita Sachau. We now know that Marguerita Sachau was one and the same as Margaret Bagley who married Jacob Sachau, a second generation member of the Sachau family from Schleswig, Germany. So, Dolores was the grandmother of Margaret/Marguerita. As many of you know, there are a large number of descendants of the Sachau family living here in the Tri-Valley area. I wonder if they all know what interesting ancestors they have!

In reply to Jon's question, "Where is Dolores buried?", we still do not know. She does not seem to be buried in any of the Tri-Valley area cemeteries nor at the cemetery at Mission San Jose or the San Lorenzo Cemetery. For the Tri-Valley, see Cemeteries of Pleasanton and Dublin, California, and Livermore Cemeteries, both published by L-AGS. For burials at Mission San Jose, see http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/alameda/cemeteries/mission.txt

For burials at the Pioneer Cemetery at San Lorenzo. See http://www.sanlorenzoexpress.com/history/cemlist1.htm

Jon tried to find the surname Anistoble in the Social Security Death Index and was unable to do so. Perhaps that surname never existed. But the story takes a turn. We were able to find that Dolores Higuera Mesa, at age 74, married a George Enestables at St. Michael's Church in Livermore on 25 October 1879. (Information from a three page listing of selected marriages at St. Michael's Church, Livermore, found at the Livermore Heritage Guild.) Say Enestables very fast and perhaps it comes out sounding like Anistoble — the way her husband's name was remembered thirty years after the wedding. I cannot find Anistoble or Enestables in the Social Security Death Index http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

or the California Death Records http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi

or as a surname listed on Google, so that surname remains a puzzle.

The mystery continues. Who was George Enestables, where did he come from and where did he go? Is Enestables a known Spanish name, or is it, like Anistoble, a misspelling? We hope that some reader of the Roots Tracer will get interested in the case, and find the answers.

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Two Irishmen, Paddy and Shamus, were stumbling home late one night and found themselves on the road that led past the old graveyard.

"Come have a look over here," says Paddy, "It's Michael O'Grady's grave, God bless his soul. He lived to the ripe old age of 95."

"That's nothing," says Shamus, "Here's one that died when he was 145 years old!"

"What was his name?" asks Paddy.

Shamus lights a match to see what else is written on the stone marker, and exclaims, "A fella named Miles, from Dublin."

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The FTM Group has a new home at Almond Avenue School in Livermore. We are happy to announce that we are now online, not only at the leader’s stand, but also at all of the desks. This allows us to work together as we investigate the ins and outs of Family Tree Maker software and visit related websites.

In spite of appearances, it is by no means an all-women’s group — it just happened that the men sat on the other side of the room when the photo was taken – perhaps afraid of the green hand reaching up from the candy dish in the foreground!

The Family Tree Maker Group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. Almond Avenue School is at 1401 Almond Avenue, Livermore. View a map to the school at http://www.l-ags.org/maps/Liv-AlmondSchool.html .

At last count, there were 40 subscribers to the FTM e-mail forum at ftm.group@L-AGS.org. Typical attendance at a meeting is 10-20 participants.

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