My Kindle Books
Incline Software Releases Ancestral Quest 16
The following announcement was written by Incline Software:
Salt Lake City, Utah (December 12, 2019) – Incline Software, LC, producer of Ancestral Quest
, premier family tree software for Windows and Mac, announced today the release of Ancestral Quest version 16. This new silver anniversary release provides exciting, easy to use new features, including a new Descendants View, printing of background images on many charts, improvements to AQ’s ability to sync with FamilySearch Family Tree, and more efficient ways to enter important genealogical data.
Major New Features
Descendants View A much-requested new feature, the Descendants view joins the Pedigree, Family, Name List, Individual, and Timeline views of the program. This provides users with yet another way to view and navigate the records within their database as they see descendants of any ancestor at a glance.
Share Data Elements When users add or edit events and facts for individuals, they can now share (copy) an event with other individuals in the database. For example, after finding a family of 10 on a census record, users can go to one member of the family, add a “Residence” event to indicate that the person lived in that location on the date of the census, and attach a census source to the Residence event. They can then Share that event and source quickly with the other 9 members of the family, without having to individually add the Residence event to each person.
Users can also select any image (or other scrapbook item), which is a part of the Scrapbook of one person in their file, and share (copy) that media item with the scrapbook of other people in the file.
Background Images on many Charts For many charts, users can now include a background image to personalize and add interest. Background images can be placed on these charts: Pedigree, Fan, Ancestry (Standard and Wall chart), Descendant (Standard, Wall chart and Dropline chart), Line of Descent, Calendar and Timeline.
The background image can be displayed with various levels of transparency. Background images can even be moved around on the chart. As an example, you can create a birthday calendar for a month, where you set the page margins to .5 inches for left, bottom and right, but to 5.8 inches for top margin (this will put the calendar on the bottom half of an 8.5 x 11 paper), then put a picture on the top half of the page.
Improved Syncing with FamilySearch Family Tree
Ancestral Quest 16 makes some improvements in its syncing with FamilySearch Family Tree, intended to make syncing more natural and to better fit into the flow of data exchange between two systems.
Improved Handling of FamilySearch Sources For nearly a decade, Ancestral Quest has allowed users to download sources from FamilySearch Family Tree directly into the user’s personal family tree. FamilySearch sources are formatted as freeform citations in a way that works well for some users but doesn’t fit well into the sourcing scheme used by many other users of Ancestral Quest. To overcome this, AQ 16 provides a new option to convert FamilySearch sources into traditional AQ sources during the import process, as well as converting previously imported sources later. For example, if there are 10 members of a family, and all are listed on the 1920 census, then FamilySearch creates 10 different source citations, and if you import them without this new feature, you will end up with 10 source records of the same census record in your list of Sources. If you take advantage of this new optional feature, you can create just one source for the 1920 census, and attach all FamilySearch citations to this single source. This feature is explained in more detail and demonstrated in this video: Advanced Handling of FamilySearch Sources.
Advanced Syncing When exchanging events/facts between a personal family database and FamilySearch, there is a new “Advanced Options” button, which allows users to transfer just the date or just the place for an event. Users also have the option of editing the name of the place before transferring it.
Other Enhancements
Add/Remove Country Names If you are regularly downloading data from, or uploading data to, other genealogy systems (like FamilySearch), this tool will help you keep your data the way you want it. For example, you can add “United States” to all states, or remove “United States” or “Canada” from all states or provinces.
Tags Enhancements Tags allow users to spot records with special attributes at a glance. Version 16 makes it easier to assign and remove tags from records of individuals.
MapIt From within several of AQ’s screens, you have been able to request a map of any of the places shown. In the past, these requests have been filled by the MapQuest Internet service. With version 16, you can choose which of several Internet mapping services should be used to display the desired map.
Enhancements to Couple Relationships In version 16, Ancestral Quest separates the type of relationship from the status of the relationship. Relationship types now are: Married, Not Married, Common Law, and de facto. The status of a relationship can be ‘blank’, indicating an ongoing relationship, or it could have terminated as Divorced, Separated or Annulled. Version 16 also allows you to record non-traditional couple relationships.
More And there are many more new features and improvements to Ancestral Quest 16. Read a more complete discussion.
You can also watch a video which demonstrates the most important new and improved features of Ancestral Quest 16.
Incline Software developed Ancestral Quest 25 years ago, in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since. AQ is a powerful yet easy to use, full-featured genealogy records manager, used both by beginners and professionals. Its reporting capabilities are excellent, and it uses unique, advanced technologies to enable accurate source documentation. AQ has advanced scrapbooking capabilities that allow users to preserve their precious photos, video clips, and audio clips for posterity, keeping the memory of ancestors alive for generations to come.
Ancestral Quest was the first family tree desktop product to be certified by FamilySearch to sync with with the FamilySearch databases, and was given the “Most Comprehensive Syncing” award by FamilySearch in 2009.
Genealogy enthusiasts can acquire Ancestral Quest for Windows or Mac by visiting www.ancquest.com. A free “Basics” version is available, which contains all of the essential features of recording a family tree, at no charge. For a modest fee, new users can purchase a key to unlock the advanced features ($34.95 for Windows or $44.95 for Mac). Existing users can upgrade for $24.95 for Windows or $29.95 for Mac. (Note that the Mac version of AQ currently runs on recent versions of Mac OS X, but AQ does not yet run on Catalina. Incline Software relies on a product called, “CrossOver”, to run on Mac OS X. The new version of CrossOver, which will allow Ancestral Quest to run on Apple’s new Catalina OS, was just released on December 10. A special version of CrossOver, that is bundled with Ancestral Quest for Mac, should be available in a few weeks, at which time AQ will be available for Mac users who have upgraded to the Catalina version of Mac OS X.)
In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in several other languages including complete translations in German, French, Spanish, Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Turkish and Norwegian, and with ample translations in Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese and Hungarian. Learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest or Ancestral Quest Basics by visiting www.ancquest.com or by calling Incline Software at 801-280-4434.
Book Review: How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide
Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, C.G., How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide; with Specific Resources for Major Christian Denominations before 1900 (Baltimore, MD : Genealogical Publishing Co., 2019). 143 pages, $29.95 (soft-cover).
The description of the book contents is:
Records created by the major Christian denominations before 1900 in the United States are an underutilized resource for family historians. In these records, you may find ancestors’ births, maiden or married names, marriage details, deaths, family relationships, other residences, and even immigrants’ overseas birthplaces. You may uncover information about ancestors who have been unnamed in other records–women, children, ethnic minorities, immigrants, and the poor. You may find details about your ancestors recorded long before the existence of civil records.
However, it is not always an easy task to track down U.S. church records. How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records is a unique, peer-reviewed publication that takes researchers step-by-step through the process of identifying, locating, and gaining access to these genealogical gems.
Included in this book are hundreds of links to church research resources, as well as chapters devoted to specific resources for the major Christian denominations before 1900. More than 30 archivists, historians, and genealogical experts in specific faith traditions have contributed their knowledge to these denominational chapters.
The book chapters cover:
Introduction
PART 1: Family History Research in Church Records
1. What’s in Church Records
2. How to Identify Your Ancestor’s Church
3. How to Find and Order Church Records
4. Tips for working with Old Church Records
5. More Records About Church Life
PART 2: The Denominations
6. Anglican/Episcopal
7. Baptist
8. Congregational
9. Dutch Reformed/Reformed Church in America
10. German Churches: Reformed and Sectarian
11. Latter-Day Saint (Mormon)
12. Lutheran
13. Mennonite and Amish
14. Methodist
15. Quaker (Religious Society of Friends)
16. Presbyterian
17. Roman Catholic
Index
In my opinion, church records are one of the most under-utilized records by American family historians and genealogists. The records that may be available include: births; relative’s names; national origin or ethnicity; baptisms; confirmations; marriages; memberships and migrations;deaths, funerals and burials; and participation in ministries. Each denomination may have some of these record types.
Church records may be found in published books; original records in church offices; church and other archives; imaged and indexed records, including transcriptions in books and journals, and microfilmed original records on FamilySearch. Ancestry.com has several sets of church denomination records. The book provides a list of WPA Church Inventories by state.
For each denomination discussed, there are sections for historical background, the available records, how to access the records, other records of interest, and a list for further reading.
This work is well organized, well written by expert genealogists, and very useful for researchers trying to find family history for their ancestral families. Using these records may unlock family stories and mysteries that are only in church records.
My opinion is that this book is the best available and most up-to-date resource for this record class, and will be a valuable addition to my family history personal library.
This book can be ordered through Genealogical Publishing Company – see https://genealogical.com/store/how-to-find-your-family-history-in-u-s-church-records/
Disclosure: I was provided a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of reviewing it.
The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/12/book-review-how-to-find-your-family.html
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Genealogy News Bytes — Tuesday, 10 December 2019
1) News Articles:
* FamilySearch Now Provides Ability to Document Same-Sex Family Relationships
* GeneaWebinars Calendar
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The Career of Captain Dundas
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Once I saw that “Captain Dundas” had come up in the dispute between James Otis, Jr., and John Robinson, I had to figure out who that was and what role he played in the coming of the Revolution.
In September 1769, Otis called Dundas “a well known petty commander of an armed schooner,” meaning he was in the Royal Navy. (The Customs service had just lost its one and only armed schooner, the Liberty.)
Fortunately, the Royal Navy keeps good records, and websites like Three Decks make that information available as long as one keeps running searches. So here’s what I’ve put together.
Ralph Dundas was born on 12 Oct 1732, the eldest son of Ralph and Mary Dundas of Manour, Scotland. He was serving in the Royal Navy by 1748, when he was in his mid-teens, and passed the exam to be a lieutenant in October 1757.
Lt. Dundas received his first command in 1764: H.M.S. St. Lawrence (also spelled St. Laurence). In British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792 Rif Winfield writes that this schooner was “purchased on stocks at Boston [or Marblehead?],” though J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow’s Ships of the Royal Navy says the Royal Navy bought it in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
It carried thirty men, six three-pounder cannon, and twelve swivel guns—by no means a fearsome warship but powerful enough for peacetime patrols, carrying messages, and supporting larger vessels as a “tender.” Among the crew was master’s mate John Whitehouse, who later sailed under Capt. James Cook.
On 28 July 1766, the Boston Evening-Post reported:
Friday last arrived a Schooner from Louisbourg, by whom we learn, that some time before he sail’d fro thence, his Majesty’s armed Schooner the St. Laurence, commanded by Lieut. Dundas, was struck by Lightning as she lay at Anchor there, which set Fire to the Powder Magazine in the Fore Part of the Vessel and blew her up, by which Accident three Men were instantly killed, and several others terribly wounded, two of whom died the next Day:
We hear that the Officers on board, being in the Cabin, escaped unhurt; and that the Bows of the Vessel being carried away by the Explosion, she sunk in a few Minutes after.
The Boston Post-Boy of the same date said the explosion happened “between two and three Weeks ago.” The Narrative of American Voyages and Travels of Captain William Owen, R.N. names the site of the wreck as Neganishe, now probably called Ingonish.
Commodore Samuel Hood then bought a merchant’s sloop called the Sally, renamed it St. Lawrence, and assigned it to Lt. Dundas.
In the spring of 1768, the St. Lawrence accompanied H.M.S. Romney from Halifax to Boston. On 23 May, the Boston Chronicle carried Lt. Dundas’s advertisement for four deserters. Keeping the sloop fully manned was a challenge. Within a month the town was upset about a “man pressed by Capt. Dundas, and carried down to Halifax.” Capt. John Corner of the Romney and Councilor Royall Tyler sat down to discuss that issue and others, according to the 27 June Boston Chronicle.
The Boston News-Letter and Post-Boy show that over the next several months the St. Lawrence sailed back and forth along the northeast coast: off to Halifax in August, back to Boston in November and then heading off to Halifax again, collecting military stores at Canso and Louisburg over the winter, then back to Halifax. The St. Lawrence returned to Boston again in August 1769.
That put Lt. Dundas in town for the busy fall of 1769. He probably wasn’t in the British Coffee-House when Robinson and Otis started hitting each other with their canes on 5 September. Otis hinted that he participated in the fight, but Robinson denied that. Otis also said rumor had it Dundas “swore last year that the whole Continent was in open Rebellion.” However, the lieutenant’s name doesn’t appear to have come up again in this or other political disputes, which suggests that Otis’s Whig allies didn’t think they could make a case against him, even to their own followers.
The next month brought the Neck Riot on 24 October, followed four days later by the attacks on printer John Mein and sailor George Gailer. In the next couple of weeks, Royal Navy captains helped to hide Mein from the crowd. On 11 November, provincial secretary Andrew Oliver reported to Gov. Francis Bernard that Mein “thinking it unsafe for him to continue in Tow has taken his passage for England with Capn. Dundass.” In fact, it looks like Mein sailed away on another ship, but Oliver’s letter indicates that Dundas left Boston early in the month.
In April 1770, the sailmaker Ashley Bowen wrote in his diary that Dundas’s schooner had come into Marblehead harbor. However, the diary’s annotations suggest he mistook that ship for the Magdalen under Lt. Henry Colins. That suggests how common it was for New Englanders to see Dundas’s schooner. The 16 July 1772 Massachusetts Spy stated that Dundas had sailed the St. Lawrence to the Bahamas, and the 17 June 1773 Boston News-Letter reported that it had come back from the Bahamas to Boston.
As of June 1774, the Royal Navy listed the St. Lawrence, with six guns and thirty men, at Boston. It was small part of the big fleet under Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves sent to enforce the Boston Port Bill. In November Lt. Dundas sailed for London; part of a letter he carried was forwarded to Lord North as useful intelligence in January 1775.
That was the last voyage of that St. Lawrence, at least as a naval schooner. In May 1775, immediately after the war began, Graves reported that he had bought and armed two schooners at Halifax and planned to call one the St. Lawrence. He assigned it to a new commander. Lt. Dundas’s ship was sold off in London the next year.
Ralph Dundas became commander of the new fourteen-gun sloop Bonetta in April 1779, then the new sixteen-gun sloop Calypso (shown above) in December 1782. He served in that post until 1787. Dundas died that year at age fifty-four, having spent about four decades in the Royal Navy. He was buried at St. Clement Danes in Middlesex County. He left no known wife or children.
Commander Dundas served during two wars, but his naval career was overshadowed by his little brother George (1756-1814), who rose to be a rear admiral—having presumably joined the navy with Ralph as inspiration. An intervening brother, David (1749-1826), became a doctor to George III and a baronet.
Darned Carcinogenic Names
We depend upon records to reveal the “truth” about the past. Yet sometimes records have anomalies. Some are amusing or humorous. Some are interesting or weird. Some are peculiar or suspicious. Some are infuriating, or downright laughable. Records say the darnedest things!
What parent names their child after some kind of cancer?!
- Brain Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Skin Cancer
- Cancer de la Laringe (larynx)
- Cancer de la Matriz (uterus)
- Cancer Primitivo del Higado (Primitive Cancer of the Liver)
- Cancer del Riñon (kidney)
Yes, records say the darnedest things!
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