Putting our Howse in order - February 2019 (only slightly late!)

Post Reply
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Putting our Howse in order - February 2019 (only slightly late!)

Post by mardler »

Hello folks. It's March 3 and I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Salt Lake City, shattered, basking in the afterglow of RootsTech 2019, that is to episode 1 of RootsTech 2019! Episode 2 happens in London on October 24-26. I have been an Ambassador for Salt Lake City and will be for London too. So I'm afraid (?) that you will be hearing further on the topic! The upside is that I will be running some kind of "competition" for a free three-day visitor pass. For the moment, you can see initial details here: https://www.rootstech.org/london. I will be attending and look forward to meeting anyone reading this there. Do let me know if you are going.

About RootsTech
This was my sixth RootsTech. Aside from the unparalleled opportunity to learn from the many lectures, labs and interactive sessions, AND visit all of the stands (called "booths" here in the US), putting a huge number of people with similar interests in one space for three or four days, something serendipitous is bound to happen. For example, back in 2013 I was sitting down between sessions having a drink and the man next to me said, "Ah! You're from New Jersey. I'm from NYC. Nice to meet a fellow Easterner here. What's your interest?" The conversation developed and I told him about this One-Name Study. He was intrigued. I noticed his Italian surname and added that the Guild was keen to grow in the US and was encouraging members to study surnames with origins outside the British Isles. He now has his own Study into the Italian name of Cuono and we have become good friends, meeting up elsewhere.

This year, something similar happened. I met a young lady named Howes who shared her family's details with me and promised to put me in touch with her father, a keen genealogist. I also met another young lady born with the surname of Ruby, which Study I am managing for the Guild in celebration of its 40th birthday this year. We had made contact with her father named Ruby only the day before and quite by chance asked whether he might be at RootsTech. "No, but my wife and daughter will be there," was the reply! The Ruby team now has a new researcher and possibly someone to continue the study once Guild members back out later this year.

Two interesting interviews
As an Ambassador, it's my job to publicize the show. I've made numerous mentions in newsletters, social media posts, and so on over the past few months. You noticed, huh?! Ambassadors get opportunities to interview each other and a few celebrities. I'm not so bothered by the front-line celebrities, I will admit, having given up TV for several years in favor of genealogy! However, I was part of two small groups who interviewed Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch, and David Rencher, CEO of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. David's job sounds quite local but actually covers the user experience at Family History centers around the world. So his discussion is entirely relevant to everyone too.

I used to be a management consultant, focusing on organizations and the people within them. I was heavily struck by how much in alignment these two leaders are, indicating a strong organization with a clear focus on collaboration and serving customers (just like the one I used to work for!). That their organization is one of the central players in the family history world makes me feel very good about the future for our hobby.

https://youtu.be/XOfJODqy85g - this is the Steve Rockwood video
https://youtu.be/3UfPCSjXNSo - this is the David Rencher video
Hope you enjoy both videos.

Announcements
The major players in the family history world like to make announcements at major conferences. This will not be a list of all of them, but I will note that the major theme here seems to be on the integration of DNA and family trees to help users find other people to whom they are related, confirm their paper research or offer avenues FOR paper research. Ancestry, FamilySearch, FindMyPast and MyHeritage all had such new products. You can go to their websites and look them up. What follows are just a few things that caught my eye particularly:
- FamilySearch made a $2m donation to the African-American museum in the US and is putting a special effort into collecting oral histories and paper records in Africa, the whole point being to help communities all over the world connect to any African heritage they may have.
- FindMyPast's collection of catholic records continues to increase. They've also been selected to conduct the transcription and release of the 1921 census. I wondered at why the US audience was cheering so hard at that announcement and it was explained to me that so many people are now doing descendancy research to connect with cousins found through DNA matching.
- MyHeritage has completed the transcription of every gravestone in Israel! They have now offered another 5,000 FREE DNA tests to anyone who has been adopted, to enable them to learn of and connect with their genetic families. I recently helped an English man to do this and know how emotionally powerful it is. If you know anyone adopted who might be interested, send this link to them: https://www.dnaquest.org/.
- separately from RootsTech, this week the 1926 census of middle-Western Canadian states went online at FamilySearch and Archives Canada. I've been too busy to look for the URLs I'm afraid!

And in other news.......
- a super humerous obituary from New Zealand for recently deceased Richard Drayton Howes (whose son Paul is a correspondent) includes the wonderful words: "He was scared of no man......and only one woman......R.I.P......until she gets there!"
- many thanks a lot to correspondent, Joanne, from Melbourne, Australia, who solved my puzzle about Dean Howes, head of US Rugby. Good job. This newsletter is way too long already. I will save the puzzles for future episodes, except for one small one a few lines below.
- I was surprised to find in my regular Podcast downloads an interview by Ben Shapiro of lifestyle guru, Lewis Howes, about whom I have written before. You can find the interesting video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZETvBSlu1tg. Lewis has his own regular podcasts too. Check them out!
- much of the small town of Tamworth combined to celebrate the 100th birthday of Hilda Howes, nee Mobley. Congratulations to her. She doesn't look 100! See: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/l ... k-15859573. Does anyone know this family? Who was her husband, Harold Howes?
- I became an entry in the US naturalization database, for discovery many years hence!

As regards our study
We added only 600 people this month. and finished around 143,700 people in the database. Too many other things going on!
Thanks to the donations of correspondents (you know who you are), before the 20% price increase we bought well over 100 certificates and have spent a lot of time examining them, getting through only about one-half of them so far! They've resulted in connecting many families to their forebears, eliminating some of the Placeholder people sometimes found in our database and changing many Unknowns to known surnames! The certificates confirm that there is a Howes family in Cornwall who are descended from a Hawes family. The certificates proving it are not yet online, but will be during March.
Our software (Family Historian) actually allows us to see the total number of unconnected family groups. Currently it sits at about 3,110. We've added a few during the month, but reduced the total by about 60 as we bring families together. Just a complete guess, but I reckon there will be just a few hundred ultimate progenitors as we work farther back in time.
We now know the identity of both parties in over 19,000 marriages in our tally of 24,000 England and Wales marriages between 1837 and 1950. We are definitely on the down-slope, now!

And, finally, many thanks to my friend, Richard, for updating this bulletin board software. The format has had to change slightly. Hopefully it will no longer generate errors.

All the best
Paul
peteringlis1
Posts: 3
Joined: December 5th, 2009, 4:43 pm

Re: Putting our Howse in order - February 2019 (only slightly late!)

Post by peteringlis1 »

Paul,
Keep up the Good work I really appreciate your efforts. Since the Software update I know seem to be unable to search for a' Howes' I come across in my Records, it was very easy before, but having passed 80 i don't seem to be able to do it any more, I do not seem to be able to fathom out how to do it now.
Regards Peter Inglis
mardler
Site Admin
Posts: 306
Joined: October 4th, 2009, 6:28 pm

Re: Putting our Howse in order - February 2019 (only slightly late!)

Post by mardler »

Hi Peter. Thanks for the positive feedback and speaking up about your issue. Here are two tips for using the search facilities on our site:
1) if you know the name of the Howes/Howse/House etc spouse, then better to use that, because there are fewer duplicates (except for Smith!). Put their names into the search boxes at top left. Note that you don't need to type the whole name. If you just type "mas ben" (leave out the quotes) you will get back a list of Thomas Benjamins and Thomas Bensons. You can search on a surname or a given name. You don't need both.

2) if you want to search for a Howes/House/Howse and know something about that person, click on Advanced Search. You can search on ANY field in the database, not just the obvious boxes at the top. To search for all the people in our database with the occupation of carpenter, for instance, click on the words underneath "Other Events" a little way down the page and scroll down to Occupation. Type carp in the occupation description box and hit the enter key. Bingo.
Oh, and Advanced Search also has a Search Families function. So you can make a list of all the Johns who married Marys, for example.

Hope this does the trick. If not, do send me a note at paul@howesfamilies.com
Best regards
Paul
Post Reply