Technical Tuesday–Calendars

Although I am retired, I need A Calendar, especially with all of the Online activities that are available for doing family research.

I had been using Microsoft’s Outlook for years. Worked very well, but that would mean I had to be at MY computer. I tried many other applications including Google Calendar. It was OK, but had difficulty sharing it with my wife. My goal was a working calendar for me, and the ability to share it with my wife.

This blog post will attempt to share how I manage my Calendar (singular).

Let me start by saying that I have MY calendar. Thinks that I have scheduled. For example, today, I have a Genealogy Club that I find myself leading, and we are meeting for the first time.  We are meeting at an Adult living center. I have 3 webinars on the calendar today, and a Genealogy Conference starts today.

One of my sources for “things to do” is the GeneaWebinars calendar. It is a single repository (cool genealogical term) for members of the Genealogy Community to post their activities. I watch that calendar for new items, changes in an event, but I also “Follow” or “Join this site”. The Home Tab on that website talks about how to use it. But “following” that blog, I receive an email that something has been added, changed, or deleted. BUT I am not going to attend ALL of those events. There are so many great activities and I have so little time. Guess we know how that goes.

Going to my Google Calendar, I can link the GeneaWebinar calendar to MY Google Calendar as a choice of calendars that I have.

Lets start with a message that Pat Richley-Erickson posted on the Dear MYRTLE Genealogy Community recently (actually a few minutes ago). It’s a Google+ Hangout on Air, and it’s Wednesday, 17 April 2013 at 6pm Eastern (New York time). Now Dear MYRLE provides us a lot of great detail about this event. Question: Am I going to attend. This one is easy, OF COURSE I will attend.

 

OK, how do I get this event to my calendar, that is the events that I am going to participate in or want on MY calendar.

I head over to MY Google Calendar and SELECT the GeneaWebinar calendar.

There is My Calendar and Other Calendars. I have NOT selected my calendar and have only selected the GeneaWebinar calendar. It’s color is Green and any event on that calendar will show.

 

You will notice that at 2:00PM, there are two GeneaWebinar events, but there is the new event that Dear MYRTLE added that I saw on her community page. So, she cross posted information about her event, once on her community of Google+ and added it to the GeneaWebinar Calendar (Thank you Dear MYRTLE)

Not marked, but there is a light green event, which means that it has already pasted. Mondays with Myrt was held yesterday.

Selecting this new event, the details of the event are appear.

Be mindful of the Time and time zone.

I want this event to appear on MY Google calendar. You will notice a “copy to my calendar” link. Clicking on that link will cause THAT event to appear on my calendar.

A page appears with the information from the GeneaWebinar page, like the date and time, that I entered “Hangout On Air” as a reminder for ME where this calendar event is going to take place AND that I have added it to MY calendar. This is a COPY of what was on the GeneaWebinar calendar.

If this was an event, from another calendar, where there as an In Person Meeting, or that I had to travel, the Address, for example, could be added in the “Where” field. That was MY entry on MY calendar.

If the “platform” of the event was a Webinar, the Go To Webinar platform has a registration page to sign up for the webinar. The Go To Webinar platform has built in Reminders  that will send an email prior to the Webinar. I liked the reminders.

How to get those same reminders for this Google+ Hangout on Air? Scroll down to the bottom of what is on the copy of the event and I can ADD the reminders that I want Google to send to me, and HOW I want to be reminded.

The Event Color, is the color of MY Google Calendar. I have set up so that I receive an Email 2 hours prior to the event, and Pop-up window on my computer 30 minutes in advance, and an SMS (Smart Phone Text Message) 10 minutes in advance. These settings are of my choosing, and I can have more reminders IF I need them. Like an Email 2 weeks prior to an event, IF I am traveling and want to be reminded that I need to get ready for the event.

The default setting from some events, from Google Calendar, is 10 minutes for all 3 ways to be reminded. Email, Cell Phone, Pop-up windows are gentle reminders that something is coming up very soon. That’s OK for some events, especially online events, to get me in front of the computer.

I save that new event to My Calendar. When I saved that event, I was returned to My Calendar where I selected MY Calendar (in RED), so now I am showing the GeneaWebinar calendar and MY calendar.

Oops, looks like I have a conflict just above the hi-lighted event. I have a choice to make at 2PM. Two webinar. I did that on purpose because I am interested in Both but may not make up my mind until the last moment.

I can now go back and de-select the GeneaWebinar calendar, just by clicking (with my mouse) on GeneaWebinars on the left.

This is a view of of my calendar. Clicking on any of them, will give me details of what I entered or what came from the the “other” calendar.

This is great for me. I can see what I have scheduled for the day.

(Bonus for this posting)

During one of Dear MYRTLE’s presentations, she and her daughter of Not Your Mothers Genealogy, introduced, to me, an application called Cozi. 

It is also a calendaring program (Oh no, another program). I didn’t use it too much because it was “another calendar” to maintain. It is great for sharing information with the family, but more work. HOWEVER, this application has the ability to link my Google Calendar to my Cozi Calendar.

 

In the Settings menu, on the Left, there is a Calendar URL that can be pasted from my Google Calendar, under Share Calendar, Calendar Details, Private Address, iCal, has the link for the Calendar URL.

After saving that calendar, now my Cozi calendar has my Google Calendar entries.

About 10 minutes after I added this Dear MYRTLE Genealogy Community, to GeneaWebinar calendar, to My Calendar (copy), this new event is on my Cozi Calendar, with all of the reminder coming from my settings in Google Calendar.

Sounds like a lot of work, but I maintain ONE calendar, I can share that ONE calendar, AND I have all of the reminders that I want of an upcoming event.

Isn’t technology great?

Technical Tuesday–A thought about your Google+ Tag Line

Should we join Google+ ?

Should Google+ be in our genealogy tool box?

Can we find new cousin’s or family historians on Google+?

 

The answer for me is Yes!

 

Here is my experience.

I have been on Google+ for a while. I enjoy reading the folks that I follow, when they post information on Google+. I have created several Google+ circles. Not my topic today, but why do I add people to one of my Circles? So that I can follow them. The common interest for me is Genealogy or Family History Research. So, over time I have a number of people in my circles.

Recently, Google+ created “Communities”. I belong to a number of them, but my favorite is the Dear MYRTLE’s Genealogy Community.

The community continues to grow, but am I interested in adding any of the members in that community to my one of my circles. I don’t know about you, but I have a limited amount of time reading every post that is made, so I limit the number of people I add to my circles or that I follow.

In the Dear MYRTLE’s Genealogy Community, I look at the member of that community and see who might have the same interests as I do. How WE are presented on Google+ becomes important here.

Rather then write about it, let me show you.

If you go to the Dear MYRTLE’s Genealogy Community 

You will see the list of the members in this community.

Clicking on the link called members you will see a list of the members, with a small bit of information about that person.

I have blanked out the names of the people and their image, as that isn’t important, What IS important, for me at least, is the information that is just below their name.

Mine says “I collect ancestors and try to find and tell their stories”. The wording isn’t important, but I do have (at least) two interests, and they are the main reasons that I am on Google+. But the limit in the number of words needs to be understood. What key words are YOU looking for. The first example says “Genealogist, writer, editor”. Genealogist got my attention. The 2nd one that is in red also has Genealogist. I have added both to my Genealogy Circle. The 2nd person in my Genealogy circle is someone who I know, but hasn’t put anything in the field that I will show next.

Go to your Profile Page, and About tab, that TAGLINE, on the right, is where you put in a couple of key words that reflect YOUR interests

This could be gardening, quilting, playing bridge, photography, etc. When someone puts you into one of their circles, you will receive a notice of that happening. I just don’t accept or just follow that person, I will click on the link for in the email, and look at their Tagline. If it’s blank, chances are, that is as far as I go.

BUT, look at what else you can include IF someone checks your About page. My surname list is there as well as some location’s that I research.

For me, the Tagline gets my attention, or not, then I can dig a little deeper to see what else is on the About page. It’s a great place to share your surnames and/or locations.

What does your Tagline say?

What else do you have on your About page?

Marriage Record for George Worthington and Elizabeth Sandiford 11 Jun 1663

From a hint, on Ancestry.com, I found a marriage record for George Worthington and Elizabeth Sandiford and their marriage of 11 jun 1663 in Manchester, St Mary, St Denys and St George, Lancashire England.  All I started with was that George had died between 1669 and 1670. Elizabeth (Sandiford) Worthington was still living in 1669 and that they had been married about 1663. That hint took me to the IMAGE of that record.

 

Here they are on 11 June 1663

 

Never thought I would see these documents from England. Thank you Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com, Manchester, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1573-1812 (Cathedral) (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013), http://www.ancestry.com, Database online.

More on this project later.

Result of the use of WikiTree to gather information

I did a series of blog posts on the use of WikiTree to gather information from the “facebook” generation.

http://worthy2be.wordpress.com/tag/wiki-tree/

My goal was to gather family information about some nieces and nephews that I had lost contact with, so that I could generate a book and/or chart for my Aunt, my Dads younger sister.

What I had noticed, is that these nieces and nephews and their children were “online” on Facebook. So, how to gather their information for me to add to my genealogy database. Online … hmmmm … Oh yeah, there is WikiTree.
http://www.wikitree.com/

I provided instructions to the upper right of my blog, on how I wanted “them” to use WikiTree, because I want that tree to be completely private as I was gathering information on living people, including a couple of babies.

Well, it worked. I had great help from a couple of cousins to pull this together and hope that I can get a couple of other cousins to help me fill out their “lines”.

I sent my data along to Family Chartmasters and my friend “the Chart Chick” Janet Hovorka, and the Family Chartmasters generated a beautiful Descendant Chart that I gave to my aunt. Now, when her great-grandchildren come to visit her, they can see that chart, find their name then listen to my Aunt tell her stories. And she has a bunch of great stories.

Item for my ToDo list: Take my digital recorder with me the next time I go to visit.

Here is that chart:

DearMYRTLE and Not You Mother’s Genealogy–Fun Day in Fairfax, VA

This past weekend, April 5th and 6th, was the Fairfax Genealogical Society Spring Conference, in Fairfax, VA. This is our second year for attending and had another great time.

Friday afternoon and evening, I listed and learned from Dr. Thomas W Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS for 3 of the 4 hours he spoke. There is so much to learn from him. I look forward to his up coming book Mastering Genealogy Proof.

Day 2 was with my cousin DearMYRTLE and her daughter Carrie of Not Your Mother’s Genealogy. They did for presentations together, and were awesome.

• Embracing Technology
• Is Social Media A Genealogist’s Tool?
• How Ancestry Trees Can Jump Start Your Family History Research
• I Have An iPad And I’m Not Afraid To Use It

4 hours of technology based tools for the Genealogy Tool Box.

Fairfax Genealogical Society Spring Conference with DearMYRTLE VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Carrie starts to talk about Technology

Dear MYRLE enters with her technology

She has her “stuff” all organized and color coded

 

 

 

 

Dear MYRTLE’s Evernote (notes)

 

 

Mr Myrt introduces Dear MYRTLE

 

 

Carrie taking a picture of the class for a demonstration later.

 

The class

They are having too much fun

Projecting what is on the iPad for the final class

 

Query: Charles Worthington (b: 02 Aug 1820 in Pennsylvania)

Penny wrote

 

I’ve traced my Worthington line to Charles Worthington, born August 2nd 1820 in Pennsylvania, but I can’t find his parents! He was married to Caroline Dimm, and the two lived in Wolf, Lycoming, PA, before moving to Kansas. Any help with his parents would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Who is Capt. John Worthington’s father?

OK, it’s time to get a discussion going on who are Captain John Worthington’s (1650-1701) parents.

This past week, I had a chance to spend some time in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The trip to Salt Lake City was planned, but the visit to the FHL was not. Since “I was in the area” with 6,700 other family researchers, I thought I would see if I could find a passenger list or something to give me some more details on Capt. John.

I found it !!! Happy dancing going on in the 2nd basement.

Worthington, Capt. John (1650-1701: son of John, of Jesus Coll., Cambridge, Eng.): came to America with his brother, Samuel; was in Md., 1670; capt. Anne Arundel Co. militia; burgess; judge Provincial Ct.; mem. Quorum; m Sarah. dau of Matthew Howard¹

Now, I have heard that this is an unreliable source, but I wanted to see if there were any hints here for other sources. I have, in my files, the “brother Samuel” but loose him in Somerset County, Maryland. But, what about this Jesus College. The problem here is that I have records that show that Frances Worthington as the father of Capt. John and he was from Manchester, Lancashire, England. This is showing John, of Cambridge.

I found a book on the History of Jesus College. Sure enough, there is a Mr. John Worthington, later listed as Dr. John Worthington about 1648, which looked promising. Since this book was about the history of the college I didn’t expect to find too much genealogical information there.

In that book, A History of Jesus College Cambridge, by Arthur Gray, M.A., Mast of the College 1912-1940; and Frederick Brittain, LITT.D. Fellow of the College; Heinemann, London Milborne Toronto, it associated a term, for John, as “a Fellow of Emmanuel”.

Back to search in the FHC Catalogue, I found another to John Worthington in Alumni Cantabrigienses. It was located  where the History of Jesus College was, so I picked it up. Sure enough there was John Worthington. Not one but 4 John Worthington’s. The first of the  John’s refers to “Fellow of Emmanuel, 1642”. Happy dance continues.

BUT, later in the paragraph it says “Brother of Samuel (1644) and father of John Worthington (1680-1).” Oops, the dates don’t work for me. It also says that John married Mary, dau. of Christopher Whichote, Oct. 13, 1657. The dates still don’t work for my Capt. John.

Going back though my file, I do see a reference to Christopher Whichote and Mary but not a good connection.  I went back to the History of Jesus College and there was mention on page 87, speaking of John, “His only son, John, was admitted a pensioner of the College in 1680.”

End of the Happy Dance.

So, I am back to Frances (1624-1668) and Sarah Byrom (1624-1664) married 1648 as Capt. John’s parents. So I am back to The Cathedral in Manchester, Lancashire, England. The couple of a Samuel, born about 1648 and John about 1650. But Samuel is listed as the 3rd child. So, the dates still don’t work for me.

I thought I had broken my “across the pond” problem, while I was in Salt Lake City, but after reviewing the data, I am back asking the question, Who are Captain John Worthington’s parents.

¹Frederick Adams Virkus, Immigrant Ancestors:  A List of 2,500 Immigrants to America before 1750  (1942; Reprinted, Baltimore:  Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976); Page 75; Worthington, Capt. John; Family History Library, 35 North West Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah.