Internet valuable to Genealogy researchers & the like.

Reading the Editorial page of the "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register" volume166 January 2012 I concur with the author Helen Schatvet Ullman.  In the editorial she discusses how the internet has helped the world of Genealogy.  But there is something all genealogist need to do regarding internet research. she stated in the following passage.

    " Most of us recognize that the Internet is only the tip of the iceberg.  One obstacle to online research is the   copyright law.  Very few recent publications are online.  On various websites we see old errors from early  genealogies repeated over and over again, long after they have been corrected in print.  Many of those        blank spaces after a mother's given name have been filled in by twentieth and twenty-first century               articles and books.  Puzzles have been solved and errors corrected.  But unless...a good library,

we may not know of these developments.  In fact, ...in Melinde Lutz Sanborn's                                       Third Supplement to Torrey's New England Marriages and 

Martin E. Hollick's New Englanders in the 1600's refer to recently published materials under copyright.

Keeping ... reading book reviews and checking new issues of journals that cover areas relevant to your research. The potential rewards are huge, especially an article provides hitherto unknown English origins ... or creates a compiled account of a family out of disparate scraps... ."

 Great editorial  check it out & read the whole of it.  Now bringing yourself round to finding Journals & the kind will benefit your research. 

photo from: shangchenphoto.com

photo from: http://laurenmbarrett.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/courtyard.jpg

 For me in the beginnings of my research.  Of course its 1987.     I did not know exactly where to search, I had help from older family historians.  I began by seeking out copy written books etc. then I was most fortunate to find books in the Boston Library.  The first one of value to me was Les Annuals de Lotbinire, 1672-1933  it was of course written in Candien french.  Since I knew a little french and the family name I was able to find out some information.  I was still 5 years away to making the direct connection of the Pierre Beaudet dit DuCap with the previous genration. I would try and work other lines.  At that time I was deep into motherhood and family history was not a huge focus.  Always percolating close by though.

One gem of internet research is Google Books & Archives.org, of course the books contained there are no longer under copyright.  We have many options why not use them all, including the libraries& your local historical society.

Name change survey from NEHGS

Name changed by who? From NEHGS newsletter

"A Note from the Editor: Ancestral Name Changes
by Lynn Betlock, Editor

Last week’s survey question, about whether readers had stories of ancestral names changed by immigration officials, was formulated because I wanted to find out what people believed about family name changes, particularly in regard to the widely-held perception that immigration officials rather arbitrarily changed names at ports of entry.

I discovered that that perception is perhaps not so widely held among readers of the Weekly Genealogist, as a number of readers wrote in to say that the assumption that names were changed by immigration officials was probably not valid and that the survey question was perpetuating a myth. Glenn Sampson of Windsor, Connecticut, pointed out that a better question would have listed the number of ways in which names might have been changed (e.g., "changed by my ancestors themselves," "changed by town officials or census takers," "changed by immigration officials," or, "I don't know how it got changed").
Since my own surname is one that was changed, probably during the lifetime of my immigrant great-great-grandfather, I’ve long been interested in surname changes. When I discovered as a middle schooler that Betlock had once been Betlach, I was fascinated, and that discovery probably helped fuel my interest in family history. My ancestor Josef Betlach emigrated from Bohemia in the 1870s, and settled in Steele County, Minnesota. At some point he, or perhaps only his sons, adopted Betlock, presumably because that spelling reflected how the name sounded to English-speaking Americans. As far as I know, only our particular branch of the family adopted Betlock. For me as a genealogist, the difference in spelling has been a handy way to separate descendants of my great-great-grandfather from more distant kinfolk.    

A number of readers shared stories of their family surnames having been changed by the immigrants themselves, usually to sound more “American” or, as with my case, to have the spelling better match the name’s pronunciation. No one wrote in with a family story of how a name was changed at a port of entry, documented or undocumented. Last week’s survey asked whether readers had a family story of how an ancestor’s name was changed by an immigration official. The results show that, among the respondents, 12% have documented proof of an ancestral name change and 12% have an unverified family legend of an ancestral name change.

Two interesting articles explore the myths and realities of ancestral name changes: “American Names: Declaring Independence” by Marian L. Smith; and “They Changed our Name at Ellis Island” by Donna Przecha."

Would we all wonder who has been lucky to of not had a name change?   In my Beaudet dit DuCap line.  Name change came when they entered the U.S.A. from Canada.  Some cousins would say our name is not really DuCap but should be Beaudet dit DuCap.  I love the way the French Canadiens jazzed up names.  

 For me Jean Beaudet left France as an indentured servant paid his debt, Married, had a family.  Thus giving his first born son a distinguishing name Jean-Charles Beaudet dit DuCap. So the name changed on purpose for one son.  My cousins are known as Baudet, Beaudet etc... spellings.  While like the author of the article above I know who are direct descendants.

How one family can have so many brick walls?

Brick walls these are mine.  Who are yours?

Mine are  Jonathon Cooke, last know place to live, Ontario Canada

David Putman  Last know place to live  Welland Ontario Canada

Martha Gray, adopted by the Gray family in Garden, MI  thats in the U.P.

Daniel Kelly last know place to live Garden, MI

Idonia Rijcke  last know living place Essexville, MI

Louise De Spiegiel last know living place Essexville, MI

Sebastine Beaudet last know Living place in France

Hannah Paddock  last know living place, Lapeer MI

Joel Caryl  Last know living place Vermont

Sarah Russell, Rhodes  last know living place Vermont.

Lydia Chaddock  last know living place in Vermont