Amanuensis Monday: Remembering Where

Ongoing transcription of hand-written notes found in the BISHOP family file at the NewYork State Library in Albany.

Simeon Barker born where Marlboro Mar. 30, 1811 shock son of Enoch Barker where and Anna Rising dau of Jonathan Rising.  Marlboro, VT.

Enoch Barker perhaps in Warwick, Mass.

Ancestry Offers This Year's Records Free

A little year-end gift from Ancestry.com to you:  free access to the collections new in 2012.  Included are vital records for Massachusetts, church records for Pennsylvania, New York immigration records from the early 1900s, the New York state census of 1892, and more.  You can't beat free, but remember the goal is peak your interest so that you want more records that are in the subscription-only area.

You can search within the free records of 2012 and see the index and actual images.

The Pennsylvania collections features a record from a neighboring New Jersey family.
Excellent example of looking to neighboring jurisdictions for records.
Ancestry.com Pennsylvania Church and Town Records 1708-1985

Baby Girl of Poland 1942

An interesting cousin surfaced in my mother's DNA matches at 23andMe.  A woman who was given away as a baby in Poland in 1942 during World War II has submitted her DNA in hopes of locating family.  Identifinders International features two people who were separated from their biological families at young ages because of the Holocaust who are now seeking their families of origin through DNA testing.  Because they were separated so young, they have little or no recollection of their origins.

Here is what the match looks like between Baby Girl from Poland and my mother:

23andMe

They share two small segments, which could indicate that they are distantly related from at least two ancestral lines.  As Baby Girl has no documented lines and I have no documented lines in Poland, figuring this one out is going to depend on other people with documented lines coming forward with their DNA and their family trees.

A geographical map of the locations of Baby Girl's genetic matches and the locations of their ancestors was created at Google Maps.  This is a great strategy for seeing where genetic relations live and forming possible branches of the tree based on concentrations.  Drawbacks include recent migrations, lack of knowledge of one's roots, under-representation of certain groups and areas in the database, and confused names as geographic names were altered to reflect the language of the contemporary rulers of the area.

Google.com/maps
Locations of genetic relatives and their ancestral lines of Baby Girl

The map definitely shows a concentration of relatives in the area where Baby Girl was given to her new parents.  A very close relation is still needed to possibly identify her birth parents.