Tricks to deal with pre -1850 census data. Tips on Preserving and Restoring photos

digitally. Tricks to generate images of land

identified by Township and Range. Tips on locating other researchers with

data you need. Tips on preserving your work for future

generations.

Military age

males

1790-18001794-1804

1794-1800Actually born in 1795

1774 – 1784 1765 – 1784 1775 – 1794 1780 – 1790 circle highest on

left and lowest on right

Okay then, here is a less fussy way. This works even after you lose your

Cheat Sheet.

You just need to convert the age spread from one census to show what that age spread would be in the year of the other census.

So we know in 1830 he was 30 - 40 We subtract ten years -10 - 10 To show what his age was in 1820. In 1820 he would’ve been 20 - 30 And the 1820 ancestor was 26 - 45 So, the suspect could, indeed, be your

guy. If he is your ancestor, we have now

narrowed his age bracket as well.

1820 ages

Couldn’t that be used to narrow an age bracket too?

Those between 16 and 18 will all be repeated in the column of those between 16 and 26.

Knowing this is half the battle.

16-18

16-26

And only one is in the 16-18 range. And one of them is your ancestor. Who died before 1850. How do you figure out which one is your

ancestor? You have to find the other brother in 1850 or

later to see when he was born. But suppose he was the one in the 16-18

column. How can you still narrow the age of your

ancstor?

Find the birth years of all the surviving brothers and sisters in the 1820 16-26 age bracket.

Suppose they look like this: Jimbob – 1795 Lurlene – 1797 Modell – 1799 Dorcas – 1803 When was your ancestor born?

1801

There’s a 4 year gap right here.

So now you have a township, range, and section of an ancestor’s land.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find an aerial photo of that property.

In seconds. For free. Without leaving home.

After Google Earth installs go to

www.earthpoint.us/townships.aspx

http://www.genealogyinc.com/maps/

We’ll now, metaphorically at least, set off searching the sea of data available to our computers.

It’s a Big Ocean of Data out there.But, like you, there are others sailing through

it.

Except they aren’t posting!

So, you must make it easy for them to find you.And you must make them want to contact you.Because they have information you need.

You have your little Harbor of Genealogical Gems. But you are still missing key info. You need to attract other researchers who may have

that info and guide them in. Or your Ship of Opportunity might sail right

by!

Once a researcher has what he needs he may stop researching that line.

So what are your options?

Post your research needs on the Internet. Use a site sampled by GenForum – for instance. It’s available worldwide 24/7.

Allows easy contact by e-mail.

Be specific in your Subject statement. Who, When & Where.

Try to anticipate what words others would search for if they were looking for your guy.

Enter common variations in spelling of the names you are researching.

List Parents full names if known. List all known Children. Mention where they were born and died. Spell out and abbreviate states, e.g. FL

Florida Capitalize SURNAMES.

When the other guy types his search request into Google,

no matter how he frames the request, when he gets a hit, you want it to be from you.

How long should you have to wait?

Often you will get a response the same day.

Especially if you reply to another post on the same person.

Many forums have an automatic notification if someone else replies to your post.

They’ll send you an e-mail letting you know.

Here’s a quick way to determine how many ancestors you have in a given number of generations.

Say…, oh,

So you have 32 ancestors in the 5th generation.

But how many do you have total? Notice that the previous generations always

total 2 less than the final generation.

So all you have to do to figure the total ancestors is double the number in the final generation and subtract 2.

Gen 1 - 2Gen 2 - 6Gen 3 - 14Gen 4 - 30Gen 5 - 62Gen 6 - 126Gen 7 - 254Gen 8 - 510Gen 9 - 1,022Gen 10 - 2,046Gen 11 - 4,094Gen 12 - 8,190Gen 13 - 16,382Gen 14 - 32,766Gen 15 - 65,534Gen 16 - 131,070Gen 17 - 262,142Gen 18 - 524,286Gen 19 - 1,048,574Gen 20 - 2,097,150

Gen 28 - 536,870,910

Gen 29 -1,073,741,82

2

Gen 30 -2,147,483,64

6

Gen 31 -4,294,967,29

4

Gen 32 -8,589,934,59

0

And it’s kind of depressing for infants. If the total of all previous ancestors is

always less than the ancestors in the next generation, – discounting cousin marriages of course – every time you finish a generation of research….

The next generation alone will be larger than all the ancestors you have already found.

So, what’s a good way to preserve those fading family

memories before they’re gone for good?

Get them scanned into digital format.

Clean the lint from a photo before scanning. Do Not attempt to clean blackened Tintypes. Do Not attempt to clean glass based photos. Scan at 300 dots/inch or higher. Save the scan as a .tif file with an appropriate

name. Like “John Wesley Bowman, Waubeek, AL ca.

1906”

e.g. you can add a label to the canvas.

You can probably do it as well as a typical “professional” restorer that charges $100.

Photo Shop and Paint Shop Pro work well. PSP-7 is $60 and Adobe PhotoShop-7 is free

on line. Once you learn a few simple functions, you

can make surprising improvements on scanned images of damaged, faded photos.

Gamma Correction Brightness/Contrast

Adjust Gamma Correction Adjust Brightness/Contrast Clone brush

Adjust Gamma Correction Adjust Brightness/Contrast Clone brush Freehand Selection Paste as New Selection

And you can turn this

Into this

If you’re going to restore, scan as a .tif file. Leave the original .tif scan unaltered. Use “Save As” to make a working copy.

Make your changes on that working copy. Use the Undo button to back out failed

tries. As you progress, save the good changes. When you are finished you can then save a

copy as a .jpg for easy e-mailing.

Don’t make restoration changes using a .jpg. .jpg is a lossy format that can’t be reversed. Each saved change forces the compression

algorithm to run again - further degrading the image.

Even if you only change one pixel. Convert to a .tif; then restore the .tif image.

So, give it a try. You can’t hurt the original photo. That’s safely stored in your garage. And if you mess up the scanned image,

just don’t save the changes. A little practice and you’ll wonder why

you haven’t been doing this all along.

Loading the last of thefamily history into acomputer before taking all of the paper copiesto the recycling center.Is this really a good idea?

First things first. Preserve now what you already have. Easy and free off-site digital storage. Skydrive is one of many ways.

Just Google skydrive. http://explore.live.com/windows-live-

skydrive 25 Gigabytes of free storage. Sharable with others if you desire.

www.dropbox.com 2 Gig Free

500 Meg for each recruit

All your ones eventually become zeros.

11111111111111111111111111111

00000000000000000000000000000

So, how does that happen? Bit Rot

Well, as long as you’re still around you can run applications that restore the faded 1s.

After that though…

Make sure your digital data is passed down through the generations to skilled people as excited about preserving your research as you are.

Data permanence has been going downhill ever since Mesopotamia.

What’s the most reliable and longest lived data storage known today?

Cuneiform tablets. We have them going back 10,000 years. And if your house burns down, the tablets

will be fire-baked to ceramic hardness as well.

Save your data in GEDCOM format? Supposedly that will always be readable. But don’t forget about Bit Rot. Submit your GEDCOM to the LDS? Supposedly they will somehow keep it

forever. Mixed in with all the WRONG GEDCOMs

on the same families.

Well, what do the experts say?

Robert Darnton, Director, Harvard U. Library

“The Best Wayto Preserve Books

is Still to Place Ink on Paper”

It’s hard to beat a book for a permanent record.

You can make multiple copies cheaply and hand them out.

Acid-free paper should last a few hundred years.

People are reluctant to throw away a book. It doesn’t require any special programs or

equipment to read them or view their pictures.

At least save your notes.

robledal.org/genealogy.htm

http://www.brothersoft.com/paint-shop-pro-64045.htmlhttp://www.brothersoft.com/adobe-photoshop-7.0-update-74883.htmlwww.earthpoint.us/townships.aspx