Wordless Wednesday

Scanned photographs. Copyright 2008, Pamela D. Lloyd.

Original photos taken in Cambridge, England in February of 1983, probably by my husband at the time, Richard W Powell (now deceased). I am standing in front of a card shop, with my first son, Ian Powell, carried in a Snugli.

Surname Saturday, ROTE

Today's post is based on one of today's prompts from Geneabloggers:

Surname Saturday – create a post in which you discuss a surname and mention its origins, its geographical location(s) and how it fits into your genealogy research. Surname Saturday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.

My mother's maiden name was Rote. In March of last year, I posted the following in the surname database over on Geni.com:

The Rote surname is of German origin. British Surnames and Surname Profiles indicates that fewer than 0.001% of the populations of the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia have this surname.

According to the for-profit site, House of Names, the name originated in Bavaria, probably as a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion. House of Names identifies a number of names (e.g. Roth, Rothe) as being related, but other sources are more tentative in making these connections.

Ancestry.com provides the information that in the United States, the name Rote was concentrated primarily in Pennsylvania at the time of the 1920 census. The number of immigrants to the United States appears to have been quite small, with most departing either Norway or Germany; Ancestry.com identifies these immigrants as having arrived between 1864 and 1887, with most arriving in 1874. There were a total of 69 US Civil War veterans with the Rote surname, 65 for the Union, 4 for the Confederacy.

So far, I've only been able to trace the Rote line back a small handful of generations:

• Galen Weiker Rote (b. March 16, 1888 in PA, USA, d. August 10, 1941 in Sandusky, OH, USA) to Alpheus McClelland Rote and Ella E. Ward
• Alpheus McClelland Rote (b. March 1865 in PA, USA, d. after 1930) to William Rote and Magdalena (Martha)
• William Rote (b. c.1814 in PA,USA, d. after 1880 in Shamokin, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States)

During the writing of this post, I've managed to discover a few more members of the family, although none in the direct line. However, I now have a few people to contact who may know more about my mother's family, so I'm very pleased.

Stop Censorship: Stop SOPA and PIPA

Image by Aldon via Flickr

Why is my genealogy blog getting political? Because censorship affects us all, including genealogists.

Today, blogs and sites across America, Canada, and the world are blacked out in protest of two legislative bills proposed in Congress: SOPA and PIPA. These two bills, which Congress claims are intended to stop online piracy, would have disastrous consequences for free speech, online communication, and online commerce. For an excellent overview of why this is so, read author and reviewer Cheryl Morgan's analysis.

Related articles

• Why We've Censored Wired.com (wired.com)
• STOP SOPA (cyberlaw.stanford.edu)
• SOPA and PIPA (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• BlackoutSOPA.org - Change your profile picture to protest SOPA! (darioalvarez.net)
• Google Protests SOPA And PIPA By Censoring Logo, Offering Information And A Petition (inquisitr.com)
• What SOPA means around the world - literally (thenextweb.com)
• Websites go dark at start of SOPA/PIPA protest (digitaltrends.com)

Generous Genealogists

Over on Google+, I've circled a number of genealogists, and through them, I'm finding more genealogists around the world. This blog post by Judy Webster is just so wonderful that I wanted to share it with you:

Genealogy Leftovers: Genealogists for Families: keeping the memory alive...: "For as long as I can remember, my father set aside a small sum of money that he would periodically lend to a hard-working person in need of short-term help. We called it his 'Do Good Money'. Dad passed away last year at the age of ninety, and I want to honour his memory by continuing his tradition. I have just found an easy way to do so."

Her post goes on to describe the non-profit organisation Kiva, and invites her readers to join her Kiva lending team, Genealogists for Families.
I hope that you will read her lovely post and consider joining her team. It would be lovely if this team could grow to include genealogists from around the world and to become a family tradition for all of our families.

Matrilineal Lineage

Over on Geneamusings.com, Randy Seaver has suggested that folks post their matrilineal lines. It's taken me several hours, including interruptions, to get this post done, in large part because I wound up discovering new information about my father's mother's line. Or, at least, new for me.

My matrilineal line is:

• me -> Pamela D. Lloyd: b. Chicago, Illinois
• my mother -> Luella Jean Rote: b. July 2, 1921 in Sandusky Ohio, d. January 17, 1999 in El Paso, Texas; m. Winston D. Lloyd in November 1957 in international waters between the US and Canada, a second ceremony was performed in January 1958 in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• her mother -> Lulu Craun: b. July 26, 1889 in Indiana, d. February 21, 1966 in El Paso, TX; m. Galen Weiker Rote
• her mother -> Maryann Beck: b. September 1855 in Ohio, d. aft. 1920; m. John Craun in 1885 in Butler, Indiana

I have not had my mitochondrial DNA tested.

Please note, I have been able to discover very little about my mother's family, so if you think you may have information about any of the people mentioned here, I'd be delighted to learn about it.

On the Lloyd side, the matrilineal line of my father is:

• my father -> Winston Dale Lloyd: b. Pensacola, Florida
• his mother -> Inez (Sissy) Minerva Herrington: b. in Pensacola, Florida, d. January 24, 1986 in Pensacola, Floria
  m. Elmer Bruce Lloyd on July 7, 1922 in Pensacola, Florida
• her mother -> Ezella F. Boykin: b. August 26, 1866 in Quincy, Florida, d. January 14, 1959 in Mobile, Alabama
  m. Isaac Newton Herrington on December 29, 1885 in Jackson County, Florida
• her mother -> Jane Carolina McKeown: b. October 1845 in South Carolina, d. aft. 1900; m. James Cornelius Boykin in 1881
• her mother -> Sidnah Flemon Clark: b. December 2, 1820 in Chester South Carolina, d. July 13, 1902 in Gadsden, Florida
  m. Rev. Oliver Evans McKeown in South Carolina
• her mother -> Jane McClintock: b. Noevember 13, 1798 in Chester, South Carolina, d. August 1872) m. Alexander Clark in 1817 in South Carolina
• her mother -> Sidnah Flemming: b. 1776 in Virginia, d. January 20, 1839 in South Carolina
  m. Matthew McClintock
• her mother -> Sidneh Rosine: b. 1735 in Sweden, d. 1810 in Winsboro (Winsborough), South Carolina
  m1. Brown (widowed, circa 1759, while pregnant and living in Pennsylvania when, according to an unconfirmed story, her husband and first son were killed by "Indians" and she was taken captive; her second son was born in captivity and later went on to become an "Indian hunter.")
  m2. George Fleming in 1762, in Virginia

Although variants of Sidneh's story can be found in a number of places, the original version appears to be told in "A Brief Sketch of the Coulter Family in America."

Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians

Over on Genea-Musings, Randy Seaver has posted Comments on the 1940 U.S. Census RFQ and SOW.* What this means is that the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is looking for bids on the work of indexing the 1940 U.S. Census.

Near the bottom of the post, Randy Seaver offers his opinion regarding free access to these records, and the agreements between the NARA and various commercial sites. In this context, he stated, 

I think that NARA will eventually host the census on its own site, with one of the name indexes available from some provider for use in a NARA facility.  That's the type of agreement they made with Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, FamilySearch.org, etc. to permit indexing of other NARA databases they are free to access in a NARA facility.

It was this mention that made me realize that I may not be taking full advantage of the NARA's free resources. A quick check of the NARA's site turned up Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians, which provides a wealth of online resources.

While on the NARA site, I also learned that my belief that I'd have to go to Washington, DC to access these records may have been incorrect, since they have a number of regional sites around the country; not all of these sites offer the same resources, so if you are planning a visit to one of the regional centers, make sure the records you need are available there.

I live in Tucson, so the nearest NARA site for me is the National Archives at Riverside, CA (Pacific Region), approximately 440 miles from my home. The NARA reports:

We hold historically valuable materials created and collected by Federal agencies and courts in Arizona, southern California, and Clark County, Nevada. These records constitute a major resource for the study of Native American history, Naval history, westward migration, Asian immigration, civil rights, and other subjects.

Since most of my recent ancestors are from the eastern half of the US (my dad was born in Florida, and my mom in Ohio), this doesn't help me much. However, my husband does have some ancestors who lived in these areas. So, if I plan a trip to this location, I'll be focusing on my husband's family.

Like my parents, my dad's parents are from distinctly different regions. For my dad's mother's line (Herrington), the National Archives at Atlanta will be most useful, as most of her close ancestors were from the South. My dad's father was born in Pennsylvania, so to follow his line, I'll have to head north to the NARA's Mid Atlantic Region (Center City Philadelphia), where records for Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia are maintained. My mother's father (Rote) was also born in Pennsylvania, so while I'm there I can try to track down more information about him. Her mother (Craun), however, was born in Indiana, so to track down this branch, I'll have to head over to the Regional Archives for NARA's Great Lakes Region, which are housed in Chicago, Illinois.** Great! Although I was born in Chicago, my parents left when I was a baby and I've wanted to visit for as long as I can remember.

---

Notes
* RFQ = Request for quote; SOW = Statement of Work
** Lines referenced: LLOYD, HERRINGTON, ROTE, CRAUN

Genealogy Links

This weekend, I've come across a number of genealogy links, as a result of my Google+ account.

A number of Google+-specific websites have sprung up since the Google+ service became available, among them Google+ for Genealogists. In addition, at least a few notable genealogists are on Google+:

• Dan Lynch, author of Google Your Family Tree: Google+ website
• Mark Olsen, Marketing Manager for FamilyLink.com: Google+ website
• Paul Allen, founder of Ancestry.com, currently with FamilyLink: Google+
• Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers.com: Google+ website
• A.C. Ivory of ProGenealogists: Google+

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I'm specifically aware of.


I love the Genealogy Software Reviews site. There's a short description of each software product, plus a rating system powered by users.

What fun to discover the GenealogyInTime website. This is an online magazine offering free articles. You can sign up to receive their free, weekly email newsletter, which lists all the new offerings of the week; the resources page offers some great resources; and the Genealogy Twitter Reader allows you to follow genealogy tweets.

The British genealogy site GenesReunited has added family history articles to their offerings, and launched a new Facebook quiz app, designed to help you discover which of several historical periods you are best suited for.

There are many factors that contribute to our health and well-being, as well as to the health problems we may encounter throughout our lives. The answer to the old Nature vs. Nurture questions is both! You can help make trips to your physician's office easier, and keep track of important medical information about you and your family by storing your healthcare data online. The article "Discovering a Family Health History Tool – A Summer Journey" on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) blog recommends the My Family Health Portrait, offered by the Surgeon General’s office, to help you create a record of your family's health, which you can store on your computer. The My Family Health Portrait offers integration with Microsoft HealthVault. I've tried them both out; My Family Health Portrait is simple to use, but is limited in the health conditions covered and offers fewer features than Microsoft HealthVault. Microsoft HealthVault, on the other hand, encourages you to enroll in a number of third-party programs, which can be seen as either a bonus, or an annoyance.

Published in 2005, but still quite interesting (and new for me), the New York Times' "Geographic Society Is Seeking a Genealogy of Humankind" article, by Nicholas Wade, describes a joint project by the National Geographic Society and IBM to "reconstruct a genealogy of the world's populations and the migration paths of early humans from their ancestral homeland in Africa."

One last resource is an Australian site, Onlinenames.net.au, where you can either search for, register, or both, the surnames for which you are searching. Once a surname has been entered, any search performed for that surname through the website will automatically create an email, so you can contact others who are also researching that name. If the surname(s) for which you are looking are extremely common, this might not be the site for you, but it seems likely to be helpful for uncommon names.