WikiTree Challenge 2024 Challenge 5

Date: 2 May 2024 to 9 May 2024
Surnames/tags: challenges wikitree_challenge

Back toThe WikiTree Challenge

Contents 1 WikiTree Challenge 5 1.1 Guest Star 1.1.1 Notes from Guest Star 1.2 Score Sheet 2 Ask For Help 2.1 Needs Work 2.2 Photographs 2.3 FamilySearch Image Look-ups 3 Locations 4 Tell Us What You Found!! 4.1 Interesting Finds 4.2 Military Profiles 4.3 Free Space Pages 4.3.1 Cemeteries 4.3.2 Place Studies 5 Bounty Opportunties 5.1 Connections 5.2 Brick Walls 5.3 Bonus Brick Walls 6 Zoom/YouTube Schedule and Links 7 Media Outreach 7.1 WikiTree Posts 7.2 Participant Posts 8 Resources 8.1 General WT Resources 8.2 African-American Resources 8.3 Specific Country Resources

WikiTree Challenge 5

Guest Star: Randy Seaver
Team Captain: Kathy Nava

An Introduction to the WikiTree Challenge
Help:Discord: What is Discord?

Guest Star

Randy Seaver is a native San Diegan. His ancestry is mainly colonial New England and Upper Atlantic, with some colonial German, French and Dutch forebears, and several 19th-century English immigrants. He has been pursuing his elusive ancestors since 1988, and has been online since 1992.

Randy is a former President of the Chula Vista (CA) Genealogical Society, and is currently the Newsletter Editor and Research Chair. He speaks to Southern California societies, libraries and social groups, and teaches “Beginning Computer Genealogy” adult education classes at OASIS. He is a member of NEHGS, SCGS, SDGS, and CVGS. Randy blogs daily about genealogy subjects at Genea-Musings (www.geneamusings.com) and the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe (http://CVGenCafe.blogspot.com).

Here is a video explaining how to find missing connections for Randy: video

Notes from Guest Star

• Ancestry Profile: is the only one that is "almost" up-to-date. I try to update it every week using RootsMagic TreeShare. Most of my updates are for source citations but if I have added profiles I update those too.

• MyHeritage Tree: is static - I don't bother trying to update it. This tree is from April 2023 and does not have all of my current information.

The 7 generations (CC7) any which way may be very helpful for adding to the WikiTree garden. I already have 1100 of mine in WikiTree. But there are plenty more out there. However, I probably already have 95% of them in my RootsMagic tree and Ancestry tree because I've been doing descendancy research for my 4th great-grandparents for over 5 years in order to help identify common ancestors with DNA matches who have small or no trees.

My tree still has some significant challenges, such as:

• Who are 2nd GGF Devier James Smith's (1839-1894) parents? He was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in Jefferson County NY after birth and had his last name officially changed from Lamphear to Smith in 1866 in Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure his grandparents were Isaac and Rosina (Laun) Lanfear of Lorraine, Jefferson county, NY, but I don't know which Lanfear child was Devier's parent, and who the other parent was. I have DNA matches with descendants of Isaac and Rosina Lanfear.

• Who are 4th GGM Hannah Smith's (1768-1827) parents? She married Josiah Sawtell in 1789 in Amherst MA and resided with him in Brookline NH And Townsend MA.

• Who are 5th GGM Hannah Brown's (1725-1774) parents? She married John Phillips in 1749 and resided in Southboro and Shrewsbury MA.

• Who are 4th GGM Sarah Fletcher's (1802-b1850) parents? She married Abraham Kemp in 1818 probably in Prince Edward County, Ontario. I have a Bible record for a name, birth and marriage date, but no other record.

• Who are 4th GGM Mary Palmer's (c1790-c1845) parents? She married James Vaux in 1808 in South Petherton, Somerset, and migrated to the US and died in Aurora, Erie, NY.

• Who are 3rd GGF William Knapp's (1775-1856) parents? He was in Dutchess County NY and married in 1804 and resided in Newton NJ for decades.

• Who is 5th GGF Stephen Feather's (c1736-c1804) wife? He was from Germany and settled in New Jersey and then Westmoreland County, PA.

• There are many mysteries in my 6th great-grandparents especially the German ones!

I have added quite a few new lines to my tree since I added my ancestors to WikiTree many years ago. The Richman and Marshman lines in Wiltshire are typical examples. On WikiTree, the line ends with John Richman (1789-1867) and his wife Ann Marshman (1784-1856).

I have links to genealogical sketches for about 500 ancestors (back through 7th great-grands, with some exceptions) in https://www.geneamusings.com/p/ancestor-biographies.html, and many of them are in FamilySearch Family Tree profiles also. They might provide a starting point.

I am willing to have WikiTree do a challenge for me, but my big mysteries above are difficult problems. Most of them have had "potential ancestors" on Ancestry and "wrong parents" on FSFT based on other researchers work, and I have checked them out the best I can. I'm not sure that any progress on the big mysteries above can be made in a week. It would be helpful to have more or "better" source citations on my WikiTree profiles, especially those that have no citations or just a few.

The reveal on YouTube should be fun and interesting. If the team solves even one of my big mysteries, I will be ecstatic.

Score Sheet

Score sheet

Scores update once an hour.
Connections refresh twice an hour, though the score sheet won't reflect that.

Ask For Help

Needs Work

While working, the maintenance categories can be added to profiles as needed: Challenge Maintenance Categories. If there are profiles that need extra work or are in countries you're not comfortable in, feel free to list them below.
WikiTree Challenge, Maintenance Categories:

• Needs Work: Biography | Profiles Created | GEDCOM Cleanup
• Needs Records: Birth | Marriage | Death | More

Photographs

Note: Please check with Azure Robinson or Eowyn Langholf , if there are any questions about the images being protected by copyright Help Section first, and you can also check the website's Terms of Service. Please be sure to sign with 4 tildes (~) so we know who submitted the help request.

FamilySearch Image Look-ups

FamilySearch is only licensed to share some images from their FamilySearch Centers and cannot make them available across the Internet. Post those requests here for someone to visit one of their 5,000 centers or 1,500 affiliate libraries to download the image. Please be sure to sign with 4 tildes (~) so we know who submitted the request.

If there's a book that is only available on the shelves in Salt Lake City, Karen Lowe can probably drive over to access it. You can find her on Discord or by WikiTree message.

• example entry Robinson-27225 16:07, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Locations

List any countries you find here

1. Canada
   1. Alberta
   2. British Columbia
   3. Manitoba
   4. Ontario
   5. Quebec
   6. Saskatchewan
2. England
   1. Derbyshire
   2. Hampshire
   3. Lincolnshire
   4. Middlesex
   5. Somerset
   6. Suffolk
   7. Warwickshire
   8. Wiltshire
   9. Yorkshire
3. Finland
4. France
5. Germany
   1. Baden-Württemberg
6. Greece
7. Ireland
   1. Antrim
8. Italy
9. United States
   1. Alabama
   2. Arizona
   3. California
   4. Colorado
   5. Connecticut
   6. Florida
   7. Georgia
   8. Idaho
   9. Illinois
   10. Indiana
   11. Iowa
   12. Kansas
   13. Kentucky
   14. Maine
   15. Maryland
   16. Massachusetts
   17. Michigan
   18. Minnesota
   19. Missouri
   20. Montana
   21. Nebraska
   22. Nevada
   23. New Hampshire
   24. New Jersey
   25. New York
   26. North Dakota
   27. Ohio
   28. Oklahoma
   29. Oregon
   30. Pennsylvania
   31. Rhode Island
   32. Tennessee
   33. Texas
   34. Utah
   35. Vermont
   36. Virginia
   37. Washington
   38. Wisconsin
10. Wales

Tell Us What You Found!!

Interesting Finds

Share any interesting stories that you find here! Please be sure to end with 4 tildes (~) so we know who submitted the find!

1. Orland Don Carlton King (1913-) - cc8 - arrested at least 6 times for stealing vehicles, and had a five year sentence for stealing a watch. He was released from jail to enlist for WWII. Had married his third or fourth wife before divorce granted from prior wife.Stevenson-3628 20:39, 3 May 2024 (UTC)
2. Manning M. Knapp (1825-1892) was a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1889 to 1892. He died in the court room.Stevenson-3628 06:45, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
3. James Rich (bef.1818-) was found drowned in Bute Docks reports of discovery and inquest on his profile.Buckle-52 10:18, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
4. Ellen (Elliott) Kemp (1882-1956) died on 15 December 1956 in California. 30 minutes later, her brother, Amos Hiram Elliott (1880-1956) died in Ontario, Canada.  Evans-3182 15:10, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
5. Rebecca (Rich) Abrams (bef.1850-1934) died aged 83 in 1934 about 6 weeks after her son Walter who had been a guard on the Great Western Railway. She had been married for 64 years and lived in the same house for 61 years. Her husband George died later the same year and they both have an obituary in The Somerset Standard.Buckle-52 13:08, 5 May 2024 (UTC)
6. Edwin Butler Bryant (1844-1925) nickname was "Yankee Notions." He was a peddler of notions in Pittsfield, and from 1885-90 was also responsible for lighting the gas street lights in Fitchburg.Ulmer-538 12:55, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
7. Brithe (Rasmusdatter) Vatlestad (bef.1783-1836) CC6 Randy's wife's GGGgrandmother died when an avalanche destroyed their farm. The avalanche occurred around 5:30 pm on 10 Feb 1836 and destroyed all 20 buildings on two farms at Vetlestad, killing 16 people and over 80 farm animals in an instant.

Military Profiles

Share profiles for any miilitary individuals here! Don't forget to end with 4 tildes (~) so we know who submitted it.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

• George Ruth Doherty-2064 23:23, 3 May 2024 (UTC)
• Burgess Metcalf (1741-1816)Schafer-3394 19:26, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

CIVIL WAR

• James R. Carringer Co F, 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry
• Harvey Carringer Co H, 55th Pennsylvania Infantry
• George Carringer Co C, 8th Iowa Infantry
• William Henry Carringer Co F, 25th Iowa Infantry
• George H.N.Cramer Co F, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry

all five CW above Baker-49492 16:04, 9 May 2024 (UTC) 19TH CENTURY MILITARY

WORLD WAR I

1. Macdonald Parkman Chapman (1896-1970) Urbach-13 07:41, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
2. Mabel Jane Drabble (abt.1878-1924) served as an army nurse in WWI

WORLD WAR II

20TH CENTURY MILITARY

KOREAN

1. According to the grave marker for Louis Sidney Barstow (abt.1924-1997), he served in the U. S. Army in Korea.

VIETNAM

Free Space Pages

• Crampton, Juanita Hayter. The able Aubles (J.A. Crampton, Birch Run, MI, 1988?)

Cemeteries

Place Studies

Bounty Opportunties

Connections

These links are added at the beginning of the week by Eowyn. The first person who makes a unique connection for an individual wins the bounty points for that person. Remember to claim any connection bounties in the G2G post!

1. Frank Walton Seaver
2. Hattie Louisa Hildreth
3. Thomas Richmond
4. Juliet White
5. Henry Austin Carringer
6. Abbie Ardell Smith
7. Charles Auble
8. Georgianna Kemp

Brick Walls

These links will be added mid-week by Eowyn. Remember to claim any brick wall bounties in the G2G post!

1. Paul Schaffner (parent)
2. John Brocke (parent)
3. Jessie Brown (parent)
4. Ethel Judson (parent)
5. Anna Natvig (parent)
6. Benjamin Peterson (parent)
7. Dean Yale (parent)

Bonus Brick Walls

The following brick walls were mentioned specifically by Randy. You can work on them any time this week and if you break one you will get a bounty point for it.

1. Who are 2nd GGF Devier James Smith (1839-1894)'s parents? He was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith in Jefferson County NY after birth and had his last name officially changed from Lamphear to Smith in 1866 in Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure his grandparents were Isaac and Rosina (Laun) Lanfear of Lorraine, Jefferson county, NY, but I don't know which Lanfear child was Devier's parent, and who the other parent was. I have DNA matches with descendants of Isaac and Rosina Lanfear.
2. Who are 4th GGM Hannah (Smith) Sawtell (abt.1767-1827)'s parents? She married Josiah Sartell in 1789 in Amherst MA and resided with him in Brookline NH And Townsend MA.
3. Who are 5th GGM Hannah (Brown) Phillips (abt.1725-bef.1774)'s parents? She married John Phillips in 1749 and resided in Southboro and Shrewsbury MA.
4. Who are 4th GGM Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp (1802-bef.1850)'s parents? She married Abraham Kemp in 1818 probably in Prince Edward County, Ontario. I have a Bible record for a name, birth and marriage date, but no other record.
5. Who are 4th GGM Mary Palmer (abt.1788-abt.1844)'s parents? She married James Vaux in 1808 in South Petherton, Somerset, and migrated to the US and died in Aurora, Erie, NY.
   1. Found father working on mother Browning-5288 13:44, 5 May 2024 (UTC)
6. Who are 3rd GGF William Knapp (1775-1856)'s parents? He was in Dutchess County NY and married in 1804 and resided in Newton NJ for decades.
7. Who is 5th GGF Stephen Feather (abt.1736-1804)'s wife? He was from Germany and settled in New Jersey and then Westmoreland County, PA.

Zoom/YouTube Schedule and Links

• May 2 Noon EDT/4pm UTC Kickoff - video
  
• May 4 Noon EDT/4pm UTC Weekend Chat - video
  
• May 9 Noon EDT/4pm UTC Wrapup - https://wikitree.zoom.us/j/81985504089
• May 16 8 PM EDT/Midnight UTC Reveal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3TaxCgDnOE

Media Outreach

Share WikiTree on your social media

WikiTree Posts

Hashtags: #WTChallenge #CollaborativeGenealogy

Day	Subject	@WikiTree Official @Geneaholic	@WTChallenge @rjseaver	@WikiTree	@WikiTreers @rjseaver	@WikiTree @randy-seaver-ba16488	@WikiTreers @RandySeaver
4/30	About to start/Register!	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link
5/2	Zoom Kick-off	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link video
5/4	Zoom Weekend Chat	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link video
5/5	Halfway	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link
5/7	Winding down	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link
5/9	Zoom Wrap-up	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link video
5/16	Challenge Reveal	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link	Link video

Participant Posts

Member	Date	Subject	Facebook	Twitter	Mastodon	Instagram	YouTube

Resources

Please list any resources that you have. We all gain knowledge from each other!

General WT Resources

• Editing Tips This page shows basic markup that can be used on WikiTree profiles and Space pages. Please remember not to use tables on Challenge profiles.
• Example Challenge Profiles This is a guideline on how the profiles can look.
• WikiTree Browser Extension This addon is great for a lot of things, but the main help for the Challenge is the "auto-bio" button that it puts on the profiles. This will give you basic narrative you can add to. It is also great for adding stickers and cleaning up GEDCOM clutter. Let your team captain know if you need help learning one of these features!
• The Background Images Category contains pages that you can find a large variety of background images on. Most of them are tiled (repeatable) images.
• WikiTree+ is valuable for so many things! Here are a few of the search features you can use for challenge profiles: (Go to WikiTree+ query for Active Challenge profiles with noparents. In the "Search" section, look at the "Text search" box and then "Text:" underneath that. Leave the ProfileList parameter and change the text at the end to search for different things. You can copy the text below and paste it in the text box. Click "Get profiles.") Thank you Aleš!!
  1. Look for Pending merges: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" pendingmerge
  2. Profiles missing the country in a location field: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" UnknownCountry
  3. Not connected to the global tree: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" unconnected
  4. No parents: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" noparents
  5. No spouse: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" nospouses
  6. Notable profiles: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" TemplateFull=Notables_Sticker
  7. Has GEDCOM clutter: ProfileList="WikiTreeChallenge\ActiveChallenge" GEDCOMJunk
• Connection Finder If you're not sure where you are working on the tree, this will show you anyone (connected)'s connection to the starting profiles. Just enter the profile you're working on in the box at the top of the page.

African-American Resources

• Please add the {{African-American Sticker}} right below the biography heading on all African-American profiles except for notables - notables should have the project box and sticker described here.
• US Black Heritage: Preferred Terminology
• Black Genealogy Basics
• Documenting Enslaved People in WikiTree
• How to Find Enslaved Ancestors
• African-American Genealogy Resources
• US Black Heritage Resources by State

Specific Country Resources

WikiTree Source Library

• Canada Project: Sources
  • AlbertaOntario: Sources
  • British Columbia: Sources
  • Manitoba: Sources
  • Ontario: Sources
  • Quebec: Sources
  • Saskatchewan: Sources
• England Project: Sources
• Finland Project: Sources
• France Project: Sources
• Germany Project: Sources
• Ireland Project: Sources
• United States Project: Sources
  • Alabama Project: Sources
  • Arizona Project: Sources
  • California Project: Sources
  • Colorado Project: Sources
  • Connecticut Project: Sources
  • Florida Project: Sources
  • Georgia Project: Sources
  • Idaho Project: Sources
  • Illinois Project: Sources
  • Indiana Project: Sources
  • Iowa Project: Sources
  • Kansas Project: Sources
  • Kentucky Project: Sources
  • Maine Project: Sources
  • Maryland Project: Sources
  • Massachusetts Project: Sources
  • Michigan Project: Sources
  • Minnesota Project: Sources
  • Missouri Project: Sources
  • Montana Project: Sources
  • Nebraska Project: Sources
  • Nevada Project: Sources
  • New Hampshire Project: Sources
  • New Jersey Project: Sources
  • New York Project: Sources
  • North Dakota Project: Sources
  • Ohio Project: Sources
  • Oklahoma Project: Sources
  • Oregon Project: Sources
  • Pennsylvania Project: Sources
  • Rhode Island Project: Sources
  • Tennessee Project: Sources
  • Texas Project: Sources
  • Utah Project: Sources
  • Vermont Project: Sources
  • Virginia Project: Sources
  • Washington Project: Sources
  • Wisconsin Project: Sources