Changing from Family Tree Maker PC to Family Tree Maker for Mac

Due to my Windows laptop having more and more errors, my husband and I decided it was time to switch to Mac.  I have not touched an Apple Computer since the early 1990s.  Over 20 years of PC use has embedded all of the shortcuts  and PC methods into my brain.  Now I have to learn the Mac techniques.

One of the reasons why we didn't go to Apple sooner was my attachment to Family Tree Maker.  I had been using it since the early 1990s as well.  But with Family Tree Maker for Mac, that has all changed.  Now comes the challenge of moving several family tree files over from the old PC.

I tried just opening the FTM PC file in the MAC version of Family Tree Maker but it was to the correct process.  My husband then tells me that there was a migration program on the installation CD.

So placed the CD in the Macbook Pro and tried to install the migration program. No Go.  The Migration program has to be installed on the PC and the files converted.  Since the plan is to get rid of the PC at some point, I realized I would have to convert all my FTM files.

I installed it and converted the files.  As the files were converting, I was a little concerned that all of my many notes might be lost.  I then opened the files in  Family Tree Maker for Mac.  I was happy to see that the program looked very similar to the PC version and nothing was lost in the transfer.  All of my notes were there.  Nothing lost.

I haven't really played around with the program to much yet. One small difference I noticed is the graphics seem much more artistic than the PC version.  I am glad to know that FTM will be one of my easier challenges of moving from PC to Mac.

Now to learn how to work the Mac itself!

Honoring My Ancestral Veterans

As today is Veterans Day, it is only appropriate to pay honor to those of my family who served in the military.

Let's start with ROLL CALL!

Howard Johnson          World War II       Father
Harold Johnson            World War II       Uncle
Marvin Johnson            World War II       Grand Uncle
Loren Thompson          World War II       Grand Uncle
Henry Coonrod            Civil War             2nd Great Grandfather
John Thompson            Civil War             2nd Great Grandfather
John Yelliott                 Civil War              2nd Great Grandfather

John Burlend                Mexican War       Great Grand Uncle
Daniel Burbank            Revolutionary        5th Great Grandfather
Woollery Coonrod       Revolutionary        5th Great Grandfather


These are the veterans I have determined so far in my family history research.  I want to thank each one of them and those that I have not yet identified for serving our country.  They fought to keep this country free and to protect the rights of all people. 

They had many new experiences.  Some experienced new forms of transportation.  My father was transported to Iceland via airplane.  It was his first flight.  My uncle had experiences with boats on the river but he had never experienced a troop ship.  Both my uncle and father took their first train trips being transported to camps in the United States.

Some experiences were not always good.  Several of my Civil War veterans suffered with dysentery and other ailments.  The details described in their pension files are sickening to say the least.

Probably the hardest of experiences was leaving behind family and friends especially when they did not know what their future held.  Of all the men listed above, only one did not return, John Burlend.  His death was listed as "Kill, affray on m'ch".

There is only one thing left to say... THANK YOU... to all my ancestral veterans and THANK YOU for all the veterans out there who read this blog.

My Illinois Civil War Ancestors

1500 years after the Civil War, my curiosity has been peaked to explore my ancestors who served during the war.  I have made a combined Civil War timeline list for my three ancestors.  Combined because I wanted to see any overlap in time and place as I start to plan my Civil War Road Trips.

My first ancestor to serve in the war is John Burlend Yelliott of Pike County, Illinois.  He was mustered in at Camp Butler, Illinois near Springfield on 21st August 1862 at  the age of 18.  He served for three years being mustered out on 12th of June 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee.

My next ancestor to serve war was Henry Harrison Coonrod, Sr. also of Pike County, Illinois.  He was 30 years old when he mustered in at Florence, Illinois on the 23rd of August 1862.  Henry was married with one son. He, too, served for three years being mustered out on 31st of July 1865.

My final ancestor to serve was John June Thompson of Fulton County, Illinois.  At the age of 26, he musters in at Camp Butler, Illinois on the 21st of February 1865.  He was married with three daughters.  John served a little over six months being mustered out on 5 Sep 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee.

Many questions run through my head as I look at these three men.  How did two gentlemen from the same county  muster in two days apart at two different places?  Why would John June Thompson a married man with three children  - all female - be called to serve when it would seem he was the sole support for these girls and his wife? What was it like for them?  What inspired them to take up arms?  How were their families handling them being gone?

These are questions I plan to research further in later blogs.  But for now I just want to salute these men that served

Going to the Cemetery! - Gone but not forgotten?

Mid October, I went to Bethel Methodist Church near Detroit, Pike County, Illinois.  As I said before in my blog, this was the first time I went inside but it was not the first time I visited the cemetery that surrounds the church.  I have been several times in the last 5 years.  Before that day in October, I had been there exactly 5 times...every Memorial Day.

I recall in Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's book "Honoring Our Ancestors", Jodi L. Severson contributed a store called "My Mother's Example".  Jodi tells of her mother's tradition on Memorial Day weekend of traveling to the cemeteries of her deceased family members.  While I don't talk to my deceased relatives at the cemetery, I do bring flowers and decorations for their plots.

My own tradition started 5 years ago before my mother past away.  She loved that I was researching her family and always wanted to know what new I had learned.  My mother developed dementia over the last few years of her life but she always remembered our trips to the cemeteries to Honor the Ancestors.  The year she passed away I probably went in remembrance of our trips together but last year was more of a remembrance of all my ancestors and for me.

While at the Cemetery in October, I noticed that there were only a few flowers on the graves in the older section of the cemetery.  The only ones I noticed were ones I knew I had placed there.  I commented on this to my husband and he looked around but didn't see any others. 

I have posted memorials to my ancestors on Find A Grave which leaves a digital record of their burial and tombstone.  But for me, there is just more meaning in seeing the sites in person.  I understand not everyone can be near their ancestor's resting places.  It's walking on ground they walked on.  It's walking next to where they rest.

So I wonder when I am gone who will Honor our Ancestors. Who do I inspire to carry on the tradition for my family? Or will they become like the rest of these stones unadorned and unvisited?  Until the next genealogist comes along.

Aliquots...Ali.WHATS???

A couple of days ago, I was working with Google Earth and land patents from the Bureau of Land Management.  Part of the description of the land was something called an "Aliquot".  Say What?  What is that?  What does it mean and more importantly how does it affect my ancestor and me?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online defines "Aliquot" as "contained an exact number of times in something else  - used of a divisor or part".  Okay... it was a divisor of land.  That seems to make sense.  But what exactly does "SW1/4 NW 1/4" mean?

Instead of just "aliquot in my google search, I added the words "land description". This led to an article on the "PLSS" or Public Land Survey System which is defined as a way of subdividing and describing land in the United States.  According to the http://nationalatlas.gov  website,, the PLSS typically divides land in to 6 mil square townships.  Each township is subdivided in 36 one mile square sections.  The sections are further subdivided into quarter sections and quarter-quarters sections.  It was the subdivision of sections which is called aliquots.

So "SW1/4 NW 1/4" is a subdivision of a section.  But was part of the section?  I delved further.  The best description I found was on Ehow read-land-property-description.  It suggested taking a piece of paper, drawing a square, dividing that square in four and then dividing those squares into four.  Then proceeds to describe how to label each square.  It ends up looking something like this.

I have color coded each major quadrant and then labelled the minor quadrants.  Now where exactly is "SW1/4NW1/4"?  It is easier to understand if we translate the aliquots into "SouthWest Quarter of the Northwest Quarter" which according to several websites is the meaning of the shorthand.  I need to start with the "of the Northwest Quarter" first because the words in front of the "of the " are a portion of the last part. 

In this case, the NW Quarter is yellow. Now to locate the SW Quarter of the yellow section. I found it!!!

But what if it says E1/2SE1/4?  First I will translate it to full words - the East Half  of the Southeast Quarter.  Find the SE Quarter which is blue in my diagram.  The East Half would the parts marked NE and SE.

Sometimes it really does help to write it all down!

Are We Related to this Thompson dentist from Peoria?

This year at my family reunion a cousin asked me if we were related to this other Thompson. He had been told by an acquaintance that he looked and sounded like this dentist from Peoria, IL.

The name seemed to ring a bell but I couldn't find anything about this person in my family binder  which I always bring to the reunion.  I promised to do some research.  Now six months later.....  I have not progressed very far.

First, I checked my Family Tree Maker file.  Several years ago, I worked with a genealogist from Kansas.  She had been collecting obituaries for many years but had never entered them into a database system.  She sent me copies and I in return sent her pedigree charts, family charts and an electronic copy of the database.  No Thompson in my file fit the name and place I was given.

Second, I did a google search. Confirmed there is a dentist in Peoria IL by the name I was told. While I was able to find the location of his business for a possible candidate, I was looking for a more personal way of contacting Mr Thompson.  I wanted to substantiate the claim a little more as well.  Cold Calling is not one of my favorite pastimes.

Third, I checked Ancestry.com.  I found only one reference to a potential Thompson in US Public Records Index.  But the address did not seem to fit.

I will do a little more research.  More on the search for the dentist later.....

Playing with Google Earth and My Ancestors Lands

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to hunting down the land owned by my ancestor, John Johnson.  I know that John lived in Mason County, Illinois.  There is a family story that John used Abraham Lincoln to help with the government land grant....but that's for another post.  What I wanted to know was where the land was and who was living on the land in the 1874 Mason County Illinois Plat map of which I had a copy.

I started with the Bureau of Land Management's website http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ and clicked to search for a Federal Land Patent.  Into the BLM's search template, I entered State and County along with first and last name of my ancestor.  With a name as common as John Johnson, I wasn't sure what I was going to get.  But fortunately, the site returned with only 3 land patents entries.  Only 1 of those patents was for the correct time frame of my ancestor moving to Mason County, Illinois. 

From the BLM, I was able to get the land description.  It appears that the BLM plans to or did have a mapping feature.  But as luck would have it, it was not working.  So how was I to translate the land description of meridian - township - range - section into something Google Earth would understand?  Time to do a Google Search of that same question.

Google replied with many options but the one I followed was Township and Range - Search By Description at http://www.earthpoint.us/TownshipsSearchByDescription.aspx.  There I entered the State , Principal Meridian, Township, Range and Section and clicked "Fly to On Google Earth". 

There it was... the land that my 3rd great grandfather was issued on July 1 1848.  Now comparing to the Plat Map, it is in 1874 in the name of F L Mugge.  The name doesn't ring any bells....guess I need to find an earlier Plat Map or time for a road trip to search the land records at the county courthouse!