My Genealogy Database and Online Genealogy Presence

Inspired by Randy Seaver’s weekly Geneapourri column, I recently reviewed the status of my genealogy database and my online genealogy presence on several sites. As of October 30, 2020, the status is shown below. I will update this periodically as my research progresses. I invite comments from cousins and family members and am willing to share access to the resources below – especially if you would like to help expand and improve my database.

My Database

I maintain my genealogy master database using the RootsMagic program. My current statistics are:

This is a high-quality tree backed up by a lot of research, even though I have only 110 sources in the database. This clearly needs improvement.

On the plus side, I have a well-documented descendancy from my 16 great-great grandparents. Four of these are brick walls. I have not carried the other twelve lines back as far as I can fairly easily do using well-documented family histories and online databases. This is an easy way to expand my database. I can also add more sibling descendants, especially third and fourth cousins.

I’m looking into the best way to share my database with family and friends, probably by setting up a website using capabilities provided by RootsMagic.

FamilySearch Family Tree

My FamilySearch Family Tree account has only 68 persons in my RM database matched with FSFT persons. 942 RM DB persons are unmatched. Obviously an area where I can improve the coordination between my RM database and FSFT and add many sources and notes in the process.

Ancestry

I maintain a Holladay Family Tree database as well as several experimental trees. The tree overview shows 400 people, and I have 2859 hints to review and resolve. I will periodically sync this database with my RM master database using the Ancestry Tree Share feature of RM.

Later I need to go back and work with my DNA discoveries and settings.

My Heritage

I have a Holladay Website with currently only one family tree of 48 people. I tried uploading a GEDCOM but it resulted in a separate tree. It looks like I will have to add people to the Holladay tree manually or use the discoveries capabilities that I am just learning about.

WikiTree

On WikiTree I am Holladay-120. At the moment my family tree has my father’s side only. I believe I can upload a GEDCOM and chose which ancestors to add to my family tree. I will do this as soon as I have worked a bit on my RM database with FamilySearch.

The Holladay Family of Gloucestershire and Virginia

Some years ago I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies, hoping to learn more about other branches of our Holladay/Holliday family and how we might be related. Also whether we might find a male descendant of the Gloucestershire Holladays who would be willing to take a DNA test. Recently I sent a short write up about our branch of the Holladay family to the leader of the Holliday One-Name Study, the text of which is below.

My Holladay family has its roots in the area around Stroud and Minchinhampton in Goucestershire, England. Our line emigrated to Colonial Virginia in 1700/1701. Two half brothers, John Holladay (1676-1742) and William Holladay (1683-1742), came to America, possibly together. Their father was Thomas Holladay (abt 1648-Jan 1700/1701).

My starting point and primary reference for this history is the book The Holladay Family, published in 1983 by Alvis M. Holladay, Sr. with help from his brothers. His descendancy from Thomas Holladay is extensively researched and documented, even to employing professional genealogists in England to research additional documents.

Although some of his reasoning is based on circumstantial evidence, I am pleased to report that his connection between the two half brothers and their common ancestor have been proven by Y-DNA testing of descendants. I have found a cohort of Holladay/Holliday descendants whose DNA matched quite closely.

My line descends from William to his grandson Zacharias Holladay (1786-1846), a Revolutionary War veteran who settled in Kentucky. My own research found his older brother, John Holladay (abt 1755-abt 1800) as predicted by Alvis, and I was fortunate to find a living descendant who confirmed the relationship via Y-DNA testing.

One of my objectives in joining the Guild was that I hope to find one of the Gloucestershire Holladays who would be willing to take a DNA test.

By the way, different branches of the descendants spell their name Holladay or Holliday. in US records these spellings are often used interchangeably, especially pre-1850.

“The Holladay Family” by Alvis Holladay is now available at FamilySearch

In September of 1983, Alvis Milton Holladay, Sr., published The Holladay Family, a 602 page compendium of his extensive research on the Holladay/Holliday/Halliday family. I have been meaning for some time to blog the fact that this book is available to read or download.

Here is the link://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/63287-the-holladay-family?viewer=1&offset=0

You may need to establish a FamilySearch account to access the document. The user interface to print or download the document is kind of obscure – let me know if you need help with this.

This work documents the extensive research of Alvis Holladay, assisted by his brothers, into the origins and history of the Holladay/Holliday/Halliday family. It is a combination of history, genealogy, and storytelling. The genealogical information focuses on John Holladay (1676-1742) who immigrated from Gloucestershire, England to Norfolk County Virginia in 1701/1702. He later lived in Isle of Wight County, King William County, Caroline County, and Spotsylvania County. His descendants lived in Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and elsewhere. This work also refers to three additional compilations of Holladay family material housed at the Tennessee State Department of Libraries and Archives.

I will have more to say this book in subsequent posts, but for now I want to make post this post and invite comments. Also to let people know I am still alive and kicking even though my last post was four years ago.

Time for Genealogy Again

Now that Jamboree 2016 is over and I have gotten caught up on some personal matters, I’m making time for some genealogy again. My immediate project is to prepare for an upcoming trip to Michigan where I will have a chance to visit two of my Holladay cousins who have roots in Adair County, Kentucky.

I’m planning to make a few blog posts as I do this work, both to keep me focused and to reconnect with some of my other Holladay cousins who haven’t seen any new posts here for quite a long time. I’m not ready to make any big commitment at this time, but I will try to report at least something each week.

Along the way I’ll write up a bit about the Holladay Family project which I began many years ago and what it has evolved in to. We’ll see how it goes.

WikiTree Postings on Holladay Family

Exciting news. There have been a number of posts about the Holladay family that included my ancestral line! I’m busy right now getting ready for a July 4 family BBQ but will post more later.

Meanwhile, see my WikiTree public tree at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Holladay-120

The Tools I Use

The tool that I use to record the results of my genealogy research is a database program called RootsMagic. There are several programs of this type available. Some of them are free or have versions that are free. RootsMagic is my own particular favorite. You can learn more bout this program at their website: http://www.rootsmagic.com/

One of my many volunteer activities at the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) is serving as the leader of the RootsMagic User Group. We meet on the third Sunday of most months at 2:00 PM at the SCGS Library in Burbank to assist both new and more experienced RM users to learn more about the program and how to use it more effectively. I will post information on this blog for members of the User Group and others interested in the program.

More later – Right now I have to leave in an hour to chair this month’s meeting.

It’s After Jamboree!

Today is July 14 and I decided to make a short post about my genealogy work. As I have said in earlier posts, I spend a lot of time doing volunteer work at the library of the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) in Burbank. It is about a 20-minute drive from our home in La Crescenta, and I am over at the library an average of two days a week.

Beginning in the late spring, the hard core of SCGS volunteers begin saying, “I’ll do it after Jamboree”, in response to almost any activity not directly related to Jamboree preparations. For those of you not familiar with the genealogy scene in Southern California, Jamboree is the annual conference sponsored by SCGS that attracts hundreds of attendees from Southern California and all over the west, not to mention visitors from other parts of the country. Jamboree features a three-day program of presentations and workshops by nationally-prominent speakers, together with display and sales booths by major publishers and suppliers of genealogy products. It is the largest such gathering on the West Coast, and this year our attendance was almost 1200 attendees, volunteers, speakers, and exhibitors. You can see more info at:  http://genealogyjamboree.com/

At any rate, now it is “After Jamboree” and time to start blogging about my own genealogical activities.

It’s Time To Try Again

Well, my 2012 New Year’s resolution about this blog didn’t last very long. I do have plenty of potential topics and I really do want to give it another try.

I am finally able to dial back a bit on my volunteer work at the Southern California Genealogical Society because I now have some very talented volunteers sharing the load on the IT work.

Recently I have received useful information and some interesting queries from several Holladay cousins. I also received a plaintive question from one of my “DNA cousins” asking whether this blog was still active. All this has prompted me to make a new attempt at blogging about my genealogical activities.

I’m also inspired by Geoff Rasmussen’s signoff line when he ends one of his excellent webinars: “Life is short – do genealogy first!”

A New Year

Today I decided to keep one of my New Year’s resolutions and start posting to my genealogy blog again. If I expand the scope a bit, I certainly have plenty of topics to discuss. Let’s see how it goes in the next few days.

Unfortunately, I’ve done very little in the way of research in the past several months. My main activities in the genealogy world have centered on support for the IT department at the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) in Burbank.

One labor of love for me at the SCGS is organizing the RootsMagic software user group. We meet on the third Sunday of most months. The focus of the next meeting will be the newly-released RootsMagic 5 and early user experiences with it. My first order of business is to migrate to the new version from RootsMagic 4 and get some experience with it myself.

 

I’m Still Here!

Although I have not posted any items during the past year, I have managed to find some time to pursue my genealogical interests. A visit to the National Archives branch in Philadelphia last fall led to the discovery that my Irish immigrant ancestor, John Conroy, was born in County Lough, north of Dublin. A recent trip to the Mississippi Valley gave me a chance to learn more about Zacharias Holladay’s brother John Holladay and his descendants and to visit some of the areas where they lived in Mississippi.

I also enjoyed meeting many Newcomb cousins at a birthday party and family celebration in January, and I met many of my Holladay cousins from Boone County, Kentucky, at an impromptu reunion in April.

At the beginning of this year I became co-administrator for the US part of the Halliday/Holladay Y-DNA Surname Project at FTDNA. This project includes all variants of the Halliday surname, including Holladay, Holliday, and many others. Through this effort I hope to learn more about the ancestors of Zacharias Holladay and their relationship to other early Holladay immigrants to Virginia. More about this work in future posts.

For the moment my genealogy efforts compete for time with volunteer support at the Southern California Genealogical Society. With the successful conclusion of our recent Genealogy Jamboree I’m hoping to find more time for serious genealogy work and for posting to this blog.