Seaman Family History Website Updates

mid-June 2008
Well it was a fun family reunion - and I got to visit a few court houses, museums and libraries while I was in the area. I have a couple of hundred new photos and document scans to load onto the site. Some have been cleaned up and are ready for uploading, others I still need to work on a bit. Some of the documents still need to be scanned.

Also, just over the last couple of days a new contact has been made with another branch of the family, descendents of Smith SEAMAN (b.1784) Hopefully this branch of the family will become better documented over the next few months. Keep checking back to see the updates!

May 2008
It's not even the middle of the month yet and I've been busy. In getting ready for a trip I decided to clear off some space on my laptop. In doing so I uncovered some mis-placed scans from my visit to Drummond Island, Michigan last summer. So ... a couple of dozen new photos and documents have been added to the site over the last few days. The site's most recent changes are always viewable here.

Also, a new public feature has been added on the opening page. A sort of a guided tour of some interesting Seaman family facts has been setup. Check it out: here. Suggestions for new ones are welcome!

April 2008
All sorts of additions have been made - a few photos - lots of documents - and even a few new people! Paul Donald SEAMAN provided photos of himself, mother, wife and his two girls - one of them, Halie Marie, was born just last month and is the most recent addition to the Seaman family. Another cousin provided photos (taken in 1918) of her father (Walter Scott SEAMAN) and uncle (David Allen SEAMAN) - both of which are my great-uncles. These two brothers married two WETHERILL sisters.

On the document side of things, a couple of dozen items were added. Most of them having to do with the DORAN and WEAVER branches of the SEAMAN family living in Grey county, Ontario. Most of these were in the area around the town of Meaford. Also added were some items documenting the LACEY/SEAMAN family in Brant county, Ontario.

Months of January, February and March of 2008
Winter is over and while I didn't get as much done with the website as I had hoped, progress was made. Contact was made with a couple of new branches of descendants leading to the addition of about a hundred new cousins. We now have over 4500 people listed here and over 2000 of those are of the current (living) generations. There are over 90 family members who have visited the site and registered for access. Some of those made one visit, never to be heard from again ... others have become regular contributors to the site. Let's see what the Spring brings!

December 17, 2007
Summer is gone - Fall is almost over - so I'm back to work on the site. The expansion of the publicly viewable portion of the family tree has been done and now presents a full 5 generations of the decendants of Caleb Seaman. None of these are living individuals so there shouldn't be any concerns about privacy. Stay tuned ... there's more to come!

Months of August, September and October of 2007
What can I say ... I've been slack but it has been a wonderful summer! I still have lots of materials to post to the website as well as several leads to sort through. Also, after talking with several family members, it has been decided to expand the publicly viewable portion of the family tree to include another generation of descendents.

The expansion of the public part of family tree to cover five generations will hopefully help many more family members find this website via the Internet search engines. This fifth generation was born almost entirely in the 19th century and most lived into the 20th century. None of them are still living so this change shouldn't cause any privacy issues. Comment now on this change if you wish. Baring something unexpected, the change will take place in the first part of November.

Weeks of July 8 - July 21, 2007
Well an assortment of new stuff has been added including an update to the military service section - but I still have to get the photos from the Montana trip online. And, thanks to making contact with 2 sisters, another branch of the family will shortly become much better documented.

During the last couple of months I made contact with Alice Willey and her sister, Silvia May Hurley. They are daughters of Walter Scott SEAMAN and Ina WETHERILL. Hopefully over the next few months many details of their branch of the family will be documented! Alice already sent a batch of photos for scanning and they have been added to the site.

Also, there have been a break in recording members of the Seaman family that crossed back into New York state in the early to mid 1800's. They lived in areas adjacent to the St Lawrence River. A couple of the lines can be seen here with these two brothers: David SEAMAN (1827-????) and Smith SEAMAN (1825-1886).

Weeks of June 17 - July 7, 2007
It took a while but about all the materials from my trip to Drummond Island, Michigan and Sauble Beach, Ontario are now online. A camera malfunction had complicated processing some of the photos.

Also during this period, the family reunion for the descendents of William Seaman (1885-1934) was held in Miles City, Montana. Many of the materials from that trip are now online but most of the photos are not yet uploaded.

Weeks of May 27 - June 16, 2007
During this period I took an all too short trip to Drummond Island, Michigan and from there over to my great-great-grandfather's stomping grounds in Ontario, Canada.

On Drummond Island I got a short tour and history of the island from Joan Riordan and from there we hit the beautiful Drummond Island Museum to gather photos and documents. I even met up with a few more cousins while there. Joan's mother, Audrey Moser is curator at the museum.

After Drummond, it was over to Sauble Beach in Bruce county, Ontario. Nearby, at Sauble Falls, is where a bridge and other remains of a once thriving saw mill operation were dedicated as a site of historical significance. This operation was owned by Nathan Duxbury SEAMAN (1850-1928) and the efforts to protect the site were, in large part, spearheaded by Adelle Siegrist (Nathan's great-granddaughter). Adelle arranged for a family gathering at her home after the dedication ceremony.

There were estimated to have been as many as seventy family members at the dedication ceremony and well over half made it to the gathering. Many brought photos and various documents with them. Of those, many were scanned, some where presented to me as a gift, and sadly, others were not even seen due to a lack of time.

These materials have already started to be entered on the site but it will take time to get it all done. Please check the Whats New section (for registered users only) to see each addition as it is made. There is much more to come!

Weeks of April 29 - May 26, 2007
Once again, several weeks have passed without an update to this "What's New" section. But as usual, work has continued. Odds and ends have been entered - lots of new contacts have been made. Even with the work that got done, there is a backlog of data entry to get done (some of the more boring stuff) and a site software update that is due to be applied. What can I say ... Spring is here!

Weeks of April 8-28, 2007
Several weeks without an update to this "What's New" section but the work has continued on the rest of the site! More photos were added of me, my parents, grandparents and some aunts, uncles and first cousins after I found yet another group of photos my parents had squirreled away.

Adelle Siegrist returned to Ontario from her stay in Georgia and from there sent me a CARE package of old photos and documents. They have all been scanned and most have been added to the site. They mostly dealt with descendents of Nathan Duxbury SEAMAN (1850-1928).

Yet another CARE package arrived, this one from Miles City, Montana. It held some death certificates, marriage certificates, obituaries and such for some of my aunts, uncles and others from this area near Baker where my grandparents, William Marley SEAMAN (1885-1935) and Mabel Lucinda SCOLES (1893-1949) raised their family.

Week of April 1-7, 2007
The last couple of weeks have seen a good bit of work on the site. The usual minor corrections and additions to existing entries have been made plus, thanks to information provided by Adelle Siegrist, many descendents of Nathan Donald SEAMAN (1901-1980) were added as well. Also added were a dozen photos of my own immediate family and a few of aunts and uncles.

An interesting find was some information on a family member already listed on the site. Theodore Wells CHURCH (1901-1974), 3 x great grandson of Caleb SEAMAN, had been an on-air personality and news director for the CBS Radio network back in the heyday of radio. He continued into the days of television. I am trying to secure some audio or video recordings of him in action to add to the website.

Week of March 18-24, 2007
It's been several weeks since an update to this "What's New" section but work has continued on the website. There have been assorted corrections and more than a few additions made. And, just today, a group of photos was added to the line of Nathan Duxbury SEAMAN (1850-1928). These were provided by Adelle Ribey Siegrist. Adelle also provided bunches and bunches of names and dates for many of the descendents of this same line of which she is a member.

The photos that Adelle sent were all originals. I scanned them at high resolution and then spent several hours cleaning them up and making more than a few repairs. They are packaged up and ready to return to her on Monday. High resolution versions of the photos, appropriate for printing, are available for those needing copies.

Week of February 18-24, 2007
I added lots of new info about the descendents of a close relative this week! My great aunt, Barbara Ann BRUCE (nee SEAMAN) (1878-1946). There were about 20 new relatives added thanks to input from Barbara Butler.

Also a bunch of organization of the Cemeteries section was done in preparation of adding all the indviduals known to be in each of them.

Week of February 11-17, 2007
It's been a busy week!

A new section was added to the home page - it will feature upcoming events of interest to the family - mostly family reunions and such. Check it out, here.

On the genealogy front, 10 new families have been added - 25 new people! Most of them being decendants of William Scott BRUCE (1880-1957) and Barbara Ann SEAMAN (1878-1946). This was thanks to some help from Barbara Butler.

Also, Steven Alan Williams provided several photos of some of his family. They have been added to the appropriate places.

Week of February 4-10, 2007
This week, once again scans of bunches of census surveys (along with some other goodies) were added to the site. They were mostly for the descendants of the husband/wife team of Samuel BUTTERFIELD (1837-1926) and Lovina Elizabeth SEAMAN (1845-1903).

Also, thanks to a series of emails between myself and a third cousin, Adelle Siegrist (nee RIBEY), there have been added over a dozen new descendants of Ernest Richardson SEAMAN (1886-1971) as well as a couple of interesting photos and stories.

On the Seaman Family Genealogy Resources page, a link was added allowing vistors to download a copy of a GEDCOM of the entire Capt. John Seaman line.

Week of January 28-February 3, 2007
This week, scans of bunches of census surveys (along with some other goodies) were added to the husband/wife team of Fredrick William BUNKER (1854-1916) and Alice Fatziza SEAMAN (1854-1923) along with several of their descendants.

Week of January 21-27, 2007
On the technical front, a major change in the way photos and documents are displayed was implemented this week. It allows for zooming out on the image to view it in its entirety or enlarging it to full size to better view details. Also, this What's New section was added.

On the genealogy side of things, many corrections and additions were made to the information on the descendants of Roger Oren WILLIAMS (1931-1982) thanks to information provided by his son, Steven Alan Williams.

Week of January 14-20, 2007
With the help of a few emails between your editor and Lucy Grant Naphin, the information on and documentation for several individuals was reinforced. There was even a new marriage discovered! She had provided several tidbits of info that spurred me to do a little more research on the line of Alexander Ernest SEAMAN (1874-1945).

Week of January 7-13, 2007
While browsing the Internet, a site was found that documents old engines. There were photos of several gasoline engines made by the Chapman Engine Company which was founded in 1911 by Stephen Henry CHAPMAN (1860-1921). Several photos of restored engines were added to this site.

Week of December 31, 2006 - January 6, 2007
Fifteen US census pages for the Drummond Island Seaman branch were uploaded and linked to bunches of individuals and families. Most pages documented multiple families. Several WWI draft registration papers were also added and linked.