genealogy Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Clarence Williams, WWI vet

maternal grandfather

**Top, 4th from the left is Clarence; seated on the right end is Charlie (1911)**

Clarence Williams and his brother Charles loved to play baseball. In fact, in the 1915 Census, Charlie lists his profession as a ballplayer.

But as I noted back in 2019, I didn’t know much about the Williamses, even though Clarence was my biological maternal grandfather. I’m fairly sure I attended Clarence’s funeral in 1958, though I have no recollection of it.

Their father was Charles Williams, who was married to Margaret Collins (1865-1931), whose parents almost certainly were born in County Cork, Ireland.

When I was in Charlotte, NC, recently, I went through a bunch of photos and came upon a few paper relics. I realize that they are exceedingly hard to read. The record below, even blown up, I can’t really make out.

But I was able to find this on Ancestry: Clarence was inducted in Owego, NY, on November 23, 1917. He was 31 1/2 years old and 5’10”. He got promoted twice and served overseas from May 27, 1918, to March 1919, when he was honorably discharged without wounds.

I have noted that his paternal grandfather, Daniel Williams, served in the Civil War.

NYS Health Department records take forever

cf, New York Genealogical & Biographical Society

There was a story on the front page of the Albany Times Union for May 9, 2026. “Health department backlog leaves families in limbo. Frankly, it surprised me because anyone who has attempted to work on genealogy would likely already know that Health Department records take forever.

“The department’s vital records office, where requests for birth certificates, death records, and marriage documents have languished for years. Last year, the state stopped accepting new requests for some of these public records altogether…

Moreover, “genealogists said they are further troubled by a proposed increase in the embargo on certain records. Currently, birth certificates at least 75 years old are eligible for review; the new proposal would increase that requirement to 125 years. Death certificates would similarly have to be 75 years old instead of 50, while marriage records could only be accessed if they were 100 years old instead of 50.”

“The proposed changes have roiled both professional and amateur genealogists. And they come as some genealogists have pointed to ongoing court battles over the full disclosure of all death records the state has access to as one reason behind the attempted reshaping of the Bureau of Vital Statistics’ work. “

NYG&B

Alternatively, I’m quite fond of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. The NYG&B’s online records and collections contain thousands of pages ranging from county histories, immigration records, vital record substitutes, and much more from all over New York State and New York City.

“We’re continuously adding records to both new and existing collections, many of which aren’t available online anywhere else. So even if you’ve searched our databases in the past, there’s always something new to discover.”

“Anyone can go to our website and search our collections, free of charge. But you do need to be a member to open and access most of the records. To help you better understand the kind of information we have available, we have unlocked the following collections for you to explore:

Leslie went on the 2025 Dave Coz cruise

cousins

Leslie and Rebecca with the cruise director

My sister Leslie went on the 2025 Dave Coz cruise. Someone described it as a “24/7 daytime adventure from Amsterdam to Norway and finally Iceland. The sun never sets this time of year. Wow, what an excursion.”

The website says, “Our guests are fully immersed with the energy and sounds of an array of all-star talent, guided tours, relaxation, and fine dining. ‘Seeing the world together through music’; that’s what the Dave Koz and Friends at Sea cruise is all about!” The 2026 tour of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina is already sold out, and a waitlist exists.

Leslie has been on a few of these Koz tours, generally as the guest of Rebecca Jade, a ship performer and, not coincidentally, Leslie’s daughter. Based on her comments and those reposted by others, Leslie was particularly taken by Iceland.

In 2018, Leslie dueted with Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone. She’s participated in some music competitions onboard and has done well, which is not a surprise, as she’s been singing virtually all her life.

In anticipation of her birthday, I played a CD called Harbor City Heights Worship 2009 on which she appears. It’s not a fair representation of the range of her skills, and they misspell her first name as Lesley(!), but I can hear her vocals, usually in the harmonies. Anyway, I found it on YouTube.

I have other recordings of hers, mostly her solos during her church’s Advent/Christmas Eve services. Alas, I’ve never come across any Green Family Singers recordings.

Genealogy

In the past year, Leslie has spoken to two of our cousins, one each on our mother’s and father’s side, trying to fill the holes in the family tree. As I’ve noted, our lineage has peculiar mysteries, going back not that far.

Anyway, happy birthday, Leslie! If you ever retire, you must transcribe all that family data!

Less Irish

slightly more African

In various iterations I’ve gotten from ancestry.com I seemed to “become more Irish,” starting about 23% and getting up to about 28%. And then there was a big drop in the last interpretation. It’s not that I’m less Irish; I knew this this intellectually.

Region	August 2023	July 2024: more information	% Change
Ireland	28%	20%	– 8%

“Your DNA doesn’t change, but our knowledge does. Over time, the amount of data we have increases, and we improve the ways we can analyze it. When that leads to new discoveries, we update your results.”

Iin some ways it makes a whole lot more sense I couldn’t figure how it could be more than 25% Irish given the fact that my father’s side is virtually 0 percent. Virtually all the Irish is on my mother’s side.

I’m still looking for my mom’s father’s (Clarence Williams)’s mother’s (Margaret Collins) parents, who are almost certainly from Ireland. maybe this year, I’ll be able to crack that nut.

But I haven’t spent that much time looking at my mom’s mom’s (Gertrude Yates Williams) father’s (Edward Yates, b. 1851) mother (Anna Kiser), who may be Irish.

“Same data, more detail. This chart shows the percentages of each region you inherited from your parents. Added together, the percent from each parent for a region equals your percent for that region.”

Mixing it up

The thing about doing genealogy is that I, and likely others, often try to take the easiest path. There’s been a line of my mother’s mother’s mother’s people that I’ve known all my life because they were all lived in Binghamton and there was a family Bible that gave much of the story. Oher branches are much more mysterious, in large part because families have secrets.

Parent 1 is clearly my mother, parent 2, my father. Hmm, I’m more Germanic than I used to be.

Region	Parent 1	Parent 2	You
Total: 14	50%	50%	100%
Nigeria	7%	13%	20%
Ireland	20%	<1%	20%
Benin & Togo	5%	10%	15%
England & Northwestern Europe	8%	7%	15%
Mali	1%	4%	5%
Germanic Europe	3%	2%	5%
Senegal	0%	4%	4%
Ivory Coast & Ghana	1%	2%	3%
Nigerian Woodlands	2%	1%	3%
Cameroon	1%	2%	3%
Western Bantu Peoples	1%	2%	3%
Central West Africa	<1%	2%	2%
Indigenous Americas—North	1%	0%	1%
Norway	<1%	1%	1%

Genealogy: RootsTech 2025 is free online!

Census

The RootsTech 2025 schedule is live, and the three-day online schedule is free. Whether you have genealogical questions or are curious about lineage, you should check out the schedule of over 150 online sessions from Thursday to Saturday, March 6 to 8.

My interests are twofold. I’m trying to find the parents of my great-grandfather, Samuel Walker. I know he was born in Orange County, VA, in 1873 and died in Binghamton, NY, in 1963, but I’m stuck beyond that. I hope Renate Yarborough Sanders’s workshop Til Death or Distance Do We Part: Documenting Marriages of Enslaved and Emancipated Persons will help.

I’m also working on my wife’s family line in a project called the John Olin Origin Project. I’ve written about John Olin before. Assuming he came over on a British ship in the latter part of the 17th century, what was his origin? Was he English, French, Welsh, Irish, or something else? Some of his male descendants have done some DNA testing, but the question has not been answered sufficiently. Perhaps one of the more general sessions at RootsTech will help.

My wife is on the John>Joseph>Joseph>Reuben>John>Earl>Orva>George line. I will check out Tell Your Story Like a True Reporter by Rachel Trotter at Roots Tech because I find the topic fascinating. I wish to share my enthusiasm with others.

Worry

I’m concerned about the future of the Census and the critical data it collects for future genealogists. “Director Robert Santos, the renowned data expert who has led the Bureau for years, abruptly announced his resignation.” This paves the way for a partisan hack replacement.

“Next, the bureau’s website started going dark for periods of time. The New York Times reported that ‘more than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, the vast majority of which are articles filed under research and methodology, were affected. Other missing pages include data stewardship policies and documentation for several data sets and surveys.'” It’s another breach of competency to address.

Here’s a factoid: 1890 Census Substitutes: “In January of 1921, a fire broke out in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington D.C., where the 1890 U.S. Census records were being stored…”