Another Item for Your To-Do List
I use the notification service at Ancestry, and this morning I received two notifications of additions to my site. This means I have placed the information in my online tree, but I know I did not also put it in my genealogy software. I can print out the notification and can use it to make sure I enter the information where it needs to be. Then I can file the completed page in my family folder and it gives me an approximate date of my entries/research as well.
 
Gay

Another Reason to Drop the Mc
In the November 17 issue, George Morgan suggested eliminating Mc or Mac from surnames when searching records. I concur. Doing so enabled me to trace some of the descendants of my third great-grandfather, James McNeal, who appeared in Leeds, Maine, in town and census records (always as “Mc”) from 1808 through 1820, and finally as “McKneal” in nearby Fayette in 1830. However, in this family’s case, it was not a matter of the “Mc” being omitted in the records; rather, it seems that the children of James deliberately–albeit for reasons unknown–dropped the “Mc” from their surname, beginning in the late 1830s and the 1840s. Unfortunately, James himself remains a mystery. Despite searching town, land, probate, and census records–with and without the “Mc” prefix–I still have not been able to determine how or when he acquired his land in Leeds, let alone where he came from. Another tip seems to be in order in this case.
 
Edward G. Hubbard
Brown Deer, Wisconsin

Digital Photo Ornament
I just wanted to mention a neat little Christmas item I found. I purchased a digital photo ornament which downloads up to sixty photos, using your computer and the accompanying software which comes with the ornament viewer. You can download portraits of family, ancestors, etc. to display your entire family on your Christmas tree or tabletop Christmas display. The screen is a little more than an inch square. You can browse photos or set it to run as a slide show. It was fun to put together and to watch.

Jeanette Loomis Hagan

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