General changes, updates and corrections to the site

Info regarding miscellaneous site-wide changes, changes regarding my "pseudo persons" (e.g. cemeteries), updates to the census pages, or issues that affect multiple people.


12 March 2022
One more census page has been added:
Other updates:
  • Thanks to Second Site developer John Cardinal, pedigree charts on each individual's page are now interactive. At the top of each person's page, there is a Pedigree link appearing underneath their name and ID number - click the red box and an interactive pedigree chart with the focus set to that person will open. You can then click on any person on the left (spouses, children, siblings) and the focus will change to make that person the focus of a new chart. Click on the link inside one of the chart boxes and you will be taken to that person's page. Use your browser's back button to return to the previous person or simply close the window when done.
  • Two persons have been merged, resulting in the removal of Sarah McGary (ID# 1467). This Sarah was the same as Sarah Coulson (ID# 1640), wife of William McGary (ID# 1639).
23 March 2018
Five more census pages have been added:
Other updates:
  • The secure "https" protocol is now available for the site, meaning that you can access it using https://www.wv-heritage.com/. What this means to you is that the session between the web server that hosts my site and your browser is encrypted to provide more security.
  • If you have previously saved any links to specific people, please use one of the indexes to find each individual and replace the old link with the new one. This is necessary as the site has been changed from a "one folder, one person" basis to a one folder, multiple persons" basis. As a result, URLs now reflect a page number that specifies the folder in addition to the individual's ID number in my database. Here is an example of how this affects the old links using Herbert Samuel Kuhn, who is ID#9. His old link ended with p9.htm, while the new link ends with p1.htm#i9.
  • My genealogy database records info in what are known as "tags" such as birth, marriage, death, etc. I have always limited the types of tags that were uploaded to this website, but I have decided to add a few new ones including Employment, Occupation, Residence, MailAddress, and Military Draft. Draft registration cards include a physical description that adds interest and helps to bring a person to life.
09 May 2017
Five more census pages have been added:
Other updates:
  • A correction has been made to the place index information for the Pisgah Church Cemetery per a request by Connie Caravasos, Secretary/Treasurer of the Pisgah Memorial Society. Info I had found online previously and incorporated was erroneous in describing the cemetery as perpetual care. The Society relies on free-will tax-deductible donations from friends and family for the upkeep of the cemetery. Links for locations can change, so here is the way to find the new info: Go to the Place Index and note the description of info icons (an "i" in a blue circle). Scroll down to West Virginia, then Monongalia County, then Morgantown, then Pisgah Church Cemetery and click on the info icon. Thanks for catching the error, Connie!
  • Cemetery "pseudo people" pages now have more info about the individuals buried there when known: birth (b.), death (d.) and burial dates are now included. These pages can be found by looking up Cemetery on the Surname Index and selecting any of the listed cemeteries.
06 March 2016
Thanks to a software upgrade by Second Site developer John Cardinal, there are several changes:
  • A new mapping feature has been added - wherever you see this icon following a location, a click will take you to Google Maps to see where it is. It isn't set up for all locations, but you can check out my great-grandfather, Adam Kuhn, where you will find the icon for the locations of his birth (Wallerfangen, Germany), his emigration (Antwerp, Belgium), and for his burial (Mt. Rose Cemetery, Moundsville, West Virginia).
  • The site is now much more friendly to mobile users, a change that led to several layout changes. The menus have been consolidated, using more drop-down sub-menus for a cleaner interface. For example, the "New" button on the main menu has a drop-down menu for easy access to all the pages regarding additions and changes to the site. The "Indexes" button has drop-downs for the various name and place indexes, including the Surname Index.
  • However, some of the drop-down menus may only be partially visible on smaller screens. To help reduce the need for scrolling, you can use the top level button to open a page with the same links that IS user friendly; e.g. click the "New" button above and you'll go to a page with the same links that are in the drop-down menu. A little exploring will confirm that everything is still here.
  • Unfortunately, charts are an exception due to the nature of their layout - they do still require scrolling.

And last but not least, two more census pages have been added:
19 February 2016
As a result of continued work on downloaded census copies, new census pages have been added:
There have also been several households added to the 1930 West Virginia, Marshall County, census page.
02 February 2016
Merges:
  • After talking to one of my distant cousins at the Aston reunion last summer, I decided that my Owen J. Aston (ID#603) and Owen Aston (ID#631) were indeed the same individual. The two men have now been merged ... check out Owen J. Aston - ID#603 for more details about my conclusions.
  • I discovered that Rebecca Logsdon (ID#1252) was the same woman as the Rebecca whose surname was unknown (ID#2768), married to George W. Pierce/Pearce. The two have now been combined into Rebecca Logsdon - ID#1252. The ID# that had been assigned to the duplicate, #2768, has now been assigned to a new person, Thomas D. Richmond.

Additions:
  • Three more cemetery pages have been added for the Fork Ridge Baptist, Fork Ridge Universalist and Oak Grove United Methodist churches. This brings the total count for these pages to six, all located on Fork Ridge in Marshall County, West Virginia.
  • I have a lot of census image downloads that I have used for sources but never made the entries to get all the info into the "census persons" as well as into the census blocks that appear on individuals' pages. All of the "census persons" that were already on the site now have at least one family identified if not more. New "census persons" have been added for 1830 Pendleton County, Virginia, 1850 Monongalia County, Virginia and 1860 Harrison County, Ohio. Several more years and counties will be added as I continue to work my way through all of the images.
29 June 2015
One new item and several corrections:
  • A cemetery page containing special transcriptions from gravestone markers at the Fork Ridge Christian Church Cemetery.
  • I discovered a number of errors on the Sources page that were easily fixed once I figured out what was happening. e.g. [DWELLING NO.] would appear rather than the actual dwelling number for a census year; or [STATE FILE NO.] would appear rather than the actual State file number from a death certificate.
25 June 2015
There are some small differences in the main menu bar:
  • The Photographs tab now has more choices in the dropdown menu so you can get to the family line photos a little faster.
  • Newly added is the Cemeteries tab which is still a work in progress. So far, there are two cemeteries included but more will be added. These links take you to new pages that contain special transcriptions from the gravestone markers other than birth and death dates. (Bartlett-Rulong and Harris Family cemeteries, both on Fork Ridge, are the first two).
25 June 2014
Early in May, I discovered that I had two Spencer Lee Marshalls in my database that were actually the same person. The two have now been combined into Spencer Lee Marshall - ID#146. The ID# that had been assigned to the second one, #1994, has now been assigned to a new person, Ina V. Marshall.
24 September 2013
Most of my genealogy work has been on hold for some time due to remodeling, but a cousin pointed out an error on the site during the Church family reunion earlier this month ... and I certainly need to correct this one without waiting any longer. Why? An individual who is alive and well was accidentally included on the site which is only supposed to contain folks who are deceased. Thanks for letting me know ... problem now fixed.
26 April 2013
This site update reflects a Second Site software upgrade with some new features:
  • A Family Explorer icon appears at the top of the narrative for each person. Clicking the icon will open up a pedigree chart that also lists parents and siblings for that person.
  • The capability for drop-down menus was added. My first experiments were with photographs and calendars - note the Photographs and Calendars buttons in the menubar above.
  • The Calendars button includes a link to another new feature: "Today in History" is a day-by-day calendar which summarizes the births, marriages and deaths that took place on any given date. It's a neat tool that will be quite useful to me for creating future blog posts to honor anniversary dates.

I'm still working out a few things here and there, but I'm quite impressed with this upgrade. Thanks to John Cardinal!
04 April 2013
Regarding that "substantial portion" of cleanup that I thought was done as of last October ... it wasn't as done as I thought it was! I discovered some issues that resulted in me changing the way I'm inputting parental and birth info. So I'm now working backwards one person at a time through the folks that appear online. There are too many changes to identify each person here - the best thing is to look at the Recent Updates page to see folks who were updated after October.
29 October 2012
A substantial portion of the cleanup for parents and birth info is now done - although I'm sure there are some that still need work. My goal is to have most person pages begin with the parental info, followed by the birth date and alternate birth dates when applicable, then the birth place and any applicable alternates. (I'm also working on the positioning of the source numbers, but that's a job that will be on-going for some time.)
05 October 2012
 •  The narrative for Sarah Elizabeth Irey Richmond has been updated to reflect the addition of a new closeup photo of her gravestone, courtesy of Ancestry.com user cookie8219.
 •  Got side-tracked (as usual) but it led me to some corrections that were needed - check out the names on the Recent Updates page that were updated 05 October 2012. Now I need to get back to my cleanup of parents and birth info as I really do hope to have that finished for the next update!
02 October 2012
 •  Corrected the sentence structure for people whose gravestone inscription is included in their narrative.
 •  Thanks to Tom Irey for noting that the narrative for Sarah Elizabeth Irey Richmond did not properly reflect the info that appears on her gravestone. That led me into further research and I have new conclusions as to her date of birth. I have removed the photo of her gravestone and am waiting for permission to post a new photo. See her narrative for more details.
 •  I had hoped to finish cleanup on the parents and birth info sections before posting this update, but it's taking longer than I anticipated so I decided to go ahead and at least get some of the corrections uploaded. More to come later!
19 September 2012
As promised, all of the errors that were affecting persons with more than one marriage have been corrected.
18 September 2012
 •  Discovered that another software glitch messed with marriage roles, affecting all persons with more than one marriage. I have some of these fixed now, will finish the rest for the next update. (At least this time I know how the glitch happened!)
 •  Work on photograph updates and corrections includes making sure proper credit is given for photos I didn't take or for which I don't own an original. The Oak Grove Methodist cemetery photos are now consistent and are sorting pretty well by surname. Uploaded a new photo for Alma McGary that is truer to the color of the original.
14 September 2012
 •  Updated numerous persons to make the top of their person pages be consistent in formatting (parents info first, followed by birth info).
 •  Increased the number of people that appear on the Recent Updates page from 100 to 200.
 •  Discovered that a software glitch seemed to have changed the marriage roles for some couples from being brides and grooms to being ushers. I believe they're all fixed now, but if you find someone that I missed, I hope you'll let me know.
 •  Updated the lines of descent that appear at the top of each Family Photographs gallery and made the names clickable links.
 •  Updated the wording on the Main Page and added new language related to copyrighted info and images.
28 August 2012
 •  Continued making editorial corrections to remove inconsistencies found in various areas.
 •  Made cosmetic changes to Census Records block on individual person pages.
26 August 2012
Split the Recent Updates page into three pages: Recent Updates, Miscellaneous Updates, and New Persons Added.
05 August 2012
 •  Site was expanded to include all those in my database who are known to be deceased, although the types of info that appear here are limited. I'm busy working my way through person by person to find and eliminate inconsistencies in layout, sentences, sources, etc. Once that is done, I'll begin adding additional info.
 •  My plan is to use my WV Heritage blog to detail what I'm working on and the issues/questions I run across.
31 October 2011
 •  Several families added to the 1910 U.S. Census, West Virginia, Marshall County
 •  Two families added to the 1910 U.S. Census, West Virginia, Calhoun County
27 October 2011
Three families added to the 1900 U.S. Census, West Virginia, Calhoun County
26 October 2011
Several families added to the 1900 U.S. Census, West Virginia, Marshall County
8 October 2011
 •  Added a Recent Blog Postspage that contains links to my five most recent posts.
 •  Added census entries for 1870 U.S. Census, West Virginia, Marshall County
3 October 2011
 •  Updated existing census pages for several counties, and began adding 1880 info; check below for most recently updated "census persons."
 • Removed two "census persons" who had no info for my family; they currently reflect my husband's family which I'm not putting online at this time.
29 September 2011
Added occupations/employment and residence information.
19 September 2011
Photographs now sorting into the appropriate photo galleries, organized by family lines, cemeteries, places and source documents.