PLEASE NOTE: This post is now largely irrelevant. As of August 2023, all of my databases (trees) on Ancestry.com have been removed.
Following up on the June 9, 2018 post, I'll offer some suggestions here for offsetting the loss of the various databases, including the Brouwer Genealogy Database.
Fortunately we do have the website, Internet Archives, and their "WayBack Machine." To view a past version of the Brouwer Genealogy Database enter "brouwergenealogy.blogspot.com" in the search field that you see on the main page. This will take you to a page with a calendar. Select May 8, 2018, which is circled in blue. This will take you to a "snapshot" of Brouwer Genealogy on that date. In the right hand column are links. Select Brouwer Genealogy Database, and you will be taken to archived pages of the BGD website taken on September 23, 2017, before it was taken down by RootsWeb. This was the site as it was updated on April 6, 2016. It will have to serve as an alternative until RootsWeb brings back the content taken down last fall (if they ever do at all). The archived site is not complete. Links to PDFs stored at both Free Pages and Google do not work. Apparently the Internet Archives did not take snapshots of those pages. I've also found, through a few tests, that many of the links in the indexes (Surname Index and Master Index) do not work. The links on the Progenitors page, however, do seem to work. I've also noticed, at least on my laptop, that the pages load more slowly than usual, so patience is required.
The links on the right (of the May 8, 2018 archived Brouwer Genealogy) also work for "About the Brouwer Genealogy Database," Brewer Families of New England (dated April 6, 2016), and Descendants of Alice Freeman Thompson Parke.
Although the links for Brewer-Lanier, Drake Genealogy and Drake in Devonshire lead to a new page, those pages do not appear to function as websites. At least they didn't when I tried them today.
A second alternative are the "Trees" that I have at Ancestry.com. Accessing these trees will require an active paid subscription to Ancestry.com. They are not complete as I primarily used them as a tool for research clues. In addition, most lines of descent involving daughters are not followed, and neither are the numerous related or ancillary families that are found on the BGD and like websites. As of this writing I am not actively researching and do not have an active Ancestry.com paid subscription. But, for what it's worth, here are links to the various "Trees" I've set up there: [Note that as of July, 2022, the trees below that have been struck through have been deleted. As of July 2023, all of my "trees" at Ancestry.com have been deleted].
Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I.
Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I.
Willem Brouwer of Beverwijck
Hubert Brower, Immigrant to Pennsylvania, 1726. This tree in fact has more than what was found on the last edition of the BGD.
Daniel Brewer of Putnam Co., NY. Much found here is not found on the BGD.
John Brewer of Putnam Co., NY. Also, much here is not found on the BGD.
Abraham Brewer, Chemung Co., NY. Probably more than what is found on the BGD.
Ambrose Brewer, NC, TN. Very incomplete, something I started some time ago and likely will not get back to.
Brower of Cologne. A small "tree" of a couple of families who had children baptized at Cologne in the first couple of decades of the 1600s. I have a suspicion that Adam Brouwer belongs to one of these families. See the post of December 27, 2015.
George J. Brower and Laura Porter. Much here is also in the Adam Brouwer tree linked above.
Henry Brewer of Adams Co., OH. Also included within the Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. tree
Henry Brower of Henry Co., OH. I don't believe that much here was in the BGD
Jacob Brewer - Lavinia Smith Tree. Much here has been incorporated within the Adam Brouwer of Gowanus tree.
Jacob Brower, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania
James Brewer - Rebecca Snyder
John Brewer - Hannah Timpson
Philip Brower
Richard Brewer - Mary Blann. Also found within the Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. tree
Assorted (formerly called Unplaced) Brouwer, Brower, Brewer. A hodge podge of many different families, some of which have since been incorprated in one of the above trees.
Again, a paid subscription to Ancestry.com will be needed to view any of these trees. Should you visit them I'd suggest checking the Gallery tab for whoever the individual is that you are looking at. Many of the docs and PDFs that had been placed on RootsWeb and are presently unreachable, can also be found among the Galleries.
This is the best I can offer with regards to replacing the lost databases. Hopefully they'll reappear some day. I will take a look at lost docs and PDFs as time allows.
Ancestry.com has just announced that you can now conduct searches using information on another member's tree.
BGB 581
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThis alternative is very helpful and I was able to find some info I was looking for and will explore more as time allows. Yet another good reason to make a donation to archive.org!
One clarifying question - you mention that this September 23, 2017 snapshot is the site "as it was on April 6, 2016". Is that the last time you had updated the site, or the last update that is available?
Lastly, is there a sense that archive.org will hold on to this snapshot, or is it perhaps also ephemeral?
Thanks for your insight!
--Steve Eustis
Chris, I believe you can manually invite people to view trees on Ancestry, either by using their screennames there or by using their email addresses. I did the DNA test and thus have a basic "registered guest" subscription. While I can not view public member trees by just clicking on them, if I contact my matches, they can mantually invite me to view them.
ReplyDeleteI imagine you can do this without matches, too. If that's the case and if you have a Brewer-Lanier tree up, I'd be interested in seeing it. You have my email as we've been in correspondance recently. You can test it out on me to see if that way works, if you're interested.
Yes, you can invite people to trees, and while I have done that for a few members of the Brewer DNA Project, it is not something I want to do. It would require me answering e-mails, and a primary purpose of Brouwer Genealogy and the databases was to make all this info available on a "self-help" basis. Right now a monthly subscription to Ancestry.com runs about $20, and I figure that if I can spend 18 years or so researching as well a good deal of money on subscriptions, etc. myself, then anyone out there with a true interest can spend a few dollars for a short term subscription.
DeleteI do not have a Brewer-Lanier tree. My own work with that group was limited and was intended as a kick-start to get those in the Brewer DNA Project more active. I think it worked, and now David Brewer is a co-administrator of the Project with special attention on Brewer-Lanier. I'd love to see one of the members of the Brewer DNA Project start a tree or database themselves somewhere online for the group. That is for someone other than me to do.