Sources Cited in Note to KC3D-WSC (James Greek)
Profile KC3D-WSC for a James Greek (b. 1696) appears to have been created by FamilySearch staff in 2012. Despite providing names and DOBs for several of this James Greek's family members, no source documents are attached to his or his family member profiles, but a note added to his profile in 2013 (again by FamilySearch staff) states: "A23531-5 D 4 The Nickolas and Allied Families, by Robert/Nickolas, Pub 1925-116 pp; Mass, Vitals Vol 5-11; History of Dorchester, Mass, by Stiles, p. 31-35." I have been unable to locate any publication titled "The Nickolas and Allied Families, by Robert/Nickolas" or "History of Dorchester, Mass" by Stiles (which may refer to a Rev. Joseph Stiles). Can anyone point me to these titles? What is the significance of the "A23531-5 D 4" descriptor? Is it an index or record number that might lead me to one of these titles? Thank you for your consideration.
Answers
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First - profiles with creation dates of 2012-13 with "FamilySearch" as the contributor were NOT created by FamilySearch staff.
When profiles from the previous version, known as New FamilySearch, were imported into the current version, contributor names could not be transferred for privacy reasons. All those previous profiles show "FamilySearch" as the creator/contributor.
The previous platform also did not allow source attachment.
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Here is some useful historical trivia.
In New FamilySearch, the system that was the immediate predecessor to Family Tree, when you uploaded a GEDCOM file into the tree, all sources in that file were imported as Notes. The title for the note was the first about forty characters of the new note. That is why you see funny looking titles as in the one you found where the title looks cut off:
A23531-5 D 4 The Nickolas and Allied Fam
A23531-5 D 4 The Nickolas and Allied Families, by Robert/Nickolas, Pub 1925-116 pp; Mass, Vitals Vol 5-11; History of Dorchester, Mass, by Stiles, p. 31-35
(Why does the change log show this note as added but it is not on the profile page?)
If you search in the FamilySearch catalog using the keywords Allied Families you get dozens of listings of the format "This Family and Allied Families." It appears this was a pretty common way to title a genealogical work. I can't find this particular book with a general Google search, in WorldCat, in the FamilySearch Catalog or in FamilySearch Books. This makes me wonder if it was a self-published work of a very minimal run duplicated on a mimeograph and just passed out to family.
That A23531-5 is an IGI batch number. Here is the original IGI entry from which this FamilyTree profile was imported: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:MMHH-4H2?lang=en
It looks like there is another IGI entry for James here: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:M71M-CTV?lang=en If these two records were not combined in New Family Search, then James has this duplicate in Family Tree somewhere.
Both IGI records contain references to microfilm number but when I search on them nothing comes up. I suspect these are just films of the IGI and would have no additional information.
Checking for the History of Dorchester by Stiles, I can't find anything, either. ChatGPT has this to say:
Prompt: There was a history of dorchester Massachusetts and the author's last name was stiles. Please find full information about this book.
ChatGPT said:
The book you're referring to is likely History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, published in 1859 by Ebenezer Clapp Jr. This comprehensive work was issued in parts from 1851 to 1859 by a committee of the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. Approximately two-thirds of the content was prepared by Clapp himself .The Library of Congress+1DotHistorical+1DotHistorical+1The Library of Congress+1
The book is available in digital form through the Library of Congress and can be accessed here: The Library of Congress. Additionally, the Dorchester Historical Society offers information on this and other publications related to Dorchester's history DotHistorical.The Library of CongressDorchester Atheneum 2
Regarding the author you mentioned, "Stiles," there doesn't appear to be a direct connection between Ebenezer Clapp Jr. and an author named Stiles in the context of Dorchester's history. However, Henry Reed Stiles, a 19th-century physician and genealogist, authored several works, including The Stiles Family in America, which focuses on genealogies of the Stiles family in Massachusetts and New Hampshire .All Bookstores+3Wikipedia+3HathiTrust+3
If you were referring to a different work or author, please provide more details, and I'll be glad to assist further.
From Henry Stiles Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Reed_Stiles?utm_source=chatgpt.com it certainly looks like he could have authored that history of Dorchester but if so, it must not have been one of his popular works and is likely going to be very hard to find. You might want to contact https://www.dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org and see if they know anything about that book.
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And here is the original 1966 submission from which the IGI record was created: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99QB-74WY?wc=WWNV-N5G%3A352086901%2C353130801%26cc%3D2060211&cc=2060211&lang=en&i=912
This collection has some restrictions, likely because it has the name and address of the original contributor and it has ordinance information. But here is a limited clip of it if you cannot access the record:
These Family Group Sheet submissions did have a section for sources:
Required standards for sources back in the 60's could produce rather cryptic citations. I didn't even realize until seeing this that "Mass, Vitals Vol 5-11" was a third source for this information. To genealogists of the time this probably made perfect sense but I have no idea what this is referring to.
(In case you don't already know this, those asterisks next to names means the researcher submitted additional sheets. In this case they mean that there is a family group sheet in this collection for Henry Nickolas on which Pheobe appears as a child.)
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Thank you very much for these thoughtful and informative replies. I have been searching for the ancestors of the James Greek recorded in Dutchess County NY (1790-1810 US Censuses) and later in Steuben County NY, and this James Greek (as potentially a father or grandfather of Dutchess/Steuben James) gave me hope of a breakthrough. My experience in finding the sources was similar to yours. I guess Google and ChatGPT can't find everything—yet. Thanks again.
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