#shovlin

Here is one of my new ventures, a weekly video podcast on YouTube. In this episode, I introduce the series and discuss the other new venture, Branch Tales.

I thought I had a major breakthrough. I thought I was finally going to be able to track the Shovlins, my family name, in Ireland. I thought I was going to be able to learn so much more about the descendants of the Swift.

I was wrong.

After a recent breakthrough, which I will go into detail on in a future post, I have been rechecking other brick walls. While searching James J. Shovlin, and his parents James Shovlin and Mary Herron, I found several family trees on Ancestry that listed birthplace for James J., and birth years for James and Mary. After looking at five different trees I found that they were all guesses made by the researcher, not at all supported by documents or other sources.

What made it worse is, I see two trees that list *Date is a guess, or *Location is a guess, and others that have copied them without including the fine print. Those guesses were trusted as sources.

I haven't had much time to do research lately, but try to look up things when I can. My dad was doing research into family members that fought in the Civil War and he sent me this list:

Dennis Shovlin

James Shovlin

John Shovlin

Patrick Shovlin

Peter Shovlin

According to his research, these are the only Shovlin's that served. I am tasked with matching them to their regiments and records.

Dennis Shovlin (1843-?) - Union Army, Hatch's Independent Battalion, Minnesota Cavalry, Company A, Rank: Saddler. (U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865). According to Minnesota, Civil War Records, 1861-1865, Dennis enlisted on 6 July 1863 at Credit River.

James Shovlin - Union Army, 71st Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, Company K, Rank Private (U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865). A

John Shovlin - Union Army, 135th Regiment, Illinois Infantry (100 days, 1864), Rank: Private, (U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865).

Patrick Shovlin - Union Army, 1st Regiment, Delaware Infantry, Company C, Rank: Private, (U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865).

Peter Shovlin - Union Army, Independent Battery C, Pennsylvania Light Artillery, Company C, Rank: Private, (U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865).

This is where it gets interesting. How much do I put here? I'm focusing on four social networks, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Do I actually list the top results for each network or just the numbers? I'll post this one and the Angevines' today see what kind of feedback I get, if any.

All Facebook will tell me is that there are more than 1,000 people on the network. Here are the first five Pages featuring Shovlins (with likes):

Shovlin Mattress Factory (421)

Chris Shovlin, Journalist (219) - my cousin back in Beaver County.

Shovlin Academy of Irish Dance (501)

Shovlin Marjorie, Allergist (3)

George Shovlin & the Radars, Musician/Band (174)

There are a few groups including reunions and friends of Shovlins. All of the top events feature George Shovlin & the Radars. There are no Apps. I think that's a good start.

Google+ showed 300 Shovlin profiles (with me first, probably because I was the one doing the searching). I think it stopped once it hit 50 lines of 6, not because there are exactly 300 Shovlins on Google+. There are no results under Communities. Under posts, it has given me all of my posts on top and then scattered ones below, probably, again, because I'm the one doing the searching. Checking the rest seems pointless as they just keep showing me the things I posted. Moving on . . . 

There are 382 Shovlins on LinkedIn, with me and my brothers at the top, since I was logged in on my account and they are both 1st level connections to me. It's disappointing that it asks, "Did you mean Shevlin?" at the top, but that's ok. It's just another spelling, derived from the same family. Checking Groups, it brings up the Binghampton University Writing Center, which is led by Dr. Paul Shovlin. No results under Jobs, Companies, Universities, or Posts. And finally . . .

Twitter has well over a hundred Shovlins (they don't give a count). I showed up on top since I was logged in (follow me @Seibhleain). The @Shovlin twitter account has no tweet, but 18 followers and follows 748. It's been on since October 2008. I just sent them a hello tweet. I'm not seeing anything interesting as I go down the list of Photos, Videos, News, and Timelines. Still, Shovlins are, once again, well represented.

Quick aside: I checked about.me for any Shovlins and there is only one.

Time to dive back into the research, and this time, I'm taking it from a macro approach. Surnames, big and small, looking at the width and breadth of a family by its presence in historical records and online.

First step, my own family Shovlin.

From the Gaelic, Seibhleain, meaning "one who is swift" through the derivation of the world "Sibhal," which means "swift."

Monday is the day to introduce the surname, the background, and the first day of research will focus on the established genealogical sources, Ancestry, FamilySearch, and WikiTree, in addition to wonderful resource that is the Irish Roots Cafe (for those surnames of Irish descent). I will try to identify at least one resource in each background to accompany the other three. First: Ancestry.com

Census & Voter Lists: +5,000

Birth, Marriage & Death +5,000

Military 1,537

Immigration & Travel 1,424

Newspapers & Publications +5,000

Pictures +5,000

Stories, Memories & Histories 2,581

Maps, Atlases & Gazetteers 25

Schools, Directories & Church Histories +5,000

Tax, Criminal, Land & Wills 916

Reference, Dictionaries & Almanacs 351

Family Trees 3,895

Shovlin Family History from Ancestry

Just as I've seen in other research, the name is centered in Pennsylvania in the US, with Montana second.

Second: FamilySearch

50,124 Historical Records

1,188 results in User Submitted Genealogies

No results in the FamilySearch Catalog

Three results in Family History Books

Third: WikiTree

There are only six Shovlin's on WikiTree, and one seems to be a duplicate.

There is a record for a Margaret (Shovlin) Lang that was just edited on June 1st and is currently locked.

Fourth: Irish Roots Cafe

The only result is the source of the name in "Irish Names and Surnames" by Woulfe (IGF edition).