One of the greatest aspects of blogging in this genealogy sphere is the interaction that comes in getting to know other researchers going through all the ups and downs of this crazy field we love right along with us.
One of those people is Amy Coffin of We Tree fame who has given all of us reasons to learn more about our families through the past years in the series named "Jump Start Your Genealogy Blog: 52 Ideas, 52 Weeks", "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy", and this years series "52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History" which just began and is one I would strongly encourage for everyone. There is no pressure to complete all the prompts, just join in when you can.
There are many of the prompts I have completed, but many more that I missed and I think I will some day go back and actually use some of those I missed for further learning.
But that is not why I am writing this today- SOURCES is. I have a family program on my computer as many of us do, and when I was trying to decide about keeping Family Tree Maker or moving to another program Amy was one of those who sent a message my way. When I went back and read some of her entries she was lamenting the chore in which she was going back through her program and citing each fact and coming along quite well with the process (I say with clenched teeth).
That's when I knew what I was going to do, and that's why I am thankful for Miss Amy (no big head my dear).
I purchased my new program and I am only entering people and data as they are fully sourced, no matter how tempting it gets to jump the fence early. So, my name went first, followed by all the data off my birth certificate, and so on. If I do not have records to source a fact, then I am not entering the information yet. Instead, I use my "working tree" which is FTM 2010.
I like it this way. I feel more in control of the data on the tree and know that I can show how it got there. Thanks, Amy.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy/History- Week #1 - New Years Memories
Did your family have any New Year's traditions?
Yes we do, and of course it centers around food. Don't so many traditions? I cannot say when this special meal started, and ironically, after spending the day with part of my family on New Year's Day when I was asking a million questions about everything under the stars, I can't believe I never asked about the origins.
But this is what I do know:
My parents (actually my father) sold Wearever cookware for years before I was born and when I was very small. Actually he won an award one year for being the top salesman in the nation, but even today he just shrugs that off. He and my mother would load up the cookware and go to a person's home and cook them a meal in it, then Dad would go back the next day and cook breakfast in the Wearever for a second meal to show them how they could easily cook a meal on top of the stove with good cookware.
Now I can tell you that in my own household I have personally gone through 4 sets on non-stick cookware and too many skillets to name, but my parents are using that same set of Wearever and it still looks brand new.
Every year on new Year's Day we get together at their home for a meal of roast, cabbage, turnips, black-eyed peas (for luck), cooked raisins, steamed carrots, and my favorite- riced potatoes with gravy. Riced Potatoes are actually baked potatoes that have been put through a special collander that turns them into rice. The meal always ends with granny cake.
It's a good time to relax after all the craziness that came from Christmas, a chance to sit back and enjoy family and a still moment before the daily grind gets back in the way sending us all in so many different directions.
Thank God for Wearever.
Yes we do, and of course it centers around food. Don't so many traditions? I cannot say when this special meal started, and ironically, after spending the day with part of my family on New Year's Day when I was asking a million questions about everything under the stars, I can't believe I never asked about the origins.
But this is what I do know:
My parents (actually my father) sold Wearever cookware for years before I was born and when I was very small. Actually he won an award one year for being the top salesman in the nation, but even today he just shrugs that off. He and my mother would load up the cookware and go to a person's home and cook them a meal in it, then Dad would go back the next day and cook breakfast in the Wearever for a second meal to show them how they could easily cook a meal on top of the stove with good cookware.
Now I can tell you that in my own household I have personally gone through 4 sets on non-stick cookware and too many skillets to name, but my parents are using that same set of Wearever and it still looks brand new.
Every year on new Year's Day we get together at their home for a meal of roast, cabbage, turnips, black-eyed peas (for luck), cooked raisins, steamed carrots, and my favorite- riced potatoes with gravy. Riced Potatoes are actually baked potatoes that have been put through a special collander that turns them into rice. The meal always ends with granny cake.
It's a good time to relax after all the craziness that came from Christmas, a chance to sit back and enjoy family and a still moment before the daily grind gets back in the way sending us all in so many different directions.
Thank God for Wearever.
My Intentions for 2011
After reviewing the successes and mis-steps from my 2010 Genealogy Goal Plan, I spent the past several days deciding what I would write on this blog as my 2011 Genealogy Plan, knowing that once it is out into the netherworld, reality must play a role.
I kew I didn't want to write a book or make too many goals that were beyond sanity, so I decided to change this up a bit, and am going to break it up into quarters. So, for the first part of the year, these are my goals:
- Scan as many of the photos and documents in immediate family members possessions as possible
- Catch up and stay current in my Pro-Gen class
- Continue to follow the recent leads on the McDaniel/Munsey side of my family
- Visit White County, Illinois and Ohio County, Kentucky
If my health will cooperate and the good Lord deems appropriate, in about 3 months I will come back with an update on this list and make another set of goals for the next 3 months of 2011.
I kew I didn't want to write a book or make too many goals that were beyond sanity, so I decided to change this up a bit, and am going to break it up into quarters. So, for the first part of the year, these are my goals:
- Scan as many of the photos and documents in immediate family members possessions as possible
- Catch up and stay current in my Pro-Gen class
- Continue to follow the recent leads on the McDaniel/Munsey side of my family
- Visit White County, Illinois and Ohio County, Kentucky
If my health will cooperate and the good Lord deems appropriate, in about 3 months I will come back with an update on this list and make another set of goals for the next 3 months of 2011.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Where Has The Time Gone?
One of the best aspects of genealogy (and the worst in honesty) is the fact that there is always one more bend in the road to take before stopping for the night, one more index to compare, just one more article to read, and so it goes........... and has commenced in my life over the past several months.
I have learned that I can have fantastic weeks of being a blogger only to fail short then at scanning some of the slides from the 1960's that my mother has recently entrusted to me. Or that my organization soars as my completion of Pro-Gen assignments get behind. Rearranging my den/office to be a true office with desk, reference materials, and space to complete reports and research means that several boxes now sit in our living room screaming for some attention. And on it goes......
I have taken the past couple of days to look back at the extensive list of goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2010, an ambitious list I must admit, but then as you can see that's the way I roll. Today I will look at the positives, my pats on the back. Tomorrow I will make a new plan.
Completed:
-Joined several genealogical and historical organizations related to professional and personal skill building
- Significantly built up my genealogy library with not only reference material but I have also been lucky
enough to come across a few rare books about the family as well
-I have made interviewing my parents a priority this year and carry a portable digital recorder in my purse at
all times. You would be amazed at what can be done in 5 minutes. I also put the recorder down in front of my plate at Thanksgiving to catch all the stories.
- My brother and I completed the DNA testing process on my father
- I have completed establishing the binder system for my records that stay at home, now knowing exactly
where to find "X.s marriage" record if I have a copy.
- 1/2way through the process of completing the mini binders for my mother and myself to carry anywhere
- I did take my first class at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and liked it (planning for more)
- I also have tried several of the workshops on FamilySearch (assisting with early writing, research analysis,
and more)
I am particularly pleased with two areas of my goals for 2010:
Breaking through a brick wall that seemed impossible 6 months apart is crumbling under my feet and I am thrilled! Enoch McDaniel had parents, and so did his wife! Further information on this family will be shared in later posts, but just knowing they didn't just land on Earth is cause of celebration on this special day.
I also spent time focusing on the Raley line of the family, but there is much left to do. The reunion trip to St. Mary's County, Maryland for my mother, my daughter, and myself was special not in the actual reunion itself (newcomers had do some fending), but in the celebration of family and heritage and all that makes each of us who we are. There is much to learn of my Maryland roots, and Massachusetts, and.....
That's another day.
I have learned that I can have fantastic weeks of being a blogger only to fail short then at scanning some of the slides from the 1960's that my mother has recently entrusted to me. Or that my organization soars as my completion of Pro-Gen assignments get behind. Rearranging my den/office to be a true office with desk, reference materials, and space to complete reports and research means that several boxes now sit in our living room screaming for some attention. And on it goes......
I have taken the past couple of days to look back at the extensive list of goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2010, an ambitious list I must admit, but then as you can see that's the way I roll. Today I will look at the positives, my pats on the back. Tomorrow I will make a new plan.
Completed:
-Joined several genealogical and historical organizations related to professional and personal skill building
- Significantly built up my genealogy library with not only reference material but I have also been lucky
enough to come across a few rare books about the family as well
-I have made interviewing my parents a priority this year and carry a portable digital recorder in my purse at
all times. You would be amazed at what can be done in 5 minutes. I also put the recorder down in front of my plate at Thanksgiving to catch all the stories.
- My brother and I completed the DNA testing process on my father
- I have completed establishing the binder system for my records that stay at home, now knowing exactly
where to find "X.s marriage" record if I have a copy.
- 1/2way through the process of completing the mini binders for my mother and myself to carry anywhere
- I did take my first class at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and liked it (planning for more)
- I also have tried several of the workshops on FamilySearch (assisting with early writing, research analysis,
and more)
I am particularly pleased with two areas of my goals for 2010:
Breaking through a brick wall that seemed impossible 6 months apart is crumbling under my feet and I am thrilled! Enoch McDaniel had parents, and so did his wife! Further information on this family will be shared in later posts, but just knowing they didn't just land on Earth is cause of celebration on this special day.
I also spent time focusing on the Raley line of the family, but there is much left to do. The reunion trip to St. Mary's County, Maryland for my mother, my daughter, and myself was special not in the actual reunion itself (newcomers had do some fending), but in the celebration of family and heritage and all that makes each of us who we are. There is much to learn of my Maryland roots, and Massachusetts, and.....
That's another day.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Veteran's Day- Enjoying The Experience of My Father
I know it has been way too long since I have been on here and I am determined to correct that, but today is not about me. It's about that father of mine. He served in the navy during World War II aboard what he calls one of the "tin cans", the destroyers that served in the Pacific at the end of the war.
I love to hear his stories, from the times when they would earn ice cream whenever one of the pilots would miss their landing on the air craft carrier so they would hurry to bring them aboard. When he was first crossing in a smaller boat to get to his ship the person who had their medical records dropped them into the ocean and he was afraid that he would have to take all his shots again. (He didn't). When he first arrived on the ship he didn't actually report to duty so for 4 months he did not have a daily job.
When the captain found out he was awarded by being tied down in the top of the basket up in the air (for the life of me I can't remember the correct name). He did spot a torpedo, so the engines were turned off, the ship was made to lean the other way to slip by it, and then the guys at the back torpedoed it. He other adventure up there was the typhoon that came along. The captain had to send up 2 men to work to get Dad down. There are other stories that he doesn't speak of, but he does speak heatedly about the fact that when the Japanese came aboard the USS Missouri for the ceremony, the Japanese also came aboard ships across Japan to sign records of surrender, including the USS Remey. Dad has pictures of the event. It really bothers him that that is not written anywhere, history books or in Navy publications.
This is him aboard the USS Remey. Years later they were able to realize the loss of hearing he had suffered through all his life and that was continuing to diminish was related to one of the times when he needed to rush to the guns and was unable to put his gear on because of the situation. He was working one of the guns that was just below when the larger one fired and his ear immediately began to ring and lose hearing.
Today I will be going with to a Veteran's Day breakfast aboard LST 325 which was on the beaches on June 6, 1944. Our city built many of them at a riverfront that worked around the clock. Amazing the contributions by all, and I look forward to hearing the stories from others, and learning new ones from my father.
Happy Veteran's Day to All!!
I love to hear his stories, from the times when they would earn ice cream whenever one of the pilots would miss their landing on the air craft carrier so they would hurry to bring them aboard. When he was first crossing in a smaller boat to get to his ship the person who had their medical records dropped them into the ocean and he was afraid that he would have to take all his shots again. (He didn't). When he first arrived on the ship he didn't actually report to duty so for 4 months he did not have a daily job.
When the captain found out he was awarded by being tied down in the top of the basket up in the air (for the life of me I can't remember the correct name). He did spot a torpedo, so the engines were turned off, the ship was made to lean the other way to slip by it, and then the guys at the back torpedoed it. He other adventure up there was the typhoon that came along. The captain had to send up 2 men to work to get Dad down. There are other stories that he doesn't speak of, but he does speak heatedly about the fact that when the Japanese came aboard the USS Missouri for the ceremony, the Japanese also came aboard ships across Japan to sign records of surrender, including the USS Remey. Dad has pictures of the event. It really bothers him that that is not written anywhere, history books or in Navy publications.
Today I will be going with to a Veteran's Day breakfast aboard LST 325 which was on the beaches on June 6, 1944. Our city built many of them at a riverfront that worked around the clock. Amazing the contributions by all, and I look forward to hearing the stories from others, and learning new ones from my father.
Happy Veteran's Day to All!!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday Tip- Don't Overlook Name Variations
While I have been off the page completing some goals of mine around my home and with my genealogy, there has been some changes in the blogging world as well. Instead of one daily theme, now there are several for each day of the week, and their explanation is at Geneabloggers. I am sure in the coming weeks I will utilize several of them, but for today, writing about one of the items I keep in my research binder whether I am working at a repository or at home is the most appropriate.
I keep a list of all the surnames that play a role in my family in my binder in alphabetical order. I also write a brief note next to some of the surnames to remind myself of their place in my family. Believe it or not, once there are 1,000 people in your database, some names get lost in the confusion.
This may seem easy enough, but do not stop there. I include all the spelling variations that I have encountered over time for each surname as well. This I consider to be critical because it can become too easy to overlook an important record otherwise. Here are some of the examples for my ancestors:
Raley- Raily, Railey, Reily, Reilly, Ryley, Reyley, Reighley, Riley
Cozart- Cozad, Cossart, Cossairt, Cozort, Cassat
Cannan- Canan, Cannon, Canon
Eckardt- Ekert, Echardt, Eckart, Eckhart, Echart, Echert
McDonald- McDonell, McDonalds
Munsey- Munsy, Muncey, Muncy
Schnacke- Schnake, Shnacke
This is a very small list, but examples for some of my surnames,and the list grows on a regular basis, which keeps the detective in me on my toes.
Good hunting!
I keep a list of all the surnames that play a role in my family in my binder in alphabetical order. I also write a brief note next to some of the surnames to remind myself of their place in my family. Believe it or not, once there are 1,000 people in your database, some names get lost in the confusion.
This may seem easy enough, but do not stop there. I include all the spelling variations that I have encountered over time for each surname as well. This I consider to be critical because it can become too easy to overlook an important record otherwise. Here are some of the examples for my ancestors:
Raley- Raily, Railey, Reily, Reilly, Ryley, Reyley, Reighley, Riley
Cozart- Cozad, Cossart, Cossairt, Cozort, Cassat
Cannan- Canan, Cannon, Canon
Eckardt- Ekert, Echardt, Eckart, Eckhart, Echart, Echert
McDonald- McDonell, McDonalds
Munsey- Munsy, Muncey, Muncy
Schnacke- Schnake, Shnacke
This is a very small list, but examples for some of my surnames,and the list grows on a regular basis, which keeps the detective in me on my toes.
Good hunting!
Monday, September 6, 2010
New Site For Maryland/Kentucky Cousins
I was very excited today to open my email and find that a new site has been developed for those of us who have Maryland ancestors that were part of the migration to Kentucky in 1785 and beyond.
Christopher and Leslie Hielig and Chug Roberts have launched http://www.md2ky.com/ and I have to say that I am very excited about the site already. They have sections for Books, Family Sites and Sources, Genral Genealogy Resources, and MD and KY Resources.
They have already posted some very interesting articles and always direct you to other sites for further information. Anyone with ancestors in Southern Maryland or were part of the migration to the Kentucky counties of Marion, Nelson and Washington should add this to their reader. They are also very open to adding information from those of who have information to share that would benefot all of us.
I for one am looking forward to future installments.
Christopher and Leslie Hielig and Chug Roberts have launched http://www.md2ky.com/ and I have to say that I am very excited about the site already. They have sections for Books, Family Sites and Sources, Genral Genealogy Resources, and MD and KY Resources.
They have already posted some very interesting articles and always direct you to other sites for further information. Anyone with ancestors in Southern Maryland or were part of the migration to the Kentucky counties of Marion, Nelson and Washington should add this to their reader. They are also very open to adding information from those of who have information to share that would benefot all of us.
I for one am looking forward to future installments.
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