Friday Newsletter and Follow News 5 November 2010

This Week in Genea-Blogging

There were several Halloween-themed and Halloween-related posts last week – it was a great week for Graveyard Rabbits and Tombstone Tuesday, for instance. One of my favorites was Cheri Daniel's post on what makes her “creepy meter” go off – whether in a cemetery or photo – “Creepy Encounters” at Journeys Past.

The Professional Descendant (Kirsty Wilkinson) asks an intriguing question – is a foundling child the ultimate in genealogical brickwalls? - in “Parentage Unknown: The Ultimate Brickwall?” Has anyone been confronted with this type of brickwall?

Professor Dru at Find Your Folks has taken up a fascinating research angle in genealogy: location-based genealogy. She is pursuing this methodology through a course in geographic information science and she features some videos of one of the foremost experts in this area, Bernie Gracy, in “Bernie Gracy and Location Based Genealogy.” What he says coincides with my thoughts after visiting the probable site of my ancestor’s farm in Greenville, SC and the nearby churchyard in which so many members of this family and associated families are buried. Sign me up!

Kathleen Brandt at a3Genealogy writes about some state laws that affected the legal status or citizenship status of people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds at various times, which in turn may have affected their migration patterns in “But, It Doesn’t Follow Logic!” I knew the one about naturalization of alien women who married citizens, but not most of the others.

What to do when we get conflicting dates for birth, death, etc. – Carol at Reflections from the Fence has an excellent illustration and advice regarding this very common problem in “Tuesday’s Tip, Sadly, Sometimes Ya Just Gotta Roll With It OR Review, Review, Review.” There are also some good comments there.

A great tip comes from Paula Stuart-Warren at Paula’s Genealogical Eclectica: “Genealogy Resource: The Buddy System.” I really like doing cooperative research on genealogy together with other people, and Paula’s recommendations for extending this kind of cooperation into many aspects of our research are definitely an appealing idea.

In “Consumption,” Kerry Scott at Clue Wagon describes that obsessive, all-consuming state researchers sometimes get into when pursuing a compelling mystery.  As I stated in my comment, my view of the role of the researcher/family historian has undergone some development. I used to feel that I was playing detective and still do. But I also realize that there is an element of the soap opera addict in there now as well. Lawsuits, insanity, families fighting with one another, ancestors getting into trouble with the law, going bankrupt, losing their property. But I can’t stop….

I’m just sayin’: Check out Jennifer’s post “Are You A Real Genealogist?” at Rainy Day Genealogy Readings. So, Jennifer, can you make a board game out of this?

Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy brings up another of those aspects of genealogy that make it not just fun, but useful, in "Diabetes and Genealogy."

Jasia has posted the 99th Carnival of Genealogy at Creative Gene - check it out!  Outstanding posts were submitted, and the featured post is a very memorable one.

The topic for the 100th COG will be:

"There's one in every family!" Bring your stories of colorful characters, unique heirlooms, mouth-watering recipes, most dearly beloved pets, whatever! Interpret as you like. Every family has "special" individuals, you know, the ones with a green thumb, the black sheep, the lone wolf, the blue-ribbon cook, the story-teller, the geek! I know you have treasured recipes and amazing heirlooms you've yet to share! Tell us about them and become a part of history in the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy! The deadline for submissions is December 1st.

Happy Fourth Blogoversary to Alex at Winging It!

Happy First Blogoversary to Darlene at My Colored Roots!

Happy Second Blogoversary to Harriet at Genealogy Fun!

This week I started following these blogs:

Doctors, Preachers, Pioneers, Statesmen, and Folk

Family History Fun

Have You Seen My Roots?

Past and Present

The Family Recorder

For more suggested genealogy blog reading check out Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings, Elizabeth O'Neals Best Bytes for the Week at Little Bytes of Life, and Susan Petersen's Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Long Lost Relatives.net.

My Genealogy Week

I finally added my photos of gravestones in Standing Springs Cemetery to Findagrave. While on Findagrave, I copied and added a gadget to this blog so that you can search for my contributions on Findagrave. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it includes graves for which I have added only a photo, not the original transcription.

I am continuing to slowly input data into my Ancestry Trees. And I will admit that it is actually helping my research. While I still have more sources than those provided by Ancestry (and I am trying, but not always succeeding, in adding these sources to the trees), occasionally one that I hadn’t noticed (or at least hadn't cited) will pop up, and it also prompts me to take a second look at the records I have already entered.

Would you like some whine with that?

In recent weeks there have been several times when I have not been able to sign on to Ancestry and Genealogy Bank (so far not at the same time – I’d probably shoot my computer). The most irritating thing is not that this happens (though it is irritating), but that the message always indicates that it’s not their fault: “Someone else may be logged onto your account” (not the case) or “We are not able to log you on – your browser may have cookies disabled” (no, my browser did not just suddenly toss its cookies, they were there half an hour ago). If the message would just say “Sorry, our servers are overloaded” instead of trying to make me paranoid, the fact that my paid subscriptions aren’t there for me during some of the few free minutes I have during the week would not drive me to … well, let’s just say a very irritated state.

This Week’s Problem

I have been working on the Charles Eugene DuBose and Mary Etta “Ettie” Floyd family this week. One of their sons, George Albert DuBose, claimed on the 1930 census that he was a World War I veteran. The problem? When I started searching for him on the World War I Draft Registration Card database on Ancestry, I could not find him. First I tried in Texas with variants on his first and middle names. No joy. Because his wife and stepdaughters on the 1930 census were all shown as being born in Oklahoma, I tried the same thing in that state. Still no joy. To narrow down the search, I added month and year of birth, which I already had. Nada. I ended up putting a single first name, no last name, and complete date of birth – with no state specified. Finally George Albert DuBois of Oklahoma, same date and place of birth, same occupation, etc. showed up. He signed the card that way, too. But everywhere else, and with every other member of the family, the name is DuBose.

So, George Albert, what was with you? Trying to “fancify” your name or something?