This Week in Genea-Blogging
Super-duper exiting news – keep your fingers crossed
And if you haven’t already read it, yet, I ain’t gonna say what it is. Just read “An Update on the Otis v Gray History Mystery” at West in New England.
Following the trail
I recommend for your reading a post that was actually written back in November: “When the Pieces Fall Into Place: Toppling the Brick Wall” at Kathleen Reed’s Family Matters. However, I did not start following the blog until last week and finally read the post last weekend. This was not an easy mystery to unravel, but Kathleen followed the clues and arrived at a solution.
A memory left untouched by a tornado
At Shakin’ the Family Tree, Dee Burris has written a wonderful post on the precious memories preserved in part of a house not destroyed by a tornado: “Sentimental Sunday: The Lines on the Doorframe.”
Oh, no! Mr. Sluggo has destroyed Mr. Bill’s hard drive!
Shelley Bishop at A Sense of Family writes about her close call with hard drive failure and how following recommendations for backup systems saved the day in “My True-Life Adventure in Hard Drive Failure.” That could have been me! (Well, it sort of was – the hand-me-down laptop that I use in addition to my desktop computer did have a sort of failure, although it’s running now and we managed to get everything I needed onto a memory stick.)
Sometimes there is a good – if unusual – reason why you cannot find your ancestors
In “But I KNOW My Great Grandma’s Name! Why Am I Stuck?” Lorine McGinnis Shulze at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog recalls a chance encounter that helped her find an ancestor and points to a useful piece of advice: sometimes our ancestors changed their names!
The scoop is in on the new FamilySearch.org website
And already we’re reading some reactions. James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star reports that some negative comments are already coming in – and from unexpected quarters – in “Already irate over new FamilySearch.org website?” (There are also positive and negative reactions on the FamilySearch blog.)
Real Christmas spirit
Nancy at My Ancestors and Me has a lovely story of a family’s faithfulness, truer to the real Christmas spirit than many grand and showy gestures: “Raymond – An Unusual Christmas Memory.”
footnoteMaven puts it all in perspective
The music of the song goes through my head and things go back into their proper places as I read footnoteMaven’s “Making Your Way Online Today Takes Everything You’ve Got.”
Happy First Blogoversary to Susan Pedersen at Long Lost Relatives!
For more suggested blog reading, check out Best of the Genea-Blogs at Randy Seaver’s GeneaMusings, Best Bytes for the Week at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.
This week I started following these blogs:
a'spaidsearachd agus a'meòrachadh
An American Dynasty
Growing Up in Willow Creek
Scottish Genes
My Research Week
I usually do not check my e-mail in the morning before I go to work, but this Thursday morning I did. And there were two fabulous e-mails there: one from a descendant of Freeman Manson Moore, the ancestor of my cousin Paula and brother of my great-great grandfather William Spencer Moore, and the other from a person who, I am guessing, is related to my Lewis family. He found my blog post on Dallas County Sheriff William Henry Lewis (“Uncle, Uncle – William Henry Lewis: A Little Man Who Stood Tall”) and mentioned that he had heard some of these stories growing up. Wowee – I’ll be writing to these people right after I finish this post!
I Need to Hang Out on Facebook More
Yes, this is coming from the person who is always complaining that she doesn’t have enough time. I always try to check it at least a couple of times a week, but this week I realized why I should spend more time there. When I saw all of the wonderful birthday greetings, all I can say is … sniff … thanks, everyone. This truly made my day special. One of the things I will remember to be thankful for this year is family and friends.
And I do find some reading tips and ideas on Facebook that I haven't seen on the blogs and even links to interesting new blogs before they show up on Geneabloggers.
It's worth saying twice
Finally, I would like to say "Thank you" again to the people who nominated me for Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. It was a wonderful early birthday present.
Showing posts with label Family Newsletter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Newsletter. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Family Newsletter and Follow News: 10 December 2010
This Week in Genea-Blogging
We Are Surrounded by Writers and Artists
when it comes to our fellow Genea-Bloggers. It seems not only magic, but inspiration is in the air. Everywhere you look, people have been blogging their hearts out for Jasia and digging deep into the well of memory and creativity to write about their Christmas memories. Perhaps some of our genealogy bloggers knew they had special writing or visual art talents before they started blogging, but it occurs to me that many may have discovered these talents after they started blogging and trying new things on their blogs – things they never suspected they could do – often with the encouragement of other members of the genea-blogging community. You think you are just going to do a modest little blog – share some information about your family and maybe, if you are lucky, meet some distant cousins researching the same lines. And then you read other blogs, get comments, see and respond to prompts and themes. And before you know it, your blog turns into an outlet for a creative talent you never suspected you had.
What inspired me to write this? For the most part, when I write “Friday Newsletter and Follow News” I leave Carnival posts and special occasion prompt posts alone – no stealing of thunder – to be featured on Creative Gene and GeneaBloggers. So, after leaving those two categories out, especially the amazing 100th Carnival of Genealogy, I didn’t think there would be a whole lot left to feature on Follow News.
Was I wrong! It seems bloggers have gone into high gear and are pulling out all the stops. Outstanding!
First Recommendation
Creative Gene - Carnival of Genealogy, 100th Edition: There's One in Every Family
Special People, Part 1
Special People, Part 2
Special Things
Miscellaneous
A linguistic slant
So I’m definitely fascinated by the topic brought up by John Newmark at TransvylanianDutch: “Do You Hear What I Hear?” When you are working with oral histories or transcriptions, be careful about foreign words and names as well as familiar ones pronounced with an accent.
Not for the faint of heart
For most of the Advent Calendar posts, I direct you to GeneaBloggers list. But here is one that you must check out: Amy Coffin’s “Holiday of HORRORS!” at We Tree. Peek if you dare.
We Learn Something New
At My Ancestor’s Name, Angela Walton-Raji has written an informative post on a little-known group of teachers from early in the previous century: “So, What Is a Jeanes Teacher?”
“I Don’t Like My Brick Wall Ancestor”
One of the best genealogy blog post titles ever. And you’ll see why when you read Barbara Poole’s post at Life From The Roots: “Amanuensis Monday -- I Don’t Like My Brick Wall Ancestor.”
What she said! What he said!
My favorite rant/post on a blog in recent memory. Kerry Scott. Clue Wagon. “Why the Facebook Cartoon Pictures Make Me Want to Poke My Eye Out With A Fork.” This is no criticism of people who change their profile pictures for whatever reason. Heck, my husband was going to use this as an excuse to change his to Eric Cartman. But enough aimless consciousness-raising without specific recommendations on how to help and actual concrete action.
This discussion is also addressed and developed by Thomas Macentee in “Facebook, Child Abuse, and Challenging the Status Quo” at Destination: Austin Family.
OK, I admit it …
I am one of those people who cannot keep all of the Family Search websites straight. But now I don’t have to. James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star has posted an article linking to and describing all of the different sites in “Comments on the status of Family Search websites.” Thank you!
At On a flesh and bone foundation: An Irish History, Jennifer Geraghty-Gorman has written an extremely affecting account of her mother’s memories of the death of her own mother in “Matrilineal Monday: A Mother Lost: Mary Fitzpatrick Ball.” These are memories seen through the eyes of a five-year-old who has lost her mother, and this makes the story all the more heart-wrenching.
How to Tell the Story
In “The Strong Woman: There’s One in Every Family – Part II,” Elizabeth O’Neal of Little Bytes of Life has written a post that beautifully demonstrates how to put research information into a well-told and touching story.
Attention All Baby Boomers
And everyone else who is interested in modern history. You must read Craig Manson’s “The Most Important Day of My Life: December 7, 1941” at GeneaBlogie. It’s a thoughtful perspective on what influenced our generation and poses the question of how our generation will influence in the years to come.
For more suggested blog reading, check out Best of the Genea-Blogs at Randy Seaver’s GeneaMusings, Best Bytes for the Week at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.
This week I started following these blogs:
Are My Roots Showing?
The Historian’s Family
Virginia Historical Society’s Blog
The Brooklyn Historical Society Blog
Ancestor Search
Arkansas Roots: The Stories of My Family
Borreson Cousins
Digging Under My Family Tree
Dr. D Digs Up Ancestors
Exile’s Return
Genealogy Dragnet
Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries
Genealogy Quest
Glimpsing the Past
Jen’s Genealogy Pages
Family Matters
Our Family Quilt
Pursuits of a Desperate Genie
Seattle Genealogical Society
Tattered Past
August Legacy
My Research Week
I haven't gotten much research done this week, but I have been greatly cheered by a couple of things. One, I received the Ancestor Approved Award from Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing? Thank you, Jenny! I love the name of your blog and I enjoyed your list of things you have learned about your ancestors that surprised, humbled, or enlightened you.
Also, the generous and talented Cynthia Shenette of Heritage Zen has continued to help me out with the Stepanishens. Cindy, you are a true Genea-Angel!
We Are Surrounded by Writers and Artists
when it comes to our fellow Genea-Bloggers. It seems not only magic, but inspiration is in the air. Everywhere you look, people have been blogging their hearts out for Jasia and digging deep into the well of memory and creativity to write about their Christmas memories. Perhaps some of our genealogy bloggers knew they had special writing or visual art talents before they started blogging, but it occurs to me that many may have discovered these talents after they started blogging and trying new things on their blogs – things they never suspected they could do – often with the encouragement of other members of the genea-blogging community. You think you are just going to do a modest little blog – share some information about your family and maybe, if you are lucky, meet some distant cousins researching the same lines. And then you read other blogs, get comments, see and respond to prompts and themes. And before you know it, your blog turns into an outlet for a creative talent you never suspected you had.
What inspired me to write this? For the most part, when I write “Friday Newsletter and Follow News” I leave Carnival posts and special occasion prompt posts alone – no stealing of thunder – to be featured on Creative Gene and GeneaBloggers. So, after leaving those two categories out, especially the amazing 100th Carnival of Genealogy, I didn’t think there would be a whole lot left to feature on Follow News.
Was I wrong! It seems bloggers have gone into high gear and are pulling out all the stops. Outstanding!
First Recommendation
Creative Gene - Carnival of Genealogy, 100th Edition: There's One in Every Family
Special People, Part 1
Special People, Part 2
Special Things
Miscellaneous
A linguistic slant
So I’m definitely fascinated by the topic brought up by John Newmark at TransvylanianDutch: “Do You Hear What I Hear?” When you are working with oral histories or transcriptions, be careful about foreign words and names as well as familiar ones pronounced with an accent.
Not for the faint of heart
For most of the Advent Calendar posts, I direct you to GeneaBloggers list. But here is one that you must check out: Amy Coffin’s “Holiday of HORRORS!” at We Tree. Peek if you dare.
We Learn Something New
At My Ancestor’s Name, Angela Walton-Raji has written an informative post on a little-known group of teachers from early in the previous century: “So, What Is a Jeanes Teacher?”
“I Don’t Like My Brick Wall Ancestor”
One of the best genealogy blog post titles ever. And you’ll see why when you read Barbara Poole’s post at Life From The Roots: “Amanuensis Monday -- I Don’t Like My Brick Wall Ancestor.”
What she said! What he said!
My favorite rant/post on a blog in recent memory. Kerry Scott. Clue Wagon. “Why the Facebook Cartoon Pictures Make Me Want to Poke My Eye Out With A Fork.” This is no criticism of people who change their profile pictures for whatever reason. Heck, my husband was going to use this as an excuse to change his to Eric Cartman. But enough aimless consciousness-raising without specific recommendations on how to help and actual concrete action.
This discussion is also addressed and developed by Thomas Macentee in “Facebook, Child Abuse, and Challenging the Status Quo” at Destination: Austin Family.
OK, I admit it …
I am one of those people who cannot keep all of the Family Search websites straight. But now I don’t have to. James Tanner at Genealogy’s Star has posted an article linking to and describing all of the different sites in “Comments on the status of Family Search websites.” Thank you!
As seen through the eyes of a child
At On a flesh and bone foundation: An Irish History, Jennifer Geraghty-Gorman has written an extremely affecting account of her mother’s memories of the death of her own mother in “Matrilineal Monday: A Mother Lost: Mary Fitzpatrick Ball.” These are memories seen through the eyes of a five-year-old who has lost her mother, and this makes the story all the more heart-wrenching.
How to Tell the Story
In “The Strong Woman: There’s One in Every Family – Part II,” Elizabeth O’Neal of Little Bytes of Life has written a post that beautifully demonstrates how to put research information into a well-told and touching story.
Attention All Baby Boomers
And everyone else who is interested in modern history. You must read Craig Manson’s “The Most Important Day of My Life: December 7, 1941” at GeneaBlogie. It’s a thoughtful perspective on what influenced our generation and poses the question of how our generation will influence in the years to come.
For more suggested blog reading, check out Best of the Genea-Blogs at Randy Seaver’s GeneaMusings, Best Bytes for the Week at Elizabeth O’Neal’s Little Bytes of Life, and Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.
This week I started following these blogs:
Are My Roots Showing?
The Historian’s Family
Virginia Historical Society’s Blog
The Brooklyn Historical Society Blog
Ancestor Search
Arkansas Roots: The Stories of My Family
Borreson Cousins
Digging Under My Family Tree
Dr. D Digs Up Ancestors
Exile’s Return
Genealogy Dragnet
Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries
Genealogy Quest
Glimpsing the Past
Jen’s Genealogy Pages
Family Matters
Our Family Quilt
Pursuits of a Desperate Genie
Seattle Genealogical Society
Tattered Past
August Legacy
My Research Week
I haven't gotten much research done this week, but I have been greatly cheered by a couple of things. One, I received the Ancestor Approved Award from Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing? Thank you, Jenny! I love the name of your blog and I enjoyed your list of things you have learned about your ancestors that surprised, humbled, or enlightened you.
Also, the generous and talented Cynthia Shenette of Heritage Zen has continued to help me out with the Stepanishens. Cindy, you are a true Genea-Angel!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday Newsletter and Follow News: Life From The Roots
Life from the Roots
This week I’d like to write about one of my favorite genealogy blogs, Barbara Poole’s Life From The Roots. Barbara is a lady of many talents; her writing is crisp and to the point and her photography bursts with color and what I think of as a “tactile” quality (see the “dress photograph” in “Ellis Island Dress and American Jewish Historical Society”). Even photographs of a depressing subject (“Wordless Wednesday – The Damage Is Done”) capture a certain moody beauty. Also check out her blog Flowers from My Area for more beautiful photography.
Barbara has led an interesting life, including work at the Veterans Administration and the DAR; I loved her post “Sentimental Sunday – My First Job” and it inspired me to write about my own first job. Her DAR job and 20+ years of experience with genealogy are evident in the informative content of her articles. She can also write for fun (see her “Top Ten” lists), and she never seems to run out of interesting ideas and topics for her posts.
This Week in Genea-Blogging
One of the issues of the week was copyright; the following blogs featured stories on a couple of the more egregious violations associated with plagiarism of online content:
At GeneaBloggers - "Cooks Source: The Web Is Considered Public Domain"
At Roots and Rambles - "It could happen to you"
There was a wealth of outstanding Veterans Day-themed posts on Thursday. One that caught my attention in particular was Michelle Gudrum’s “Veterans Day – WWI Service in Russia” at The Turning of Generations. She tells us about Roy Bindon’s services with the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia in 1918 – a fascinating story!
At It’s All Relative, Laura has written a very moving and perceptive post on the role of the family genealogist/historian when there is a death in the family in “Silver Linings.” For her this is a subject that is unfortunately of recent experience, as she lost her beloved father last month (“To Daddy with love”).
At We Tree, I have enjoyed reading about Amy Coffin’s “Family History Library Research Retreat,” and in Part 4 she presents a useful summary of what she learned from this experience.
At Daniel Hubbard’s Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog this week you have to check out his article “A Line to Draw the Time,” and specifically, take a look at the time line. Timelines are helpful, especially in proving that something just could not have happened, but too often we may assume that they prove that something did happen when all they indicate is that it was possible; proximity does not prove causality.
One of the must-read articles this week is footnoteMaven’s “Annotate Your Sources – It Can’t Hurt and It Just Might Help,” wherein she gobsmacks us with the shocking news that there is no such thing as the Citation Police (or, as Randy Seaver refers to them, the Citation Secret Police). fM provides a great explanation of the usefulness of citations and as well as an illustration of how we might annotate our citations. (While I have not done this formally, I do include comments on some of my main sources in the “Notes” section on my genealogy program, both to give credit where credit is due and to be able to retrace the process and logic of my own research.)
An interesting development on Donna Pointkouski’s theme of “Colonials vs Immigrants” is presented at Steve’s Genealogy Blog in “How Many of My Ancestors Have I Documented?” Steve Danko demonstrates through numbers that while there is joy to be had for some lines in some areas, the ratio of found-to-total ancestors definitely takes a sharp nosedive pretty quickly for those immigrant lines that are not nobility.
At Staats Place, Chris Staats explains how his plan to prove the existence of Santa provided a good lesson in what does and does not constitute exhaustive research in “What Santa Taught Me About Genealogical Research.”
For more suggested blog reading, check out Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes for the Week at Little Bytes of Life and Susan Petersen's Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Long Lost Relatives.net.
This week I started following these blogs:
Christ Paton: Walking in Eternity
An English Jewish family’s quest for their roots
Free Genealogy Guide
Genealogy Stories
In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy
Shakin’ the Family Tree
The Genealogy Mad Scientist
The O’Neill-March Family History
My Research Week
For the last couple of years, one of the things I have done on Veterans’ Day was to call my Uncle Bill Brinlee, who served in the Navy in the 1950s and 1960s. Uncle Bill died last January, so this year I decided to spend Veterans Day in a manner similar to my custom for Memorial Day: researching an ancestor’s military records. On Thursday I worked on my gggg-grandfather William Lewis’ Revolutionary War service records. There is a lot of material on Footnote, and I still haven’t finished.
This week I’d like to write about one of my favorite genealogy blogs, Barbara Poole’s Life From The Roots. Barbara is a lady of many talents; her writing is crisp and to the point and her photography bursts with color and what I think of as a “tactile” quality (see the “dress photograph” in “Ellis Island Dress and American Jewish Historical Society”). Even photographs of a depressing subject (“Wordless Wednesday – The Damage Is Done”) capture a certain moody beauty. Also check out her blog Flowers from My Area for more beautiful photography.
Barbara has led an interesting life, including work at the Veterans Administration and the DAR; I loved her post “Sentimental Sunday – My First Job” and it inspired me to write about my own first job. Her DAR job and 20+ years of experience with genealogy are evident in the informative content of her articles. She can also write for fun (see her “Top Ten” lists), and she never seems to run out of interesting ideas and topics for her posts.
This Week in Genea-Blogging
One of the issues of the week was copyright; the following blogs featured stories on a couple of the more egregious violations associated with plagiarism of online content:
At GeneaBloggers - "Cooks Source: The Web Is Considered Public Domain"
At Roots and Rambles - "It could happen to you"
There was a wealth of outstanding Veterans Day-themed posts on Thursday. One that caught my attention in particular was Michelle Gudrum’s “Veterans Day – WWI Service in Russia” at The Turning of Generations. She tells us about Roy Bindon’s services with the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia in 1918 – a fascinating story!
At It’s All Relative, Laura has written a very moving and perceptive post on the role of the family genealogist/historian when there is a death in the family in “Silver Linings.” For her this is a subject that is unfortunately of recent experience, as she lost her beloved father last month (“To Daddy with love”).
At We Tree, I have enjoyed reading about Amy Coffin’s “Family History Library Research Retreat,” and in Part 4 she presents a useful summary of what she learned from this experience.
At Daniel Hubbard’s Personal Past Meditations: A Genealogical Blog this week you have to check out his article “A Line to Draw the Time,” and specifically, take a look at the time line. Timelines are helpful, especially in proving that something just could not have happened, but too often we may assume that they prove that something did happen when all they indicate is that it was possible; proximity does not prove causality.
One of the must-read articles this week is footnoteMaven’s “Annotate Your Sources – It Can’t Hurt and It Just Might Help,” wherein she gobsmacks us with the shocking news that there is no such thing as the Citation Police (or, as Randy Seaver refers to them, the Citation Secret Police). fM provides a great explanation of the usefulness of citations and as well as an illustration of how we might annotate our citations. (While I have not done this formally, I do include comments on some of my main sources in the “Notes” section on my genealogy program, both to give credit where credit is due and to be able to retrace the process and logic of my own research.)
An interesting development on Donna Pointkouski’s theme of “Colonials vs Immigrants” is presented at Steve’s Genealogy Blog in “How Many of My Ancestors Have I Documented?” Steve Danko demonstrates through numbers that while there is joy to be had for some lines in some areas, the ratio of found-to-total ancestors definitely takes a sharp nosedive pretty quickly for those immigrant lines that are not nobility.
At Staats Place, Chris Staats explains how his plan to prove the existence of Santa provided a good lesson in what does and does not constitute exhaustive research in “What Santa Taught Me About Genealogical Research.”
For more suggested blog reading, check out Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes for the Week at Little Bytes of Life and Susan Petersen's Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere at Long Lost Relatives.net.
This week I started following these blogs:
Christ Paton: Walking in Eternity
An English Jewish family’s quest for their roots
Free Genealogy Guide
Genealogy Stories
In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy
Shakin’ the Family Tree
The Genealogy Mad Scientist
The O’Neill-March Family History
My Research Week
For the last couple of years, one of the things I have done on Veterans’ Day was to call my Uncle Bill Brinlee, who served in the Navy in the 1950s and 1960s. Uncle Bill died last January, so this year I decided to spend Veterans Day in a manner similar to my custom for Memorial Day: researching an ancestor’s military records. On Thursday I worked on my gggg-grandfather William Lewis’ Revolutionary War service records. There is a lot of material on Footnote, and I still haven’t finished.
I also continued to look up articles on Genealogy Bank, mostly for the Floyds and Brinlees. I'm afraid some of it is not very ... flattering. Will have to write an article on this.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Newsletter Friday: My Cup Runneth Over
And so do my genealogy folders.
I’m up on the ceiling (no brain), my arms want to flap spastically, and the synapses are firing wildly. This is the “Happy Dance” in fast forward. I have returned from an enjoyable and successful research trip with a great story to tell about one of many discoveries, and I want to tell the story in coherent form, but right now I feel like a hyperactive child trying to come down from a sugar high.
But someone keeps feeding me chocolate bon bons.
Before we left, a cousin sent me a picture of my grandfather L. C. Brinlee when he was young; this was the grandfather whom I had never seen a picture of when I was growing up; cousins sent me the first picture of him I had ever seen earlier this year.
Then when we got back from the trip, I received some information as well as copies of letters and articles on the family of a great-great grandfather, George Floyd, who had been a big brick wall up to now. One of the letters was written by a son of this great-great-grandfather – my great-grandfather, Charles Augustus Floyd. There were typescripts of several letters written by his daughter, Lannie Angelina Floyd, my grandmother’s sister. These were passed to me by a descendant of George Floyd’s half-brother, Ransom Floyd, as was a summary of research on this Floyd family done by another descendant of Ransom Floyd. I was able to share photos of some of the people they knew through the letters, as well as the Floyd house in Hutchins, Texas, which had been mentioned in the letters.
And my husband has been researching the Virginia continental line (he says he finds the organizational history a total mess, very difficult to untangle) to better figure out the history and timeline for my 4g-grandfather, William Lewis, who was a major in the Virginia Continental Line. He wants me to get on the ball and print out William Lewis’ records from Footnote.
So now I have to take a deep breath, sit down, and try to get some research done this weekend.
To George, Raymond, Edna, and Gail, my ever-generous Brinlee cousins, to Randy and Richard, my wonderful newly discovered Floyd cousins, to Paula and Carolyn, my fabulous, fun Moore cousins, to my husband, and to all the cousins who generously share their research, memories, and pictures: Thank you. You are wonderful.
I’m up on the ceiling (no brain), my arms want to flap spastically, and the synapses are firing wildly. This is the “Happy Dance” in fast forward. I have returned from an enjoyable and successful research trip with a great story to tell about one of many discoveries, and I want to tell the story in coherent form, but right now I feel like a hyperactive child trying to come down from a sugar high.
But someone keeps feeding me chocolate bon bons.
Before we left, a cousin sent me a picture of my grandfather L. C. Brinlee when he was young; this was the grandfather whom I had never seen a picture of when I was growing up; cousins sent me the first picture of him I had ever seen earlier this year.
Then when we got back from the trip, I received some information as well as copies of letters and articles on the family of a great-great grandfather, George Floyd, who had been a big brick wall up to now. One of the letters was written by a son of this great-great-grandfather – my great-grandfather, Charles Augustus Floyd. There were typescripts of several letters written by his daughter, Lannie Angelina Floyd, my grandmother’s sister. These were passed to me by a descendant of George Floyd’s half-brother, Ransom Floyd, as was a summary of research on this Floyd family done by another descendant of Ransom Floyd. I was able to share photos of some of the people they knew through the letters, as well as the Floyd house in Hutchins, Texas, which had been mentioned in the letters.
And my husband has been researching the Virginia continental line (he says he finds the organizational history a total mess, very difficult to untangle) to better figure out the history and timeline for my 4g-grandfather, William Lewis, who was a major in the Virginia Continental Line. He wants me to get on the ball and print out William Lewis’ records from Footnote.
So now I have to take a deep breath, sit down, and try to get some research done this weekend.
To George, Raymond, Edna, and Gail, my ever-generous Brinlee cousins, to Randy and Richard, my wonderful newly discovered Floyd cousins, to Paula and Carolyn, my fabulous, fun Moore cousins, to my husband, and to all the cousins who generously share their research, memories, and pictures: Thank you. You are wonderful.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday Newsletter - FGS Conference Wrap-Up
Follow Friday will return next week; I am still recovering from the FGS Conference. Meanwhile, I direct you to Randy Seaver’s “Best of the Genea-blogs” at Genea-Musings and John Newmark’s “Weekly Picks” at TransylvanianDutch.
FGS Conference
Best: The people – both the people of Tennessee and the Genea-Bloggers I met. Also breakfasts at Pete’s Coffee Shop, the Museum of Appalachia, and the East Tennessee Historical Center.
Worst: Probably the drive through the pouring rain in the way to Tennessee.
So-So: The bookstore situation in Knoxville, at least the part within walking distance of the Convention Center. The bookstore at the University of Tennessee was OK for a college bookstore, but there wasn’t much else.
OK: Our hotel (the Holiday Inn). The staff were very pleasant. WiFi is unreliable there. The chain scrimps on certain things that would make life easier (like having enough luggage carts).
Outstanding: The majority of presentations at the conference. A couple were only OK or so-so, but considering the fact that a novice at doing a large convention like me was able to attend so many excellent lectures, still awfully good.
Very Good: The Exhibit Hall. Probably a good thing that it didn’t have more wares and vendors, or I would have spent even more money.
My Research Week
I am printing out downloaded pages from indices of deed and probate file documents on the Greenville County website for use on my research trip. This will be followed by putting together all the other hard-copy information I have on the Moores such as binders, printouts of hard-copy reports from Reunion, and deed abstract books.
FGS Conference
Best: The people – both the people of Tennessee and the Genea-Bloggers I met. Also breakfasts at Pete’s Coffee Shop, the Museum of Appalachia, and the East Tennessee Historical Center.
Worst: Probably the drive through the pouring rain in the way to Tennessee.
So-So: The bookstore situation in Knoxville, at least the part within walking distance of the Convention Center. The bookstore at the University of Tennessee was OK for a college bookstore, but there wasn’t much else.
OK: Our hotel (the Holiday Inn). The staff were very pleasant. WiFi is unreliable there. The chain scrimps on certain things that would make life easier (like having enough luggage carts).
Outstanding: The majority of presentations at the conference. A couple were only OK or so-so, but considering the fact that a novice at doing a large convention like me was able to attend so many excellent lectures, still awfully good.
Very Good: The Exhibit Hall. Probably a good thing that it didn’t have more wares and vendors, or I would have spent even more money.
My Research Week
I am printing out downloaded pages from indices of deed and probate file documents on the Greenville County website for use on my research trip. This will be followed by putting together all the other hard-copy information I have on the Moores such as binders, printouts of hard-copy reports from Reunion, and deed abstract books.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 2 July 2010
Research
I’ve been extremely busy with both work and research this week, so blogging has taken a back seat. Lots of stuff happening on the Moore and Brinlee lines, plus I have to do some research before FGS in August and a planned research trip to Greenville, SC in September.
Moore
Contacted by yet another Moore this week – through comments on my blog. One problem is that there was no way to contact her back (her profile included no e-mail, and she has started a blog, but it has no posts, so I cannot comment on it). The solution was found when I looked in my Moore family tree on Reunion and found her – I had made a note that she has a Public Member Tree on Ancestry, so I went to the tree and contacted her through Ancestry.
Spoke to the cousin who is descended from the “new Moore brother” – aka Cousin Paula – and I think that I will start advertising that family and see whether we can dig up more descendants from that line. We are starting very gradually to plan our research trip to Greenville.
Brinlee
Have been working with another Brinlee cousin to find descendants of Benjamin F. Brindley of Putnam County, Tennessee. We do not know whether or not he is related to the Brinley family in Tennessee with whom we are connected as indicated by DNA results, but it is possible and we would like to use DNA to find out one way or the other. If you are a descendant of this Benjamin F. Brindley and are reading this – you can get a DNA test and there is someone who will pay for it, so please contact me!
I’ve been extremely busy with both work and research this week, so blogging has taken a back seat. Lots of stuff happening on the Moore and Brinlee lines, plus I have to do some research before FGS in August and a planned research trip to Greenville, SC in September.
Moore
Contacted by yet another Moore this week – through comments on my blog. One problem is that there was no way to contact her back (her profile included no e-mail, and she has started a blog, but it has no posts, so I cannot comment on it). The solution was found when I looked in my Moore family tree on Reunion and found her – I had made a note that she has a Public Member Tree on Ancestry, so I went to the tree and contacted her through Ancestry.
Spoke to the cousin who is descended from the “new Moore brother” – aka Cousin Paula – and I think that I will start advertising that family and see whether we can dig up more descendants from that line. We are starting very gradually to plan our research trip to Greenville.
Brinlee
Have been working with another Brinlee cousin to find descendants of Benjamin F. Brindley of Putnam County, Tennessee. We do not know whether or not he is related to the Brinley family in Tennessee with whom we are connected as indicated by DNA results, but it is possible and we would like to use DNA to find out one way or the other. If you are a descendant of this Benjamin F. Brindley and are reading this – you can get a DNA test and there is someone who will pay for it, so please contact me!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 25 June 2010
A somewhat lean week for research and blogging due to the onset of a winter-sized cold in our 90-degree plus summer weather here.
Research
Moore
The Moores took over my research this week, so nothing really new on Brinlees or Smith. I am working on more descendants of Samuel Moore. This includes some additional descendants of his grandson William Brewster Moore that I found on an Ancestry Public Member Tree (including pictures!).
Davi and Terzo
Very exciting news this week for some of my husband’s lines.
In your genealogical research, have you ever had an experience with something I’d call “the Zen of searching”? That is, you see a mention of a database somewhere, perhaps with a link, and think, “Oh, what the heck, I probably won’t find anything, but why don’t I just pop this name in there and see what comes up?” and you get major results? You know, in contrast to those earnest, thorough searches you make that turn up nothing? Well, that’s what happened to me.
It’s why I pay attention to the weekly Ancestry newsletters that I receive each week by e-mail. I clicked on the “Search Passenger Lists” and tried a few names on my husband’s side that I had found through SSDI records for whom no immigration records have yet turned up. “Josephine Lochner” didn’t turn up a Josephine of the right age. But “Maria Terzo” gave 11 hits, and one of them was my husband's great-great grandmother. The year 1903 matched the year of immigration that had appeared on the 1910 census for her daughter, Giovanna "Jennie" Davi, my husband’s great-grandmother. Listed were Maria (under her maiden name, Terzo) and her three children (Rosa – 13, Giovanna – 10, and Michele Davi – 4). The record indicated that they were going to meet husband and father Benedetto Davi, residing at 40 Union Street, in Brooklyn. All the previous information I had on this family was confirmed, and new information was also provided – Maria’s approximate year of birth (1903-49 = 1854) and the names and ages of two siblings for Jennie Davi.
Research
Moore
The Moores took over my research this week, so nothing really new on Brinlees or Smith. I am working on more descendants of Samuel Moore. This includes some additional descendants of his grandson William Brewster Moore that I found on an Ancestry Public Member Tree (including pictures!).
Davi and Terzo
Very exciting news this week for some of my husband’s lines.
In your genealogical research, have you ever had an experience with something I’d call “the Zen of searching”? That is, you see a mention of a database somewhere, perhaps with a link, and think, “Oh, what the heck, I probably won’t find anything, but why don’t I just pop this name in there and see what comes up?” and you get major results? You know, in contrast to those earnest, thorough searches you make that turn up nothing? Well, that’s what happened to me.
It’s why I pay attention to the weekly Ancestry newsletters that I receive each week by e-mail. I clicked on the “Search Passenger Lists” and tried a few names on my husband’s side that I had found through SSDI records for whom no immigration records have yet turned up. “Josephine Lochner” didn’t turn up a Josephine of the right age. But “Maria Terzo” gave 11 hits, and one of them was my husband's great-great grandmother. The year 1903 matched the year of immigration that had appeared on the 1910 census for her daughter, Giovanna "Jennie" Davi, my husband’s great-grandmother. Listed were Maria (under her maiden name, Terzo) and her three children (Rosa – 13, Giovanna – 10, and Michele Davi – 4). The record indicated that they were going to meet husband and father Benedetto Davi, residing at 40 Union Street, in Brooklyn. All the previous information I had on this family was confirmed, and new information was also provided – Maria’s approximate year of birth (1903-49 = 1854) and the names and ages of two siblings for Jennie Davi.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 18 June 2010
Since we spent last weekend taking B to Middlebury, time and energy have been a bit short this week. I did not do any real research, but I did play around a bit with Ancestry Public Member Trees and did do some “cousin correspondence.” This may be a full genealogy year, after all!
Norman
I was contacted by a Norman-connected cousin, who had apparently seen my posts on the Norman family on this blog. Add another hurrah! for blogging as a way to get in touch with other researchers. We talked about our connections and he was familiar with Normans who had moved to Baylor County. One of his cousins in Garland County does genealogy research, and I have seen her name connected with a lot of Norman family research. Maybe someday I can visit Arkansas….
Moore
It appears that a research trip to Greenville, South Carolina may be in my near future (maybe September?)! More on this later.
Brinlee and Smith
I have not yet gotten started on my next round of Brinlee research, but I mean to start soon. I also have to do some additional “brick wall” work on Susan Elizabeth Smith (Brinlee) before the Knoxville conference. And finally, I’d like to take a look into the Tennessee line with whom a DNA connection has been found to exist for our Brinlees.
Ancestry Public Member Trees and Footnote
As I mentioned in the article below, I have started to put up a little bit of information in a couple of trees I started on Ancestry. I’ll probably go ahead and add information on my father’s family tree, but I may not do as much on my mother’s side as yet. I’m very curious to see who, if anyone, contacts me based on these trees. I’ll probably go ahead and contact some of the people who have some of “my people” in their trees. I should also do some more work on my pages on Footnote and perhaps add a couple of pages, since that seems to have turned up a major contact for me.
Norman
I was contacted by a Norman-connected cousin, who had apparently seen my posts on the Norman family on this blog. Add another hurrah! for blogging as a way to get in touch with other researchers. We talked about our connections and he was familiar with Normans who had moved to Baylor County. One of his cousins in Garland County does genealogy research, and I have seen her name connected with a lot of Norman family research. Maybe someday I can visit Arkansas….
Moore
It appears that a research trip to Greenville, South Carolina may be in my near future (maybe September?)! More on this later.
Brinlee and Smith
I have not yet gotten started on my next round of Brinlee research, but I mean to start soon. I also have to do some additional “brick wall” work on Susan Elizabeth Smith (Brinlee) before the Knoxville conference. And finally, I’d like to take a look into the Tennessee line with whom a DNA connection has been found to exist for our Brinlees.
Ancestry Public Member Trees and Footnote
As I mentioned in the article below, I have started to put up a little bit of information in a couple of trees I started on Ancestry. I’ll probably go ahead and add information on my father’s family tree, but I may not do as much on my mother’s side as yet. I’m very curious to see who, if anyone, contacts me based on these trees. I’ll probably go ahead and contact some of the people who have some of “my people” in their trees. I should also do some more work on my pages on Footnote and perhaps add a couple of pages, since that seems to have turned up a major contact for me.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 4 June 2010
It has been a busy couple of weeks (I see it has been three weeks since I have written a newsletter – too busy and too tired).
Research
As far as genealogy goes, busy in a good way.
Norman
I have finally finished up the current stage of Norman research (not that it’s complete, but I have a good framework for “Descendants of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman”). What a relief!
One interesting item that popped up in this last bit of research was that in addition to the two cousins that I attended high school with – a first and second cousin on my mother’s side (and, of course, I was aware that they were my cousins), I have found a second cousin once removed (on my father’s side) who also attended the same high school, a year before me. Joseph Madison Carroll Norman was her great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather; her grandmother was the youngest of JMC’s children to have descendants and my great-grandfather was the oldest one to have descendants and was about 40 years older than her grandmother.
Another item that turned up when I logged onto Ancestry was a note under “Recent Member Connect Activity” that someone had downloaded a document on Rhuea Mae Brown, my great-uncle Oby Norman’s second wife, whom I always knew as “Aunt Rhuea.” When I clicked on the connection, it took me to a Public Member Tree with lots of pictures of Aunt Rhuea when she was younger. What a treat!
Brinlee
Now it’s onto Brinlee research, and a number of things have been happening to tell me that it’s time to work on the Brinlee line!
I have been contacted by a gentleman who grew up near Bun and Square Brinlee, colorful cousins of my father about whom there are quite a few stories. They lived very interesting lives, and as they lived their later years on the family farm without electricity or other type of power, were viewed as being a bit eccentric. From this gentlemen’s memories, as well as those of another man who actually wrote a book based on the conversations he had with the brothers when he was growing up, they were apparently quite beloved figures in the area. I have really enjoyed the memories that the two men have shared about the brothers.
To see if any of my other cousins on the Brinlee side had any information to share on Bun and Square, I sent out an e-mail. So far no additional information on this account, but one of the cousins did have some fabulous Brinlee research news: a DNA match has been found for one of “our” Brinlees among the descendants of a line of Brinleys/Brindleys/Brindlees in Tennessee – there had been some interest in these families, but we could not prove any connection. This is a whole new avenue to research, quite a bit more than what we had before.
Moore
I have been contacted by two Moore researchers this week, one through Footnote (from the descendant of a heretofore unknown brother of my great-great-grandfather William Spencer Moore) and one through an old GenForum post. I guess this shows that it is a good idea to have “cast a wide net” for information on ancestors. So, along those lines…
Ancestry Public Member Trees
I have not made a definite decision, yet, but I may go ahead and start some PMTs on Ancestry, probably four – one for each of my parents and my husband’s parents. I will not upload any GEDCOMs, but instead will just gradually add information.
So, in short – this has been a great week for finding new contacts and adding information from them!
Research
As far as genealogy goes, busy in a good way.
Norman
I have finally finished up the current stage of Norman research (not that it’s complete, but I have a good framework for “Descendants of Joseph Madison Carroll Norman”). What a relief!
One interesting item that popped up in this last bit of research was that in addition to the two cousins that I attended high school with – a first and second cousin on my mother’s side (and, of course, I was aware that they were my cousins), I have found a second cousin once removed (on my father’s side) who also attended the same high school, a year before me. Joseph Madison Carroll Norman was her great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather; her grandmother was the youngest of JMC’s children to have descendants and my great-grandfather was the oldest one to have descendants and was about 40 years older than her grandmother.
Another item that turned up when I logged onto Ancestry was a note under “Recent Member Connect Activity” that someone had downloaded a document on Rhuea Mae Brown, my great-uncle Oby Norman’s second wife, whom I always knew as “Aunt Rhuea.” When I clicked on the connection, it took me to a Public Member Tree with lots of pictures of Aunt Rhuea when she was younger. What a treat!
Brinlee
Now it’s onto Brinlee research, and a number of things have been happening to tell me that it’s time to work on the Brinlee line!
I have been contacted by a gentleman who grew up near Bun and Square Brinlee, colorful cousins of my father about whom there are quite a few stories. They lived very interesting lives, and as they lived their later years on the family farm without electricity or other type of power, were viewed as being a bit eccentric. From this gentlemen’s memories, as well as those of another man who actually wrote a book based on the conversations he had with the brothers when he was growing up, they were apparently quite beloved figures in the area. I have really enjoyed the memories that the two men have shared about the brothers.
To see if any of my other cousins on the Brinlee side had any information to share on Bun and Square, I sent out an e-mail. So far no additional information on this account, but one of the cousins did have some fabulous Brinlee research news: a DNA match has been found for one of “our” Brinlees among the descendants of a line of Brinleys/Brindleys/Brindlees in Tennessee – there had been some interest in these families, but we could not prove any connection. This is a whole new avenue to research, quite a bit more than what we had before.
Moore
I have been contacted by two Moore researchers this week, one through Footnote (from the descendant of a heretofore unknown brother of my great-great-grandfather William Spencer Moore) and one through an old GenForum post. I guess this shows that it is a good idea to have “cast a wide net” for information on ancestors. So, along those lines…
Ancestry Public Member Trees
I have not made a definite decision, yet, but I may go ahead and start some PMTs on Ancestry, probably four – one for each of my parents and my husband’s parents. I will not upload any GEDCOMs, but instead will just gradually add information.
So, in short – this has been a great week for finding new contacts and adding information from them!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friends and Family Newsletter Friday: 21 May 2010
Research
Spelling is important!
We all know that our ancestors’ names could and usually were spelled every which way imaginable, and that it’s important to be able to use the various tools such as Soundex and wildcard searches to be able to find them with any success. But it’s also important to learn the actual spelling of a name used by the person, no matter how strange. This is especially important when it turns out that the “actual spelling” is quite different from the “expected spelling,” because the algorithms used to produce variant spellings may not work.
In researching the Norman family, I was looking up information on a Geraldine Norman who married Elzie Savage – or so I thought. I found it difficult to find much on either one, and neither Geraldine Norman nor Geraldine Savage in Arkansas brought up the right person for me. I got lucky in searching Arkansas County Marriages on FamilySearch Record Search, as it brought up Elzy Savage when I input “Elzie Savage.” And the record indicated that he married Gearldean Norman. I didn’t pay much attention. I did not even give it much notice when I saw that the handwritten entry for her name on the marriage records in the image also used the spelling “Gearldean.” But when I found her handwritten signature as witness on another relative’s marriage document with this same spelling, it finally got through my thick head: “That’s how she actually spelled it.”
And then – surprise! – the proper spelling finally brought up a death record for her in Ancestry – in North Carolina, where I did not expect to find her (most of the family stayed in Arkansas or moved to the West Coast).
Brinlee
I am very excited this week about being contacted by a gentleman who knew Bun and Square Brinlee, the “eccentric” Brinlee brothers that I have mentioned previously on this blog a couple of times (which is how he found me).
He knew them when he was a child and teenager and had quite a bit of information on them, some of which confirms the family (and newspaper) accounts and some of which does not quite support the legends; it appears that a few things may have been exaggerated in the original stories. However, his information does confirm that they were indeed real characters, and in a nice way, too. He had been planning to write an article on them, and in the course of trying to find additional information found my blog.
I shared what I knew – what I had heard from other family members and found in research – and he shared some of his rich memories. He was also able to provide me with the correct name of the author who wrote a short book based on their adventures, and I may try to dig up a copy on Amazon, though apparently it’s rather expensive. One area I may try to pursue is whether Bun actually married a woman named Mary Josephine McDonald. The story goes that he did and that he was too scared to tell his parents, so he just came back home to live. Now to find out what other information some of my Brinlee relatives may have!
FGS
Finally sent in my registration materials. Knoxville, here we come!
Spelling is important!
We all know that our ancestors’ names could and usually were spelled every which way imaginable, and that it’s important to be able to use the various tools such as Soundex and wildcard searches to be able to find them with any success. But it’s also important to learn the actual spelling of a name used by the person, no matter how strange. This is especially important when it turns out that the “actual spelling” is quite different from the “expected spelling,” because the algorithms used to produce variant spellings may not work.
In researching the Norman family, I was looking up information on a Geraldine Norman who married Elzie Savage – or so I thought. I found it difficult to find much on either one, and neither Geraldine Norman nor Geraldine Savage in Arkansas brought up the right person for me. I got lucky in searching Arkansas County Marriages on FamilySearch Record Search, as it brought up Elzy Savage when I input “Elzie Savage.” And the record indicated that he married Gearldean Norman. I didn’t pay much attention. I did not even give it much notice when I saw that the handwritten entry for her name on the marriage records in the image also used the spelling “Gearldean.” But when I found her handwritten signature as witness on another relative’s marriage document with this same spelling, it finally got through my thick head: “That’s how she actually spelled it.”
And then – surprise! – the proper spelling finally brought up a death record for her in Ancestry – in North Carolina, where I did not expect to find her (most of the family stayed in Arkansas or moved to the West Coast).
Brinlee
I am very excited this week about being contacted by a gentleman who knew Bun and Square Brinlee, the “eccentric” Brinlee brothers that I have mentioned previously on this blog a couple of times (which is how he found me).
He knew them when he was a child and teenager and had quite a bit of information on them, some of which confirms the family (and newspaper) accounts and some of which does not quite support the legends; it appears that a few things may have been exaggerated in the original stories. However, his information does confirm that they were indeed real characters, and in a nice way, too. He had been planning to write an article on them, and in the course of trying to find additional information found my blog.
I shared what I knew – what I had heard from other family members and found in research – and he shared some of his rich memories. He was also able to provide me with the correct name of the author who wrote a short book based on their adventures, and I may try to dig up a copy on Amazon, though apparently it’s rather expensive. One area I may try to pursue is whether Bun actually married a woman named Mary Josephine McDonald. The story goes that he did and that he was too scared to tell his parents, so he just came back home to live. Now to find out what other information some of my Brinlee relatives may have!
FGS
Finally sent in my registration materials. Knoxville, here we come!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday: 7 May 2010
Research
Only a little bit of direct research was done this week, but I have been making research plans for the summer months leading up to the FGS Conference.
Norman
I am getting close to the end of the research I had planned for this stage of Norman research, but I am going to take a break soon so that I can get going on my Lizzie Smith brick wall before I go to Knoxville in August.
Smith
Here is what I plan to do for Lizzie Smith by August:
Put together a map, online and/or on paper, of locations in Tennessee where my top Smith candidate families lived. A couple of purposes for this: to see which families lived in or near the Knoxville area (said to be Lizzie’s birthplace; I do not know whether this is accurate) and see which lived closest to McMinn County, where the Bonner-Smith marriage of interest took place.
Recheck these families in the censuses – more Member Connect information may have appeared since I last checked, since that was just starting to show up when I made the big list of families. A couple of the earlier Member Connect entries helped me rule out a couple of families.
Start seriously locating online newspaper archives in the areas where Lizzie lived; this means focusing on the “known” part of her life (1891 forward).
Brinlee
May be putting together a Brinlee researcher mailing list.
Other
Received my Collin County Genealogical Society Membership – Now I can access at least some Collin Co. Chronicles; will start checking through these for Brinlee (and Lizzie Smith Brinlee) information.
Still working on my registration form for the FGS Conference.
NGS is in Charleston, South Carolina next year. That would be so much fun.
Only a little bit of direct research was done this week, but I have been making research plans for the summer months leading up to the FGS Conference.
Norman
I am getting close to the end of the research I had planned for this stage of Norman research, but I am going to take a break soon so that I can get going on my Lizzie Smith brick wall before I go to Knoxville in August.
Smith
Here is what I plan to do for Lizzie Smith by August:
Put together a map, online and/or on paper, of locations in Tennessee where my top Smith candidate families lived. A couple of purposes for this: to see which families lived in or near the Knoxville area (said to be Lizzie’s birthplace; I do not know whether this is accurate) and see which lived closest to McMinn County, where the Bonner-Smith marriage of interest took place.
Recheck these families in the censuses – more Member Connect information may have appeared since I last checked, since that was just starting to show up when I made the big list of families. A couple of the earlier Member Connect entries helped me rule out a couple of families.
Start seriously locating online newspaper archives in the areas where Lizzie lived; this means focusing on the “known” part of her life (1891 forward).
Brinlee
May be putting together a Brinlee researcher mailing list.
Other
Received my Collin County Genealogical Society Membership – Now I can access at least some Collin Co. Chronicles; will start checking through these for Brinlee (and Lizzie Smith Brinlee) information.
Still working on my registration form for the FGS Conference.
NGS is in Charleston, South Carolina next year. That would be so much fun.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 30 April 2010
Research
This started out as a bad research week for me, but it got better.
1. For a while I thought that the FamilySearch Record Search pilot page had gone away when all I could pull up from the main page was census information. I found links directly to the databases on Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, and was able to access the them, but many of the databases I use (Arkansas Marriages, Alabama Deaths, among others) did not have images (Texas Deaths did). Then later the images were back and new databases were added. Sigh of relief!
I was even able to find a few new items on some of the new databases.
2. We installed a new version of Microsoft Office for Mac on my computer, and Reunion has decided it does not want to use it for generating reports. It is telling me that we have to buy iWork. I’m doing the 30-day tryout for now, but really…. Oh, yes, and I don’t like this version of Office – palettes gumming up my screen, among other things. Why is it that some people can only feel they have accomplished something when they have completely redone something that didn’t really need to be changed?
Norman
Norman research earlier in the week did not go as swimmingly without the Arkansas Marriage images, but I’m back to work on them.
Brinlee
This has been a great Brinlee week and I haven’t even been doing any Brinlee research! Earlier in the week a second cousin once removed, a granddaughter of Clarence Brinlee (see A Noble Life) got in touch with me and has sent me information and pictures! I am so thrilled that I can find out more about Clarence and Ethel Brinlee.
Today another researcher, who is not part of my Brinlee family but descends from Brinleys who are not related and has been involved in keeping track of the various Brinlee/Brindley/Brinley families I this country, sent me some material he had received from a couple of Brinlee researchers. I was familiar with a little bit of it, but there is a lot of detail and some good information supporting the theory that John T. Brindley (m. Ann Twitchett) of Christian County, Kentucky was the father of George and Hiram Brinlee Sr. (my great-great grandfather), with whom the spelling “Brinlee” apparently started.
There is apparently a Brinlee family legend that Hiram Brinlee Sr.’s older brother George ran away from the family home in Kentucky to Texas when he was sixteen years old; by my reckoning, that would put him in Texas at the same time or earlier than Stephen Austin!
I also tried Google News Archive for "Brinlee" and there were a lot of hits; I'll have to take some time to go through all of them. One of the first things I found was an article on my father's death in a car accident.
Late Acknowledgement
For some reason I forgot to include Dee Akard Welborn at Funeral Cards & Genealogy in my acknowledgements for the Ancestors Approved Award. Thank you so much, Dee! Funeral Cards & Genealogy has also been added to my “Texas Team” list. I would also like to thank Jennifer at La Mia Familia for this award. You all are the greatest!
This started out as a bad research week for me, but it got better.
1. For a while I thought that the FamilySearch Record Search pilot page had gone away when all I could pull up from the main page was census information. I found links directly to the databases on Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, and was able to access the them, but many of the databases I use (Arkansas Marriages, Alabama Deaths, among others) did not have images (Texas Deaths did). Then later the images were back and new databases were added. Sigh of relief!
I was even able to find a few new items on some of the new databases.
2. We installed a new version of Microsoft Office for Mac on my computer, and Reunion has decided it does not want to use it for generating reports. It is telling me that we have to buy iWork. I’m doing the 30-day tryout for now, but really…. Oh, yes, and I don’t like this version of Office – palettes gumming up my screen, among other things. Why is it that some people can only feel they have accomplished something when they have completely redone something that didn’t really need to be changed?
Norman
Norman research earlier in the week did not go as swimmingly without the Arkansas Marriage images, but I’m back to work on them.
Brinlee
This has been a great Brinlee week and I haven’t even been doing any Brinlee research! Earlier in the week a second cousin once removed, a granddaughter of Clarence Brinlee (see A Noble Life) got in touch with me and has sent me information and pictures! I am so thrilled that I can find out more about Clarence and Ethel Brinlee.
Today another researcher, who is not part of my Brinlee family but descends from Brinleys who are not related and has been involved in keeping track of the various Brinlee/Brindley/Brinley families I this country, sent me some material he had received from a couple of Brinlee researchers. I was familiar with a little bit of it, but there is a lot of detail and some good information supporting the theory that John T. Brindley (m. Ann Twitchett) of Christian County, Kentucky was the father of George and Hiram Brinlee Sr. (my great-great grandfather), with whom the spelling “Brinlee” apparently started.
There is apparently a Brinlee family legend that Hiram Brinlee Sr.’s older brother George ran away from the family home in Kentucky to Texas when he was sixteen years old; by my reckoning, that would put him in Texas at the same time or earlier than Stephen Austin!
I also tried Google News Archive for "Brinlee" and there were a lot of hits; I'll have to take some time to go through all of them. One of the first things I found was an article on my father's death in a car accident.
Late Acknowledgement
For some reason I forgot to include Dee Akard Welborn at Funeral Cards & Genealogy in my acknowledgements for the Ancestors Approved Award. Thank you so much, Dee! Funeral Cards & Genealogy has also been added to my “Texas Team” list. I would also like to thank Jennifer at La Mia Familia for this award. You all are the greatest!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 23 April 2010
There is not much to report on this week. I am still plodding along with Norman family research. However, a few interesting tidbits continue to pop up here and there.
Research
Norman – Mystery Normans again
More on Arkansas Marriage Records and more on Mystery Normans: I found two sets of marriage records for Jackson “Jack” W. Norman – first for his marriage to Dicey D. Norman, daughter of Newton Norman and Rebecca Dulcenia Weston, and second to Mary Alice Karr (1913) – I’m guessing that she is a relative of Mary Frances Karr, Joseph Madison Carroll Norman’s third wife.
As for Zara L. Cotton, the only known husband of Jackson Norman’s mother, “Aunt Jane” Norman, the records I found for him on Ancestry included a record (no images, though) for “1884 Crime PO Fraud.”
Naming Patterns
So in the course of Norman research this week I encountered a couple of interesting examples of naming patterns. One guy, whose father’s last name was Richardson and mother’s last name was Richards, was named Richard Richards Richardson. Another guy was named Billy Ray (and a last name). His first son by his first wife was named Billy Ray Jr. His first son by his second wife was Billy Ray II.
Research
Norman – Mystery Normans again
More on Arkansas Marriage Records and more on Mystery Normans: I found two sets of marriage records for Jackson “Jack” W. Norman – first for his marriage to Dicey D. Norman, daughter of Newton Norman and Rebecca Dulcenia Weston, and second to Mary Alice Karr (1913) – I’m guessing that she is a relative of Mary Frances Karr, Joseph Madison Carroll Norman’s third wife.
As for Zara L. Cotton, the only known husband of Jackson Norman’s mother, “Aunt Jane” Norman, the records I found for him on Ancestry included a record (no images, though) for “1884 Crime PO Fraud.”
Naming Patterns
So in the course of Norman research this week I encountered a couple of interesting examples of naming patterns. One guy, whose father’s last name was Richardson and mother’s last name was Richards, was named Richard Richards Richardson. Another guy was named Billy Ray (and a last name). His first son by his first wife was named Billy Ray Jr. His first son by his second wife was Billy Ray II.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Family Newsletter Friday: 16 April 2010
Research
Norman
As I mentioned in "Transcription Tuesday: Arkansas Marriages and 'Permission Slips,'" I have been using FamilySearch Record Search images of Arkansas County Marriage records for my Normans - what a huge resource! There are some surprises in there - a number of heretofore unknown first or second marriage are showing up. Also, if you remember my Mystery Normans, I have found the marriage license for Jane Norman and Zara Cotton. I do not know definitively that this was her only marriage, but I cannot find any other marriage records for her. I have also found what looks like a double marriage (both had Normans, they were on the same day, and the grooms signed for one another. Only I don't know who the Norman is on one of the marriages; must be part of the family I have not gotten to, yet).
Sisson
In writing up a “Surname Saturday” post for the Green McCurry/Mary Emma Sisson last Saturday, I noted that my information on that family was pretty scant. Out of curiosity I hit a few databases just to make sure I had not overlooked some of the “basics,” and sure enough, I got a date of death for one of the children, Carlton McCurry. I found information both on Ancestry – in the Alabama Deaths 1908-1959 database – and on FamilySearch Record Search – in the Alabama Statewide Deaths 1908-1974 database. Although Carlton had a distinctive name and I suspected that the Carlton McCurry on Ancestry was the same guy, I could not be sure and so did not enter that information for him after I found it on Ancestry. The information on FamilySearch Record Search, however, even though it did not have an image, either, at least included Carlton’s parents, so that I knew it was him. Whenever Family Search and Ancestry cull information for these vital records databases, Family Search seems to win out for including more information.
Uploaded Pictures on Ancestry Searchable
When I read in the monthly Ancestry e-mail Newsletter that there is a search page for uploaded photos on Ancestry, I gave it a try. There were a lot of results for "Brinlee." I had found a few photos earlier doing census searches through the links provided to Public Family Trees, but this is a much easier way to find photos - pretty amazing. Now I am trying other names, but the search has to be carefully tailored for common names or you will get a bazillion hits.
Blog
I finally added a list of my favorite posts to the “Best Of” page on this blog.
Knoxville in August!
I made my hotel reservations last weekend and will be sending in my conference registration soon! I just have to figure out which dinners and luncheons to attend. History husband will be coming with me and will be spending his time on the “history” part in Nashville. I am sooooo excited!
My random subject this week: The Toaca
Also known as the semantron, semanterion, or xylon in English; the bilo in Russian. For more information you can check out the Wikipedia article on the semantron here. It is usually made out of a long piece of wood and is used to call the Eastern Orthodox faithful to worship in many Balkan countries and a few monasteries in Russia. It came into use before bells and is sometimes used in addition to bells, particularly at monasteries.
Norman
As I mentioned in "Transcription Tuesday: Arkansas Marriages and 'Permission Slips,'" I have been using FamilySearch Record Search images of Arkansas County Marriage records for my Normans - what a huge resource! There are some surprises in there - a number of heretofore unknown first or second marriage are showing up. Also, if you remember my Mystery Normans, I have found the marriage license for Jane Norman and Zara Cotton. I do not know definitively that this was her only marriage, but I cannot find any other marriage records for her. I have also found what looks like a double marriage (both had Normans, they were on the same day, and the grooms signed for one another. Only I don't know who the Norman is on one of the marriages; must be part of the family I have not gotten to, yet).
Sisson
In writing up a “Surname Saturday” post for the Green McCurry/Mary Emma Sisson last Saturday, I noted that my information on that family was pretty scant. Out of curiosity I hit a few databases just to make sure I had not overlooked some of the “basics,” and sure enough, I got a date of death for one of the children, Carlton McCurry. I found information both on Ancestry – in the Alabama Deaths 1908-1959 database – and on FamilySearch Record Search – in the Alabama Statewide Deaths 1908-1974 database. Although Carlton had a distinctive name and I suspected that the Carlton McCurry on Ancestry was the same guy, I could not be sure and so did not enter that information for him after I found it on Ancestry. The information on FamilySearch Record Search, however, even though it did not have an image, either, at least included Carlton’s parents, so that I knew it was him. Whenever Family Search and Ancestry cull information for these vital records databases, Family Search seems to win out for including more information.
Uploaded Pictures on Ancestry Searchable
When I read in the monthly Ancestry e-mail Newsletter that there is a search page for uploaded photos on Ancestry, I gave it a try. There were a lot of results for "Brinlee." I had found a few photos earlier doing census searches through the links provided to Public Family Trees, but this is a much easier way to find photos - pretty amazing. Now I am trying other names, but the search has to be carefully tailored for common names or you will get a bazillion hits.
Blog
I finally added a list of my favorite posts to the “Best Of” page on this blog.
Knoxville in August!
I made my hotel reservations last weekend and will be sending in my conference registration soon! I just have to figure out which dinners and luncheons to attend. History husband will be coming with me and will be spending his time on the “history” part in Nashville. I am sooooo excited!
My random subject this week: The Toaca
Also known as the semantron, semanterion, or xylon in English; the bilo in Russian. For more information you can check out the Wikipedia article on the semantron here. It is usually made out of a long piece of wood and is used to call the Eastern Orthodox faithful to worship in many Balkan countries and a few monasteries in Russia. It came into use before bells and is sometimes used in addition to bells, particularly at monasteries.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 26 March 2010
Tomorrow I’m going to the Fairfax Genealogical Society’s Spring Conference! Hope to report on it tomorrow night.
Research
Norman
Pretty much covered in “The Mushroom Factor.” I have found more sources this week and there is still a lot to do!
Smith
Although I’m going to stick with Norman research for another week or two, I have resolved to get as much Lizzie Smith research into shape as I can before the FGS Conference in Knoxville in August and I’m planning to do a Google Maps project to show the locations of the top Smith family candidates.
Who Do You Think You Are
My husband and younger daughter have been watching this show with me. This is the week my husband really, really got into it (getting out the books and checking out the units that Matthew Broderick’s ancestors served in). I knew the military aspect, especially the Civil War part, would get him hooked. He’s still telling me what further battles the 20th Connecticut fought in after Matthew Broderick’s great-great grandfather died.
Other TV of Possible Interest to Geneaholics
A new program that may be of interest to people who love History Detectives, Hoarders, and Antique Road Show: American Pickers. I caught the tail end of this show when my husband and daughter were watching it. Guys go around and buy “junk” at garage and barn sales, trying to get “deals” on items that are actually worth a lot of money. Occasionally they get the bad end of the deal.
Bad News for Maine and Massachusetts Researchers
At Upfront with NGS – Maine Bill May Close Vital Records and Mass. Records Closed to 1841?
Blog
In a fit of Texas and Aggie nostalgia inspired by Caroline Pointer’s post “Wordless Wednesday: Not Really Wordless” at Family Stories, I’ve added an “Aggie Joke of the Week” to the blog. I really miss those jokes.
Forgot to include an article in today’s Follow Friday:
Amy at We Tree in “I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found” relates the happy ending to her search for the “missing” graves of her great-great grandparents.
Research
Norman
Pretty much covered in “The Mushroom Factor.” I have found more sources this week and there is still a lot to do!
Smith
Although I’m going to stick with Norman research for another week or two, I have resolved to get as much Lizzie Smith research into shape as I can before the FGS Conference in Knoxville in August and I’m planning to do a Google Maps project to show the locations of the top Smith family candidates.
Who Do You Think You Are
My husband and younger daughter have been watching this show with me. This is the week my husband really, really got into it (getting out the books and checking out the units that Matthew Broderick’s ancestors served in). I knew the military aspect, especially the Civil War part, would get him hooked. He’s still telling me what further battles the 20th Connecticut fought in after Matthew Broderick’s great-great grandfather died.
Other TV of Possible Interest to Geneaholics
A new program that may be of interest to people who love History Detectives, Hoarders, and Antique Road Show: American Pickers. I caught the tail end of this show when my husband and daughter were watching it. Guys go around and buy “junk” at garage and barn sales, trying to get “deals” on items that are actually worth a lot of money. Occasionally they get the bad end of the deal.
Bad News for Maine and Massachusetts Researchers
At Upfront with NGS – Maine Bill May Close Vital Records and Mass. Records Closed to 1841?
Blog
In a fit of Texas and Aggie nostalgia inspired by Caroline Pointer’s post “Wordless Wednesday: Not Really Wordless” at Family Stories, I’ve added an “Aggie Joke of the Week” to the blog. I really miss those jokes.
Forgot to include an article in today’s Follow Friday:
Amy at We Tree in “I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found” relates the happy ending to her search for the “missing” graves of her great-great grandparents.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 19 March 2010
News
Forgot to mention last week, but I heard from another cousin through my blog - this one is on the Sisson side. I love meeting new cousins!
Research
I’m continuing, bit by bit, to input information on the gargantuan Norman family. However, to break things up a bit, during the last week I:
Posted some more tombstone photos on The Graveyard Rabbit Afield, posted same to Findagrave (it's so much fun - why didn't I do this earlier?). I'm already getting the itch to get out there and take more pictures. Spring must be coming!
Created some new Pages in Footnote.
Blogging:
I was so happy with the new Blogger template on Greta's Genealogy Bog that I switched templates on my other two blogs, The Graveyard Rabbit of Northern Virginia (I'm especially happy with that one) and The Graveyard Rabbit Afield.
Created a “Best Of” page for this blog (will add links soon).
I’ll try posting Follow Friday in a separate post for a while. With Follow Friday, Family and Friends Newsletter Friday, and Friend of Friends Friday, Friday is becoming very crowded. So, when I want to put a family group out there (aka “cousin bait”), I’ll go with the flow and do it for Surname Saturday.
This weekend I plan to collect all of the genealogy blogging prompts (Amy’s 52 and Lisa’s prompts for Women’s History Month, among others) in a single place for reference. I’m not able to keep up with a lot of them from day to day but there are some very good ideas there, so I’ll do some of them at my leisure (which means I may be celebrating Women’s History Month all year long – nuthin’ wrong with that!)
Finally …
And one (sort of) casualty of the snow – my poor boxwood, a former beauty:
Forgot to mention last week, but I heard from another cousin through my blog - this one is on the Sisson side. I love meeting new cousins!
Research
I’m continuing, bit by bit, to input information on the gargantuan Norman family. However, to break things up a bit, during the last week I:
Posted some more tombstone photos on The Graveyard Rabbit Afield, posted same to Findagrave (it's so much fun - why didn't I do this earlier?). I'm already getting the itch to get out there and take more pictures. Spring must be coming!
Created some new Pages in Footnote.
Blogging:
I was so happy with the new Blogger template on Greta's Genealogy Bog that I switched templates on my other two blogs, The Graveyard Rabbit of Northern Virginia (I'm especially happy with that one) and The Graveyard Rabbit Afield.
Created a “Best Of” page for this blog (will add links soon).
I’ll try posting Follow Friday in a separate post for a while. With Follow Friday, Family and Friends Newsletter Friday, and Friend of Friends Friday, Friday is becoming very crowded. So, when I want to put a family group out there (aka “cousin bait”), I’ll go with the flow and do it for Surname Saturday.
This weekend I plan to collect all of the genealogy blogging prompts (Amy’s 52 and Lisa’s prompts for Women’s History Month, among others) in a single place for reference. I’m not able to keep up with a lot of them from day to day but there are some very good ideas there, so I’ll do some of them at my leisure (which means I may be celebrating Women’s History Month all year long – nuthin’ wrong with that!)
Finally …
And one (sort of) casualty of the snow – my poor boxwood, a former beauty:
Friday, March 12, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 12 March 2010
I am writing this Friends and Family Newsletter late on Friday night! First, there was “Who Do You Think You Are" to watch, and it was an awesome episode. As a matter of fact, it came on right after I had finished and posted my article for the First Carnival of African American Genealogy: Restore My Name – Slave Records and Genealogy Research.
Then I was reading some blogs and saw that several had already changed to the new templates. I had seen the news the night before on GeneaBloggers and had given a trial run to some of the new templates, but wanted to make sure that my blog header banner would be compatible and that all of my pages would show up at the top (the template at the far right didn’t seem to include them all), so I hadn’t made the change, yet. But after seeing how other blogs looked I had to go to back to the Blogger Template Designer and play, and, well, you see the results. Things I love about the new templates:
- The flexibility. Now the blog really is like a doll. I can change its clothes. Today I have a subdued background, but be forewarned, on some days it may be much more colorful – despite the great craze for “simplicity” in blogs these days – and I especially like the patchwork-quilt background.
- The fact that I can keep my header banner (I am very attached to it). I had created an “extra, experimental” blog to try to work out a way to incorporate some of those neat free backgrounds that are available, but they only work on a template that doesn't seem to work well with my banner.
- The ability to have a nice, wide space for my posts as well as enough room so that some of my “gadgets” don’t get cut off.
Another change I have made is to add the "Woo-Hoo! Wall" to my Pages. This is modeled after Bart's "Fireplace Mantle" page at Stardust 'n' Roots. I moved most of the awards to this page, and I think that the front page of the blog loads more quickly now. Any new award would be featured on the front page for a while, and then eventually moved to the Woo-Hoo! Wall.
Now for the news.
Mystery of the week.
The oldest son of my gg-grandfather Elisha Berry Lewis, James West Lewis, was one of the Lewis kin who went to Texas from SC. He is shown on the censuses for Travis and Wilbarger Counties in 1880 and 1900. I had always thought he was buried there and that the J. W. Lewis shown in Midway Presbyterian Cemetery in Anderson, SC was not him, even though E.B. and some other Lewis family members are buried there. However, when I looked up his grave on Findagrave, the inscription indicates he served in Co. B, 4th SC Infantry. Sounds like him. He died in around 1904; was he taken to SC to be buried there or was he perhaps visiting family when he died there?
Blogs
Jo Lee at Those Who Went Before in “Who Do You Think You Are? Premiere WOW” tells about watching the premier episode in amazement when one of her own lines – Hodge – was featured in the show.
Schelly at Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog writes about the NY Times columnist Neil Genzlinger’s clueless and condescending reaction to WDYTYA in “America’s WDYTYA – Tree or Shrub?”
Bill West at West in New England, in “What I Thought About ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’”, writes that one of the graves from which SJP was shown brushing snow off was that of his ancestor Mary Eastey!
Tipper at The Blind Pig and the Acorn has posted another Appalachian Vocabulary Test. (Come on, broaden your education!)
In the belief that any good idea is worth stealing – I shall adopt this practice started by Cindy at Everything’s Relative – Researching Your Family History in her “Visits and New Follows” by noting that this week I started following these blogs:
Genealogy Freelancers
Climbing Joshua’s Tree
Climbing My Family Tree
Help! The Faerie Folk Hid My Ancestors!
Journey to the Past
Know Your Story
Roots and Branches
Future Plans
Nothing firm yet, and everything depends on having enough money left over after paying tuition bills, but I am tentatively starting to begin to think – just think – about possibly attending the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Knoxville August 18-21. We could actually drive there and my husband said he could enjoy the historical sights while I attend the conference. Just thinking …
Then I was reading some blogs and saw that several had already changed to the new templates. I had seen the news the night before on GeneaBloggers and had given a trial run to some of the new templates, but wanted to make sure that my blog header banner would be compatible and that all of my pages would show up at the top (the template at the far right didn’t seem to include them all), so I hadn’t made the change, yet. But after seeing how other blogs looked I had to go to back to the Blogger Template Designer and play, and, well, you see the results. Things I love about the new templates:
- The flexibility. Now the blog really is like a doll. I can change its clothes. Today I have a subdued background, but be forewarned, on some days it may be much more colorful – despite the great craze for “simplicity” in blogs these days – and I especially like the patchwork-quilt background.
- The fact that I can keep my header banner (I am very attached to it). I had created an “extra, experimental” blog to try to work out a way to incorporate some of those neat free backgrounds that are available, but they only work on a template that doesn't seem to work well with my banner.
- The ability to have a nice, wide space for my posts as well as enough room so that some of my “gadgets” don’t get cut off.
Another change I have made is to add the "Woo-Hoo! Wall" to my Pages. This is modeled after Bart's "Fireplace Mantle" page at Stardust 'n' Roots. I moved most of the awards to this page, and I think that the front page of the blog loads more quickly now. Any new award would be featured on the front page for a while, and then eventually moved to the Woo-Hoo! Wall.
Now for the news.
Mystery of the week.
The oldest son of my gg-grandfather Elisha Berry Lewis, James West Lewis, was one of the Lewis kin who went to Texas from SC. He is shown on the censuses for Travis and Wilbarger Counties in 1880 and 1900. I had always thought he was buried there and that the J. W. Lewis shown in Midway Presbyterian Cemetery in Anderson, SC was not him, even though E.B. and some other Lewis family members are buried there. However, when I looked up his grave on Findagrave, the inscription indicates he served in Co. B, 4th SC Infantry. Sounds like him. He died in around 1904; was he taken to SC to be buried there or was he perhaps visiting family when he died there?
Blogs
Jo Lee at Those Who Went Before in “Who Do You Think You Are? Premiere WOW” tells about watching the premier episode in amazement when one of her own lines – Hodge – was featured in the show.
Schelly at Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog writes about the NY Times columnist Neil Genzlinger’s clueless and condescending reaction to WDYTYA in “America’s WDYTYA – Tree or Shrub?”
Bill West at West in New England, in “What I Thought About ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’”, writes that one of the graves from which SJP was shown brushing snow off was that of his ancestor Mary Eastey!
Tipper at The Blind Pig and the Acorn has posted another Appalachian Vocabulary Test. (Come on, broaden your education!)
In the belief that any good idea is worth stealing – I shall adopt this practice started by Cindy at Everything’s Relative – Researching Your Family History in her “Visits and New Follows” by noting that this week I started following these blogs:
Genealogy Freelancers
Climbing Joshua’s Tree
Climbing My Family Tree
Help! The Faerie Folk Hid My Ancestors!
Journey to the Past
Know Your Story
Roots and Branches
Future Plans
Nothing firm yet, and everything depends on having enough money left over after paying tuition bills, but I am tentatively starting to begin to think – just think – about possibly attending the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Knoxville August 18-21. We could actually drive there and my husband said he could enjoy the historical sights while I attend the conference. Just thinking …
Friday, March 5, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 5 March 2010
Research
Gradually getting back into my research routine after Olympics, GeneaBloggers games, and being away for a few days.
Smith
Had a “duh!” moment during the GeneaBloggers Games. I have been wanting to make a “pushpin map” of Tennessee for my Lizzie Smith project. The map would show the county lines and the pushpins would represent known 1870 residences of the families that are viable candidates to be Lizzie’s family. Since Knox and McMinn counties are of particular interest, I wanted to get an idea of which families are closest to those areas. My original idea was to create or locate a good paper map and use real pushpins. But during the GeneaBloggers Games it occurred to me – duh! – why not use the My Maps feature on Google Maps?
Blogs
Added 6 March: Ack! I see that I left out a post that I definitely intended to highlight: "The Walk Home" at Donna Pointkowski's What's Past Is Prologue. Donna illustrates an important part of capturing memories: it is not just individual events, but also rituals and routines that are important. And her description of the sights, sounds, and smells of that walk is very evocative. I'll have to use that prompt!
Bart at Stardust ‘n’ Roots has a great idea about where to display awards (in his case, he put his GeneaBloggers Games medals there): a virtual Fireplace Mantle, aka a separate page on his blog. Think I’ll steal the idea.
Kathleen Brandt at a3Genealogy talks about citation generators in “Evidence Explained Missing.” Gotta get me one of those.
Jasia at Creative Gene has a fascinating (and oh-so-true) article on genealogy as therapy.
And finally, why am I getting the feed from some blog to do with Audi? It appears to have hijacked the defunct (I think) Graveyard Rabbit of Covered Bridges blog. Sploggers, blog hijacking (there is even a blog devoted to busting those guys that I discovered when I was trying to find out why my Comment Button didn’t work), spam comments – just sick of them all!
Gradually getting back into my research routine after Olympics, GeneaBloggers games, and being away for a few days.
Smith
Had a “duh!” moment during the GeneaBloggers Games. I have been wanting to make a “pushpin map” of Tennessee for my Lizzie Smith project. The map would show the county lines and the pushpins would represent known 1870 residences of the families that are viable candidates to be Lizzie’s family. Since Knox and McMinn counties are of particular interest, I wanted to get an idea of which families are closest to those areas. My original idea was to create or locate a good paper map and use real pushpins. But during the GeneaBloggers Games it occurred to me – duh! – why not use the My Maps feature on Google Maps?
Blogs
Added 6 March: Ack! I see that I left out a post that I definitely intended to highlight: "The Walk Home" at Donna Pointkowski's What's Past Is Prologue. Donna illustrates an important part of capturing memories: it is not just individual events, but also rituals and routines that are important. And her description of the sights, sounds, and smells of that walk is very evocative. I'll have to use that prompt!
Bart at Stardust ‘n’ Roots has a great idea about where to display awards (in his case, he put his GeneaBloggers Games medals there): a virtual Fireplace Mantle, aka a separate page on his blog. Think I’ll steal the idea.
Kathleen Brandt at a3Genealogy talks about citation generators in “Evidence Explained Missing.” Gotta get me one of those.
Jasia at Creative Gene has a fascinating (and oh-so-true) article on genealogy as therapy.
And finally, why am I getting the feed from some blog to do with Audi? It appears to have hijacked the defunct (I think) Graveyard Rabbit of Covered Bridges blog. Sploggers, blog hijacking (there is even a blog devoted to busting those guys that I discovered when I was trying to find out why my Comment Button didn’t work), spam comments – just sick of them all!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 26 February 2010
It has been a busy and exciting week.
Research
Norman
Still working on the Elijah Norman family. Also completed an eight-part series on “Mystery Normans and Source Citations.”
I love that some of my “Norman men” have names like Jewell and Fay.
GeneaBloggers Games
GeneaBloggers rock, and so do these games! This has been so much fun: cheering one another on and trying to learn new things, get things organized, and collect those source citations! Bravo to the organizers for making this so enjoyable!
Blogging
Karen at Karen About Genealogy has eloquently voiced some reservations about WDYTYA in “Why I’m Not Excited About WDYTYA.”
Congratulations to all of the bloggers who were named to Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs list. I am so honored to be in the company of writers whose work I admire.
Research
Norman
Still working on the Elijah Norman family. Also completed an eight-part series on “Mystery Normans and Source Citations.”
I love that some of my “Norman men” have names like Jewell and Fay.
GeneaBloggers Games
GeneaBloggers rock, and so do these games! This has been so much fun: cheering one another on and trying to learn new things, get things organized, and collect those source citations! Bravo to the organizers for making this so enjoyable!
Blogging
Karen at Karen About Genealogy has eloquently voiced some reservations about WDYTYA in “Why I’m Not Excited About WDYTYA.”
Congratulations to all of the bloggers who were named to Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs list. I am so honored to be in the company of writers whose work I admire.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 12 February 2010
The “Snowbound” Edition of the Newsletter will be especially long this week.
Research
Norman
Lots of research got done this week. I finished up with the Sudie Norman/William Cannon/Mitchell Blackburn family, started and completed inputting for the Martha Rebecca Norman/Enoch Fuller family, and moved on to the Newton Leonard Norman family.
There is a little bit of a Norman mystery brewing. Next to my Normans in Arkansas on the 1900 census I found a mysterious woman named “Aunt Jane” Norman whose last (or maybe not) husband was Zura Luzerne Cotton, a real character in his own right. Jane may or may not have been related to my Normans – that is the main mystery. Both of Jane’s sons appear to have been illegitimate. One – Jackson Norman – married Newton Norman’s daughter Dissie Norman, who died young. Because Dissie's last name remained the same, most researchers (except for Inez Cline) appear to assume that she was not married. Jane’s other son – Thomas Peat Moore – appears to be the illegitimate son of one of the sons of John Lawrence Moore and Rebecca Lucinda Wacaster, a family with several ties of marriage to my Normans. Jane is shown as a servant for this family and her sister Nancy is shown as a servant for another branch of the family on the 1880 census. It’s complicated but intriguing; I may write a series on this one.
Blogs
Nancy’s My Ancestors and Me featured a discussion of differences in approach between men and women: Do women go in more for collateral lines in genealogical research than men do?
Blue Eyes and Bluebonnets and Wood County Texas Genealogical Society have been added to the Texas Team (you can visit this spiffy new page by clicking on the tab at the top).
Hilarious video on the pitfalls of oral history (Discrepancies in Memories and Oral History) on Professor Dru’s Find Your Folks. Raise your hand if conversations like this have happened in your family. I thought so.
Carol from Reflections from the Fence demonstrated why Grandma has bragging rights! Also check out her post “Time Travel, Date, April 1, 2082.” When you’re hot, you’re hot! Actually, last I heard, Carol is all wet. No, really!
I got to be a cheerleader this week on SNGF. Terry Thornton, you rock. (BTDubs, did the Hill-Hogs win?) (Sorry I missed the end of the game; had to go play on the defensive line for another team!)
Off-Topic: In Defense of the Passive Voice
There is a deeply held conviction among many speakers of English (Americans? – I do not really know how the British feel about this issue) that the passive voice is a major no-no in writing.
Don’t Strunk and White advise against it (“Avoid the passive voice”)? Doesn’t almost every high school English teacher and college writing instructor advise against it? Don’t all the “female empowerment” types expressly advise women to avoid using the passive lest they be taken for waffling wimps?
This rant was occasioned by an article I found on my AOL page Tuesday morning: “Liz Christman, Enemy of the Passive Voice, Who Rocked Some Jaunty Hats,” by Melissa Henneberger on Politics Daily. Her subject was obviously a lovely and admirable lady. But I would so have been on the other side of the “Passive Voice Wars.”
The passive voice is real. It’s legitimate. It’s not going away. And I am speaking up in its defense.
Yes, there are times when a passive construction can be clumsy. So can an active construction. Clumsy constructions should be avoided.
Yes, there are times when the passive sounds evasive or wishy-washy. That is to be avoided – unless you do wish to be evasive or wishy-washy. You know, sometimes we simply do not want to come across with the force of an umpty-ton truck.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. There, see – a straightforward saying. Does writing “The founders of Rome did not build the city in a day” make the proposition any more forceful? No, it does not. In fact, it deprives this laconic bit of wisdom of a lot of its original impact. (Confession: This example was provided by a colleague who is also a defender of the passive voice.)
The “Rome” example points to a pitfall that often besets translators who endeavor to avoid the passive voice: In order to eliminate the passive voice, it is necessary to add an actor to the sentence, even if it is only the impersonal “they.” And guess what? Adding information in a (non-literary) translation (other than connecting words that simply do not exist in the source language) is a bad translation practice. It’s right up there with omissions and paraphrases.
There is a principle of narrative flow and cohesion at stake. The ability to choose either active or passive constructions gives us greater latitude in preserving the theme-rheme (also known as topic and comment) order of sentences so that one sentence flows logically into the next one. In translations, converting sentences from passive to active often means reversing this theme-rheme order. This leads to the type of disjointed and choppy prose that is the mark of a bad translation. (Ugh, please tell me why the spelling function in Microsoft Word does not recognize “rheme” as a legitimate word?)
Whew. I just had to get that off my chest. Thank you for listening.
Research
Norman
Lots of research got done this week. I finished up with the Sudie Norman/William Cannon/Mitchell Blackburn family, started and completed inputting for the Martha Rebecca Norman/Enoch Fuller family, and moved on to the Newton Leonard Norman family.
There is a little bit of a Norman mystery brewing. Next to my Normans in Arkansas on the 1900 census I found a mysterious woman named “Aunt Jane” Norman whose last (or maybe not) husband was Zura Luzerne Cotton, a real character in his own right. Jane may or may not have been related to my Normans – that is the main mystery. Both of Jane’s sons appear to have been illegitimate. One – Jackson Norman – married Newton Norman’s daughter Dissie Norman, who died young. Because Dissie's last name remained the same, most researchers (except for Inez Cline) appear to assume that she was not married. Jane’s other son – Thomas Peat Moore – appears to be the illegitimate son of one of the sons of John Lawrence Moore and Rebecca Lucinda Wacaster, a family with several ties of marriage to my Normans. Jane is shown as a servant for this family and her sister Nancy is shown as a servant for another branch of the family on the 1880 census. It’s complicated but intriguing; I may write a series on this one.
Blogs
Nancy’s My Ancestors and Me featured a discussion of differences in approach between men and women: Do women go in more for collateral lines in genealogical research than men do?
Blue Eyes and Bluebonnets and Wood County Texas Genealogical Society have been added to the Texas Team (you can visit this spiffy new page by clicking on the tab at the top).
Hilarious video on the pitfalls of oral history (Discrepancies in Memories and Oral History) on Professor Dru’s Find Your Folks. Raise your hand if conversations like this have happened in your family. I thought so.
Carol from Reflections from the Fence demonstrated why Grandma has bragging rights! Also check out her post “Time Travel, Date, April 1, 2082.” When you’re hot, you’re hot! Actually, last I heard, Carol is all wet. No, really!
I got to be a cheerleader this week on SNGF. Terry Thornton, you rock. (BTDubs, did the Hill-Hogs win?) (Sorry I missed the end of the game; had to go play on the defensive line for another team!)
Off-Topic: In Defense of the Passive Voice
There is a deeply held conviction among many speakers of English (Americans? – I do not really know how the British feel about this issue) that the passive voice is a major no-no in writing.
Don’t Strunk and White advise against it (“Avoid the passive voice”)? Doesn’t almost every high school English teacher and college writing instructor advise against it? Don’t all the “female empowerment” types expressly advise women to avoid using the passive lest they be taken for waffling wimps?
This rant was occasioned by an article I found on my AOL page Tuesday morning: “Liz Christman, Enemy of the Passive Voice, Who Rocked Some Jaunty Hats,” by Melissa Henneberger on Politics Daily. Her subject was obviously a lovely and admirable lady. But I would so have been on the other side of the “Passive Voice Wars.”
The passive voice is real. It’s legitimate. It’s not going away. And I am speaking up in its defense.
Yes, there are times when a passive construction can be clumsy. So can an active construction. Clumsy constructions should be avoided.
Yes, there are times when the passive sounds evasive or wishy-washy. That is to be avoided – unless you do wish to be evasive or wishy-washy. You know, sometimes we simply do not want to come across with the force of an umpty-ton truck.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. There, see – a straightforward saying. Does writing “The founders of Rome did not build the city in a day” make the proposition any more forceful? No, it does not. In fact, it deprives this laconic bit of wisdom of a lot of its original impact. (Confession: This example was provided by a colleague who is also a defender of the passive voice.)
The “Rome” example points to a pitfall that often besets translators who endeavor to avoid the passive voice: In order to eliminate the passive voice, it is necessary to add an actor to the sentence, even if it is only the impersonal “they.” And guess what? Adding information in a (non-literary) translation (other than connecting words that simply do not exist in the source language) is a bad translation practice. It’s right up there with omissions and paraphrases.
There is a principle of narrative flow and cohesion at stake. The ability to choose either active or passive constructions gives us greater latitude in preserving the theme-rheme (also known as topic and comment) order of sentences so that one sentence flows logically into the next one. In translations, converting sentences from passive to active often means reversing this theme-rheme order. This leads to the type of disjointed and choppy prose that is the mark of a bad translation. (Ugh, please tell me why the spelling function in Microsoft Word does not recognize “rheme” as a legitimate word?)
Whew. I just had to get that off my chest. Thank you for listening.
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