I Got my Invitation for Ancestry DNA

And Gmail put it in the Spam folder.

So I didn't see it until today.  When it's too late.

Still pouting....

SNGF: Sayings Around the World

Here is Randy Seaver’s (Genea-Musings) latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1)  Find some of your favorite sayings, aphorisms, jokes, etc. They can be genealogy-related, or not.

2)  Translate them into Latin using Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT).

3)  Share them with us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status line or Google Plus Stream post (impress your non-genealogy friends with your Latin skills!).

I decided to translate a saying that I learned in a Czech class. The teacher was actually Moravian, and said that this was a typical Moravian saying (“You can tell it’s Moravian because it’s super-correct Czech”).  I took the English saying and had Google Translate put it into Latin, Czech (it didn't come out quite the same as the original saying I remember), and Georgian.  None of the translations seems to get the last part right, but here goes:

This is something you would say about a person you do not trust:

Si verba ponte ire nolim eam.

Pokud se jeho slova most, nechtěl bych jít na to.

თუ მის სიტყვებს იყო ხიდი, მე არ მინდა სიარული იგი.

Not Too Tired to Browse

the 1940 census, that is.

So enough whining and pining for my ancestors.  I have at least been able to spend a few hours of quality time with them since the 1940 census was released on 2 April.

My approach is to start with Texas counties where I know my parents’ families lived, especially counties with smaller populations.  Not all of them would be living there in 1940, of course, but I can  probably count on quite a few of them still being there.  

My father, his parents, and many of his siblings should be in Fannin County, though some of his older siblings might be in other Texas counties and even in other states.  Other counties to check will be Collin, Hunt, and Grayson.

Many members of my mother’s family, possibly including her and her first husband, may have started to move to California around this time; I am not really sure when the exodus from Texas started, but I would guess around the late 1930s or early 1940s, and I know that my older half-brother was born in California in 1945.  However, I was pretty sure that there would be any number of relatives still living in Baylor, and on this score I was correct.

Using Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub’s 1940 Census ED Finder page, I started at the beginning of the Enumeration Districts listed for Baylor County, 12-1. I made it through 30 of the 46 pages and did recognize many names of families that I knew when I lived there, but did not find any relatives.  The second night I decided to search on the last ED listed (12-7), since the lower-numbered ones appeared to be for the town of Seymour and I knew that my relatives lived on farms outside of town.

Bingo.

Of the 26 pages for ED 12-7, I downloaded 10.  

The first family I found were actually not direct relatives, but the family of my half-brother’s grandfather, Officer Roberts.  The other people shown in the household were one of Officer’s daughters (my brother’s aunt) and two grandsons whose parents (my brother’s uncle and his wife) had died a few years previously.  Officer was widowed by this time and would die not long after the census, and my mother and her husband would then take the two boys in.

The next family to be found were my mother’s parents and her three youngest surviving siblings (the youngest sibling died in the early 1930s).  I was surprised to see that my grandfather Kirby Moore was listed not as a farmer, but as a laborer for some kind of county project.  It did not surprise me that my grandfather received schooling only through sixth grade, but it did surprise me that my grandmother finished high school (though it was reported that her father was anxious to see that his children received a good education, including music lessons, my grandmother was still a child when he died and the family fortunes may have suffered after his death).

Kirby and Eula Moore in 1940

Other finds were relatives of my mother’s mother, several families who married into my mother’s family, the family of the father of one of my friends, and the family of the stepfather of another of my friends (these last two were on the same page, which was only three pages from my grandparents - perhaps we were fated to be friends).

Not bad for a start.  My next steps will be to finish browsing Baylor County, check the Lancaster area of Dallas County (where many of my mother’s aunts, uncles, and cousins would probably still be living), and then go on to Fannin and nearby counties.  

(And there has been other genealogy-related activity as well.  A researcher with whom I have corresponded in the past sent me the link to a newspaper article on Chronicling America with a fabulous story about my great-great grandfather Spencer Moore - stay tuned!)

Memorable Quotes from Thomas Jones

... at the Fairfax Genealogical Society Conference I attended this weekend:

“My genealogical program of choice is Microsoft Word.”

Mine, too.  Though I copy a lot of what I put down into the notes page on my Reunion program.  He explained that there are just so many things you can do in Word - timelines, tables, etc.

“It would be extremely hypocritical for me to talk about organizing your office” (with just the hint of a beginning of a grin).  You could hear the intake of breath in the audience, followed by chuckles.  Take comfort, fellow slobs - even the great ones struggle with those piles of paper!  

In response to the question “So Ellener married 3 times?’  -- “So far....”

Other awesome things from the Conference:

Great presentations - attended all of Thomas Jones’ presentations (and I think I’ve only seen one of them before), two of Dear Myrtle’s (she’s just amazing - so informative and inspiring and makes genealogy so much fun (and funny!)), Chuck Mason’s “Defining the Problem and Mapping the Research Plan” (I so have to pay serious attention to this and get my act together), and Pam Sayre’s “Effectively Using NARA’s Finding Aids and Website” (brilliance and energy in action - when she explains how to “drill down” in the website and shows two or three different ways to attack a search on the website, it’s awe-inspiring (and would be overwhelming if she didn’t have great notes in the presentation summary)).  

I’m finally getting my autosomal DNA testing done with Family Tree DNA!  Bob McLaren did a mini-presentation on DNA testing for genealogy on Friday night and announced conference sale prices for Family Tree DNA.  So on Saturday I sat down at Bob’s booth, did the swabs, filled out the info, and out it will go.  Plus I’m going to see if my male Moore cousins will do the 67-marker test.

Won a door prize - a subscription to Archives.com!

It was soooo wonderful to have a genealogy weekend.

I miss my blog.

I miss my fellow genealogy bloggers and commenters and research cousins.

I miss my ancestors.

I will be back.

SNGF Limerick

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has issued a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge that has temporarily brought me out of my hole: 

1)  Make up a limerick about genealogy - it should be A-A-B-B-A in rhyme (don't worry about iambic pentameter and all that).  So here goes:

There once was a family named Floyd
Whose descendants are really annoyed
That despite spats and suits
Those irascible coots
Have left us of clues quite devoid.

Thanks, Randy!

Transcription Tuesday: Murder Trial of William Carroll Brinlee

I’ve been working through Brinlees and am now researching the George Robert Brinlee family, specifically, George Robert's son William Carroll Brinlee.  William Carroll Brinlee is one of the list - not a short one - of Brinlees who have been brought up on murder charges.  W. C. Brinlee was Marshal of the City of Westminster in Collin County, Texas in the early part of the last century.  Somewhere I believe I have an earlier article mentioning a “Will Brinlee” shooting off a firearm in town; it may be the same person.  

In this case, while (spoiler alert) Brinlee was found guilty, he received a two-year suspended sentence.  Perhaps the principle of “He [the victim] had it comin’” applied.

Below are transcriptions of two articles from the Dallas Morning News, the first dated 29 November 1917 and the second dated 30 November 1917.

“JURY ON BRINLEE CASE HAD NOT REPORTED AT MIDNIGHT

“The murder case against W. C. Brinlee, charged with killing Jesse Hughes on Sept. 22, was submitted to the jury in Criminal District Court No. 3 at 3:45 o’clock yesterday afternoon.  Most of the day was consumed in arguments.  At the close of the case Judge C. A. Pippen complimented the attorneys on their uniform courtesy toward the court and each other and on their expedition in trying the case.

“Brinlee relied upon a plea of self-defense, his witnesses testifying that he was attacked by Hughes before he shot and that a companion of Hughes, who was present at the time of the killing, had threatened his life.  Brinlee is City Marshal of Westminster, Collin County, and a number of witnesses from that county testified that his reputation there is good.

“The jury was still out at 12 o’clock last night.”

“W. C. BRINLEE FOUND GUILTY AND GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCE”

“A verdict finding the defendant guilty of manslaughter and fixing the penalty at a suspended sentence of two years was returned in the Criminal District Court yesterday morning in the case against W. C. Brinlee, City Marshal of Westminster, charged with the murder of Jesse Hughes of Oklahoma.  Hughes was shot and killed at Central avenue and Main street on the night of Sept. 22.  Brinlee pleaded self-defense.  The jury had been out since Wednesday afternoon.”

Thanks to John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch for Amanuensis Monday, the inspiration for Transcription Tuesday.

Live from Falls Church, Virginia: It’s the iGene Awards!

As I get into the limousine to go to the iGene Awards on this cold day in January, I reflect on my oeuvre for the previous year and the award-winning posts.

It was a quiet year for me.  I did not write as much as usual and focused my efforts more on getting my house, research, and life organized and on reporting the results of my research, as shown in Great Cleaning Frenzy and “What I Learned Wednesday” posts.

So the iGene Award-winning posts from 2011 are a little on the light side.  To indulge in some compensatory egoboo, I am therefore planning on attending, right after the iGene Awards, the 2011 GeneaBlogJournalism Awards, which were invented by me to avoid viewing a screening of that godawaful reality show, “Greta’s Pity Party.”

So, here I am, in the audience, watching the acceptance speeches.  There’s someone railing about the divide between professionals and amateurs.  Now another is thundering something about bad punctuation in citations.  The next one .... zzzzzzz ..... (snort) - huh? Oh, is it my turn?

This years iGene Awards for Greta’s Genealogy Bog go to:

The iGene Award for Best Picture goes to:

“This Is the Face of Genealogy.”  It was one of those moments when the entire Genealogy Blogging Community pulled together to protest an insulting portrayal of genealogy and of an entire segment of the population.  The careworn face of the subject of this picture - my great-grandmother Angeline Elizabeth Matlock Floyd - epitomizes what I and so many of my fellow genealogists are searching for:  not rich/famous/eminent ancestors to brag about, but plain, ordinary people who in their perseverance and endurance made our lives, our way of life, and our many opportunities possible.

[A few raised fists, peace signs, and thumbs up are seen from sympathetic genealogy researchers in the audience.]

The iGene Award for Best Screenplay goes to:

“Memory Monday: We Were the Brady Bunch of Cat Families.”  This fluffy little musical comedy, and in particular its feline cast, has captured hearts near and far.  Nothing profound here, but the story is universal:  the challenges of blended families - and families are what genealogy is all about, aren’t they?  Cast:  Michael Cera and Ellen Page as the clueless parents, and a talented but anonymous bunch of cats as, well, the cats.

[A critic in the eighth row writes:  “Once again, the award goes to an inconsequential crowd-pleaser.”]

The iGene Award for Best Documentary goes to:

“Julius Koehl Address Study,” which demonstrated lessons learned about locating and mapping your families’ places of residence by showing rather than simply telling.  “Special Effects” of this post included Google Maps and photographs and an eye-popping chart that follows the documentary trail.

[Momentary disruption by a protestor in the back carrying a sign:  “We Want Citations, Not Flashy Effects!”  “Hey, jerk!” I yell out.  “The citations are IN the effects!”]

The iGene Award for Best Biography goes to:

“The Civil War and My Ancestors,” a somber and very loooong overview of my Southern ancestors’ involvement in the Civil War, including Civil War service records and other relevant records I have found, whether or not they were slaveholders, and their views (if known) on slavery and the Union.  A controversial choice since it consists merely of snippets of the individual lives of many different ancestors.

[A critic in the second row writes: “Why, oh why, must they always give this award to the longest and most snooze-worthy entry?”]

The iGene for Best Comedy goes to:

“Things I Don’t Care About in Genealogy,” a facetious rant by a genea-comedienne, riffing on all of the things she finds partially or totally irrelevant to the pursuit of genealogy.  (After considering a whole roster of irritating comedic actresses, I’m gonna flatter myself with a glam and witty casting choice: Ellen de Generes.)

[Some raucous hoots and whoops from the crowd, which is now a little squiffed after imbibing.]

And the most important awards of all - the GeneaBloggers Act of Genealogical Kindness Award - goes to three of my favorite genealogy bloggers:

Becky Jamison of Grace and Glory - for taking and sending me pictures of the graves of some of my relatives through the Brinlee line.

Jasia of Creative Gene - For thinking up and hosting the Carnival of Genealogy and the iGene Awards, events which inspire and unite the genealogy blogging community as well as showcasing their talents.

Anonymous - Yes, that’s right - this kind blogger did me a great big favor - unsolicited, I might add - but prefers to remain anonymous.  You know who you are and you rock.

***

Spoiler Alert:  Here are the results of the GeneaBlogJournalism [GBJ] Awards, which are given for exposes, editorials, and other random rants opinion pieces:

“The Law and Order Method of Genealogy” 

“Genealogy Monopoly”

“Toward a Genealogical Democracy”

 “Sharing and Scholarship”

“The Junk in my Yard”

“Why I Want to Remain an Amateur”

I gotta say, the GBJ Awards will never give the iGene Awards a run for their money - GBJ folks take themselves much too seriously and turn the whole thing into a snoozefest.  And since it is on Public TV, there isn’t even a decent potty commercial break during which you have time to make Tongue-Burnin' Supernachos or Uncle Jed’s Rip-Roarin' Party Mix to snack on.

SNGF: My Maternal Grandfather's Paternal Line

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has a habit (not deliberate, of course, but oddly on the mark with some regularity) of pinging on my “obsessions” and “NEED TO DOs” in his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

This week is no exception, and it reminds me once again that I blew my chance this year to take advantage of the sale at Family Tree DNA.

The challenge is:

Find a living male person in your database from your maternal grandfather's patrilineal line who could take a Y-DNA test. Answer these questions:

1) What was your mother's father's name?

2) What is your mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

3) Can you identify male sibling(s) of your mother's father, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

The answers:

1 - Kirby Runion Moore.

2 - Kirby Runion Moore’s father was Harlston Perrin Moore (born 4 December 1845 in Anderson County, South Carolina, died 12 December 1921 in Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas).  Harlston Perrin Moore’s father was William Spencer Moore (born ca 1813 in South Carolina, died 31 October 1871 in Anderson County, South Carolina).  William Spencer Moore’s father was Samuel Moore (probably born between 1856 and 1865, died between 29 January 1828 and 2 June 1828 in Greenville County, South Carolina).

3 - I don’t need to identify one of my grandfather’s brothers; I have several Moore-surnamed male first cousins who could take this test.

And that’s the rub.  I was mulling over taking advantage of the Family Tree DNA sale last year (both to get myself tested and to have one of my Moore cousins tested), but I blew it.  

So now I’m feeling bad about it all over again.  Thanks, Randy.

(JK - next time there is a sale, I REALLY mean to do this.)