Why Should I Put My Family Tree in More Than One Place?

Why Should I Put My Family Tree in More Than One Place? 

We've discussed this in class, but almost anything you read at FamilySearch translates in clearer language than I can utter!
So read this blog/article if you want to know more on this topic. 

Friday's Class, October 2nd, 2015 (Beyond Basic Genealogy).

is Family History Month!

• Ten Things to Do This Month To Celebrate Family HIstory Month 

  1.  Hold a Family Tree Party 

  2.  Get a Facebook Account and Use it to Round up Your Relatives:  Once you have your facebook account, you may form a "group" page for one of your family lines.  You can have more than one group, but choose the first group according to whether you have two, three, or four contacts that also use facebook.  Give them the ability to invite other family members.

  3.  Create a Family Cookbook

  4.  Buy, Borrow or obtain from the library a book (fiction or non-fiction) on Genealogy/Family History.  Surf on over to Amazon.com or https://www.readokaloosa.org and see what you can "rustle up".

  5.  Check your tree and make sure you have a 1940 census entry for everyone alive at the time. For the missing ones, you can search the 1940 census for free.

  6.   Write two paragraphs about an ancestor's life.  (Got this one from the same article as #5): http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider/2014/09/10/17GenealogyThingsToDoIfYouHaveOnlyAFewMinutes.aspx  

  7.  Find and read a new blog.  http://tinyurl.com/ox3ncya (How to find a genealogy blog).

  

  8.  Get an account at FamilySearch.  

  9.  Make or adopt a genealogy checklist: Example:  http://www.capitalareagenealogy.org/forms/FRB_Resources_Checklist.pdf

  10.  Check out Free Handy Tools for Genealogists 

   

  Link to Newsletter:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TcyHDurckQGhUYH8FNCAe9umj7iJj4by0RRaZbGt20/edit?usp=sharing

   

   

   

New FamilySearch Collections Update: Week of September 14, 2015

New FamilySearch Collections Update: Week of September 14, 2015

To stay abreast of what's new at FamilySearch, subscribe to receive this blog, (the FamilySearch Blog, in the link above), on a regular basis.  

Click on the above link for this week's new collections.  Take note of whether the collections have been indexed or whether they are simply browse-able at this point in time.

Consider joining the indexing project.  For more info on that, access http://familysearch.org/indexing 

Beyond Basic Genealogy - Spotlight

 This link is for CLL Students Who are Taking the Beyond Basic Genealogy Class!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TcyHDurckQGhUYH8FNCAe9umj7iJj4by0RRaZbGt20/pub

What's Wrong with This Picture?!!

1940 Census Okaloosa County

I have looked at hundreds of census images.  Can you guess why I am unhappy with this one?  "T.J" Barks was married to Rebecca Jane (nee Arnett).  She may have gone by "Becky".  Never before in my experience have I seen "Mrs."  so and so; well, I don't remember seeing it.  It's bad enough that men had to go by their initials.  It's bad enough that all of Southern society (or is it broader than that?) accepted the whole "initials, only" thing, but to call the wife, not by her given name but by her husband's initials?!!

Okay, I'm not that upset about it; after all at least I found them in the census and I do have to thank the enumerator for doing his job, kind of.  I do have the 1930 Census Record and a marriage record for additional sources, plus a death record for Rebecca.  What I'd really like is to have known some of these people. 

The fun in family history research is that every time you add one little tidbit of information to a person's profile, you are one step closer to cementing his or her identity.

1900 Bibb County Alabama (Jesse Winters Family)

I found the census record for George B. Winters (well, he was a child in the family of Jesse F. Winters), for both 1900 and 1910. For once the ages for George actually synced! He was 15 in 1900 and 25 in 1910.

In 1900, the family was located in Bibb County, Alabama. See above.

1910 Walker County Alabama Census

In 1910, they were located in Walker County, Alabama, where other members of Jesse's "nuclear" family were already living, and/or they were living also in Winston County, which is contiguous to Walker County.

Building a profile for the family, one individual at a time, is a labor of love.

You will catch yourself getting dizzy as you find and add new sources, then go from one to the other source, making sure the story lines up, and sometimes finding that it doesn't!

RootsMagic has been a great piece of software for my genealogy, as it lets you add so many different types of facts and documents. I track my census info by adding it as a "residence" fact. That way, I have the enumeration date of the census. I "peg" the individual's info and include the occupation if there is one, in the notes section. I've also, at times, added the occupation as fact, so that I can track that (folks often had more than one occupation and I like to add as much to that individual's profile as I can locate).

At the beginning, some of our family groups are a little bit lacking in information; the chart is nearly naked, here!  However, as we pursue records and evaluate the data, the result becomes more and more satisfying.

Starting Off: A Little Slim on the Pickins'

Period research

Children Playing Outside

Fashions in 1910?  Why not?

Whatever helps you to understand your 1910 ancestor and his family is something that you should actively pursue!

For example, looking at newspapers from the era, (the grocery ads will shock you at how high prices have risen over the years) are another way to get in touch.

Occasionally, you might have the opportunity to get your hands on some letters that your folks received, diaries, journals, and/or photographs help; take that opportunity and get a glimpse of how  they lived their lives. Gather recipes and traditions where possible!

Family day trips and/or striking out on your own to visit museums and libraries is educational and fun.  Look for relics, monuments, and county histories.  Also, look for art and paintings that were created in that period or whose subject is about life "back when".

What began with my examination of relatives in a 1910 Census, has become so much more than I could have imagined.  Documents and records research can get a little dry, sometimes, but it is an essential step in the process.  Make sure you wring the truth, the facts, and the words between the lines from your original sources (see below). 
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 To make sense of records that mention your ancestor or a member of your ancestor's household, you can utilize one or all of the following methods:

•  Pull the facts from the record and put them in an Excell type spreadsheet. (LibreOffice is available if you don't have Microsoft Office).
• Enter the information in a genealogical software program. The beauty of a software program is that it can manipulate data and print out reports of various types and kinds.
•  Either use your software program to create a narrative report or just write the narrative yourself using the facts.  Reading the narrative will kind of "cement" in your mind a picture of the family dynamic and/or, also prompt you to assess whether the record makes "common" sense and calculate whether it all adds up, chronologically.  
• Use a variety of charts (paper, or digital) or create your own chart.  The "flow chart" exists for a purpose and well established genealogical practices have produced charts that will capture your attention, graphically.  Free charts are available online in a number of locations and you can search for those sites using Google or your fave search engine. 

Inmates Indexing Genealogy Records | Megan Smolenyak

Inmates Indexing Genealogy Records | Megan Smolenyak

Featured at the beginning of Megan's article, is a scrap of an original record that came from the Freedman's Bureau records.

Several years ago, these records (microfilmed representation) became available for indexing through the auspices of the genealogy department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Other interested groups partnered with them to prepare the records for prime time on the Internet.  I'm not absolutely sure whether more help is needed or not.  I have to do some research on that!

At some point, someone had the golden inspiration to utilize the prison population in Utah prisons to help index these records.  It was quite a project!

Megan Smolenyak shares the personal story of one prisoner  who participated.  It is a must read! You cannot deal with records of genealogical worth without becoming personally involved, at some point.  If you believe in redemption then this story will warm your heart.

When you stop to think about it, there are different types of slavery and much of humankind are or were in prisons of one type or another.  I recently discovered a relative, a cousin of my dad's, whose family  migrated from Utah to the West Coast in the early 1900's.  I found Cousin "Fred" in the 1930 Census of Folsom Prison in California. 

The Eastland Disaster, July 23, 1915, Chicago River, Chicago, Illinois

The Eastland Disaster, July 23, 1915, Chicago River, Chicago, Illinois

Is it really a coincidence that after several months of not participating in the FamilySearch indexing project, I should be prompted to get back into the swim of things?  I was indexing these deaths when I realized that I should probably look more closely at the names.  Perhaps one of them is linked to my husband's family, some of them who lived in Indiana and worked in Chicago.

Whether or not that turns out to be true, at the very least, it is peculiar that I should begin my return to indexing with this batch of records, almost exactly 100 years to the day of the accident.

The Genealogy Factor Archives | JSTOR Daily

The Genealogy Factor Archives | JSTOR Daily

The Genealogy Roadshow as featured on PBS this past season was even better than the first season.  Prominently featured on that show is genealogist, D. Joshua Taylor who has written some essays just recently under the heading, "The Genealogy Factor". 

You can locate this type of informal guidance and education by using your Google Alert setting. I use "Family History" as well as "Genealogy".  You can also follow a specific region, surname, or personality.  And probably much more.