Hanging from the Family Tree

Family Recipe Friday - Flumped Up Cheese

2012-02-17T12:45:00.006-06:00

Growing up in the 1950s Friday dinner was a meatless meal. Usually it was tomato soup or vegetarian vegetable soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes it was a tuna, potato chip, mushroom soup casserole. On occasion it was "flumped up cheese".

I don't know where the idea came from, maybe it was an effort by Mom to save bread. Big families used lots of bread when sandwiches were on the menu. Flumped up cheese was simply a slice of bread topped with a slice of cheese and broiled until the cheese puffed up and turned a golden brown. Mom would fill a cookie sheet with these open face sandwiches (about 6 to 8 to a sheet) and broil them all at once. It was a fast way to feed a crowd. The sandwiches had to be watched carefully as they could go from golden to burnt in the blink of an eye.

Eating the sandwiches was fun and easy. Just pierce the puffed skin of the cheese to reveal the yummy goodness underneath. Sometimes the crusty top of the cheese was peeled off and eaten out of The exposed bread crust was also toasty crisp while the bread itself was warm and soft. Today I might try a slice of tomato under the cheese!

Thankful Thursday - Thanks for Facebook Pages

2012-02-16T11:09:00.000-06:00

I am very thankful for Facebook and the ability to share with others that Facebook provides. My brother has launched a page where he uploads family pictures that he has access to. In posting these family pictures, he has made them accessible to siblings, nieces and nephews, and cousins that might like a copy for their personal use.

By encouraging others to send him photos that they wish to see posted, he has opened the lines of communication and reached out to our far flung family. I love watching the comments and discussion develop as we try to determine exactly who is in the photo and who they look like.

Cousins and siblings from CA to NJ and FL to WA have made use of this site and added valuable insights to our knowledge of our ancestors. Thanks Paul for creating your site!

Geneabloggers - Motivation Monday - Starting Over

2012-01-30T16:11:00.000-06:00

This is an ongoing series created by Dionne Kurti at Finding Josephine.

I'm glad I saw this blogging prompt! I know it has probably been available for a while, but I really needed it today. I was pretty good through December but just can't seem to get back to it. I guess it's true that the longer you don't post, the harder it is to begin again. I definitely need to set some goals to stay motivated.

In the future I hope to spend 2 days a month scanning and continue working my way through the alphabet with my family files. Of course, in April, it will be time for the 1940 census. I will work on indexing that so it is available as soon as possible.

In May, my daughter and will fly to Norway for a cruise to England, Ireland, Scotland, and France. With the exception of France, all of the countries are part of her heritage. We also will spend some extra time in Norway where my grandfather was born. I am currently trying to arrange meetings with descendants of his brother and half-brother still living in Norway.

I will be checking in to Motivation Monday from time to time to stay motivated. Thanks Dionne!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Treasure in the Mail Box

2012-01-26T05:37:00.001-06:00

Mom wasn't a diary or journal person. With 9 kids to manage and a large house to keep there just wasn't time. Just before Christmas I received a treasure in the mail! My sister mailed me a copy of a desk diary my mother kept for part of 1974. I didn't even know this existed.

Mom died in 1977, and was already diagnosed with cancer. She had moved to Florida for her health and to be closer to her sister and brother. The diary reflects her financial concerns as she notes a proposed budget and writes of her concern about jobs as a substitute teacher. Although her strength was failing, Mom maintained her volunteer activities at both her church and hospital.

I'm older now than Mom was in 1974 and I still have a lot to learn from her!

Tech Tuesday - N(ook) 2 A(ndroid) Revisited

2012-01-10T11:06:00.001-06:00

Last November, I wrote about converting my Nook Color to a tablet computer. I also commented that Barnes and Noble had made changes to their product line and was currently selling the Nook Color for $200.00 and had introduced a Nook Tablet which was selling for $250.00. The fact that I had paid $250.00 for my Nook Color and an additional $50.00 for the card to convert it to a tablet was initially disappointing, so I decided to see if I had jumped the gun and could have saved myself some cash by waiting.

I went to my local Barnes and Noble and spoke with one of the Nook sales reps. The Nook tablet is tied to the Nook market which has significantly fewer apps available than the android market. There are several genealogy apps available for the android while I have seen none available for the nook so far. There is also the question of cost. Barnes and Noble charges for many of the apps that are free in the android market.

In summary, I am very happy with my Nook/android tablet. The battery seems to last longer than my laptop's and I can take my genealogy files with me anywhere. I am very happy with the apps available and can even get dropbox. A computer that is between a laptop and a smart phone in size is just right for me!

Geneabloggers - 2011 in Review.

2011-12-31T15:44:00.000-06:00

This year I never formally set any genealogy goals for myself, so I will look back over what I have accomplished.

Blog - this year I published the same number of blog posts that I did in 2010. (88)

Indexing - I continued to index at both familysearch.com and ancestry.com

Education - I attended all of the webinars that I could and tried to keep up with new technology.

Volunteering - I volunteered at the local library and Family History Center weekly.

Teaching - I created and presented 3 powerpoint demos to help educate members of our local genealogy group.

Website - I created and maintained a website for our local genealogy group.

This past year I also attended Southern California Genealogy Jamboree and took a genealogy cruise.

I have also enjoyed the "cousin connections" I have made with fellow researchers in Ireland, Norway, Germany, and various parts of the United States.

image courtesy of equationtech.us

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 24 Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T05:35:00.000-06:00

December 24 – Christmas Eve
How did you, your family or your ancestors spend Christmas Eve?

As a child Christmas Eve was spent quietly with perhaps a visit from an aunt and uncle. We were always at home and usually admonished to go to bed early so "Santa can come".

After I married, Christmas Eve was at my in-laws. There was always a ham dinner and presents were opened. Later we would all go to Midnight Mass and return to the in-laws for ham sandwiches and more holiday fun before heading home. When the children came, we skipped Midnight Mass and went home so we could have Christmas Morning at home. Christmas Eve dinner at my in-laws was always special with wine, candles and everything. One year my father-in-law was doing candle making as a hobby and on the table that Christmas Eve there was a star shaped candle at each place with each person's name on the candle. Those candles were brought out every Christmas for many years to mark the holiday.

I think that was also the year he gave each of his 3 "girls" a candle he made in an apothacary jar. When we took the lid off the jar we each got a birthstone and pearl ring! Since Dave's birthstone was the pearl, the ring has always held a special significance for me.

Even after Dave's parents and my mother both moved to Florida, trips for the holidays still meant Christmas Eve with the in-laws and Christmas afternoon with my family. That left Christmas morning at our house with the kids! It seemed the best of all possible worlds to us!

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 22 - Christmas and Deceased Relatives

2011-12-22T18:45:00.001-06:00

Christmas and Deceased Relatives

Our family didn't visit the cemetery during the holidays. In fact the only times I personally remember going to the cemetery was when there was actually a burial taking place. My dad died Dec 28,1959. I definitely remember being there then! Because of the date of his death, he is always remembered during the holidays.

My husband, Dave, died Oct 24, 2005. It wasn't during the holidays and he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery so we don't visit his grave during the holidays either. Dave loved Christmas and loved nutcrackers, wooden soldiers, and toy trains for Christmas. Today he is remembered in both my children's homes by the nutcrackers scattered about and the winter paintings by Hargrove that they display.

About 1995, when we were living in Florida, Dave built some life-size toy soldiers to guard our house during the holidays. They were on display when grandson Aidan, then 1 yr old, came to visit. When Aidan returned to Florida in March of that year, of course they had been put away, his first words when leaving the car were "where's the guys?'

The "guys" have traveled with me from Florida, to Kentucky, and now to Texas. They proudly display their Chicago heritage by flying Bear flags.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 20 Christmas Music

2011-12-21T20:46:00.000-06:00

My association with Christmas music began very early. It began with the seasonal music I heard in church and progressed as parts of the pageants/shows I was involved with in school. Mother also had a recording on Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians singing the Nutcracker Suite. I think this made perhaps the strongest impression on me. Although it is not currently played, in fact I don't think I've heard it in about 60 years, I still remember some of the words. For instance some of the words to "The Waltz of the Flowers" were "Come to the garden wall, come to the waltz of the flowers. Lilies lilting, Dahlias dancing, and Forget-me-nots remembering." I used to play the record and dance to incessantly. I recent did a google search for the music for my granddaughter be cause parts of the Nutcracker Suite were part of her Christmas band program. I finally found the lyrics and downloaded a mp3 recording. Here is the link for anyone who would like to here it
http://www.myspace.com/556985011/music/songs/nutcracker-suite-pt-1-51460929

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 18 - Christmas Stockings

2011-12-18T10:58:00.000-06:00

Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it?

As a child we always had stockings. I don't remember where we hung them except for the year dad bought a fake cardboard fireplace. Mostly I remember that we would put them in a chair or a bpart of the couch that was our designated present area. No gifts under the tree in our house! With 9 kids it would never fit. In our stockings we generally got a tangerine, some nuts in shells, holiday hard candies, and a candy cane. There may have been small gifts, but I don't remember them.

Later my children had stockings filled in much the same way but with the addition of small gifts. As they got bigger the stockings got bigger and so did the gifts. One year, a friend gave me a pattern for a stocking with a small pocket on one side and a "patched on" toe and heel. I made one for both my kids, my husband, and myself. They remained our stockings until my daughter got married and had a family. It was time for new stockings! This time the original pattern was embellished by adding a name to each stocking. The gifts change as the kids get older, but the fruit, nuts, and candy canes remain the same. They hang by a real fireplace today.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 17 Grab Bag A Tradition Begins

2011-12-17T16:48:00.000-06:00

Grab Bag

Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

Re posted from December 2010

I didn't post a blog about Christmas gifts because, although it was a very special Christmas gift, it also began a tradition in our family.

My husband and I were expecting our first child in April. That year Aunt Kathy gave us a Christening gown for Christmas. It was a 4 piece set of embroidered white nylon consisting of a matching coat, dress, and bonnet with a plain slip. In our family infants are usually baptized within the first month of birth. Both of my children were baptized in that outfit. And a tradition was begun.

As time passed, each of my 17 nieces and nephews were baptized in the dress. As each child wore the dress, their name and date were embroidered on the slip. Pink for girls and blue for boys of course. When the next generation began the colors were changed to apricot/peach and mint green. My grandchildren didn't wear the dress since they had a dress made from their grandmother's and mother's wedding dresses. They did wear the slip so their names and dates have been added. I'm not sure which of my nieces or nephews has the dress right now but I'll send them a copy of this and see where it turns up.

UPDATE: The Christening Gown is in residence at my niece Holly's house and has been worn by her sons Liam, Declan, and Ian!

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 16 - Christmas at School

2011-12-16T05:18:00.001-06:00

December 16 - Christmas at School

Since we attended Catholic Schools, you would be correct in assuming that the story of Christ's birth played an important roll in Christmas celebrations. Christmas carols were sung in both English and Latin with German reserved for O Tannenbaum!

Mom had a wonderful carved wood button box. It had the domed lid of a true treasure chest. One year it was painted gold and multi-colored "gems" were glued to so it could serve as that held to gold offered to the baby Jesus by the three kings. Later it returned to being a button box but it stayed gold.

When I was in high school, the Christmas plays revolved around the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. One memorable year I was chosen to portray the Angel Gabriel and announce to Mary the news of her pregnancy. O7r high school choir always sang the "Hallelujah Chorus". It remains one of my favorite pieces of Christmas Music to this day.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Dec 15, 2011 Holiday Happenings

2011-12-15T03:33:00.002-06:00

The Holiday Happenings

Often times December to mid-January birthdays and anniversaries get over shadowed by the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year holidays. So we’re going to shine a spotlight on those family members and ancestors this time around. Select one or more December to mid-January birthdays and/or anniversaries on your family tree. Write a short tribute to or memory of those birthday guys and gals and write a toast to the anniversary couples.

In my family, the month of December is absolutely littered with birthdays! There is my brother Tom on Dec 6, my sister Peggy on Dec 16, and my sister Alice on Jan 1. My Grandmother Alice was also born on Jan 1. My in-laws anniversary is Dec 2 and Dave and I had our marriage blessed in the Catholic Church on Dec 23.

Nieces and nephew Leslie, Nichole, Nicholas, Annie, Samantha, and Holly, share December birthdays as do great niece and nephews Grace, Josiah, Austin, and Benjamin. Perhaps the most unique celebration is the Dec 26 birthday of my Aunt Dorothy who shares her celebration with at least 2 if not 3 of her 5 daughters.

On a more somber note is the remembrance of my dad who died on Dec 28.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Dec14, 2011 Fruitcake Friend or Foe?

2011-12-14T03:18:00.007-06:00

Fruit Cake – Friend or Foe?

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

I have always enjoyed Fruitcake, probably because it was always served with cream cheese and a cup of hot tea by my Irish relatives. It only appears during the holidays and in my house anyway was considered a treat. One year my brother-in-law was employed by the Rainbow Baking Co. in Colorado, so my mother ordered about 8 fruitcakes for gifting family members.

When I was newly married and not working, I made gifts for family. A few times I made fruitcake for family members. We always liked it but you had to start in about October. Later I switched to Cinnamon Swirl Raisin bread.

My children were not fans of fruitcake and had one fruitcake that they sent back and forth for about 10 years. It finally died in Floridawhen it was left on the floor. It seems that at least the ants like fruitcake.

Originally posted Dec 2010

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Dec13, 2011 Holiday Travel

2011-12-13T04:47:00.001-06:00

Holiday Travel

Did you or your ancestors travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel and who traveled with you? Do you remember any special trips?

Growing up, we were fortunate enough to live close to our relatives. In those days travel meant perhaps 30 minutes in the car, but mostly they came to visit us. My dad's family may have traveled from Chicago to Milwaukee for the holidays but that would have been about the extent of any travel.

After I married and had children, we traveled to both Elmhurst and Wheaton for the holidays. At the time we lived in Elburn and travel was limited to about 30 to 45 minutes. Hardly travel as it is measured today.

In 1976, with both sets of grandparents having moved to Florida, my husband and I loaded up the kids and car for a journey to Florida. We stopped in St Pete Beach to visit Dave's parents and spent Christmss Eve with them and on Christmas Dat attemped to leave for my mother's in Pompano Beach , on the east coast. Unfortunately our car refused to start. It was Christmas Day! We needed a new battery! After calling around, my husband and father-in-law found a gas station near the Interstate that was open and had a battery. Once it was purchased and installed we were on our way! We finally reached Pompano Beach in time for a late supper on Christmas with my mother and my sisters Peggy and Alice and brother Don who had moved to Florida with her. The highlight of the trip for my kids was swimming in both the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean in a single trip.

Later traveling for the holidays was limited to trips within Florida except for the year we went to Georgia to cut down a tree and bring it to Florida.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Dec 12, 2011 Charitable/Volunteer Work

2011-12-12T16:57:00.000-06:00

Charitable/Volunteer Work

Did your family ever volunteer with a charity such as a soup kitchen, homeless or battered women’s shelter during the holidays? Or perhaps were your ancestors involved with church groups that assisted others during the holiday?

In the 1950s and 1960s most charity work was done by the church or organizations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army or Community Chest. People then seemed to have fewer expectations of charity and were much more reluctant to ask for help. We did always make monitery donations but I don't remember any personal committments.

In the 1970s, our church began offering the chance to sponsor a family for the holidays. They would list family A,B,C etc and list person number 1,2,3 and anyone could choose one. If you choose for instance family B number 4 your slip of paper might say boy age 8, shirt size 10 pants size 8 and toy trucks. It was your option to supply one or all of the items. In our church, I am proud to say that all of the people were taken. We also had a mitten tree to supply hats and mittens to the needy in our northern Illinois area. That was also very well supported.

Today the Angel Tree tradition continues with our church in Texas. My grandchildren happily forego a gift every year to provide a gift to someone more in need. This is how compassion is learned.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Dec 11, 2011 Other Traditions

2011-12-11T05:08:00.001-06:00

Other Traditions

Did your family or friends also celebrate other traditions during the holidays such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Did your immigrant ancestors have holiday traditions from their native country which they retained or perhaps abandoned?

We grew up celebrating the German tradition of observing the feast of St Nicholas. On December 5th we would leave our shoes either outside the front door or just inside the door. To our amazement in the morning there was an orange, some nuts, and a small toy inside the shoes. I'm sure that my brother Tom thought this was an extension of his birthday since his birthday was also December 6. This tradition continued with my children and down to my grandchildren. Last week our church did candy canes in the shoes of children in the religious education program. The children had lined their shoes up in the hall outside of their classrooms. Even the High School kids get into the act. When I did this for my children, I used to save the prizes from their cereal for St Nicholas Day.
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Advent Calendar December 10. 2011 - Gifts

2011-12-10T16:03:00.000-06:00

Gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give? Are there specific gift-giving traditions among your family or ancestors?

Every year at Christmas we received new pajamas from Aunt Paul and Uncle Bill. It was the only gift we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve. Among the gifts I remember receiving on a regular basis were thw Life Saver Story Book, 10 rolls of Life Savers in a book shaped package. My favorite flavor was Butterscotch. I think that was from my Aunt Kathy. Someone, I can't remember who, gave each of us a silver dollar which was promptly confiscated by our parents so it wouldn't be spent on candy. I wonder what ever happened to those silver dollars?

Other gifts usually included a new book, socks, lotion, and maybe a diary or journal. The books are how I built my Nancy Drew collection!

Advent Calendar – December 8, 2011 Christmas Cookies

2011-12-10T10:30:00.001-06:00

Christmas Cookies

Did your family or ancestors make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?

I don't remember making Christmas Cookies at home while growing up and I don't remember either of my grandmothers doing much baking although my grandmother Bockie made a wicked cherry pie when the cherries were harvested from the tree in our backyard.

The Christmas cookies I do remember as a child was large tin of Maurice Lennell cookies. There were multiple layers of an assortment of cookies all nestled in their little red paper cups.

The Maurice Lennell tradition continued in my marriage as my husband bought them every year from the Telephone Pioneers. The beautiful tins were saved year after year to emerge from storage to save the cookies I made at home. Every year we made the usual cutout cookies to decorate. We also made Rum Balls, my mother-in-law's favorite, and spritz cookies.

The annual cookie shipment of kolachkes from Ohio was eagerly awaited by my in-laws and also by my children and I. Grandma Mary sent her Hungarian cookies every year and they were filled with apricots, ground nutmeats, and poppyseed. Sadly the tradition was almost lost with her passing but my daughter was able to find a recipe almost as good and she also makes them every year.

In 2003 we went to Germany to visit our grandchildren for Christmas and began the tradition of building Gingerbread Houses. The very first one used a butter box as a base and graham crackers for the walls and roof. The most important part was the candy decorations. That tradition continues today even though the kids can do it without supervision.

We usually use Wilton kits and they actually eat the gingerbread. My daughter and the girls continue the traditions and add new cookied to the menu keeping both the old and the new. Yes we still have Maurice Lennell Cookies during the holidays.

Advent Calendar 2011 Dec 1 - The Christmas Tree

2011-12-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

The Christmas Tree

Did you have a real tree or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree? What types of Christmas trees did your ancestors have?

When I was growing up we always had a live tree. Dad would bring it home tied to the roof of the car. It was usually 5 or 6 feet tall. After patiently checking each and every bulb Dad would add the lights. As children we got to add ornaments according to our reach. No stools or chairs allowed! Tinsel was dad's domain, he would patiently hand it strand by strand. We, on the other hand would stand about 2 feet away and throw it at the tree to get finished. At some point in time we added bubble lights to our collection.

photo courtesy of jimonlight.com.

This are the children as we appeared in 1958, the year before dad died. Baby Donald,at age 16 months is not in the photo.

Hansen Family photo from the album of HansenMurrayConnery Heritage.

Krbec of Bohemia - Surname Saturday

2011-11-19T06:17:00.001-06:00

In 1877 Jan Krbec and Barbora Sunka were married in Drazicicih Tabor Bohemia. Jan and Barbora immigrated to the United States in 1887, arriving in New York on the Elbe on May 21. Traveling with Jan and Barbora were their children, Frank age 5 and Marie age 10 months. They had traveled from Bohemia to Austria and boarded the ship in Bremen, Germany. Their plan was to remain in Chicago, Illinois. Their journey completed, Barbora and Ian spent their lives in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Krbec is a relatively uncommon name and there were only about a half a dozen families with that surname in Cook County, Illinois at the time of the 1900 census.

Researching the Cook County birth and death records, provided the original village of birth for Ian Krbec. The church records are digitized online at http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz. Using the records I was able to find the christening record for Ian Krbec in Chrastany, Bohemia in 1852.

Using a combination of Czech and Illinois records, I should be able to construct a timeline for the Krbec family and determine if Ian was connected to any of the other Krbec families. The search should prove interesting and fruitful since I have also discovered which parish the Krbecs belonged to in Cicero. Thanks to familysearch.org those records are also digitized online.

Happy Birthday Gus - Veteran's Day 2011

2011-11-11T08:58:00.001-06:00

Gus Gulyban was born 11 Nove 1921 in Martin's Ferry, Ohio. His parents were both immigrants from Hungary. His father, August, was a coal miner who had immigrated in 1905 as a laborer, coming to the United States to seek his fortune. His mother, Mary, traveled to the United States with her sisters, Elizabeth and Julia, to join their mother who had immigrated earlier. Mary found work as a domestic servant, which helped her learn English.

Gus grew up on the banks of the Ohio River, but never learned to swim. That was probably due to his mother's fear of water. Nevertheless. he joined the U S Navy during WWII and served on the USS Zebra and on the Lindenwald from which he was discharged. His brother John followed him into the Navy and remained in the Navy for 20 + years.

After leaving the Navy, Gus went to work for AT&T and settled in the Chicago, Illinois area where he married and raised a family. After retiring from AT&T, Gus and his wife, Wanda, moved to FL where he lives today.

Happy Birthday Veteran Gus Gulyban! One of many heros who served or are serving our country.

N2A - Nook to Android Tech Tuesday

2011-11-08T05:52:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was thinking of turning my Nook Color into an android tablet computer. I was originally inspired by articles by Dick Eastman about the possibilities. After doing some research, I decided to order a N2A card that could be inserted into the Nook and do the work for me.

The cards are available in 8, 16, and 32 gb sizes. I ordered the 16GB size and prepared to wait patiently. The card arrived in about 3 days and I followed the instructions and very soon I was holding a tablet computer in my hand. I did have a few issues with downloading apps but they were quickly resolved by checking the N2A website tutorials.

The best thing about using this card it that when the card is removed, the Nook returns to its original state. My new tablet does not have a camera but my phone does. It cost me about $50.00 to turn my Nook Color into a tablet computer. Today, I got an e-mail from Barnes & Nobel that the "new" Nook Color is a tablet already and sells for $249.00. Go figure! I got a tablet for about $300.00 and I'm happy with it.

I am currently beta testing Family Tree Maker for android and also have Families (android version of Legacy Family Tree) on my tablet and I love having my genealogy files with me anywhere.

Boarding School - a tradition? 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History Week 45

2011-11-06T12:23:00.000-06:00

Week 45. High School. Describe your middle and/or high school. Was it a large or small student body? Is the school still in existence today? How has it changed since you went there? Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

I went to a small private school for high school. The average class size was about 50 girls and was fairly evenly split between day students and boarders. I was a boarding student as were all the cousins that also attended the school.

It seems to have been a family tradition in my mother's family that boarding schools were the schools of choice. In the 1900 census, my mother's oldest sister appears in Michigan living at St Joseph's Academy in Adrian. Her family lived in Chicago and she was 6 years old. Her uncle was the school's chaplain which may explain why she was there at such a young age. The other girls in the family, along with their cousins, attended the same school until my mother made a break with tradition in 1928. My mother attended a more local version on the same school. At least it was in Illinois! Mom went to the school from 6th grade forward. By the time my cousins and I went to high school, the school was a 4 year high school only.

Sadly, the school closed in the 1972. In 2005 an all school reunion was held in the Chicago area. I was lucky enough to attend the reunion and in addition to seeing former teachers and classmates even saw some of my mother's classmates. (class of 1935) They not only knew her, they remembered her.

After the reunion, my class had a class party on our own. It is amazing that we seem to pick up where we left off. We may lose touch with each other, but we are still close.

Surname Saturday - Surname Spread

2011-10-15T14:41:00.000-05:00

It began with my husband and myself. Two surnames, adding our parents expanded the count to four. We're growing!

That is the point of genealogy isn't it? Growing your tree branch by branch. How does 2 names to 4 names grow to a total of 854 surnames?

My parents had 9 children, 8 of whom are married adding eight surnames to the count. My dad had one sister who added yet another surname. Her 8 children added more surnames. My mother had 4 siblings who married adding 4 more surnames to the tally.

I am doing a collateral tree and the fact that many of our ancestors came from families of 10 or more children is a major factor in surname spread. In the research I have done, religion, nationality, and culture do not seem to have had a bearing on family size. Farmers or shopkeepers, country or city dwellers, religious or not, the propensity for large families seems to be the same.

My parents grandchildren number 21 and 17 are married and have contributed a total of 20 grandchildren at this point. I don't see a shrinking of the family tree anytime soon!

Surname Saturday - Hennessys Where do They Come From and Why are They all Named Timothy.

2011-09-24T09:52:00.000-05:00

My great grandmother (b about 1800) was a Hennessy from Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland. Mary Hennessy was the daughter of John Hennessy and Mary Hayes. While attempting to track the ancestors of Mary Hennessy, I joined several cousins who were working to the same end. Some of them were the descendants of Mary Hennessy and some were the descendants of Mary Hennessy's sister Winifred.

We decided to pool our resources and see if we could determine who was who. In my experience, the Irish have a propensity to call everyone cousin, especially if the came from the same county and were acquainted with each other. Actually they probably were cousins when you think about it.

A Timothy Hennessy of Chicago had written a history of the Hennessy family of Counties Cork and Tipperary in 1954. This history began with birth, about 1700, of Timothy Hennessy in Dagan, County Cork.

As we combined our information, we were able to establish a 10 generation Hennessy Family Tree. It consists of 588 individuals and covers a span of 311 years. The family migrated from Cork and Limerick to Chicago, Houston, California, and Australia. There are 8 Timothys, 7 Thomas', 9 Michaels, and 7 James' and 8 Johns. 7 Marys and 5 Alices add to the confusion. Just to make it more difficult, about 1820 (+/- 10 years) Alice Hennessy (duaghter of John Hennessy and Mary Hayes) married Timothy Hennessy (son of Thomas Hennessy and Bridget Cleary).

Is the John Hennessy who married Mary Hayes an ancestor of Timothy Hennessy who married Alice Hayes? If not, where did he come from. This tree is not sourced and may never be due to the state of Irish records, but we do know the villages/parishes to look at for proof. What will we find.

The Tech Savvy Genealogists' Meme

2011-09-16T09:38:00.002-05:00

The Tech Savvy Genealogists' Meme

I invite anyone with an interest in genealogy to participate. If you don't have a blog and wish to participate you can write them up on Google+ or post them as a note on Facebook. Or you can just create your own document to keep track of your own goals.

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type - Since I can't bold, I will use **
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
Feel free to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?
Own an Android or Windows tablet or an iPad - will try to adapt my nook color.
Use a tablet or iPad for genealogy related purposes - see above
** Have used Skype to for genealogy purposes - introduced a cousin to video calls.
** Have used a camera to capture images in a library/archives/ancestor's home
** Use a genealogy software program on your computer to manage your family tree
Have a Twitter account
Tweet daily
** Have a genealogy blog (!!!)
Have more than one genealogy blog
** Have lectured/presented to a genealogy group on a technology topic - creating a gedcom file and uploading/downloading.
Currently an active member of Genealogy Wise
** Have a Facebook Account - use it all the time
** Have connected with genealogists via Facebook - very educational!
Maintain a genealogy related Facebook Page
** Maintain a blog or website for a genealogy society - Schertz Cibolo Valley Area Genealogists
** Have submitted text corrections online to Ancestry, Trove or a similar site
Have registered a domain name - it's under consideration.
Post regularly to Google+ need to establish the habit!
** Have a blog listed on Geneabloggers - Thanks, Thomas MacEntee!
** Have transcribed/indexed records for FamilySearch or a similar project
Own a Flip-Pal or hand-held scanner - use my camera
Can code a webpage in .html - why? Then I could figure out how to bold on my blog!
** Own a smartphone - and now I'm spoiled
** Have a personal subscription to one or more paid genealogy databases
Use a digital voice recorder to record genealogy lectures - still use pen and paper
** Have contributed to a genealogy blog carnival
** Use Chrome as a Browser
** Have participated in a genealogy webinar - every one I can!
** Have taken a DNA test for genealogy purposes - Not personally but purchased them for my daughter and son-in-law.
** Have a personal genealogy website - thinking about it.
** Have found mention of an ancestor in an online newspaper archive
Have tweeted during a genealogy lecture
** Have scanned your hardcopy genealogy files - trying to scan all documents
** Use an RSS Reader to follow genealogy news and blogs
** Have uploaded a gedcom file to a site like Geni, MyHeritage or Ancestry - have trees at both Ancestry and MyHeritage can have made contacts from both trees.
Own a netbook - have a 12" laptop
** Use a computer/tablet/smartphone to take genealogy lecture notes - will try to use mt nook's note taking feature.
Have a profile on LinkedIn that mentions your genealogy habit
Have developed a genealogy software program, app or widget
** Have listened to a genealogy podcast online - and was an audience member
** Have downloaded genealogy podcasts for later listening
Backup your files to a portable hard drive - use a cloud storage option.
** Have a copy of your genealogy files stored offsite
** Know about Rootstech - wish I could go
** Have listened to a Blogtalk radio session about genealogy - and won a prize
** Use Dropbox, SugarSync or other service to save documents in the cloud - Google Docs and dropbox
** Schedule regular email backups - I use backupify.
Have contriibuted to the Familysearch Wiki
Have scanned and tagged your genealogy photographs - a planned project for the future.
Have published a genealogy book in an online/digital format

From My Inbox - Treasure Chest Thursday

2011-09-15T03:13:00.002-05:00

It appeared in my inbox on Thursday. An e-mail from my cousin's husband stating that the Library of Congress is putting the entire Victor catalog online. I can only presume that Victor refers to the RCA Victor recording company. What a find! He included a link to the website that listed 4 recordings by Nathalie Hansen.

Nathalie was my great-grandfather's second wife and an opera singer in Norway. It would seem, judging from the recording dates that she came to the United States on more than one occasion. I had known of a trip in 1915 to visit her daughter Lili who was living in New York but hadn't looked further. I can see that more research is in order. It appears that Nathalie was recording in New Your between Oct 1916 and Sept 1918. Here I always thought she was in Norway with her children.

Thanks for the treasure cousin Paul!

Try this link to listen to Nathalie sing.

photo courtesy of Victor Discography.
© 2008-2011 Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.

11 September 2001 - My Experience

2011-09-11T03:01:00.001-05:00

I was at work that Tuesday morning and got a phone call from my husband who had just returned home. He walked in the door and turned on the Today Show just as the first plane hit. He called me since he knew our office would have no knowledge of the event. At first everyone thought it was just a terrible accident. Then the second plane hit. Shock and horror were setting in rapidly. Stunned disbelief can best describe my emotions. Then the Pentagon was hit. I knew immediately that we were at war!

Since I worked at a moving and storage warehouse, most of our crews were out on deliveries. There were no radios other than the dispatch radio in the trucks. I got on the radio and told our crews what was happening and said "We are at war!"

That night after work, we watched the towers fall over and over again, along with everyone else in the country. All of us were looking for something, anything to explain what had happened.

All air travel was grounded. My husband and I were to have gone to Germany on September 12. I wasn't afraid to fly, but there were no planes flying for several days. Finally on Saturday the
, we were allowed to board a plane for Germany. By chance we had chosen to use a German Airline originally. We had to go to Tampa to get the plane. I don't think the smaller airports, like Ft Myers, had the desired security yet. Security was so tight in Tampa that the man in front of us set off the alarm by having a foil wrapped stick of gum in his pocket. The crew on our plane had been grounded in the States for the past week and I'm sure they were very anxious to get home.

We landed in Germany on Sept 16. The Frankfurt airport was well populated with armed soldiers watching everyone. Our granddaughter Brigid didn't wait for us to get there. She arrived on Sept 14, 2001. We almost made it in time!

photo: Copyright© ShutterPoint Stock Photography 2003 - 2011.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Good Genealogy Luck?

2011-09-10T16:45:00.000-05:00

When have you had a dose of good genealogy luck? What document or resource did you find just by happenstance or chance? By being in the right place at the right time? By finding a family history treasure in your family's attic or basement? By finding a helpful document or reference without even looking for it?

I have a family tree posted at MyHeritage.com and just having it out there has led to new found connections on 2 different occasions recently. Interestingly both connections have reached out from Norway.

The first was the descendant of an ancestor of my great-grandmother Dorette Christensen Hansen. Jon lives in Norway and is my 4th cousin once removed. I will visit Jon when I am in Norway next May.

In the second instance, I received an e-mail from the grandson of my great-grandfather's son with his second wife. I haven't quite figured that relationship yet. Bjorn was asking about his great-great-grandfather. I was able to provide Bjorn with the name and approximate birth year for his great-great-grandfather.

What did I do to find these connections? Absolutely nothing! I published a tree and let it sit there.

Lightening the Load - Tech Tuesday

2011-09-06T03:03:00.001-05:00

As my genealogy horizons have expanded to include more traveling to more distant horizons, I have actively tried to reduce the weight of my load. For example, a flash drive is a lot lighter than a binder full of files. Last year I changed to a 12" laptop so I would have less to manage. I am still actively seeking ways to lighten my load.

Recently I read an article by Dick Eastman about turning an "iphone" into a scanner. It was very interesting but I don't have an "iphone". However, one of the comments was about the same type of program for droid phones. I have downloaded the Droid Scan Lite program to my phone and will be trying it out to see if it is a better choice than using the camera on my phone. It is free and added no extra weight to my phone.

Another recent change is my new nook color. I lost my previous nook and decided to replace it with the color version. That is reported to be able to be used the same way as a tablet. I can download and read PDF documents on the nook, but if I convert them to EPUB files, I can use the note taking capabilities of the nook. The program to convert PDF files to EPUB is a free download. I can access my google docs from the nook and log on to dropbox through the internet search capabilities. Further lightening my load through technology.

Labor Day - See How They Work

2011-09-05T03:25:00.001-05:00

Listening to GenaBloggers Radio the other night I began thinking about the occupations of our ancestors. Taken overall, this encompasses a large part of the occupation spectrum. There have been farmers, soldiers, cattle drivers, grocers, butchers, saloon keepers, realtors, fishermen, sailors, musicians, furniture makers, cabinet makers, painters of Pullman Cars, policemen, bankers, lawyers, coal miners, a dentist, travel agents, iron workers, jewelers, funeral directors, writers, postmen, accountants, salesmen, insurance agents, landlords, priests, poets, and railroad workers. There were union workers and non-union workers, blue collar and white collar workers alike.

Some of our ancestors changed occupations and some stayed with their original path. A soldier/musician in Norway remained both a soldier and musician. A German farmer immigrated to the United Stated and went from a laborer to a cattle driver to owning a meat market. An Irishman progressed from bartender, to saloon owner, to owner of a bowling alley, to owner of a Real Estate company and landlord. Said Real Estate Agency also incorporated both an Insurance Agency and Travel Agency. Another immigrant became treasurer for a large ship builder and then part owner of a iron work construction company.

Not to be outdone the distaff side of the family provided teachers, librarians, secretaries, a founder of a candy company, Sisters, a Postmistress, sales clerks, a travel agent, and most of all mothers. Mothers who taught the values of their parents to their children. Mothers who kept the cultural ties that were passed down from the immigrants who worked so hard to provide a better life for their families.

Let's salute the workers who saw that their families survived

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Dinner Bell

2011-08-25T10:04:00.000-05:00

Everyone has heard the phrase "ring the dinner bell" but do you actually have one? The photo above is the dinner bell now being used by a third generation. It may have been used earlier, but I am not sure of it's past history. It is a brass bell 4 inches from top to bottom and 2 1/2 inches across. As you can see it is stamped "India". It may have been brought back as a souvenir by my aunt and uncle who traveled there.

My mother used it in the 1940s and 1950s to call everyone home from play for meals. With 9 kids in the family she would have had laryngitis if she had called for each one of us separately. Or called out, as she put it, the "Litany of the Saints". Besides Mom thought it rude to yell and disturb others.

As my children were growing up, their neighborhood was wide and far ranging. Somehow they always heard the bell when they could ingore other calls and sounds. The ring of the bell is melodious and distinctive. The fct that it usually meant food also helped. On rare occasions, the bell was used other than at mealtimes. It was always successful at calling kids home!

Today the dinner bell is used by my daughter's family to summon people to meals. It even penetrated closed bedroom doors on the second floor. When used on the front porch to call those out playing in the neighborhood, it is much less intrusive that yelling out names and messages. Even though everyone has a cell phone, ringing the bell is much easier than calling 4 or 5 phones and no one says "I didn't hear you!".

Tech Tuesday - Oops It Happened Again!

2011-08-16T09:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday it happened again. I received an e-mail from someone who may be a distant relative. Yesterday I also received a snail mail from another distant cousin. Both of these connections are probably connected through the my great grandmother Mary Hennessy Fleming.

It has happened before! Both e-mail and message boards have very rewarding experiences for me. Through message boards (both surname and locality), I have made contacts in Germany, Norway, Ireland, and various areas of the United States with previously unknown people in my various lines. When I help people who want to begin their genealogy research, I always suggest that they use message boards in addition to the familiar search engines of fsamilysearch.org and ancestry.com.

Another way that technology has helped expand my research is the use of online trees at both ancestry.com and myheritage.com. Both vehicles have yielded positive contacts that I might never have made in any other way.

I think it is awesome that people can use the computers at their local library for free to create and research their family history. The tree can be created at ancestry.com, myheritage.com or familysearch.org. It is created online and stays there. It will be private unless the owner chooses otherwise and will be available on any computer with an internet connection.

Wow! What a time to be exploring your ancestry. What does the future hold in unlocking the secrets of the past?

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week 32: Dinner Time

2011-08-06T16:34:00.000-05:00

Week 32: Dinner Time. On a typical childhood evening, who was around the dinner table? Was the meal served by one person, or was it a free-for-all? What is dinner time like in your family today?

This challenge runs from Saturday, August 6, 2011 through Friday, August 12, 2011.

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

When I was growing up, we almost always had a family dinner. The exception was on Thursday nights when Dad worked until 9 pm. We sat at large table in the dining room and usually had a high chair next to Mom's place. We always said Grace before dinner and the food was served family style and passed around the table. We were allowed to serve ourselves and had to at least try everything. There might have been music in the background but never television.

When my children were growing up, we also had family dinners whenever possible. I also served family style and there was no television. We did enjoy candles on the table and soft music in the background. We talked about everyone's day and other topics of interest.

Today, I live with my daughter and her family. I am glad to note that they follow the same meal time practices. Dinner is a family event as often as practical and there is no TV, phones, or reading allowed at the table. Music and candles are part of the ritual as is the saying of Grace at every dinner. I feel proud that they are emulating the same practices they grew up with.

Tech Tuesday - Google Docs Revisited

2011-08-02T05:25:00.004-05:00

Recently I wrote about using Google Docs and its ability to follow me to any computer. I love that capability and also like the fact that I can allow others to edit any document I choose.

Another use for Google Docs is to create an interactive survey. I have created two different surveys recently for our genealogy group. You can chose to use multiple choice,text, and check boxes among others. Once you create your survey, you can allow others to edit or change the survey. The survey can be mass e-mailed to all members.

All the members need to do is click on their choices and click on submit at the end. Your respondent will receive a "Thank you for your submission" notice and their response will be entered into a spreadsheet that is created by the form. The spreadsheet format is time-stamped and easy to read. The first survey I sent out generated an almost 50% response rate. That's pretty awesome!

Military Monday - He was discharged!

2011-08-01T10:46:00.000-05:00

Some time ago my father-in-law told me a story about his father enlisting in the Army in 1917. I seeking to document the story, I found the following information in "Ohio Military Men 1917-1918".

On October 3, 1917 Gus enlisted in the Army at Martin's Ferry, Belmont, Ohio. He went off to serve his adpoted country and had a formal photograph taken in his uniform. On December 14, 1917,Gus was discharged as an enemy alien. Gus immigrated from Hungary and the United States was at war with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later Gus did become a citizen and register for the draft in WWII. Both of his sons served with the US Navy. His youngest son, John, made a career for himself in the Navy.

Name: Gustav. Gulhban
Serial Number: No Serial Number
Race: W
Residence: Martins Ferry, O.
Enlistment Division: National Army
Enlistment Location: Martins Ferry, O.
Enlistment Date: 3 Oct 1917
Birth Place: Hungary
Birth Date / Age: 27 4/12 Years
Assigns Comment: 21 Co 158 Depot Brigade to Discharge Private Discharge 14 Dec 1917. Alien enemy.
Volume #: 7

Tech Tuesday - Playing in the cloud with google

2011-07-19T03:48:00.002-05:00

Google likes to play in the cloud and is introducing me to a whole new way of doing things. I have attended several of the webinars on using Google by Lisa Louise Cooke and Thomas MacEntee. It is amazing all the things that google can help me do.

Google will sync my calendar with my cell phone. My google docs are available from any computer that I use. If I am at the library and log in to Google, all of my docs are there! No more forgotten files!

Today I worked in google forms and created a survey for our genealogy group. It can be e-mailed to members, filled out on line, and when returned the responses are automatically entered into a spread sheet! What could be easier? It even says "Thank You" when the form is returned. Once again all of this is stored in the cloud which allows you to give others permission to access the data. This could reduce the need for unnecessary meetings and phone calls. Collaboration at its best.

Shopping Saturday - Burbach Brothers

2011-07-09T17:24:00.000-05:00

In 1856 George Burbach immigrated to the United States with his wife Catharina and sons Hermann and Johann (John)from Villmar, Hessen, Germany. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Establishing a timeline for the family, we find George and family living in the 9th Ward of Milwaukee where they apparently remained. Geord listed his occupation as a laborer in the 1860 census. By 1874 Johann (John) Burbach was a butcher at 1830 Walnut in Milwaukee. In 1875 his brother Hermann joined the shop and it was named Burbach Brothers. As late as 1920 John's son Robert was listed as the proprietor of a butcher shop. There still appears to be a Burbach's Market in Milwaukee, but more research will be needed to ascertain a connection.

Independence Day - Then and Now!

2011-07-04T21:01:00.004-05:00

When I was growing up we had a different type of Independence Day. There were no sales and very little grilling. We did have fireworks and some areas had parades. I well remember laying on the ground and feeling the concessions of the fireworks exploding overhead. I can still smell the sulfur.

After I married, July 4th was spent with my husband's family and was an all day celebration. It began about 10 AM with getting to the house before the street was blocked for the parade. The parade didn't begin until 1 PM but it went right past the house and we had front row seats. All of our friends and their children were welcome. My father-in-law set up a step ladder for arial photography. There was food available all day long. Sloppy Joes, Burgers and Dogs on the grill, Potato Salad and Glorified Rice. Sodas and cold beer were at hand in coolers. More food when the parade was over. Then a short walk to the park with blankets and radios. As we waited for the fireworks to begin, the radios were tuned to the station that would sync their music to the show. After the show it was back to the house for cards while the kids slept. About midnight we would head for home after a very full day.

Later in life, we lived in a small rural community that did not have a local celebration. Some years we went to another town for fireworks. Some years we listened to the "Taste of Chicago" on the radio while sitting poolside on our deck. One year a neighbor had a backyard fireworks show. Every neighbor in the area had their hose handy for fire prevention.

In Florida we enjoyed fireworks from our lanai and one year from a beachfront location over the Gulf.

This year in Texas, we're back in parade mode. All three of the grands marched in the parade, as did the band mom. I was happy to anchor a lawn chair. Because of a burn ban there are no fireworks around here this year, so I guess it will be the Macy's Celebration.

Regardless of the format, the purpose remains. We are FREE and thank those who serve to keep us that way!

Wedding Wednesday -A Legacy of Weddings

2011-06-29T02:25:00.031-05:00

June 28, ????

This is a date permanently etched in our family's history.
Alice Fleming and Michael Connery were married June 28, 1893

Pauline Connery (daughter of Alice and Michael) and William F Ryan were married June 28, 1928

Elizabeth Mary Connery(daughter of Alice and Michael) and Donald Hansen were married June 28 1941 (my parents)

Alice Ryan (daughter of Pauline Connery) married George Sterling II June 28, 1951

William F Ryan II (son of Pauline Connery Ryan) and Barbara Brown were married June 28 1956

At least one more of my cousins also share this anniversary date. Who says the Irish aren't sentimental? Alice and Elizabeth wore the same dress.

Military Monday - Dan Hardie in the Spanish American War

2011-06-27T02:35:00.002-05:00

Dan Hardie left his home in Ohio at a young age determined to travel to world seeking adventure. At the age of 20 he enlisted in the U S Army. He joined the 1st Texas regiment and was assigned to Company F also known as the Belknap Rifles. They were based in San Antonio, Texas. During the war, his unit served in Cuba. Below is a photo of the camp in Cuba. Camp Columbia was established in 1898 outside of Havanna.

(photo courtesy of Marilyn Silva)

After the war, Dan Hardie settled in Miami, Florida where he became both the Fire Chief and the Sheriff of Dade County. Still later, he managed a casino on South Beach and owned a boat marina in Miami, FL on the Miami River.

SCGS Jamboree 2011 - The Last Day

2011-06-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

Sunday, after the 2 Breakfast meetings, there were a total of 4 one hour blocks of time to attend presentations.

My first choice was "Something WIKI This Way Comes" with Drew Smith. Drew discussed wikis and why we should consider adding to the entries if we do have additional information. Since a wiki is a collaborative endeavor, our additions can help with accuracy. For instance you might add a link to your society's web site on a local library, or government website.

Later, I moved on to Daniel Pottenberger's presentation on "FamilySearch 2011 and Beyond". Daniel explained the updated FamilySearch Website. He also discussed new filters, wiki pages, online research courses, and access to the Brigham Young Family History Archive.

After lunch at the infamous "Blogger Island", it was time to head out to the tent for Lisa Louise Cooke's live podcast of "Genealogy Gems". Lisa's first guest was a handwriting analyst and graphologist Paula Sassi. Paula did an analysis of a letter submitted by Heather Wilkinson Rojo. It was a letter written in the 1890s and Heather said that the analysis was very accurate for what is known about her ancestor. Later Bruce Buzbee of Roots Magic made an appearance and 2 audience members played a genealogy game for prizes. Lisa is a real pro and made it look easy. It seemed that everywhere I looked in the audience I saw GeneaBlogger members.

The final session I was able to attend was "Researching Your Chicago Ancestors From Afar" presented by Nancy E Low (aka SassyJane). Nancy had a plethora of online sites for researching and suggestions for little used methods of exploration. New to me were ideas like searching the Recorded of Deeds, and Building Permits. Checking for marriage records in Crown Point, Lake, Indiana was also mentioned as a research idea. Crown Point was the Gretna Green of the Midwest.

With the end of the last session at 3pm, people seemed to gather again at Blogger Island as people began saying good-bye and snapping last minute photos. It's over until next year.

SCGS Jamboree - Saturday

2011-06-20T00:07:00.000-05:00

Saturday the breakfast meetings began at 7:30 AM. The one on "21st Century Marketing for Genealogy Societies" given by Thomas MacEntee was recorded and also broadcast live as a webinar. I had planned to catch it that way but had trouble accessing the wifi. I'll watch it at the SCGS website.

At 8:30 Janis Martin presented "Unclaimed Persons: Every Life is Worth Remembering". I have been a part of this group since it began 3 years ago. In fact, I blame them for my facebook addiction. Joining facebook was a requirement to participate in the group. I think this group serves a very worthwhile purpose and really enjoy participating.

"20th Century Public Records" with Tom Underhill was full of alternate ways to search for people. He mentioned some unusual sources such as property records, military unit sites, and e-Bay. Tom was very interesting and had a fun presentation.

Next was "Blogger Summit 2" a roundtable panel discussion featuring Dick Eastman, Joan Miller, Elyse Doerflinger, and Kathryn Doyle. Some of the topics discussed were affiliate marketing, finding your blog niche, copyrights, disclosures, and privacy policies. It was a spirited discussion moderated by Thomas MacEntee with lots of questions from the audience.

Lunch was a hot dog and soda purchased at the outside concession stand. I took it back to Blogger Island in the Exhibit Hall since there wasn't a chair to be had in any of the eating areas. Eventually there were some vacant chairs at the Island and some more Bloggers appeared with their lunches. Everyone compared their experiences and took lots of pictures. (Just search for Jamboree 2011 on facebook or google to find pictures).

After lunch, I attended Daniel Horowitz's "Family Tree Builder 5.0: What's New in the Next Generation of Genealogy Software. Daniel is connected with MyHeritage.com and explained how the software works to match cousins and resides in the "cloud". I actually recently had a connection to my great-grandmother's grandfather find my tree recently and make a match. He lives in Norway and I plan to meet him when I am in Norway next Spring.

My final Saturday session was with Kerry Bartels and was "The Many Facets of the National Archives Website". It was a 90 minute session with lots of info about a subject I know little about. It was extremely informative but I will still keep Kerry's syllabus handy as I explore the website.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor?

2011-06-18T16:30:00.000-05:00

Hey geneaphiles, it's Saturday Night again - time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Determine who your most recent unknown ancestor is - the one that you don't even know his or her name.

2) Summarize what you know about his or her family, including resources that you have searched and the resources you should search but haven't searched yet.

3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a status on Facebook.

My most recent unknown ancestor is the father of Leopold Peterson b 1851 in Sweden. Leopold came to the United States in 1870, landing in Massachusetts. According to the 1892 Chicago voters roll, Leopold applied for citizenship in Massachusetts and his oldest child was also listed as having been born in Massachusetts.

Going through the marriage records for 1873 did yield the correct record for Leopold Peterson who married Caroline Neilson in Boston on 11 Aug 1873. According to the marriage index Leopold's parents were Peter and Anne. How helpful! Using the Boston City Directory for 1873, I found the minister on the record Rev George S Noyes was at the Bethel Church on North Square in Boston. I have also looked for his parental information on his naturalization application but all it says is when he came here and that he came from Sweden.

I have also checked the Swedish records on FamilySearch and checked out the Norwegian Emmigration records on the Digitalarkivet. Next I will try to find out where the records of the Bethel Church might be housed in hopes that they are more complete. I hope they would yield the parents last names or at least the county in Sweden if not the actual parish. I am surprised that Leopold's origins are so elusive since Leopold is a relatively unique name in Sweden.

SCGS Jamboree - Day 1 revisited

2011-06-16T13:10:00.000-05:00

Last week I said that I would write in more detail about the Jamboree. On Friday morning the Marriott lobby was full of Geneabloggers meeting each other and renewing previous friendships. It was fun to meet our virtual friends in person and put the names to real faces. The Geneablogger Welcome Bag Team of Amy Coffin, Linda and George Lenertz, Thomas MacEntee, and Joan Miller assembled an awesome collection of goodies. The contributing vendors are: Ancient Faces, Archives.com, Family Chart Masters, Family Roots Travel, FamilySearch, Family Tree Magazine, Family Tree DNA, GeneaBloggers, Genealogy Bank, Genealogy Gems Podcasts, Genealogical Publishing Company, Geni, Heritage Makers, Legacy Family Tree, Light Impressions, My Heritage, National Institute of Genealogical Studies, Maureen Taylor - The Photo Detective, Photos Made Perfect, Roots Magic, WikiTree, and World Vital Records. Whew! I love everything and will enjoy sharing it via the Genealogy Room at our library or as door prizes at our genealogy group monthly meetings. I parked all my stash in my room since it was too much to carry around in addition to my laptop and a 435 page syllabus.

At 1 pm the Jamboree officially opened with a First-Timer Orientation. I skipped that since I was there last year. On Thursday night I had picked the presentations I wanted to attend. A difficult chore since I could only choose 3 of the 30 sessions offered. I tried to select the presentations that were on topics that I was less familiar with.

Friday I attended Thomas MacEntee's session "They're Alive - Searching for Living People" because I felt it would help me with my work on Unclaimed Persons. Thomas discussed various search engines, some of which were new to me. He also talked about using social media and unlikely places such as court records and alumni associations.

My second session was with Drew Smith, of The Genealogy Guys Podcasts, on the topic of Understanding Copyright and Plagiarism. Drew's talk included what can and what cannot be copyrighted and well as what is considered in the public domain. In this era of "copy and paste" the distinction between permission to use and attribution is an important consideration.

The final session I attended on Friday was presented by Stephen Morse, PhD titled "From DNA to Genetic Genealogy: Everything You Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask". Dr Morse is also the creator of the "One Step" site. He gave a very clear presentation covering chromosomes, DNA, genes and defined SNiP and STiR as well as marker and allele. I feel more comfortable with the subject now. This is a pretty new area of genealogy and we are beginning to recognize more inherited traits and medical conditions.

It was truly a mind boggling day and I can only hope that I absorbed all of the useful information that was presented. The day finished with a salad in my room while I decided which of the available 50 seminars I wanted to take. Boo! I could only pick 5!

Wordless Wednesday - My Dad

2011-06-14T20:14:00.000-05:00

Donald George Hansen 14 May 1910 - 28 Dec 1959

Jamboree Day 3

2011-06-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

2 sessions down and I'm about to go watch a podcast given by Lisa Louise Cooke. This morning Drew Smith spoke about Wickis and how to use and post on them. Later I attended a session on Family Search 2011 What's New?

When I get home next week - i hope to write more about the sessions I attended in detail. Since Friday I have attended 12 hours on instruction on the various areas of genealogy. There was a total of 120 hours of presentations to choose from. Mind boggling and amazing!

Jamboree day 2

2011-06-11T10:10:00.000-05:00

It's not even 8 AM and the lobby is full of genealogists blogging and checking their e-mail. I came down about 7:15 and was far from the first person here. Thomas MacEntee is speaking at one of the breakfast sessions and it is also being webcast for those not at the meeting.

Last night I selected the presentations I hope to attend today. It was difficult since there are 10 sessions in every time period. Today there is the opportunity to attend 5 sessions. The first one I'll attend is Janis Martin's talk about Unclaimed Persons. Then 2 more before the lunch break.

SCGS Jamboree - Day 1

2011-06-11T00:11:00.000-05:00

Today the Jamboree started at one o'clock and offered 3 1 hour sessions. What an awesome choice of topics to pursue! I'm trying to pick topice I'm mot too familiar with, so I chose Copyright and Plagiary with Drew Smith and A DNA presentation by Stephen Morse. I think they were wise choices as I learned a lot. Another class I took was about finding living people. Thomas MacEntee had lots of good hints. I hope it will help me to locate "Unclaimed Persons".

The Geneablogger Radio show was well attended tonight! There were about 20 people watching Thomas try to do a radio broadcast. A great time was followed by the Ice Cream Social for Geneabloggers. I have pictures, but they say what happens in Burbank stays in Burbank!

Tech Tuesday - Educating Myself

2011-06-07T04:38:00.003-05:00

Wow, what happened to the month of May? I just realized that I didn't do much blogging. I looked back at the month and realized that I had spent the month on webinars. What a wonderful source of education. I learned about creating web sites and have now set up 2 websites on weebly.com. There were 2 webinars for that.

I watched 2 webinars by Thomas Macentee about Google docs and forms. I now have new tools to play with on the websites and in other areas.

I learned more about storing photos from Maureen Taylor. Now I just need to put my knowledge into practice.

There are lots of free webinars out there you just need to look around. Some of my favorite places for locating webinars are Familysearch.org, Ancestry.com, Legacy Family Tree, and Roots Magic. The Southern California Genealogy Society is also sponsoring a series of webinars. Most webinars are archived by the host for later viewing if you are not available at the scheduled time. Geneawebinars.com is a great place to find what is coming up and when. You can even add it to your google calendar.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Books

2011-06-06T02:34:00.001-05:00

Week 23. Books. What was your favorite book, or who was your favorite author from your childhood? What do you like to read now? Books or other formats? This challenge runs from Saturday, June 4, 2011 through Friday, June 10, 2011. Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

I have always been a reader. Our house was only a block from the library and I had a card from the time I was seven years old. I love to read almost anything, including cereal boxes (we couldn't bring books to the table) and telephone books. Once I looked through a Hungarian phone book to see if there was a family connection in Budapest.

As a child after graduating from Dick and Jane, I moved into the Bobbsey Twins followed by Judy Bolton and Nancy Drew mysteries. Cherry Ames (nursing) and Vicki Barr (stewardess) were career orientated series. I also read the Hardy Boys mystery series. Soon I graduated to Agatha Christie and other mystery authors.

I still love mysteries and read Robert B Parker, John Sandford, Mary Higgins Clark among others. I have always used the public library system still do. I am a very happy user of the digital library operated by our local library. I can check-out books from home to download to my computer and then read them on my nook. No more late fees!

This is the Face of Genealogy

2011-06-05T18:22:00.000-05:00

Surname Saturday - Hansen of Asker, Akershus, Norway

2011-06-04T00:39:00.001-05:00

My Hansen line is from Asker, Akershus, Norway. Asker was once the name of a farm which grew to become a town in the county of Akershus. Asker is the plural form of the word Ask which means Ash Tree. In 1948, Asker was incorporated into the city of Oslo. Geographically Asker is a coastal area but it also has hills and woods. It is also known as a gardening area as it is rural in nature. My great-grandfather was born at the Garnison Menigheten parish in Oslo, Akershus, Norway. He always referred to himself as coming from Asker, Akershus, Norway. According to the 1875 census Asker had a population of 9611 living on 1333 farms.

Asker within the county of Askershus

Askershus within Norway.
images courtesy of Wikipedia

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 19 Bedroom

2011-06-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. Week 19. Bedroom. Describe your childhood bedroom. What furniture did it contain? Were there curtains, wallpaper or paint? Was it messy or clean? Did you share a room with your siblings?

I grew up in an 8 room Victorian house in the Chicago suburbs. The house was built around the turn of the 20th century. There were 4 bedrooms on the second floor. The room I shared with my sister Suzy overlooked the backyard. The furniture was Black Walnut. There was a double bed with a large arched and carved headboard. There was also a hi-boy chest with doors that concealed the drawers. The bedroom set also included a dressing table with a three section movable mirror. The room had 2 closets. My sister and I shared one and the other was reserved for Mom and Dad's extra storage. Mom kept her formal wear and their riding boots and jodhpurs there. One side of that closet had built in drawers and a cabinet on top. Later Suzy and I moved into the smaller front bedroom when the 3 littler girls needed the bigger room. As compensation for losing the bigger room, we got new bedroom furniture. It was a cherry twin set with both a chest and dresser. We had a matching round table to put between the beds.

I do remember a set of tulip patterned quilts that we used as bedspreads for a while, but cannot recall wall colors or curtains. The bigger room did have a small window set very high into the wall and there we displayed our "Storybook Dolls". (out of the reach of little hands)

My daughter used parts of the Black Walnut bedroom set for several years until we moved to a more modern house and bought the kids new furniture. The furniture was passed on to another family.

Surname Saturday - Gulyban from Hungary

2011-05-07T00:12:00.001-05:00

As I work my way through my surname list I have come to the name Gulyban and its various spellings. The Gulyban line I am researching originated in the county of Borsod, Hungary.
It is from Northeastern Hungary. Ellis Island records show 45 Gulyban arrivals between 1893 and 1923. There are many more when "creative" spelling is used for searching. The 1920 federal census lists 54 Gulybans born in Hungary. Again this does not include alternative spellings such as Gooban.

Wikipedia provides the following information: Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (Hungarian pronunciation: [borʃod ɒbɒuːj zɛmpleːn]) is the name of an administrative county (comitatus or megye) in north-eastern Hungary (commonly called "Northern Hungary"), on the border with Slovakia. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Nógrád, Heves, Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. The capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county is Miskolc. Of the seven statistical regions of Hungary it belongs to the region Northern Hungary. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén is the second largest county of Hungary both by area (after Bács-Kiskun) and by population (after Pest County). 40% of the land is arable. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén is one of the most geographically diverse areas of Hungary. It lies where the Northern Mountains meet the Great Hungarian Plain, thus the northern parts of the county are mountainous – with some of the highest peaks and deepest caves in the country –, the southern parts are flat.

Augustinus Gulyban, my immigrant, came to the United States in 1905 at the age of 15. As many others had, he went to stay with friends or relatives until he got his feet under him. He settled in eastern Ohio like many Hungarian immigrants and worked in the coal mines. Gus, as he was also known, enlisted in the US Army in 1917 only to be rejected 3 months later as an enemy alien. Gus was naturalized in 1918.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Weather

2011-04-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

Week 18. Weather. Do you have any memorable weather memories from your childhood? How did your family cope and pass the time with adverse weather? When faced with bad weather in the present day, what do you do when you’re stuck at home? Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her ha

nds: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History.

Living in the Midwest has provided me with an abundance of weather memories as both a child and as an adult.

As a child, I remember sitting on our screened in front porch while Spring thunderstorms raged around me. It was a great time to curl up with a book. In the winter it was snow. We lived a block away from a park that had a hill for sledding and a rink for skating. We loved to go skating in the evenings. All the 7th and 8th graders went and practiced showing off for each other. I remember the large piles of snow left as the snow plows cleared the streets and parking lots. I remember the summer vacation at my aunt's cottage in northern Indiana when my parents hurriedly packed up the car and all of us children in the middle of the night to run from an approaching severe storm. (Hurricane or tornado not sure which) I remember the greenish yellow sky of tornado weather and waiting for the storm to come.

As an adult and young mother, I remember the Blizzard of 1967. My husband got stuck on the way home from work and did not get home for 3 days. From that day forward I learned to be prepared for any eventuality. I also remember the tornado outbreak on Palm Sunday in 1965. There was the year we had an ice storm over New Year's and has a house full of people. Luckily we could walk to the little general store for supplies. We played lots of games over those 3 days.

When we retired and moved to Florida, we were greeted by Hurricane Andrew and my exit from Florida was marked by Hurricane Wilma.

Yes, I have seen some weather over the years and have learned to be patient and wait it out. Given time, it does change!

Techno Tuesday - Capturing Microfilm Images

2011-04-26T05:11:00.002-05:00

In the Family History Center I use on a regular basis, the only film reader with a printer no longer works. With the advent of digitized images, these readers and their printers may never be repaired. Although ancestry.com and familysearch.com are working hard to digitize all records, there are still many occasions when we will need to resort to the old fashioned microfilm. Without a working printer, how can I take home a copy of the image I need?

In the FHC I volunteer at, we recommend taking a photo with your phone or digital camera. While not perfect at least you have a copy of the image. A couple of years ago, I heard that placing a sheet of pale yellow or pale blue paper over the image would reduce the glare. It works ok but the paper is a little too opaque. I had also heard that cellophane serves the same purpose. Last week I stopped at the Dollar Tree store and picked up a roll of cellophane used to wrap Easter baskets. I didn't find any yellow but I did find a light green roll. I cut a single layer to fit a standard page protector. Placing the cellophane and sheet protector over the image, I have tested the proceedure. I got a satisfactory image. I have found that the cellophane reduces the glare from the projector and turning off the flash helps. This should also help with the micro fiche readers. Time to check out the 1/2 price after Easter sales for cellophane.

Sharing Memories (Week 17): Easter

2011-04-26T01:29:00.000-05:00

It's Week 17 of our Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey Follow along each Sunday as we write and share our memories of childhood. Your descendants will be thankful that you did! Write here as a comment, or on your own blog, or in a private journal, but please write! This series is proposed by Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy

Easter at growing up in the Chicago area was a mixed bag of weather! Would it be sunny and nice or snowy and ugly? Or somewhere in between? A certainty was Mass on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday Mass was the culmination of a religion orientated weekend. The Friday before Easter (Good Friday) was a day of penance. There was either church from noon to 3PM or total silence at home for those three hours. Good Friday was a meatless day with no snacking allowed.

Mom would change the ribbons and flowers on 5 straw hats to go with whatever dress each girl was wearing. The boys had a least a dress shirt and tie. Sometimes a jacket if they fit into one on hand.

My Dad's greatest pleasure was to march his whole family down the main street of town to the church and fill an entire pew at church. He was so proud of his family! Unfortunately we were between the ages of 17 and 2 when he died. The traditions continued though thanks to Mom's perserverance.

We always had Easter baskets to find. Lots of candy and spring toys. Toys like paddle balls, jacks, kites, and sometimes roller skates. I don't remember coloring eggs, but I'll bet we did.

Our favorite Aunt Kathy's birthday was near Easter so that was always part of the celebration. I don't remember what was for dinner it might have been leg of lamb. I do remember there was always company. I didn't know it then but the company was family. People whose relationship I didn't know have turned out to be cousins of my Mom and Dad's. It is funny how many of the people of my childhood have turned out to be members of my family tree.

Military Monday - An Irishman in Cuba

2011-04-25T05:09:00.002-05:00

Captain Joseph Fleming Walsh,
Company 7, 33rd Michigan Volunteers, 1897

The 33rd and 34th Regiments arrived in Cuba via the “Paris” and “Harvard” transport ships. They were assigned to General Duffield’s brigade, famous for defeating the Spaniards at Santiago.
While they did not participate in the San Juan Hill fighting, they were engaged in the attack at Aguadores.
Three men of the 33rd died of wounds, but yellow fever broke out in the camp at Siboney and 50 men died.

Captain Walsh contracted Yellow Fever but survived. Hi is said to have lost so much weight that his sisters did not recognize him.

Photos and military information courtesy of Geraldine Walsh of CA

Treasure Chest Thursday - From my In-Box

2011-04-21T03:55:00.002-05:00

Nathalie Egberg Hansen

circa 1815

(from the victor library page)

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/28192/Hansen_Nathalie_vocalist_soprano_vocal

This web link and photo appeared in my in-box on Monday afternoon as part of an e-mail from my cousin Pat's husband. He was looking for some old records and came upon this list of the recordings of Nathalie Hansen. Nathalie was the second wife of my great grandfather Adolf Hansen a Norwegian composer and musician. Adolf died in 1911 and Nathalie began her recording career.

What a treasure to find on a Monday!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-20T02:55:00.000-05:00

No words needed!

Tech Tuesday - Creating Web Sites

2011-04-19T04:50:00.001-05:00

I have found out that Google will allow you to create a website that will be hosted on Google at no charge. Once you have a google account, just go to more, sites and create a website. If you use blogger it's really easy. You can build from scratch or use one of the many templates available. Many of the same widgets and tools are used. Some of the graphic capabilities are limited but you can work around those limitations. I have created pages in a word processor and pasted them into the website. The website can be fully public, invitation only or a combination with certain pages password protected. I think it's a great way to develop a web presence. So far I have created one for the local genealogy group and one for our Girl Scout troop.

Surname Saturday - Flemings of County Limerick Ireland

2011-04-16T12:47:00.001-05:00

The surname Fleming, with it's variants Flemon, Flemming, Flemmyng, Flemminge, originally came from Flanders. The Flemings arrived in Ireland at different times and may have descended from different families of the name in Flanders. In the 17th Century Fleming was a principle name in Limerick. In 1659 there were 12 Flemings listed in the Barony of Costlea. This information is from the book "Families of County Limerick Ireland by Michael C. O'Laughlin, president, IGF.

My Flemings came from Ballylanders which is indeed in the Barony of Costlea. Thomas Fleming and Mary Hennessy married in Ballylanders, Co Limerick about 1845. Of their 10 children that survived to adulthood, all emigrated to the United States. One, Patt, returned to Ireland claiming, according to family stories, that one had to work too hard in the United States. Patt Fleming opened to grocery and spirits shop in Dublin on his return to Ireland. Of those who remained in the all settled in the Midwest. Today their descendants range from coast to coast.

Military Monday - Civil War Soldiers - Fergusons of Willow Hill, IL

2011-04-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

We all have ancestors who have served in the military. Military Monday is a place to post their images, stories and records of their service in various branches of the military. Military Monday is an ongoing series by Cindy at Everything’s Relative – Researching Your Family History.

About 1848 the Ferguson family, having migrated from Virginia to South Carolina and then to Ohio and Indiana, settled in Jasper County, Illinois. Jeremiah Ferguson began buying land in Willow Hill, Jasper, Illinois as did his father and brothers. Between 1848 and 1852 there were 14 recorded land purchases within the Ferguson family.

During the Civil War, at least 2 of Jeremiah Ferguson's sons served in the Union Army. William A Ferguson age 18 enlisted at Olney, Illinois. He served as a private in Company B of the 155th Illinois Infantry from 7 Feb 1965 to 4 Sep 1865. He was mustered out at Murfreesboro, TN. His brother Hiram volunteered on 26 Oct 1863 and mustered out on 27 Oct 1865 in Springfield, IL. Since the records show that Hiram joined Company L of the 5th Illinois Calvary in Black River, Mississippi, it would appear that he had already been in the Army.

A total of 57 volunteers from Willow Hill served in the Civil War so there are many more collateral ancestors who were Civil War Soldiers.

The State of Illinois has a super searchable Civil War Soldiers data base at http://www.ilsos.gov/genealogy/ Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls Database

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy - Week 14 Spring

2011-04-04T10:21:00.000-05:00

Week 14. Spring. What was spring like where and when you grew up? Describe not only the climate, but how the season influenced your activities, food choices, etc. Thank you to Amy over at We Tree for sponsoring this event.

Spring meant milder weather, the scent of lilacs, and the return of robins. In northern Illinois, we never planted before mid-May, since we could have snow and or frost that late. But come mid-May my dad would declare "Sit in the Mud Day" and we could start planting. Little did I realize he was really referring to "17 Mai" the Norwegian Independence Day. Our backyard was a true treasure in the spring. We had lilac bushes, a cherry tree, a pear tree, and a rhubarb patch. We also had tiger lilys that returned every year.

Spring also meant roller skates, bikes, jump rope, and playing jacks on the sidewalk. Hopscotch, Red Rover, Mother May I, and Red Light, Green Light were popular games.

Wordless Wednesday - Wanda and Gus 12 Dec 1999

2011-03-30T05:23:00.002-05:00

Celebrating 50 years of marriage!

Geneabloggers Mappy Monday - County Limerick, Ireland

2011-03-28T08:23:00.000-05:00

This is a map of County Limerick, Ireland. Section labeled Killmallock is my area of interest. ( the southeast area colored in light blue)
The parishes of Ardpatrick, Kilfinnane, Bulgaden, and Ballylanders are where I find my immediate ancestors.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Surnames?

2011-03-26T19:56:00.000-05:00

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings issued a challenge

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Go into your Genealogy Management Program (GMP; either software on your computer, or an online family tree) and figure out how to Count how many surnames you have in your family tree database.

2) Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.

3) Tell us how many surnames are in your database and, if possible, which Surname has the most entries. If this excites you, tell us which surnames are in the top 5! Or 10!

4) Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

I used Roots Magic as Randy did. I began trying to use Family Tree Maker 2009 but was unable to find a way to list by surname only. My report was only 18 pages long but revealed that I have about 809 surnames in my data base of 3066 individuals.

Surname All Male Female Earliest Most recent
FERGUSON 132 73 59 1641 2002
SEMPSROTT 120 71 49 1694 2008
MEURER 110 51 59 1786 2003
BURBACH 94 41 53 1713 1998
HANSEN 83 48 35 1575 2008
COAN 74 49 25 1793 1997
HASSLER 69 46 23 1815 1996
WOLF 56 32 24 1843 2002
FLEMING 44 24 20 1846 1999
BRAHM 44 21 23 1828 1995

I also ran a general data file statistics report. Here it is:

Individual Statistics All Male Female Unknown
Individuals Selected 3066 1595 1467 4
Individuals with marriage event 887 433 454 0
Average age at marriage 24.97 26.69 23.34 NA
Minimum age at marriage 9.00 9.00 13.00 NA
Maximum age at marriage 67.00 67.00 59.58 NA
Individuals with death age 1051 607 442 2
Average age at death 59.79 59.27 60.77 1.00
Minimum age at death 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Maximum age at death 120.00 100.00 120.00 2.00

Individual Statistics All Male Female Unknown
Married Individuals 1899 949 950 0
Average marriages per person 1.08 1.09 1.07 NA
Minimum marriages per person 0.00 0.00 0.00 NA
Maximum marriages per person 4.00 4.00 4.00 NA
Average children per family 1.95 1.94 1.95 NA
Minimum children per family 0.00 0.00 0.00 NA
Maximum children per family 15.00 15.00 15.00 NA

This has been an interesting exercise and a good way to find out the strengths and weaknesses of
the various software programs. Thanks Randy!

Surname Saturday - Connery of Limerick part 2

2011-03-26T12:28:00.001-05:00

Previously, I wrote about my grandfather, M J Connery of Kilfinnane, County Limerick, Ireland. As I wrote about the name, I realized how little actual research I had done on M J. I had blindly accepted the family stories as fact. This week was the time to remedy this error.

The name Connery is from the gaelic O Maolconaire or follower of Conaire. It is a variant of the name Conrey. The name is said to be found originally around Galway, Ireland. According to Castel Garden records there were 303 immigrants while Ellis Island shows 167 Connerys in their records. These are not accurate counts since many Connerys entered several times. I guess seeing these numbers that the name Connery is not as common as I always thought.

Searching the Chicago City Directories, I followed my grandfather from the earliest known listing for Michael J Connery in 1888 as a bartender and living at 163 N Paulina. By 1889 he is boarding with the Michael Connery who is a policeman in Chicago. This may have been a means of saving money since by 1890 he owned a saloon at 161 N Paulina and was living at 544 Austin Ave. M J remained a saloon keeper until 1912 when he entered the Real Estate business where he remained until his death in 1953. M J appears in the Chicago Voters List as a voter in 1888 and states that he has been a resident of Illinois for 8 years and filed his citizenship papers in Cook County. I have also been able to document M J's participation in Chicago's St Patrick's Day Parade. On Mar 15, 1896, the Daily Inter Ocean newspaper listed M J as an aide to Grand Marshall Martin Mulcahey. Not sure about the white horse yet since I can't find the documentation other than his obituary.

There is still more to try to find about M J and his family. Maybe his naturalization records will help to pinpoint his actual arrival. I know his parents and his mother's parents but not much more. M J was one of 11 children and I only have information on one brother and two sisters.

One Lovely Blog Award

2011-03-18T12:55:00.000-05:00

How exciting - I've been awarded the Lovely Blog Award twice in one day! Both dee-burris of http://thefacesofmyfamily.blogspot.com and Lisa Swanson Eliam of http://thefacesofmyfamily.blogspot.com honored me on the same day. Thanks very much ladies!

With the award comes responsibility. Here are the rules:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.

Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.

Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for the award.

Here are the bloggers I've chosen:

Daniel Dillman at indianadillmans.blogspot.com
Alanna of Confessions of a Geneaholic at http://alanna-fant.blogspot.com
Abby at http://desperategenie.com,
C C at http://pollysgranddaughter.blogspot.com,
Minnesota Family Historian at http://mnfamilyhistorian.blogspot.com
Sarah at http://geneapprentice.blogspot.com
Claudia at http://claudiasgenealogyblog.blogspot.com
Jennifer at http://www.climbingmyfamilytree.com
Leslie Ann at http://ancestorslivehere.blogspot.com
http://dkaysdays.com/
Linda Re at http://betweenthegateposts.blogspot.com
Danielle at pidwashername.blogspot.com
tlgenes@blogspot.com
Deb-adventuresingenealogy.blogspot.com
tangledtrees.blogspot.com

Congratulations to all!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 11 Illness and Injury

2011-03-14T00:09:00.001-05:00

Week 11: Illness and Injury. Describe your childhood illnesses or injuries. Who took care of you? Did you recuperate in your own bed, on the couch in front of the television, or somewhere else? 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants?

When I was growing up, I seemed to get a strep infection on an almost annual basis. I was miserable and couldn't even swallow. I would lay in my bed with cool washrags on my forehead. As I began to get better I would begin reading my mysteries. I was cared for by my mother with some help from my younger sister.

The only injury (aside from the usual skinned knees) I suffered was a sprained ankle incurred in a game of dodgeball in high school. It was winter and college test time. Getting on and off a bus to go take SATs while on crutches was a challenge with the ice and snow!

Sentimental Sunday - Scout Sundays

2011-03-13T03:39:00.004-05:00

March 6th was Girl Scout Sunday but our church made no mention of the occasion. They didn't mention Boy Scout Sunday in February either. My granddaughters wore their vests to church but nothing was mentioned. In years past Scout Sunday was a big deal with flags processed into the church, scouts acting as ushers and performing other duties in the service. Sometimes there was even a special flyer in the church bulletin.

In the past children were proud of their uniform and wore it proudly to school. Now being seen in a scout uniform is to be avoided at all costs unless selling popcorn or cookies. Boy Scouts are still becoming Eagle Scouts and Girl Scouts are still earning Gold Awards, so what changed?

Surname Saturday - Connery of Limerick, Ireland

2011-03-12T18:32:00.000-06:00

Michael Joseph Connery (M J) left Limerick and immigrated to the United States in 1888. He was joined by his 16 year old sister Cath on the ship Alaska which docked in New York on July 30,1888. He was one of 11 children which might explain his choice to immigrate.

I have explored MJ's siblings and their descendants, but have not studied the surname Connery. The 1901 census for Ireland shows 450 entries for the surname Connery with 129 Connerys living in County Limerick and 10 in Kilfinnane which is MJ's birthplace. The 1911 census of Ireland shows 467 entries with 114 in Limerick and 20 entries for Kilfinnane. In contrast, the 1900 Census of the United States there were 79 Connerys with 7 Connerys in Illinois and 3 living in Cook County, Illinois. The 1910 Census lists 71 Connerys with 7 in Illinois and 6 in Cook County. I only looked for Connerys who were born in Ireland. New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois had the highest number of Connerys listed in both the 1900 and 1910 census.

I will need to further explore the name Connery. There must be more to find.

Geneabloggers Wordless Wednesday - Wanda Bernice

2011-03-02T04:59:00.001-06:00

Wanda Bernice circa 1939 age 17.

Tech Tuesday - Exploring Google Sites

2011-03-01T11:14:00.000-06:00

I have jumped on the Google bandwagon! As I explored the many facets of Google, I found that I could create websites for free! I belong to a small genealogy group which charges no dues and thus has no money. The group needs to develop a web presence to increase their visibility in the community. If we have a website we can link to the local library website as well as the town website. Just think how many more people will know that we exist!

Google sites will allow the uploading of slide shows and photos. It even has the capability of notifying members of changes to the website. Google sites has multiple templates to choose from and allows collaborators to edit and change the website. I am currently experimenting with a practice site. I like that it can be kept private until you feel that the site is ready to go public. It doesn't seem any more difficult use than blogger and has many of the same features. You can have multiple websites too!

Geneabloggers Church Record Sunday - Swedish Household Examinations (Husförhörslängder also called Skriftebok)

2011-02-27T04:52:00.001-06:00

Church Record Sunday – describe a specific church record or a set of records held by a church or denomination and how they can assist genealogists. This is an ongoing series developed by Gena Philibert Ortega at Gena’s Genealogy.

These records showed every individual in a household much like a census they include name, exact date and place of birth, and relationship to the head of the household. If soneone has moved, the village they moved to is also noted. By pinpointing the exact place and date of birth, You know exactly where to find a birth record.

In Sweden, it was required to get permission from thechurch to move from one area to another. The lists for these permissions were called Moving in and out records (Inflyttnings- och Utflyttningsländer). In appearance they are like ledger books with columns for various information.

Sorting Saturday - Cleaning Out My Files

2011-02-26T03:55:00.003-06:00

Sorting Saturday is an ongoing series by Michelle Goodrum at Turning of Generations.

As one of my genealogy goals for this year, I determined to work through my genealogy files one family per month. As I go through each file, I make sure that sources are entered and data is compete. I review census form for any additional information to be extracted, and then if the source is an online image, I get rid of the paperwork. I can always download it again if I need it. I scan original documents or photos into my computer. Those I save, but now they are also preserved by being part of my backup system.

Sorting through my Ferguson file this way leads to the added benefit of finding new information. New trails to explore. This month I have found 2 Revolutionary soldiers in my husbands tree and I'm on the trail of Civil War soldier ancestors. I have also found Land Records for land purchased in 1850 in southern Illinois.

Geneabloggers Mappy Monday - Jasper County, Illinois

2011-02-21T06:20:00.001-06:00

View Larger Map

This is the area in southern Illinois that the Ferguson Family settled into in 1850 to farm. They settled in Willow Hill but Robinson, Oblong, Newton and Palestine are also mentioned.

Geneablogers Tech Tuesday - Toys To Play With

2011-02-15T05:36:00.001-06:00

Technology is advancing so rapidly it's difficult to keep up with the advances. More and more I am using new ways to back-up, save, and share my information. Cloud computing is a major factor in preserving my files.
Dropbox not only allows me to share large files with others, it also stores my files in the cloud so they can be retrieved from any computer. Picassa organizes and stores my pictures on the web and allows for sharing via invitation. MOZY automatically makes back-ups of my files and stores them in the cloud. All of these utilities are free and will protect my files in the event of a hard drive crash. Soon we will not need huge internal hard drives as more and more data storage will be in the cloud.

My Blog Anniversary - 1 year 100 posts!

2011-02-13T02:53:00.005-06:00

It all began a year ago when I answered Thomas MacEntee's challenge to enter the Winter Olympic Games of Genealogy. I was pretty much a solo genealogist. I volunteered 4 hrs/week at my local Family History Center and indexed for both ancestry.com and familysearch.org but other than using the message boards my genealogy was pretty much a solitary effort. What a difference a year makes and Thomas is to blame!

Using the blogging prompts provided by Geneabloggers, I have managed to create 100 blog posts in the past year. Me, who was regularly grounded in boarding school for not writing a weekly letter home! This year I have been reading lots of blogs and watching just about every genealogy related webinar in existence. I have experimented with additional software programs and began a serious source citation effort. While not quite the project that Randy Seaver has created, I have used 3 different programs to create source citations to find out which one I will be more likely to use. Actually citing the source is the real point!

I have joined 2 genealogical groups, one local and one in my home state. I attend the local monthly meetings and have created and presented two power point shows to the local group, explaining gedcom and jpeg files and moving around in Familysearch.org. I volunteer 4 hours a week in the genealogy room at my local library.

Thanks to reading all the Jamboree 2009 updates on faceboook, I actually signed up and attended Jamboree 2010 in Burbank last June. I had a super time and began saving for this year as soon as I got home. I was able to do some personal genealogy while in California since I had dinner with a cousin (and her husband) that I hadn't seen or visited with in 50 years. No feud, just life and distance.

Maybe it isn't all Thomas' fault. Facebook and Unclaimed Persons might have caused the opening crack in the wall of my solitary genealogy pursuit. Getting to know Thomas, Randy, Dick Eastman, and Megan through their fb posts and following their advice led me to expanding my horizons.

I've come a long way baby, and I like where I've landed!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Radio & Television

2011-02-11T18:25:00.001-06:00

Week 6: Radio and Television. What was your favorite radio or television show from your childhood? What was the program about and who was in it? About 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy has created a third year of blogging prompts for genealogy bloggers. The theme for 2011 is 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History. These are shared on the Geneabloggers.com web site, hosted by Thomas MacEntee.

I remember spending Sunday afternoons in my bedroom listening to mystery shows like "The Shadow" and "Boston Blackie". I think it was about 2 hours of shows. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas a local department store sponsored The Cinnamon Bear. We all gathered around the radio in the kitchen before dinner to listen to that day's 15 minute episode. On Saturday mornings we also listened to The Buster Brown show featuring Froggy the Gremlin. Of course there were also, The Lone Ranger, Sky King, Hoppalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers.

The first TV I remember was Gorgeous George in wrestling. Childrens shows we watched include Romper Room. Bozo's Circus, Super Circus, Lunchtime Little Theater, and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. All of the cowboy shows moved to TV but there was also The Loretta Young Show (remember her twirl in her designer gowns?), Alfred Hitchcock, Your Hit Parade, and Jack Parr. There were lots more but these rise to the top of my memory bank.

Geneabloggers Amanuensis Monday - Ferguson Land Purchases

2011-02-07T16:35:00.000-06:00

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Amanuensis Monday is a popular ongoing series created by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch.

For February, my concentration will be on my husband's Ferguson line. After migrating over the years from Virginia to Southern Illinois, they finally setteled in Jasper County, Illinois and remained there for over 100 years. The following is a discription of their first land purchase there.

Jeremiah Ferguson was 37 years old at the time, married, and the father of 9 children. As indicated in the document, Jeremiah was then living in Decatur County, Indiana. By 1850, the family had moved to Jasper County since their 10th child was born in Illinois in March of 1850.

In November of 1849, Jeremiah Ferguson purchased land in Jasper County, Illinois according to the U.S. General Land Office. I am reproducing this record with the transaction specific information in Blue. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are as shown.

   THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CERTIFICATE
No. 17109
   To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:
WHEREAS Jeremiah Ferguson, of Decatur county, Indiana

has deposited in the GENERAL LAND OFFICE of the United States, a certificate of the REGISTER OF THE LAND OFFICE at   Palestine whereby it appears that full payment has been by the said

Jeremiah Ferguson according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820 entitled "An act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands," for the South East Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section Thirty-six, in Township Seven, North of Range Ten, East, in the District of Lands subject to sale at Palestine, Illinois, containing Forty acres.

according to the official plat of the survey of the said Lands, returned to the General Land Office by the SURVEYOR GENERAL, which said tract has been purchased by the said Jeremiah Ferguson

   NOW KNOW YE, That the United States of America, in consideration of the Premises, and in conformity with the several acts of Congress, in such case made and provided, HAVE GIVEN AND GRANTED, and by these presents DO GOVE AND GRANT, unto the said Jeremiah Ferguson
and to his heirs, the said tract above described: TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the same, together with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatsoever nature, thereunto belonging, unto the said Jeremiah Ferguson
   and to   his heirs and assigns forever.

   IN TESTAMONY WHEREOF, I, Zachary Taylor PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, have caused these Letters to be made PATENT, and the SEAL of the GENERAL LAND OFFICE to be hereunto affixed.

   Given under my hand, at the CITY OF WASHINGTON, the first day of November in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and   forty-nine and of the Independence of the United States the Seventy - fourth .

   BY THE PRESIDENT:   Z. Taylor
   By Tho. Ewing, Jr. Sec'y
     N. Sargent , RECORDER of the General Land Office.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The Date You Were Born

2011-01-29T19:36:00.000-06:00

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

Youir mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) What day of the week were you born? Tell us how you found out.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.

3) What famous people have been born on your birth date? Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

4) Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

1. I was born on a Tuesday, October 6, 1942. I found out at the ProGenealogists site under

free stuff.

2. 5 things that happened in history on October 6 and were found at Networked Blogs/Brainy History

1979 Pope John Paul II is 1st Pope to visit White House

1928 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of China

1928 Josip Broz sentenced to 5 years in jail

1927 "Jazz Singer," 1st movie with a sound track, premieres (New York City)

1890 Mormon Church outlaws polygamy

3 Famous people born on October 6 are:

1963 Elisabeth Shue (actress)

1930 Hafez al-Assad (president syria)

1914 Thor Heyerdahl (explorer, author)

1908 Carole Lombard (Jane Peters) (actress)

1846 George Westinghouse (inventor, developer, founder)

I found this info at Networkedblogs.com

Geneabloggers Surname Saturday - Burbach of Oberselters, Germany

2011-01-29T10:07:00.000-06:00

One of my genealogy goals for this year is to concentrate on one family line every month and clean up their file. I wrote about the Burbachs on the first Saturday of January. Today I will summarize what I have accomplished this month.

I have established that 2 additional lines of the family migrated to Milwaukee, WI in the 1870s. They remain to be explored fully.

I have ordered several transcriptions from Milwaukee German Newspapers in hopes of documenting cause of death, marriages, etc. One thing I hope to get more details on is the drowning death of my grandmother's brother John at age 9. I have only found one reference to it. In the personal diary of a Milwaukee policeman.

I will continue to check for possible duplicate people and enter source citations. As information becomes available I will keep working on the Burbachs but with February it will be time to concentrate of the Fergusons.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Home 119 Virginia St

2011-01-28T15:17:00.000-06:00

Week 4: Home. Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today?

This challenge runs from Saturday, January 22, 2011 through Friday, January 28, 2011.

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History (http://www.geneabloggers.com/52-weeks-personal-genealogy-history/)

Above is a picture of my home while I was growing up. The handwritten address and date were written by my dad. I think this was the first step in the purchase of the house. We moved into the 4 bedroom house around Christmas of 1948. When we first moved in, there were red velvet draperies hanging in the archways between the hall and the living room and the living room and dining room. I thought it was huge. There were 4 children. As the new babies came along (5 more in all) the house evolved. A downstairs den was converted into a 1st floor bedroom for mom and dad. The front porch was screened and became a outside playpen. There was a window in the living that could be used as a monitor.

There couldn't have been a better place to raise 9 children. The house was one block from church, school, the library and park, and the train station (Mom didn't drive then). There was even a college fairly close. After Dad's death in 1959, Mom stayed in the house until she moved to Florida in 1971.

Sadly the house was demolished several years ago to make room for condos. Did I mention it was a block from the train station?

Geneabloggers Funeral Card Friday - Wanda Bernice Gulyban

2011-01-28T12:24:00.001-06:00

RIP

Wanda Bernice Gulyban 10 Aug 1921 - 21 Jan 2011

Wanda was born August 10, 1921 to Murl and Naomi (nee Sempsrott) Ferguson in Hunt City, Jasper, Illinois. The family moved to Chicago by 1930 and retained their ties to Jasper County.

Wanda married Harold Arthur Peterson in Chicago on June 1, 1938. They had two children, David and Patricia. She and Harold divorced in 1948. Wanda married Gustav J Gulyban in Chicago on Dec 2, 1949. They had a daughter Susan.

Wanda loved knitting and ceramics which she did until arthritis made the use of her hands too painful. Due to back problems caused by a car accident, Wanda took a disability retirement from Illinois Bell Telephone Co.

In the 1980s, Wanda and Gus moved from Wheaton, IL to St Pete Beach, FL, followed by a move to Clearwater, FL.

After a long illness Wanda died on Jan 21, 2011 in Clearwater, FL.

She is survived by her husband Gus Gulyban and daughters Patricia Peterson Leithem Morgan (Gary) and Susan Gulyban Walter (Tom). She is also survived by 7 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

Wanda did not have a formal funeral service or an obituary published so this is my attempt to memorialize her. She was my mother-in-law and will be missed.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research

2011-01-22T21:12:00.000-06:00

From Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings "Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night and time for more Genealogy Fun! Play along with us and tell us about it.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to follow Chris Staats' rules (from Freaky Friday: Random Research Reports) for picking a random person's name and then doing some online research about that person. Here are Chris's rules:

1. Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen

2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. [Randy's add: If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to http://www.familysearch.org/ and do it there - it's free.]

3. From the results, your research target will be the first census result for your generated name.

4. Using whatever online resources are at your disposal, see what else you can discover about your random person and write about it. It can be a formal report complete with footnotes, or just a “research story” about what you tried, problems you overcame, or success you had. Maybe you want to create a research plan for practice?

5. Post about it on your blog or wherever you wish, and link here to tell Chris about it. Tell Randy about it too as a comment here or a comment on Facebook or Twitter."

The first name generated was Jeffrey Koch. After I did a record search on ancestry.com, I scrolled through 150 returns without finding a census listing of any sort. So I went back for another try. This is supposed to be fun right?

The second name generated was Ernest Eloy Neal. I found Ernest, age 38, in the 1930 census living with his wife Minnie (38) and sons Willard (9) and Bernard (8) in District 21, Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia. They also had 3 boarders. Ernest was a laborer in a bluing factory. Ernest was born in West Virginia and his father was born in Indiana and his mother was born in West Virginia. 1

In 1920 Earnest and Minnie were also living in Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia . Earnest was a blacksmith with the railroad. On this census his father was born in Ohio.2

The 1910 and 1910 Virginia miracode census show an 18 year old Earnest Neal living in the household of Harlow Nuse in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a house carpenter. 3

From his WWI Draft Registration, we can learn that Earnest was born 6 September 1894 in Glenwood, West Virginia. He was single, living in Huntington, and a Teamster who worked for Thomas Walker Construction. His physical description lists him as tall with a medium build, blue eyes and light brown hair.4

In his WWII Draft Registration Ernest Eugene Neal is living in Moundsville, West Virginia. His stated date and place of birth was 6 September 1894 in Mason County, West Virginia. He was 5 ft 11 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds. He had brown eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. The person who would always know his whereabouts was M E Ketchum, Warden of the West Virginia Penitentiary. 5

The 1900 Census shows Ernest living with his parents Daniel M and Grace and 4 brothers living in Hannan, Mason County, West Virginia. Daniel and Grace were both born in Ohio and Daniel was a farmer. 6

Further searching will yield birth date and death date information on both Willard and Bernard through both military and social security death records.

Searching on Willard Neal also provided the maiden name of his mother, Minnie Beckett.

This has been a fun, skill sharpening experiment. I really like the challenge of the hunt!

1 Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia; Roll: 2529; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 31; Image: 664.0.

2 Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Huntington Ward 7, Cabell, West Virginia; Roll: T625_1951; Page: 25A; Enumeration District: 44; Image: 596.

3 Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Tanner Creek, Norfolk, Virginia; Roll: T624_1639; Page: 36A; Enumeration District: 73; Image: 74.

4 Source Citation: Registration Location: Wayne County, West Virginia; Roll: 1992488; Draft Board: 2.

5 Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA);Washington, D.C.; State Headquarters: West Virginia; Microfilm Series: M1937; Microfilm Roll: 36.

6 Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Hannan, Mason, West Virginia; Roll: T623_1765; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 57.

52 Weeks of Sharing Memories: A Genealogy Journal - Cooking

2011-01-17T15:43:00.000-06:00

This is Week 3 of our second set of 52 weeks of topics for readers (and me!) to start a genealogy journal. Please join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey by Lorine MasseyOver the years I've learned that keeping a journal is not always easy. Yet it's important for future generations. If we want to preserve the past, our own memories will one day be as valuable as those of our great-grandmothers. Our descendants will be thrilled to find a journal chronicling our lives and the lives of our parents and grand-parents.

This weeks' topic is Cooking. I have very strong memories of my mom's cooking. No doubt most of you do too, some may even remember grandma's cooking. I thought it would be fun to share those memories.

* What was your favourite food that your mom cooked?

* Do you remember the smells in the kitchen?

* Have you copied your mom or grandmother's recipes to save them?

* Did you ever get to eat your Grandmother's food?

I'm not sure if I had any favorite foods that my mother cooked. She was a pretty good cook. I do remember that when we had meatloaf, mom always made two of them. One with onions and one without! With nine kids in the family, we undoubtedly needed two anyway. Another thing we had frequently was "mock chicken legs". This was cubes of meat, placed on wood skewers, dipped in seasoned flour and browned in a skillet. The meat was specifically ordered from the butcher and came with the skewers. The only thing I can remember not liking were the parsnips served every Thanksgiving, and only at Thanksgiving. I remember the smells of onion sauteing, and bacon frying. Who can forget the smell of fresh coffee perking?

Recently I attempted to re-create my grandmother Bockie's version of Lapscus, a Norwegian stew. I think I was successful since it tasted like I remembered. Bockie also made a wicked cherry pie after we pitted the cherries from the tree in the backyard. When I was in Boarding School, we were served a dessert called Prune Whip. None of the girls would touch it even when the nuns said we would sit there until we ate it. I didn't mind because that was another of the dishes my grandmother had made for us.

The Swiss Steak and Porcupine Meatballs that I have taught my granddaughters are meals I had as a child. The Sunday dinner that my grandchildren eat is the same one their mother ate while she was growing up.

When I got married, I received several of my mother's recipe books. They were about 9 x 12 and paper covered. I think is was a series by Betty Crocker in the 1940s. Lots of good recipes there.

Genabloggers - Surname Saturday Burbach and Associated Families

2011-01-08T05:00:00.001-06:00

As one of my genealogy goals for 2011, I plan to work on one family per month and clean up my files, find new information, and cite sources. For January I am beginning with

BURBACH - Milwaukee, WI and Hesse Nassau, Germany
(also Heer, Meurer, Probst and others)

My Burbach line is from Oberselters, Hesse-Nassau, Germany. The family lived in Oberselters as far back as 1732 and began the migration to the United States in the 1850s. Church records show marriages into the Heer, Muerer, Probst, Kreppel, and Schwartz families among others. The Burbachs from Oberselters were farmers and became grocers, butchers, farmers, and newsmen.
Various branches of the family settled in Milwaukee, WI, St Louis, MO, and Harris County, Texas.

As I persue this family, I often reflect on the courage it took to travel to a new country, learn a new language, and learn a new trade. I am sure their faith gave them strength and comfort as they have retained it to this generation.

Geneabloggers Tuesday Tips - Source Citation

2011-01-04T13:17:00.000-06:00

The tip I most often wish I had received and followed when I first began doing genealogy is to ALWAYS cite sources. I can go back and recreate source citation but it is a real pain.

As a beginner I was doing genealogy mostly as a hobby and curiosity. I knew where I had found my information. I knew which census images I relied on. I knew where my parents and grandparents married. Now I am trying to take a more professional approach. It's time to go back and add all those sources. It would have definitely been easier if I had cited sources in the beginning. Searching is much more fun than writing up sources!

One of my goals this year is to go back and cite sources and enter them into my computer program. In fact yesterday, I entered source citation into 3 different genealogy programs to see which program had to best source citation framework for my use. After I have decided which template I like best, I will enter all my sources that way and then import the file into the other programs.

Geneabloggers 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History - Week 1 New Year's Traditions

2011-01-02T17:49:00.000-06:00

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog has yet another successful series on her hands: 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History.

Week 1: New Year’s. Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

My sister was born on New Year's Day as was my Grandmother, so I guess you could say that Birthday Parties were our family tradition. I still wish my sister a Happy Birthday on New Year's but distance precludes the party.

In my own family, we usually had finger foods and chips and dips during the Bowl Games. It was usually a low key day without any real structure.

My daughter's family has a tradition of doing chocolate fondue for dessert on New Year's Night. according to the kids, it is not subject to change!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - My Best 2010 Genealogy Adventure

2011-01-01T16:26:00.000-06:00

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! A challenge posed by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings.

1) Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures was your "very best" (your definition).

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Status report or comment on Facebook.

It started last March with a call from my nephew's wife. Her father (Tony) was told in December that he had been given away at birth. Tony was fighting a recurrence of cancer and wanted to try to find his birth father. He had always felt that something was missing from his life. There was little information to start with. His father's family was from the San Antonio, TX area and entered the country from Mexico at Eagle Pass, TX. The family name was Benevidas and Tony's father was named Ismael. While Benevidas is fairly common, fortunately Ismael is rather unique.

Using genealogy methodology, I did a search on ancestry.com. I found an obituary that mentioned Ismael as the brother of the deceased Erasmo. Erasmo and Ismael's father was also named Erasmo. I found the Erasmo Benevidas family in Cibolo, TX in the 1930 census.

Using whitepages.com I located some of the survivors of Erasmo Benevidas. Armed with names, addresses, and phone numbers, Tony's daughter began making phone calls. Within two days she had located Tony's two half brothers. Unfortunately, Tony's father had died but the brothers were aware of his existance. In May the three brothers had a meeting and couldn't believe the family resemblance.

While maybe not true genealogy, this was a very gratifying use of my genealogy skills.

Geneabloggers Surname Saturday

2011-01-01T02:22:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year Everyone!!

As the new year begins so do my genealogy resolutions. One of my resolutions was to concentrate on one surname per month. I plan to make sure sources are cited, add photos and documents, delete duplicate individuals and facts, and continue new research.

To that end I thought I would alphabetize the primary surnames along with any associated surnames. Just for fun I am color-coding them and including the area of research. My surnames will be in red and my husband's surnames will be in blue.

BURBACH - Milwaukee, WI and Hesse Nassau, Germany
   (also Heer, Meurer, Probst and others)
CONNERY - Chicago, IL, and Kilfinnane, Limerick, Ireland
   (also Leahy, Ryan. Dawson, Hayes, and Mc Carthy)
FERGUSON - Jasper County, IL Decature, IN, Stokes, NC,
   York, VA, and Scotland)
   (also Chapman, Stuart, and Whitmarsh)
FLEMING - Chicago, IL Eau Claire, WI, Port Huron, MI, and
   Ballylanders, Limerick, Ireland
   (also Hennessy, Hogan and Walsh)
GIBNEY - Chicago, IL, Green County, Ohio and
   La Porte County, IN, Sweden, and Germany
   (also Hale, Hanson, and Hepke)
HANSEN - Chicago, IL and Aker, Akershus Norway
   (also Pedersen, Daniels, Christiansen, Johnsen
   Tripp, Dvorak, Riis)
PETERSON - Chicago, IL and Sweden
   (also Britton and Neilson
SEMPSROTT - Jasper County, IL OH, and Berlin, Germany
   (Steinfort of Ohio and Germany)

It would certainly appear that I will be busy this year since this is only one of my genealogy goals for this year. Next Dec 31st I will review this post and see what I have accomplished.

SNGF - My Best Genealogy Gift

2010-12-25T22:13:00.000-06:00

I received 2 genealogy help gifts this year for Christmas. The first was a cashmere sweater which will keep me warm when I do my volunteer work at my local Family History Center. It is so cold that there is a space heater in the room. Most of us just keep our coats on. This is in south Texas!

The second gift I received was a Nook book reader. This will let me search for and download reference materials. My library also has e-books available to borrow via download. It's a whole new environment to explore.

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy – Challenge 51

2010-12-22T12:03:00.001-06:00

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy – Challenge 51

Week 51: Think about the goals you want to accomplish next year and write them down. What research steps do you want to take? What records would you like to find? Think about the brick walls you’d like knocked down. What things haven’t you done yet and why not? This task doesn’t have to be a resolution list unless you want it to be. Authors of genealogy blogs may share their lists with their readers if they choose.

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts that are a bit more challenging and are geared towards those new to the field of genealogy and family history as well as those who want to brush up on some skills which might be a bit rusty. Please include an attribution link if you participate.

My genealogy goals for 2011 are ambitious. I will work on one family line per month and make sure that all information is entered and sources cited.

I will move cassette recordings to CD and share them with family. This to ensure lots of copies and avoid total loss of resources. Just need to borrow my grandson's boom box.

I will continue to scan family photos and organize folders by family.

I will attend the SOCAL genealogy conference in June.

I will continue to index for both familysearch.org and ancestry.com.

I will continue to blog.

I will probably do some other things as well, but stating these goals will help me to stay on track. Next year I will review my goals and see what I have accomplished.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas and Deceased Relatives

2010-12-22T11:00:00.000-06:00

Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?

Our family did not visit the cemetery at Christmas. We used to visit the cemetery on Decoration or Memorial Day.

My father died on Dec 28, 1959. With all nine of us under 18 at the time, Mom had a very difficult time carrying on the family Christmas traditions. Keep them she did however. The Christmas after he died we still had a gathering of relatives which included a meal I am sure.

After my husband died suddenly, in Oct of 2005, it was very difficult to plan for the holidays. Because I was living with my daughter and grandchildren, I drew on my mother's strength and made it through Christmas. So that the grandchildren would know where to always find grandpady I bought a star and named it for him. The certificate of that star hangs in a place of honor in their home.

We don't wait for the holidays to remember our deceased relatives. It's an ongoing experience.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Stockings

2010-12-17T18:09:00.001-06:00

December 18 – Christmas Stockings
Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it? Do you have any Christmas stockings used by your ancestors?

Growing up, we always has a Christmas Stocking to hang on Christmas Eve. Since there were nine of us and we had no fireplace, we got creative and hung them from any hook, handle, or doorknob we could find in the living room. I do remember one year or two we had a cardboard fireplace to hang out stockings on. Our stockings were the typical red plush with a white cuff. I don't remember their having names on them but there must have been some way to keep track of whose was whose.

Our stockings usually had an orange or tangerine, un-shelled nuts, candy cane, and some ribbon or other hard candy that usually got stuck in the bottom.

My children's stockings were more elaborate since I made them and they had a special pocket on the outside for a special tiny treasure. Their stockings were filled in a similar manner but there were some additional small gifts. Socks, nylons, perfume, small silly toys etc.

My grandchildren's stockings are like their mother's with the addition of embroidered names. In our house everyone gets a stocking: parents, kids, dogs, and cats! Grandma too.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Grab Bag A Tradition begins

2010-12-16T02:03:00.001-06:00

Grab Bag

Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

I didn't post a blog about Christmas gifts because, although it was a very special Christmas gift, it also began a tradition in our family.

My husband and I were expecting our first child in April. That year Aunt Kathy gave us a Christening gown for Christmas. It was a 4 piece set of embroidered white nylon consisting of a matching coat, dress, and bonnet with a plain slip. In our family infants are usually baptized within the first month of birth. Both of my children were baptized in that outfit. And a tradition was begun.

As time passed, each of my 17 nieces and nephews were baptized in the dress. As each child wore the dress, their name and date were embroidered on the slip. Pink for girls and blue for boys of course. When the next generation began the colors were changed to apricot/peach and mint green. My grandchildren didn't wear the dress since they had a dress made from their grandmother's and mother's wedding dresses. They did wear the slip so their names and dates have been added. I'm not sure which of my nieces or nephews has the dress right now but I'll send them a copy of this and see where it turns up.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Fruitcake - Friend or Foe?

2010-12-14T10:11:00.000-06:00

Fruitcake--Friend or Foe

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

Image courtesy of Wikipedia used under the creative commons license.

I have always enjoyed Fruitcake, probably because it was always served with cream cheese and a cup of hot tea by my Irish relatives. It only appears during the holidays and in my house anyway was considered a treat. One year my brother-in-law was employed by the Rainbow Baking Co. in Colorado, so my mother ordered about 8 fruitcakes for gifting family members.

When I was newly married and not working, I made gifts for family. A few times I made fruitcake for family members. We always liked it but you had to start in about October. Later I switched to Cinnamon Swirl Raisin bread.

My children were not fans of fruitcake and had one fruitcake that they sent back and forth for about 10 years. It finally died in Florida.