tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39306579888560347952024-03-05T20:01:19.048-08:00Finally writing the Family StoriesTurn your genealogy work into something you can share with your family. Don't just keep boxes of genealogy stuff to pawn off to the next generation! Tell the family stories and share the wonderful details you've found in your research.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-30759424899610593592019-02-07T19:14:00.004-08:002019-02-07T19:16:30.245-08:00Wending my way back to Blogging--Use your Dreams<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much time has passed—and I’m still
dealing with documents galore!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However I’ve
made some progress, that I’m not adding any more to the “grand paper pile”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All my new work is saved in the cloud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve wanted to come back to blogging, but I
forgot the very basic details of how to get back into my blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally I had a dream (or two) where I got
back in—and here I am!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps some of you experience life the
same way as me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get cracking on a new
project full tilt and then something happens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have to travel somewhere or even have holidays; and there I am
starting from scratch and forgetting what I’d been so intent on doing before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s too easy for things to slip out of your
grasp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since genealogy isn’t exactly
life or death, it gets relegated to a back row in my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve tried online to-do lists, but many
things don’t end up getting done.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently heard about doing a Bullet
Journal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have some hope here!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m so glad to be back—let’s hope this
boots up!<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-20810808419303840442016-01-25T17:59:00.000-08:002016-01-27T10:54:20.701-08:00Dealing With Documents Galore<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Researching for a friend—or for yourself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dealing with documents galore<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’m back!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks for
hanging out while I took a break, we retired from work, and our kids started
having more grandbabies!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Woo Hoo!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have 5 wonderful grandsons—pretty
cool!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope other people are having
girls to match up with our smart & sweet little dudes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-oqdvH30WqVmrZowc1T5WXpcE0leRX57bejgt3OQDOjlC5HrvqcK6kTVroz-2H-m_jne0nI9gfhhHpV_1gAgRZIf7NxFB4FdjOfaBNXTLNws4g5lJ764W1LD_j_A13IY-qVm6JSyAsGh1/s1600/2015+5+grands+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-oqdvH30WqVmrZowc1T5WXpcE0leRX57bejgt3OQDOjlC5HrvqcK6kTVroz-2H-m_jne0nI9gfhhHpV_1gAgRZIf7NxFB4FdjOfaBNXTLNws4g5lJ764W1LD_j_A13IY-qVm6JSyAsGh1/s320/2015+5+grands+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the last 3 months, I took on a friend’s genealogy
search, assuming it wouldn’t take much time at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess that’s what everybody says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was just a few people in St. Paul &
Minneapolis, Minnesota—plus a single family from Iowa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yikes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Everywhere I turned there was more stuff about these people and another
generation (or 4) would open up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just
finished today and am glad it’s done—but I learned a few good things I thought
I’d share along the way! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">You're maybe thinking of me...she's got to be nuts! Isn't she overwhelmed already by all the stuff she needs to work with on her own families? Sure, but a little change of pace can be helpful. In my writing classes & groups, I found that every glitch in someone else's story would eventually come up for me too--and as I helped sort out their issues, it helped me with mine. Also, I don't do this much for very many people--this is a <u>very</u> good friend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The first thing was that by helping my friend with researching her family--I got to learn a lot of cool things about French Canada and about Louisiana (not places in my own tree)! I love the French language and had a lot of fun trying to pronounce the names properly to myself and imagining how fun it would be to hear them talking to each other... plus I kept wondering that I maybe I smelled some classic French cooking on the stove in our kitchen. The French language was also a focus in Louisiana--though that was from the other side of the family. This family has France to thank for pulling both sides together. And then there was the Irish part...</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjT-1f248-FmlkOhhrnBydb0L_L9J2LGEyRc-bRhdMTPG5pR3k_2-UrFzD2uTL5H-vmGL-x3YtpPzCatvUTldsWTrqMvgDy745QnL9kiO66ZbREHfZ30_pBvWIQYf9wcAM163128lsnRo/s1600/Louis+%2526+Josephine+Parenteau+5+%25282%2529+enhance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjT-1f248-FmlkOhhrnBydb0L_L9J2LGEyRc-bRhdMTPG5pR3k_2-UrFzD2uTL5H-vmGL-x3YtpPzCatvUTldsWTrqMvgDy745QnL9kiO66ZbREHfZ30_pBvWIQYf9wcAM163128lsnRo/s320/Louis+%2526+Josephine+Parenteau+5+%25282%2529+enhance.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This is Josephine & Louis Parenteau. Josephine is my friend’s great grandmother who was
born in 1859 & d in 1962 age 103.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She had 13 children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite a
lady!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;">When you have a zillion of anything: </span></u></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My piano teacher taught me that the only way
to eat an elephant, was one bite at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When there are too many items to choose from, that can get
complicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It help to gather records,
documents, notes into files for the family, or even into subfiles for a time
period in a family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;">Find a way to keep track of what all you’ve got:</span></u></b><span style="color: #0070c0;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put
together a spreadsheet of all the items, be they photos, documents, text files
of description, etc. , listed by family with all the exact doc names listed
(same as the items) to help keep track of what’s what.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"></span></u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;">I got a new, frustrating lesson on my Ancestry trees: </span></u></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had understood that it was possible to
invite family or others to your Ancestry tree, and that they would be able to
look at the records you attached to the tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I invited my friend to the tree, and when she tried to look at records,
the site told her that she’d need to pay fully for Ancestry.com to see those
records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">That news meant
that I had to save a file of each census for each family, and any pictures I
found in other trees, I needed to copy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Remember to click on “Original image” to get the biggest size photo to
copy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All those records needed a proper
label, plus notation in the list of documents<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Reconsider some of your “personal rules”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’m totally one of these—“do it right”-people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the past I had peeked into other peoples’
trees on Ancestry, but mostly tried to find my own stuff and made sure I could
find it on my own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes you can’t
do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In searching for women’s
marriages, after trying my best… I have now adjusted my beliefs to look for
what other trees list for the husband and the records they have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they have a marriage record, then I check
it against what I already know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it’s
a match, I’ll add it and also note the tree name & owner (for my results)
to find other data if need be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Be sure to check 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> & 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
cousins to be inclusive for a good search <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This issue particularly came up with considering the people
who might be alive for my friend to contact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is really hard to search for first cousins (where you share a
grandmother with the person)—that’s more a job to ask your living family about,
since most of them might be too young to have any records listed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;">So I decided to include in 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> & 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
cousins</span></u></b>—kids of my friend’s great grandmother and their
children, grands & great grands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is where you get a whole bunch of different surnames—but I realized
that the grandmother and even great grandmother lived to be over a hundred and
there might have been talk of these not-necessarily “shirt-tail”
relatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These people are closely
enough related to be interesting to contact—and to get together with for a
“family reunion”.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></span></u></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Create a file of death records to help in the continuing search
for obits:<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Another thing I had was <span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="color: black;">a<strong> </strong><u>lot of people with death records in St.
Paul & Minneapolis</u></span></span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
created a file of the people I had specific death dates for, from all parts of
the family, but who died in St. Paul especially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I listed the death date<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(year, month, day) then their name, their
date of birth & place, & where they died in Ramsey county, MN--if we
know).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason for this is because
you can sometimes call a major library and with the specific death date and beg
them to email you a scan of the obituary from the local paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Times are tougher these days (sooo sad people
aren’t funding libraries), so if they won’t help you, perhaps you could order microfilm
reels of the local newspaper through Inter-Library-Loan and find & make a
copy yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Try to Answer Sticky Questions—Oh! Boy!<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The other surprising aspect was trying to answer a sticky
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My friend’s dad’s parents
weren’t married until he was about 5 or 6 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was sent to live with a “grandparent-ish”
couple (not related) until 1930.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
dad, Frank, was born in 1924.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There had
been a lot of family talk about whether Frank’s dad was really his father, as
the couple was so slow to marry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
helped my friend order Frank’s birth certificate, which listed his dad’s name
as father in 1924.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That document alone
doesn’t guarantee truth, but it’s a good start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Luckily, Ancestry.com had City Directories for St. Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gathered those directories—and learned
quite a bit more—about how Frank’s mom & her sister came to St. Paul to
work, and were waitresses or clerks in a cigar store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I followed Frank’s dad through a number of
low level jobs in sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have all the
work and residential addresses and found that they had many opportunities to
have met and dated each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also on
that birth certificate, it listed Frank’s dad as manager of a cigar store, when
the mom had worked at that store for 2 or more years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I see here the makings of more research, though the family
felt pretty happy with that information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I let them know that DNA most definitely could be helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did my best to trace Frank’s dad’s family,
but<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louisiana doesn’t seem to have a lot
of records available online… and then, of course I rushed that brick wall and
followed them back to the 1600s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made
it back farther in time, but there could be a lot more information on the
family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #0070c0;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sharing descendancy information:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">My friend didn’t want a copy of genealogy software and to
have to dig information out piece by piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I created descendancy charts with an Excel spreadsheet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By adding pages to the spreadsheet, I was
able to include all the families of the wives who married in to the “main”
families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I created 2 spreadsheets, one
for her mother’s relatives, and one for her dad’s relatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It worked well to fit everybody in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For these charts, I included plenty more than name, date of
birth & location & date of death & location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I had census records, I listed what we
had in the far left column for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Under the person, or couple, I noted US or other census records, year,
where they lived, what their occupation was & other things of interest like
a relative staying with them, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Usually each listing of a census record took only a line or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also noted other files like the WWI &
WWII draft cards and other records.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1tgIi05immo-Ahz_B3UcCtiqumiTtgiGjkGLdwrjVqxSIyJALyhqYNXlJxXvbL7dqYSUlGUQrXORwm3OKJUeRPLcZmKs_GGyHMyCEvt2GA-Xy0rnCp5C91akh5RWFTFdo15y-VsD_RxC/s1600/Parenteau+excel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1tgIi05immo-Ahz_B3UcCtiqumiTtgiGjkGLdwrjVqxSIyJALyhqYNXlJxXvbL7dqYSUlGUQrXORwm3OKJUeRPLcZmKs_GGyHMyCEvt2GA-Xy0rnCp5C91akh5RWFTFdo15y-VsD_RxC/s320/Parenteau+excel.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
On to more family stories!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
id="Picture_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:344.25pt;
height:207pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\MARILY~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.png"
o:title="" croptop="7307f" cropbottom="6642f" cropright="17410f"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img height="276" src="file:///C:/Users/MARILY~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image004.png" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_2" width="459" /><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-57316597248090027442013-05-23T12:10:00.001-07:002013-05-23T12:10:31.779-07:00“I’d give anything to hear his voice again…”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkrtc7NGp9lbqRv1_9HaJw6bcrqtFlLokMdBlHDjS8fAVKkPUfdvoPfwjNVd4lXopDLrUb3libQa0jm8pW251i-zpiJGHIL4NY8gyRZycjhlpe0UlFHNaiP-QxcBY1xETb5D3ctlCl95X/s1600/111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkrtc7NGp9lbqRv1_9HaJw6bcrqtFlLokMdBlHDjS8fAVKkPUfdvoPfwjNVd4lXopDLrUb3libQa0jm8pW251i-zpiJGHIL4NY8gyRZycjhlpe0UlFHNaiP-QxcBY1xETb5D3ctlCl95X/s1600/111.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yay!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m back!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I didn’t mean to be away from
Blogging for so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things and life
get complicated—and sometimes in good ways!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I now have 2 more grandbabies (double Yay!) and we’re taking on the
major life change of retiring!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yikes!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But back to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Writing Family Stories</b>…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have so much to share!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today’s topic was illustrated
again to me by overhearing my husband describe one of our now “regular
activities” to an insurance client of his.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We record special voice mail messages digitally and save them on our
computer. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We tend to think of everything
important as visual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have photos and
videos…and videos have some audio involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we don’t tend to think of keeping audio files in their own right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, voice mail is a amazing
commodity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It all started when I couldn’t
stand to erase a voice mail our son left us saying, “Wow, you won’t believe it—I
got the job!” And then a big hoot and holler!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That kind of excitement and enthusiasm is amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time, we didn’t have a recorder for it,
and it eventually was wiped out by the voice-mail gods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I was determined that we should capture
these awesome moments—and I hate taking no for an answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the technology hasn’t caught up to
my dreams, or to something affordable, but we eventually get there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So now we have the “It’s a boy!!!” call and
many others.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Luckily, my husband is a
mechanical engineer and he’s always been interested in new electronic toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to Amazon.com and found an
inexpensive audio and video recorder by Aiptek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(There were a very few items to choose from then, but now there’s a ton
of spy stuff and car recorders like they use in Russia!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve used our trusty recorder to capture our
voice mails digitally, and we’ve used the video for some longer movies than we’d
want to take on a camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It works best
if you keep it pretty close to your target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Also, you can’t expect it to give super movie results like an expensive
recorder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still it does a pretty good
job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve used ours to get audio and
video of my parents for some of their stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The pocket size is handy and we can set it on the table and tell them it’s
only an audio recorder and get some video too.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How does this fit into writing
family stories?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The voice mails you save
now, can go into a computer file about that person, and it adds a wonderful
dimension to their history, showing how they spoke and what they talked
about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re doing a Windows Movie
Maker file with photos, you can input your digital audio file like you might
add music for the background.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve long been excited about the
fact that my dad’s sister thought to ask her mom (my grandmother) about the
family history on a tape years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Having that recording of my grandmother’s voice (she died in 1970) is so
amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like she’s still sitting
in the room with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a gift that
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be sure and check to see if there
may be recordings of your ancestors’ voices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Make them digital and save them!</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was really taken one day
talking with my mother who’s 88.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were
going through her old teenage scrapbook and talking about her life as a
girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She spoke of how close she felt to
her dad, who died when I was only 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
turned to me and said, “I’d give anything to hear his voice again, one more
time.” </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That really got my attention, so
we end up filling up our voicemail inbox, save the files on our little
recorder, download the files, then I go in and name/date them and then can
erase them from the phone so we can get more messages again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve branched out from just our family to
include a few voicemails from our friends too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One last thought:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always be watching for early technology—don’t
expect it can’t be there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Investigate what
relatives may have about the family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
parents were married in 1945 in our little town of Buhl, Idaho.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad was in the Air Force stationed up near
Boise then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A friend of his attended the
wedding and had a movie camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
the shortest footage ever, but it’s amazing to see my parents as young kids
starting off their life together!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-56698088779846496772012-02-08T15:44:00.000-08:002012-02-08T15:44:26.624-08:00In-Laws, Outlaws and Shirt-Tail Relatives<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff6KZ291C-iJEBphsj_HRX524sDa2gLbg7uu-hcXf384yEDQ4Vq0_B-xTqF-xid1zo53hSJXeXYLvwZm87svdf3FVoqf1acG5Wur-pkNWnWtV-RAXioULFvUo5slQbA4UbVlHXy57lqyg/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff6KZ291C-iJEBphsj_HRX524sDa2gLbg7uu-hcXf384yEDQ4Vq0_B-xTqF-xid1zo53hSJXeXYLvwZm87svdf3FVoqf1acG5Wur-pkNWnWtV-RAXioULFvUo5slQbA4UbVlHXy57lqyg/s320/003.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I particularly enjoy some of the side connections I have made in researching my family and lately was surprised by a great find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad refers to these people as “shirt-tail” relatives, in his lively adopted "country" vernacular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This comes from learning about all the family, which includes spouses and their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad would also say it reaches from in-laws to outlaws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times wonderful pictures can come from the in-law family and there are great stories from there too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whole set of people who knew your ancestors best, come from many families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want a full story, it’s good to check those Collateral Lines (not just the blood lines). </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am a believer in serendipity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through one family, I was able to track down an older relative that lives in Seattle and to take her to lunch and talk about the “old days” and the greater family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was wonderful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shared pictures and had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I even got my mom’s cousin to Seattle to meet with the same lady—as they had been close at college age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reconnecting people is pretty cool.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other day I found another in-law family on Ancestry.com.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In looking for family, I often check to see who is copying info from my family trees listed on my opening page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I email them through Ancestry and ask how they might be related, and most people are kind enough to connect back with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mind if they copy my tree information, but it’s the fact that they might have pictures or other info that could really enrich my research that drives me to bug them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sometimes it works out especially well.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My great aunt married a man named Francis in 1914.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They met in the wilds of the Idaho desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a neighbor, clearing the sagebrush on his homestead claim just like they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t have any family in the area, so the Ring’s soon adopted him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turns out he was from a wealthy Chicago family, and my mom says that they probably sent him West to grow up a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was quite a handsome man and he gave farming a college try, but it wasn’t for him and he and my great aunt eventually moved into town. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He however loved Opera, and was instrumental in getting an Opera House built in the little town of Buhl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Opera House hosted traveling shows and helped the people in this tiny outpost in the desert to have some entertainment.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My in-law experience was to find a relative of Francis’s sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family was Scottish, and the Grandfather to Francis, of the same name, had sailed from Scotland to New York in 1848.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turns out he kept a journal of this crossing, which the family transcribed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just received a copy in the mail and it was an amazing read!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This man was clearly wealthy, dining with the Captain and staying in an upper cabin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were steerage passengers on board as well, and I can only guess that they didn’t have a sofa to lie on in the daytime if they were seasick, like Francis had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He described 6 weeks of storms and high seas, and how the ship almost foundered several times because they carried too much pig iron in the hold and the weight pulled the ship down into the waves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote of love and hope for his girl to join him in a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lost many of his belongings because of the storms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He and his girl were well-read and he carried a letter of introduction from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and they knew Charles Dickens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This journal sounds like it was written by a good writer in that time period—so sweet and earnest; when men could have as many feelings and hopes and dreams and worries as women!</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I wish he would have continued his journal…it was full of such interesting details!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our family had relatives crossing about that same time, though of a much poorer means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ocean voyage might have been much the same, just a little tougher from down below in steerage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned what fair and foul wind means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fair Wind blows in the direction you’re going, and Foul Winds blow the opposite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’d love to find a website where people could share their ancestor’s journals so I could look for some tidbits that might be close to our ancestor’s experience to share with our history. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are great stories there!</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-90163777881187071652012-01-25T15:59:00.000-08:002012-01-25T15:59:45.135-08:00Weather can be exciting!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtgLMpyl5YTRofb45QMxY8yeF-82WxkVVFX_dmUGx8cvJjXMhhKMIG4ndyaTTFzANIcWWdYihFA-Kkq3dFtES52iV_6ncRKEiCLqlm26NmZ5T2bT8IopmRnD6-qUWV5YMpty2K0XUr9-D/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtgLMpyl5YTRofb45QMxY8yeF-82WxkVVFX_dmUGx8cvJjXMhhKMIG4ndyaTTFzANIcWWdYihFA-Kkq3dFtES52iV_6ncRKEiCLqlm26NmZ5T2bT8IopmRnD6-qUWV5YMpty2K0XUr9-D/s320/001.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>(headline & article from the Friday, January 20th 2012 front page of the Bellevue Reporter newspaper in Washington State.) Unfortunately it was the last paper we had with a story about the snow. We'd already recycled the rest.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sorry to let so much time go by since my last blog, but we have been traveling and trying to see the sun as much as possible (and the sun’s even shining in Seattle today!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus now I have revised plans to help me write on the road!</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you might guess from the newspaper headline, we were home for the Big Snowmageddon in Seattle this month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t get snow here very often, because of the warm, wet influence of the Pacific Ocean, but occasionally we can get a cold front that moves south from Alaska and if they bump into each other—we can get a whole bunch of snow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also really hilly here so pretty much they recommend only neurosurgeons should drive (and of course, the crazies).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re pretty happy to stay home and avoid all that fender-bending.</span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I love the "over the top" headlines in newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone seems to love reading about a good disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that brings me to my topic for today!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We last left off with me scanning some late 1800’s and very early 1900’s newspaper microfilm from northern Iowa (Mitchell county) where my Ring ancestors came to from Denmark.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My ancestors were terrified of the tornados in Iowa—and that was their main reason for leaving their Danish friends and moving on to Idaho (in addition to the option of homesteading their own farm).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been looking for when these tornados may have happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to search websites about tornados, but didn’t have much luck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I heard about a site, GenDisasters.com.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your ancestors had a disaster happen near them, you can look a lot of stuff up here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t find anything specific to Mitchell County, Iowa, so I decided to keep looking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wonders never cease, but I checked back with the Iowa Genweb.org again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have a statewide effort called IowaOldPress.com where people have submitted transcribed newspaper articles from the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked through all the ones for Mitchell County, and 1894 was the winner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had amazing coverage from the Osage News on September 30, 1894.</span></div><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong>“CYCLONE!</strong> <br />
A Terrible Storm Brings Awful Destruction of Life. Five Killed In Burr Oak. Reports from All Quarters.<br />
____ <br />
Many Localities About the County Visited by the Storm. <br />
____ <br />
Thrilling Stories Told by the Survivors. Relief Work. <br />
____ </div><br />
The Cyclone of 1894. What a terrible night. What a scene of destruction! What a trail of death through northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. We thought we knew something about cyclones, but we didn’t. We heard of Comanche, saw pictures of the wreck at Grinnell and read of the destruction at Pomeroy. But they were so far away. Now it is right at our door. Amid the roar of the storm there comes the moan of the bereaved and the wail of those in distress. We have looked upon the scene of desolation. We have seen the faces of the dead, heard the groans of the suffering, and wept with our friends mid the ruins of their desolated homes. No imagination about this. It is all too real much too serious and entirely too near for safety or comfort.”<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><o:p>Wow! I would have been afraid too! </o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For those interested, the article refers to a tornado in Grinnell, Iowa 18 Jun 1882 where 40-50 were killed;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Camanche, IA June 1850 there were 32 killed, and in Pomeroy, IA on 6 Jun 1893, 100 people were killed and of a town of 900 people, only 30 houses still stood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(These tornados were all listed in the GenDisaster.com site.)</span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I still have all my scans to poke through, but I realized that I have quite a lot of wonderful information to share with the Iowa Genweb people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d been struggling with myself to get going through the scans, but I’d like to do my part to help other genealogists find their people in newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I’ve decided to read the scans while I transcribe and prepare some of them for the website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was easy to email the people in charge and learn about their formatting guidelines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can try that too—it’s great to make a contribution!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good luck with your family stories--now I have some juicy ones to tell about our Ring family and the tornados!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-77608441096181729602011-11-21T13:35:00.000-08:002011-11-21T13:53:50.622-08:00Take Advantage of Happy Opportunities--And thank you to Facebook!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhezHqX2KGOSqZR79p9cokZzJO7Fazk-QPkUb4oDh8yipIV70-yGpOlX98qyaAS3kAu2aJnGmgRWg37O7f_xFwfxj2eh96GNAA8n6gFPTUnvakG8clen9yNgMjUm8Ue8i5B-LhpN3W6yCsd/s1600/097.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhezHqX2KGOSqZR79p9cokZzJO7Fazk-QPkUb4oDh8yipIV70-yGpOlX98qyaAS3kAu2aJnGmgRWg37O7f_xFwfxj2eh96GNAA8n6gFPTUnvakG8clen9yNgMjUm8Ue8i5B-LhpN3W6yCsd/s320/097.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0FrXv_xHSuYK3yZ8P3gGI74nsmwB-rhFBnmYalxfAteKbF-_qDRxh-TI4HL2jxKgh3C4f7X4LqVPW04RkirEcsLQ-KD7xqQJzsGuLa4fSgyk8_jmmgjzSSBBWT2h9n5TEgdFemiiqjEmX/s1600/041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0FrXv_xHSuYK3yZ8P3gGI74nsmwB-rhFBnmYalxfAteKbF-_qDRxh-TI4HL2jxKgh3C4f7X4LqVPW04RkirEcsLQ-KD7xqQJzsGuLa4fSgyk8_jmmgjzSSBBWT2h9n5TEgdFemiiqjEmX/s320/041.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>You may have been thinking that I was gobbled up by my boxes of research or by the Library Troll.<br />
<br />
Somebody pinch me! This last 2 months has been a whirlwind of wonderful adventures! <br />
<br />
With all the traveling, I haven't been able to keep up with posting the blog--especially with pictures, but here we are now. To give you a hint of my happy news, the top picture is of our visit to the Denmark farm where my great-grandfather, Niels Peder Ring grew up. And miracles of genealogy, the picture below is of me with my two newly-found cousins in Denmark. Søren is on the left and Margit is on the right. We look much too serious, but we are hard at work comparing our genealogies to see if we were really related! And when we found we were related, we all stood up and hugged and called each other cousin!<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">My husband found out he had a business trip to London within 2 weeks and I jumped at the chance to go and set us up for a 2 day trip to Denmark, hoping it wouldn’t be too cold as yet. With all my work on the Ring family--I really wanted to see the homeland!<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">So now I really had my work cut out for me --setting up our travel plans and my information for Denmark--Plus that was during the same 10 days I had my microfilm here from Iowa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too much good news!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my next blog I’ll talk about the microfilm.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I had recently taken a free genealogy webinar (I believe there’s always stuff for anyone to learn more about) at <a href="http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/webinars.asp"><span style="color: blue;">www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp</span></a> with Thomas MacEntee called <u>Facebook for Genealogists</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now they have a CD of it for a list price of $12.95, but an intro price of $9.95.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (If you watch them live or within a week since it was live when they post it online, it's free!) </span>This was a nice webinar and he showed all the ins and outs and little icons (which were not intuitive for me at all) and ways that <u>Facebook </u>could help people working on Genealogy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This big trick for me was to realize that there are groups on <u>Facebook</u> and how to sort through those and to pick some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no idea this would have a big impact on our trip---but it did!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I found a few groups about Danish genealogy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I signed up for one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the participants had mentioned that this other Danish group was really good at helping, and could do it in English, though mostly they chatted in Danish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I posted there too.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I had been frustrated for months trying to get into the Danish Archives website to look up more about our Ring family in the Parish Records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had worked for a while on our old laptop, but I didn’t know what was wrong now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some translated areas, but they seemed to leave out some important details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could understand that they expected people to download at night from them, which started at 4pm Pacific Time—(fun with numbers to calculate BMT and realize that Denmark is one hour earlier).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But my biggest problem was how to get the particular Java they wanted me to have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone in the group let me know (VM Runtime Java—put that into Google and it comes right up)—and then the whole thing works like a charm!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yay!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Score one for Facebook!</u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">So suddenly I’m into the parish records and searching feverishly about the family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus I’m having a hard time with web sites about the area (Ebeltoft) because they’re mostly in Danish and I got better at using Google Translate…but some of this didn’t translate so well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I’m finally going there, I don’t want to just hit the theme parks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want to miss anything special that we should see and experience about this place!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to experience what my ancestors lives might have been like!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I posted on the Danish-speaking<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Danish group on <u>Facebook </u>and ask for help in translating a page I found in the Parish Records (the handwritten notes from the parish priest who mixed his own ink and cut down his own pen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The handwriting is in German Gothic (seriously difficult on its own, plus it’s in olde Danish—not the new Danish people use now and speak.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I mention on the site that we’re going to Ebeltoft and would love help from anyone who speaks English well and Danish too, who might help us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One lady replied there is actually an historic archive in Ebeltoft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <u>Score 2 for Facebook!</u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>She sent me a link and I emailed them and sent my genealogy and asked if they knew of anyone from the area we might be related to--plus also if they might have records about our people there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nicest librarian emailed me back. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We arrived and they placed a call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a few minutes, Margit entered with her genealogy notes, and I laid mine alongside in this nice room filled with books that is attached to the back of one of the Ebeltoft Fire Stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in came Søren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looked so much like my grandfather, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>overalls and all, that I hadn’t seen since I was a very little girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a sweet face and a great smile!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shared photos and copied Margit’s genealogy and mine for each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Søren went back to work and invited us to his home at 4pm. Margit came with us in our car to lunch and then to show us the Ring farm which had been in the family from 1830, and the church where my great grandparents were married.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span>Margit told us the story that our Niels Peder’s father died very young, when Peder was only 13, and Peder’s sister Anne Mette was only 15 (the sister & husband who took over the farm).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mother died when Anne Mette was 22 and Peder was 20 (before he married).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anne and her husband were highest bidders for the farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So before they left Denmark, Peder knew he wouldn’t have the farm there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I assume this fact might have sparked his sense of adventure of seeking out the new lands in America.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">What a beautiful place Denmark is—and the area where we visited is now a National Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Ebeltoft area it is hilly and the farms look so rich and loamy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m glad to be from a farm and see what it’s like there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our cousin Søren grew up on that same Ring farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometime since the 1950s, the farm had been sold to someone else, but they allowed us to come by and take photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margit asked me about how happy our Ring family was in the USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I wasn't sure. I knew they didn't have the money to go back to Denmark. </span>Iowa was a huge change for them—they had never been more than a mile from the North Sea where they lived in Denmark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to wonder about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iowa had tornadoes which really upset them, and they lost their two baby boys, and had more severe cold than in Denmark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they moved to Idaho in 1907, which was desert, and even much more cold and dry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They did get </span>their own farm and to have farms for their sons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But was it all worth it?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-73704555394844760742011-09-15T10:05:00.000-07:002011-09-15T10:05:33.926-07:00Help make things happen for you & Blessed are the Librarians!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRX2C7FLtpeUiS54y7uQtQY5Fg24XGrL3SRFVjJnk1UQWtUyInnhWsHUi2etz2Ta6lwI7jgHxulUuqNYTMmELX-Dp923vDIp0HHWjSTKpN1aqIVjY-mWPVxNzj0Kri35gPoby6RDfin-fc/s1600/phone+%2526+Iowa+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRX2C7FLtpeUiS54y7uQtQY5Fg24XGrL3SRFVjJnk1UQWtUyInnhWsHUi2etz2Ta6lwI7jgHxulUuqNYTMmELX-Dp923vDIp0HHWjSTKpN1aqIVjY-mWPVxNzj0Kri35gPoby6RDfin-fc/s320/phone+%2526+Iowa+map.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In Seattle, we had a late summer--and a short summer--but at least we got a couple of weeks of what felt like a summer. During those hot and languid days, I should have been on the deck drinking iced tea. But no, I sat in my office stewing over the fact that all I had for my family stories were a few personal anectdotes of the Ring family during the 20 year period from 1887 (when they arrived in the US and went to Iowa) and 1907 when they moved to Idaho. A lot happens in 20 years.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I had checked online about newspapers from that period. There were some that were microfilmed (and with some missing years), but they were in either Des Moines or Cedar Rapids, Iowa libraries. On the website, it said that the microfilms were not loaned. I started dreaming of a road trip to see these newspapers. Then I thought about all the nights alone in a crappy hotel, since it takes hours and hours to go through each newspaper, looking for your family name. (Thank you to genealogybank.com for making their newspapers so delightfully searchable!). My husband gave me the "are you crazy?" lecture, but still I couldn't just accept the inevitable.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In my experience in studying and writing fiction, we look for each character to have a "guiding principle", a "personal theme" that affects their actions. Well, my personal theme is "there's got to be a way to fix this". I then started wondering how much it might cost me to buy a copy of their microfilm--probably cheaper than the crappy hotel bill.... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Did I mention that I'm not exactly shy? So I picked up the phone. I don't have an expensive cell plan--just a land line with a $.05 a minute carrier for long distance. It's cheap enough that I feel okay calling all over about genealogy. So I called the library (whose phone number was displayed on their web page) and it turned out the woman who answered my call was the ILL or (Inter Library Loan) person. She knew just what microfilm I was talking about. Before I could ask about buying a copy, she told me that they actually do loan the microfilm from one library to another and I'd be able to get it! I guess there was some mistake in the "great library book" saying they don't loan. She can only do business with other librarians, but she sweetly gave me her email to send to my librarian here to contact her.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And voila! I'm so excited I could burst! I've got my rolls of dimes & my family charts packed up and I'm off to the library to read about the Iowa years! And yes, on every printed copy I make, I'll note the paper, date, page. I'd better take a blue pen so it shows up well on my original. I'll also take my camera and see how that does with the screen (with the flash off of course).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hours of fun!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-74859417714407666602011-08-25T12:34:00.000-07:002011-08-25T12:41:26.727-07:00The Ick Factor and More Fun with Pictures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnMi4mj3CXgxw2-RzOaMREw60Mpr0ihosz_axOEPIP9Q2PyLjdCbbtpFzJXLTDBJig6dLRIQAyJL3uQqoo6aKKvorEdVY0jgz9QHzsti01qjeYZoYcKJLJq43FMxFZQeFg7NuGQgUmz0x/s1600/Hattie+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnMi4mj3CXgxw2-RzOaMREw60Mpr0ihosz_axOEPIP9Q2PyLjdCbbtpFzJXLTDBJig6dLRIQAyJL3uQqoo6aKKvorEdVY0jgz9QHzsti01qjeYZoYcKJLJq43FMxFZQeFg7NuGQgUmz0x/s320/Hattie+Book.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Soon after I first announced I was ready to play "family historian" and was interested in artifacts, I got a package from my aunt in the East. Okay, everywhere in the USA is East of Seattle--but I mean the Carolinas. Of course to them, the West is Chicago...<br />
<br />
I opened the box and saw whatever was inside was enclosed in several plastic bags. My nose wrinkled as I opened the first bag. Then I ran outside to the deck with it and luckily it wasn't raining. I'm kind of an allergic person and this thing smelled worse than allergies. I opened the final bag and decided to get a paper mask to wear to keep at least some of the "spores" away. Eeeewwww! I opened this skeevy, formerly black scrapbook that now leaned more to green and purple. So is this what genealogy and family history and learning the family stories is about?<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's exactly that--but hang in there with me. I opened the cover and saw little "Brownie camera" pictures attached to the page by only a few remaining photo corners, though the shadow of the other corners remained. I turned the page and a couple of photos slid out. I worried that I should be like an archeologist and note every picture's location, those on pages, and the ones stuffed into the binding between pages. Maybe there was some meaning in their order and location. Suddenly I'd forgotten about the smell and I was excited about the treasure in my hands. I gazed between the pictures spread before me. This had been my grandmother's childhood album. She had written a few things in chalk on the pages that had the consistency of construction paper.<br />
<br />
I called my aunt and she apologized about the mold, but I thanked her for not tossing the whole thing out. That's the worst, but most common thing that can happen. Beg your people not to toss stuff--but pack it up and send it. Just take it outside first. A few of the pictures gave off a little odor when my scanner heated them up, but it was tolerable. It's tough to deal with mold on photos-- a few were hard to see, but since they were black and white pictures, I tried removing the purple of the mold and it helped.<br />
<br />
In the photo above is the little book I made with those pictures of my grandmother's childhood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was my first try at producing something to share about the family history with the rest of the family. The book is about 5"x5" and only has 15 pages, which I thought was a nice match to the period of time and sweetness of her age from 9 to 17 during the years 1915 to 1923. Hattie's parents had some money and were the first in their town to own an automobile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were able to travel, so we have pictures of their early car trips to visit relatives or to have a picnic lunch. <br />
<br />
When we took this book to my cousin and his children in Omaha, the kids perked up to hear that this book was about a girl about their age from another time. I told them the stories I knew about the family and their travel and picnics and showed them the pictures and we wondered aloud what it was like to be her. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids were more interested than I’d expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book seemed to be a nice way to connect them to their great grandmother that they'd never had a chance to meet. I do wish I could've included a little bit of that piece of turquoise brocade in each book from the scrap that had been taped into the album. It must have been quite a dress, and it would have brought out the red highlights in her hair.<br />
<br />
Photo books are available in so many places. My son told me that it would have been faster to do my Dad's book at Costco. I guess you can date the photos for order and they'll put it together for you. Still, I liked clustering the photos on facing pages that complimented each other. If you tag your photos, you can pull up family and all above 3*s--or 4*s. Some of us are more photogenic than others so we look at the 3*s to make sure we've got everybody covered. We also post them on Flickr.com for the literally distant relatives to see what we're up to.<br />
<br />
Still even more fun with pictures to come...<br />
<br />
<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-64029079017545772262011-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:002011-09-15T10:12:12.382-07:00What to do with all those pictures? So many things to create!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJJ8UmX3yK_MQerA3mTlBxKPMv11DaS8x-4SrcxOS-7hwlcV-xoELKErqwQCmvS9TG_gE1fOefF3M7PHa2q36Y_Dgobz3SnuoWXJrU1rmj9pqkLfeCF8vu8xEqGyjAlq5IZnzDD-C5K1U/s1600/2001+flag+%2526+combine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJJ8UmX3yK_MQerA3mTlBxKPMv11DaS8x-4SrcxOS-7hwlcV-xoELKErqwQCmvS9TG_gE1fOefF3M7PHa2q36Y_Dgobz3SnuoWXJrU1rmj9pqkLfeCF8vu8xEqGyjAlq5IZnzDD-C5K1U/s320/2001+flag+%2526+combine.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's a picture from the Ring farm we took in 2001 with the usual flag flying (whenever family is in town) and a red combine thrashing the barley in the field.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you're like me, you've got a hard drive filled with pictures that run the gamut from current to ancestral. Recently I completed a photo book for my Dad for his 88th birthday which was yesterday, and that flag is on the cover. He's been having some pain lately and some difficulty with his breathing. I figured if he wasn't feeling well, this could be a sort of "happy book" that can help him focus on some good times if he's not feeling that well in the "right now". Plus it's always fun to see the best of the pictures of you and all the people who love you. None of us can get too much of that. The book is basically his own special photo album from his early days to the current time. We're sure he'll be with us when he's 101, so I plan on updating this many times. Also, I apologized to my sister already who is under-represented. We have a lot of our own pictures--so she knows that we can add pictures of her that she'd like for the next iteration. Plus we need to gather pictures for one for my mom!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sounds like a lot of work--but perhaps less than you think. I created a file in my Windows Photo Gallery, named it for my dad, went through our picture files and copied the proper pictures into that named file (naming them by date so they'd be in order). If you've added tags to pictures, it's even easier. And don't forget to tag your ancestor photos--make it easy on yourself to find what you've got. Finding stuff has to be the biggest time waster of all.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I made this book on Kodak.com. I had worried about uploading so many photos (over 300), but it went great--and we went out to lunch while the computer was busy. On the book I'd chosen, I couldn't write in addition to the pictures, so I used a photo to make my point.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DYOkj5MNiisysLWdgRd359oo_zds4pfsD7V9eO6RPd8T6PfU-NeVWgHA6J30AYm91ogKag6Dlecl-HByxCZRoSIhiTxiJeAcLbMxLuCcDOYT5u5Lh_I19N-psw1RXwDAyvEbVrgRjgfd/s1600/Jul+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DYOkj5MNiisysLWdgRd359oo_zds4pfsD7V9eO6RPd8T6PfU-NeVWgHA6J30AYm91ogKag6Dlecl-HByxCZRoSIhiTxiJeAcLbMxLuCcDOYT5u5Lh_I19N-psw1RXwDAyvEbVrgRjgfd/s320/Jul+2011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was a great photo from my daughter's birthday and it works to send a message to Granddad.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Our daughter in law is very good with pictures and artistic touches and she created an amazing, lovely book about our new grandson's first year. Plus she'd done gorgeous books about our family weddings, too. She likes Picaboo.com the best, because they are the most customizable. She can use big photos as a background for other ones, or all the beautiful scrapbook-type backgrounds--and she can write comments anywhere. They might seem pricey, but not for what you get. That glossy hardback is an amazing family treasure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll share some other ways I've shared pictures at another time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm back to sitting on the deck under the Cinzano umbrella--it's always a short summer in Seattle!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">P.S. My dad adored his photo book! I have never heard so many compliments in a row from him ever! What fun to create something he enjoys so much!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-3381698843301988422011-08-12T15:28:00.000-07:002011-08-12T15:35:54.329-07:00Elsie: Finding & ordering the pieces of information in chronological order<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox2ufIsb1vtlN_44uok8bEkDjBlYoLsVJdejD_WqiKSfUwbICm_ooZpvVZpKvaYv8hnzE91BRlmbzJtSXmFSoZZYC6znu5T5lTzAtxTq3RH-TiDHJYhQ-gFEmv_DkdJteXAi_AVK8gW6Y/s1600/307+-+Albert+Ring+Elsie+Ring+-307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox2ufIsb1vtlN_44uok8bEkDjBlYoLsVJdejD_WqiKSfUwbICm_ooZpvVZpKvaYv8hnzE91BRlmbzJtSXmFSoZZYC6znu5T5lTzAtxTq3RH-TiDHJYhQ-gFEmv_DkdJteXAi_AVK8gW6Y/s320/307+-+Albert+Ring+Elsie+Ring+-307.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox2ufIsb1vtlN_44uok8bEkDjBlYoLsVJdejD_WqiKSfUwbICm_ooZpvVZpKvaYv8hnzE91BRlmbzJtSXmFSoZZYC6znu5T5lTzAtxTq3RH-TiDHJYhQ-gFEmv_DkdJteXAi_AVK8gW6Y/s1600/307+-+Albert+Ring+Elsie+Ring+-307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox2ufIsb1vtlN_44uok8bEkDjBlYoLsVJdejD_WqiKSfUwbICm_ooZpvVZpKvaYv8hnzE91BRlmbzJtSXmFSoZZYC6znu5T5lTzAtxTq3RH-TiDHJYhQ-gFEmv_DkdJteXAi_AVK8gW6Y/s1600/307+-+Albert+Ring+Elsie+Ring+-307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Aunt Elsie was the youngest of the Ring children, born to Nels Peder and Joanna Marie. She was born 9 Feb 1898 or 1899 in Osage, Iowa and came out to Idaho with the family. All the Ring girls were pretty, but Elsie had a special sparkle and beauty. According to the local Idaho newspaper, I'd found that she left by train in September of 1918 for Seattle to attend school at the University of Washington. This picture is of Elsie Ring with eldest brother Albert--the youngest and the oldest.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I attended the University of Washington too, and so I checked on her enrollment. I figured she hadn't graduated as I knew she went to beauty school later on. In emailing with the registration department at the UW, I was asked several questions--such as "did she go by any other name?" I said no, but there couldn't have been that many female Rings listed in 1918, especially who graduated from Buhl High School. The sweet registrar got back to me--he found her listed as Maurina Elsie Ring. Wow--I've never seen that name Maurina before! It makes me want to dig more for naming with this group!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Also, since her time at the University was during the Spanish flu, I'll be checking the catalog archives to see if the UW was closed at all during that time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In wanting to respond to the registrar, I realized how all the records and pictures I have of Elsie are not organized enough into a chronological order to refer to easily. My new plan is to create a computer file where I type in details from census and other small records and can paste 300dpi pictures and scans of documents so I can see everything in chronological order. For items where I may have discrepancies in information, say her birth year at UW showing as 1898 and in the family records as 1899, I'd list that all under birthdate at the beginning. I've decided to order the scans by number then Year then Name. I'll see how that works and get back to you. So many little pieces of paper!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And sweet Elsie did get the Spanish flu--she survived then, but became ill again in 1924 and died of pneumonia.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-77599718797526655412011-07-18T19:29:00.000-07:002011-07-23T12:24:58.448-07:00Do be a Goose, but Don't Over Weed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujSu6YSjJuE9dIbLTwDYxRJy17PX1vGXr42gffHmM6ejjVDaXt62kRzLwlR1c5pO1iBINQrj8obQylMK0GQdWv9_R_pkjRbzSj4yJUWpdqKNNbQbRAWQGJxDxPdxDq7RkPLFurwMMnh5-/s1600/023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgujSu6YSjJuE9dIbLTwDYxRJy17PX1vGXr42gffHmM6ejjVDaXt62kRzLwlR1c5pO1iBINQrj8obQylMK0GQdWv9_R_pkjRbzSj4yJUWpdqKNNbQbRAWQGJxDxPdxDq7RkPLFurwMMnh5-/s320/023.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The above picture is our newest activity--making our own homemade gooseberry jam! Growing up with the Ring family, my grandma Florence always made gooseberry pies and they were the best things ever! Tart---WOW! Gooseberries and rhubarb are common in the northern climates and are really important as they have knockout amounts of Vitamin C. In the Northern world of Scandinavia, there's no citrus and fresh summer fruit comes in a small period in late summer. Without the wonderful gooseberries and rhubarb in spring, people might get scurvy! (I used to have regular scurvy chats with my young son who only wanted peanut butter! That's he and his sister in the photo frame in an earlier time.)<br />
<br />
Of course, you might ask what making jam has to do with Writing Family stories. Well, there I was researching relatives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa back in the 1920s and I happened to notice a recipe or two listed near the article I'd originally wanted on GenealogyBank.com. Then my husband walked in and reported to me that we finally had a bumper crop of gooseberries this year and it was time to pick. In prior years, we've been lucky to get a few to barely make a Gooseberry Fool (yum!) which is cooked, sweetened berries mixed with whipped cream. It was his sweet lopsided smile that got me when he asked if we could make jam. Of course, I didn't have a recipe for Gooseberry Jam and there isn't one on the pectin boxes either. So I went searching... Where would you look for an old-fashioned recipe? I went back to GenealogyBank.com and put Gooseberry in the name field and searched. Some articles were on growing the berries (or not--in places with White Pine the gooseberry can harbor the infection)--but voila--I found a few. From July 1903 and July of 1909 in Pennsylvania. As you'd imagine, they were all different...but I've been a pretty good cook for a long time and I picked a plan in the middle. Heavenly! And we have some canned for later. Bet you nobody else thought of using GenealogyBank.com to look for old recipes. <strong>So do be a Goose!</strong> (Berry that is)--and use your research methods to solve many problems. <br />
<br />
Of course, I've been off on another another family tangent, but an interesting one--and still related to Writing Family Stories. Last fall, we visited a long-lost family member on my husband's side (2nd or 3rd cousin) and were able to use our digital camera to capture images of his old family pictures. I had contacted others in that extended family through online resources at Ancestry.com and finally took the time to make the pictures into .tif and then to crop and see if I could enhance some of the old and faded photos. I did well and turned the enhanced ones into .jpg again and sent them off to the extended family. <br />
<br />
Since I have a subscription to GenealogyBank.com, I went to see if there were newspapers so I'd have a little more to share with the extended family. Bingo! I put in their very uncommon name and got a lot of hits. The older son, Sam, not our relation, attended Julliard (before it was called Julliard) and studied for 4 years. He returned home to Iowa and gave music lessons and performed in many settings there. He clearly developed quite a reputation for himself and had several students who went off to play concert halls. I found myself impressed with his ability, yet wondering about him. After all that time spent at Julliard, he didn't seem to seek out the life of a concert pianist. He was the eldest son, so perhaps he needed to be local to care for his parents. Anyway, he spent his life teaching, running his music store, and performing in community events in Iowa. After the elder parents died, all of the family gradually moved to California. He and his family moved too, when Sam was about 60. He started another music store in California and probably took on students, but it must have been frustrating starting again at retirement age--and leaving your stellar reputation behind.<br />
<br />
I found some interesting articles to share with the family, but I figured they might not be very interested in specifics about the music he played or his students, as many people aren't interested unless they play music, so I skipped most of those articles. I knew that there had been mixed and negative, angry feelings in this extended family group about family. Certainly there was a lack of warmth and love and happy feelings going around. In one part of the family the ex-wife was so angry, she got custody of the kids, moved to another state and changed the last names of the children to her maiden name. So you might think, why would anyone bother to research and care about the sad & depressing family stories from this bunch. I would-- to understand better what was happening in this group, and rather than to lay blame, to hopefully identify where the issues were and shine some light of knowledge on it. Once people understand what was going on, it can help them move on with their lives--rather than looking back with anger.<br />
<br />
One of the extended family emailed me and reported her uncle had said that Sam wasn't really much of a musician. He'd remembered Sam as being an old, fat guy who liked to eat and sweated a lot and his fingers were shaped like sausages. Wow--(I thought) this is where I get to also use my background as a medical person, too. It's the "sausage fingers" that gets me most. Sam may have had high blood pressure and swelling in his hands, or arthritis or both. He may have been diabetic and had painful issues with his fingers. Whatever way, it was uncomfortable and negatively affected his ability to play his instrument. He may also have been depressed since he moved from the family home in Iowa and left the crowds that had adored him. The rest we know for sure--it's never fun to get old and fat.<br />
<br />
First I calculated that the uncle wasn't even born until Sam was 60. The uncle was 16 when Sam died at 76. Clearly the uncle's view was of Sam was as an old, probably sick man. But my action was clear--In trying to not bore the family, <strong>I had "overweeded"</strong>. I went back into the search of newspaper articles and made sure this time to include all the articles on the concerts and made my "musician" comments about the difficulty of the pieces. This was an especially important part for this family to realize about Sam. He was the "real thing" in music. It's possible to be proud of Sam's musical skill (and to hope for that skill to pop up again in the family genes someday). It's okay to care about Sam, but everyone has their own memories to work through. He was the father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. Sometimes that's all it takes.<br />
<br />
We get to learn from so many places. Thanks for sharing mine.<br />
MarilynAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-35123913665420000032011-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:002011-08-22T17:30:51.316-07:00Families-- a perfect topic for stories!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxX7UvlBnvXiG8AxviWb8Mm_TyGhObU3fFfTz-aegko1DXz4r4-_2FY4uGTu4w_n_6hydz06kLDPG9YufheWuf0odMRfJ7LB6f_sRx6ZgDDJwf8f3f_piUYi-JsWAksXzohDh_fuTco-i/s1600/IMG_4649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxX7UvlBnvXiG8AxviWb8Mm_TyGhObU3fFfTz-aegko1DXz4r4-_2FY4uGTu4w_n_6hydz06kLDPG9YufheWuf0odMRfJ7LB6f_sRx6ZgDDJwf8f3f_piUYi-JsWAksXzohDh_fuTco-i/s320/IMG_4649.JPG" width="213" /></a>Families--yes it is a big deal! It's a part of us -- woven through us in myriad ways. There are times when we can't contain our joy, when our feelings know no limits--like being a great grandparent and finally holding that sweet baby who has a part of you in him. Happy Father's Day Dad! For the man who thinks he has everything, there's nothing like the thrill of having a great grandbaby in your arms. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My presentation on Writing Family Stories was fun and I think even I learned a lot from it! When putting this huge amount of information together, it's possible to see some truths emerge that I hadn't been as aware of before.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I think writing <strong>stories in short forms</strong> such as vignettes or "slice of life" stories is a great way to get started with this project. That pen weighs a ton when you start out to write the "definitive" anything. It's great to pretend you're telling your favorite cousin the story. <strong>Our brains tend to organize information in lists, but stories are the opposite.</strong> Stories are best soaked up with the story unfolding with the details about the people and their actions and reactions. Also, we have a tendency to want to hurry up and not take too long with the story, so we condense it and give our own summary of of what happened and why. <strong>This summarizing is what's called "telling" in fiction circles</strong>. This "telling" style was what teachers in English classes wanted for your paper comparing and contrasting characters in literature--and that is the appropriate style for that assignment. <strong>But "telling" is not story writing.</strong> The trouble with "telling" is that we cheat the reader (or listener) of seeing the story unfold. The story is of people doing something, never just about events or one person's view of what it should mean. <strong>As writers, our job is to "show" and not tell</strong>. When we show the people and details and the action, the story comes to life and is interesting. With "telling", we tell the reader what to think about a story they haven't read for themselves. It's the story they most want to read--so let's show it to them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One of my favorite thoughts that came through the talk, is that by writing our family stories, we also <strong>share what it means to be someone of our cultural background</strong>, or nationality prior to being American. For me, that is trying to learn what it means to be Danish, and Dutch, and English and Canadian! Everyone has their own mix of cultures. In our research, it's an important aspect to look for and include in the family history. What did you find out about Danish people and history? Share about how that might have affected your ancestor's lives. Give your family permission to celebrate the Danish culture and to see how we can maintain that connection.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The last to leave you with now is that <strong>there are no dull families</strong>. Some families end up in the paper a lot, or maybe were rich and famous. Most of us fall lower on that radar, though the closer you get to where we live, you can find our community interests, our friends and activities. Some people in bigger cities get less press, or farmers in small communities might seem to fly farther under the radar. We're all busy, working hard and living our lives--but just because we weren't in the paper, it didn't mean we weren't interesting. Anybody who thinks the life of a farmer is boring hasn't ever taken a trip to a farm. There's all the farm work, the animals, the lifestyle and issues that come up with weather and distance to the town. There are issues with children leaving to go to the cities, and not staying to run the farm. And face it--if you have somebody so far under the radar that they're a hermit--well, then that's pretty interesting too. You just can't go wrong with family!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-6540491565489790632011-06-03T10:42:00.000-07:002011-06-03T10:42:14.627-07:00Mind the Gap: Resources for writing your family storiesOf course, once you get started on a major project like Writing the Family Stories, you just might mention it and someone wise will tap you and ask you to present what you've found about it--so far. But what you've found is never quite enough, so it's a mad dash to attempt to prepare a program. (Hence my lack of posts for awhile). Don't worry, I'll share it over time.<br />
<br />
My hope for the presentation is the same as what I want for this blog: to inspire my fellow genealogy friends to jump the gap from the box(es) of file folders to sharing the fascinating stories we've found behind that data with the rest of our family. Write the genealogy summary, but don't forget most of your family bogs down in that detail--and may not have time to read it all and understand it. So write the stories for the family--with that genealogy summary in the Appendix.<br />
<br />
We are all sensitive about our writing--too many red pens in high school teacher's hands, I guess. To write, and "let go" and allow yourself write well, one has to just jump in, get it down somehow, and trust you can always change it later. <br />
<br />
Too many people go to their reward, with the files still in the box and the stories untold. All that work might be lost. <strong>Don't let that happen to you!!! </strong>Get some credit for your work! <br />
<br />
Today I'm sharing a list (not ever complete) of resources for writing your family stories. Many of these are at our local library, and the articles are free and online.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">SOME <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SOURCES For </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Writing Your Family History</u></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not alphabetical</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">*Carmack , Sharon DeBartolo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>You Can Write Your Family History</u></b>, 2003, Betterway Books, Cincinnati, Ohio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This is my favorite book which really tries to help you truly bring your ancestors to life as characters by using some fiction techniques when writing your family story.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ledoux, Denis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>How to write the Stories Behind Your Photographs</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1999, Soleil Press, Lisbon Falls, Maine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This is a great little book that helps with writing photo captions and short stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It really helps to avoid clichés, and to follow great writing techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may encourage you to look at your own stories of today to save!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ledoux, Denis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Turning Memories into Memoirs: A Handbook for Writing Lifestories</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2003, Soleil Press, Lisbon Falls, Maine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">The library didn’t have this…but “Lifestories” is his method.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gouldrup, Lawrence P.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Writing the Family Narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1987,</u></b> Ancestry, Salt Lake City, Utah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">I like this book a lot as well, and they make suggestions that help make readable writing, which will capture the attention of the relatives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gouldrup, Lawrence P.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Writing the Family Narrative Workbook</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1993, Ancestry, Salt Lake City, Utah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This was suggested, but I haven’t found it yet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sturdevant, Katherine Scott.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2000, Betterway Books, Cincinnati, Ohio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This book is more about how to gather social history info than using it in writing your family history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hatcher, Patricia Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Producing A Quality Family History</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1996, Ancestry, Salt Lake City, Utah<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This is more about publishing than writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has a couple of great chapters on getting the view of your ancestor and a great chapter on ways to present the genealogical stuff in a scholarly manner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hatcher, Patricia Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Locating Your Roots:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discover Your Ancestors Using Land Records</u></b>, 2003 Betterway Books, Cincinnati, Ohio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This will give you all the detail you need to search out land records—which can be complicated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Goldberg, Natalie<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir.</u></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2007, Free Press, New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This book is similar to <u>Writing Down The Bones</u>, in which it involves a series of topics to help people do writing practice and get used to remembering details for memoir writing. If you haven't ever written before, this can help you get over the "blank page".</span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rosenbluth, Vera, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Keeping Family Stories Alive:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discovering & Recording the Stories & Reflections of a Lifetime</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1997, Hartley & Marks Publishers, Inc., Vancouver BC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This book is about the interview process and memory itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s interesting to note that the mood of a person at the time of remembering can influence them to remember times when they felt the same way. So cheer them up to get the happy stories, and listen for other feelings as they speak, and they'll tap the sadder stories as well.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Barrington, Judith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Writing the Memoir</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> Edition, 2002, The Eighth Mountain Press, Portland, Oregon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">I didn’t find this book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Curran, Joan Ferris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Family History: A Legacy For Your Grandchildren</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> Edition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1993, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">I didn’t find this book, but NEGHS usually does good work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have it at the Fiske library.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Kyvig, David E. and Myron A. Marty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> Edition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2000, AltaMira Press, New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This book is available on Amazon, and it lists a lot of stuff. A couple of interesting things I found were interviews of old people from days gone by, done during the depression as part of the WPA.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Web Sites:</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.genealogy.com/74_sharon_print.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.genealogy.com/74_sharon_print.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Secret to Writing A Compelling Family History—more great stuff from Sharon Carmack.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.genealogy.com/tip9_print.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.genealogy.com/tip9_print.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Research Tip 9: People As Sources For Family History.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.genealogy.com/21_neill_print.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.genealogy.com/21_neill_print.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How to Choose Your Family Book’s Focus.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.genealogy.com/202/lesson5/course5_02.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.genealogy.com/202/lesson5/course5_02.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Mechanics of Writing Your Family History, Part I.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/timeline/timeline_text.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/timeline/timeline_text.html</span></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American Technology Timeline: 1752 - 1990 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Just make sure the ones you cite actually relate!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.webyfl.com/backdropofhistory.aspx"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.webyfl.com/backdropofhistory.aspx</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><i><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Make History the Backdrop of Your Heritage Scrapbook</span></i></b></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.genealogy.com/202/lesson5/course5_01.html?Welcome=1020794621"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.genealogy.com/202/lesson5/course5_01.html?Welcome=1020794621</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Helps with everything from numbering systems to copywrite.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">Genealogy.com</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>check out the biography assistant<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for topics for oral history</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.webyfl.com/writingafamilyhistory.aspx"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.webyfl.com/writingafamilyhistory.aspx</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writing a Family History</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Books of Family History:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Applegate, Shannon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Skookum:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An Oregon Pioneer Family’s History and Lore</u></b>, 1988, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beech Tree Books, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">This woman had tons of records from a locally famous family where they named a town, a river, a trail and a mountain peak after them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She learned that you don’t have to have a famous life to have a valuable life. We get to follow her journey in writing the book.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nagel, Paul C., <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>The Lees of Virginia:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seven generations of an American family</u></b>, 1990, Oxford University Press, New York. <span style="color: #c00000;">Sure, this type of family starting printing memoirs about 1825—so there’s tons of material on them, but Paul Nagel does a nice job of giving a narrative that helps one understand the characters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Books of Historical Fiction:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Doig, Ivan, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>English Creek</u></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1984, Viking Penguin, Inc., New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: #c00000;">Ivan Doig does a marvelous job telling us all about the lives of his fictional characters—that are all true to the history of Montana. Learn from this man about his use of detail. In my Idaho story, I hope to include a few quotes about stacking hay and using a buckrake. Great stuff! Wonderful writer!!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #c00000;">More soon!</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-2480462018853679492011-05-01T17:56:00.000-07:002011-05-01T17:56:14.361-07:00Some Things Are Gone With the Wind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4gWIcpN7-7XBtw0WzUUx4khSZm0ve8koyq8TMSop79UStEsurZ8JQkjCShVuOGIZUVdItvYZcB2pXecxoN9M_CTLhDYZk9DK12bI92qhvI7vOFiCn4S_M6uXJuKIH9NkNyMXo3YBRi2f/s1600/abt+1891+Lizzie+Albert+Minnie+Ring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4gWIcpN7-7XBtw0WzUUx4khSZm0ve8koyq8TMSop79UStEsurZ8JQkjCShVuOGIZUVdItvYZcB2pXecxoN9M_CTLhDYZk9DK12bI92qhvI7vOFiCn4S_M6uXJuKIH9NkNyMXo3YBRi2f/s320/abt+1891+Lizzie+Albert+Minnie+Ring.jpg" width="206" /></a></div> I've been now finished my "cut and paste" newspaper project, but realize I need even more records. Right now I have newspaper tidbits from 1910 to March of 1919. But so much happens after that! Two of the "kids" die in the next 2 years. There are the struggles of World War I and my grandpa being the one picked to stay home from the war to help his dad with the farming. Then there's the Spanish flu epidemic that sickened one of the girls who several years later, at the age of 25, died of pneumonia, but probably developed scar tissue from the flu.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4C24kJXIR-Tiq1rZuXNhEcBK-jlnR4gkIQlLwhjxyD4TUojETjeVj21YatrWoW0V_OGg6lAY3OZPQA4JhiuLIYTHz9gFaBorgu5UuQJFcbaPMlIFGVHSNn_7pAUMeBYa3UuErazk7Lwrb/s1600/abt+1891+Minnie+Ring%2527s+doll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4C24kJXIR-Tiq1rZuXNhEcBK-jlnR4gkIQlLwhjxyD4TUojETjeVj21YatrWoW0V_OGg6lAY3OZPQA4JhiuLIYTHz9gFaBorgu5UuQJFcbaPMlIFGVHSNn_7pAUMeBYa3UuErazk7Lwrb/s320/abt+1891+Minnie+Ring%2527s+doll.jpg" width="212" /></a> I'm showing 2 of my favorite pictures today, actually one and a portion of the same picture blown up closer. In this picture, taken in St. Ansgar, Iowa, the girl in the middle is Lizzie and on her right is the eldest child, Alfred, who was born with a club foot and so remained crippled throughout his life. The third child is little Minnie, the first born in Iowa in 1889 (name short for Wilhelmina Fredericka Ring). There had been 2 little boys who were born in Denmark in between, but they both died in 1888 from an illness like diptheria. The family story was that they were Wilhelm & Frederick, and that's why Minnie had such a long name. Danes tended to re-use names of the dead promptly.<br />
<br />
What I love about this picture is how it shows what a powerful little kid Minnie was. Just look at her comfort in the picture. She has been thoroughly satisfied, and even looks like she feels in charge. Clearly, her dollie had to be in the picture. Note that the doll is dressed in a quite precise copy of Minnie's outfit. I can almost hear the discussion with two-year old Minnie about how she can sit for a picture if her dolly can. Also, it's fun to see what kind of a doll a little girl had in Iowa in 1890-91.<br />
<br />
I was so excited to get a message out-of-the-blue through my Ancestry.com tree about information on the wife of my great-grandfather's brother, Sam. Then she mentioned Sam was a good-looking guy and I was floored--pictures? In the next line she mentioned that she'd lost the photos just a few years ago with a tornado..... nooooooooo! So quickly a precious photo exists and then is snatched away in the next sentence. So, the moral of this particular story? Scan your photos and post them online in your family tree! Ancestry allows you to post a full-size picture and others can get it back into full-size to copy it and get a good, printable copy! <br />
<br />
Back to more sorting and collection and writing! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-15616236198697123422011-04-10T16:08:00.000-07:002011-04-17T08:20:45.900-07:00Look for more of the stories in the pictures<div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcOw8ca80Q-Wlf6KlJGdp8O1GqO7oyeAHEMCqDyin2CRTgSpsCiygWwtvmiUsujoTqA7_iOVsN38cNBt6vPzynSxONRV6dMjlWnSf9lCosoMVGQhVJkhpi_i9aowNUvIunhmKf2-nXgE_/s1600/Jpg+Crop+abt+1923+Rusty+Flo+Eugene.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594096402792388290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcOw8ca80Q-Wlf6KlJGdp8O1GqO7oyeAHEMCqDyin2CRTgSpsCiygWwtvmiUsujoTqA7_iOVsN38cNBt6vPzynSxONRV6dMjlWnSf9lCosoMVGQhVJkhpi_i9aowNUvIunhmKf2-nXgE_/s320/Jpg+Crop+abt+1923+Rusty+Flo+Eugene.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 152px;" /></a>I'll use a picture of my Ring family to illustrate this point about the stories.<br />
</div><div>I changed this group picture into a .tif and did a crop of my grandmother and grandfather and their then about 3 year old son, Gene about 1923. At that point my grandmother was working as a teacher again since they'd married (very new-age then), but they were soon buying the farm from Russ's dad and needed the money (and teachers made pretty good money then compared to farmers). She hired a young woman to come in and watch Gene while she was 2 miles away at the schoolhouse.</div><div> </div><div>It's interesting, on inspecting this picture closely looking for potential crops, Russ's mom (out of picture now) looks kind of smug and Grandma looks like she's biting her tongue--and look at the woman next to Grandma (Auntie May) is holding her arm to offer support. So I think there may have been a few words between them, probably about her working. My grandmother went to a teacher's college and had her degree and was a professional, and planned to continue to help her family. She had accepted a teaching position while in North Dakota and left on the train for Idaho, unsure what she'd find, and with her family more worried than that. She said she almost turned around to reboard the train when she got out and stepped into calf-deep dust!</div><div> </div><div>By enlarging the photo and making a crop, what I see is that my grandmother was wearing what looked a lot like a maternity dress--and she was quite the thin cutie all the time. With Gene bordering on age 3, it makes sense that they would be ready to have another child about then. What they didn't know then was that Gene would shortly get away from the babysitter (the last day of school in mid-May of 1923) and would drown in the canal--and the loss would shatter their lives. I realize now that she may have also lost the next child too, in her grief. In seeing her in pictures as time went on, she looked wan, peaked and depressed. She perked back up in 1925 when my mother was born, but her hair turned prematurely gray--white even. So my mother never knew her mother with dark hair.</div><div> </div><div>Making good scans (600-800 dpi) can give you distinct pictures. Be sure to turn them into .tif files and then go for broke. In this picture, we also see the almost new Ring home that my grandparents would move into--from a different angle than many other pictures. We can see a hay wagon or some other farm implement in the back of the photo which I'll enlarge and ask my parents about it too. It's more interesting history of how hard it was to farm in those days!</div><div> </div><div>I love Miami Beach, </div><div>Maril</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-17784493047456308642011-04-06T19:28:00.000-07:002011-04-17T08:00:36.084-07:00Slipping out through the "wintry mix" to work on my photos offsite<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZAMm3kbAlnr3drhNQRUUaA7a72xeRs8q213BiWbuSIvu7C54gSVlsA4OK6b-t3Jzimg_aaLh2plncZYEUxXp2oOJuw_U2gIkQvyV4FlWV7tMFDqCU1cSFSY4ZkvwU-F772hXPcsG08cij/s1600/Florence+Tillson+Ring.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 206px; height: 320px; float: left;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592667393241220338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZAMm3kbAlnr3drhNQRUUaA7a72xeRs8q213BiWbuSIvu7C54gSVlsA4OK6b-t3Jzimg_aaLh2plncZYEUxXp2oOJuw_U2gIkQvyV4FlWV7tMFDqCU1cSFSY4ZkvwU-F772hXPcsG08cij/s320/Florence+Tillson+Ring.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Seattle has a dark, rainy spring (and winter) and we're anxious for some sun. Of course,as we're leaving, we got a great lightning and sleet and "wintry mix". At least it wasn't giant flakes of snow so I'd white-knuckle my way to the airport as usual! I swear that God has a real sense of humor when it comes to me getting on an airplane!</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I luckily had scanned all my Ring photos (at my mom's on one intense weekend trip) and her cousin's whole album (on another killer weekend trip). It amazed me that the cousin had many different photos than my mom had. These people didn't have 2 nickels to rub together, but they took lots of pictures--bless them! I really recommend that you try and access the full "old family pics" from another in the family if you can. It really gave me a much larger and interesting bunch of photos to choose from.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I have the original photos saved as .jpg files from the scans, but I'll want to turn them to .tif so they won't compress and I can clean them up, potentially save some crops of headshots from the group photos, and all. I also plan to compare them to the updated tree and try and date them according to the ages of children and all. So I've moved this gig of data to my laptop which has my editing program from my Cannon scanner and of course windows photo gallery. Once you bring in the .tif picture, it'll straighten the shot, crop and get it turned right-side around. Then I use the editing program to get rid of any ugly spots. I'm not trying to make the pictures look new, but marks on the face and clothes can look tacky.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Before I use the pictures in the Saga, I'll turn the finished ones to save into .jpg and then they'll still be nice, crisp photos. In my next blog, I'll show you what I mean.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>This picture is my beautiful Grandma, Florence Tillson Ring. Wow!</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Ta Ta and off to the beach in Florida!</div><br /><div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-82216074981367851222011-03-31T16:02:00.000-07:002011-03-31T18:43:45.544-07:00Newspapers, online, photos, oh my!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9dEvrsBNMTXZG0bdLwaSPFpJOisr9Wi2WlChh9FYN5gHvbBojFvFJ36HuhUbqZoBVkvOW1gwXpM1rXwcnSMQzmwQLUsNihlrhmaMREtHugrg-pgNREyfLk9E-uCs3rgljlm-7yZl_XVH/s1600/001.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 211px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590420371897094450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9dEvrsBNMTXZG0bdLwaSPFpJOisr9Wi2WlChh9FYN5gHvbBojFvFJ36HuhUbqZoBVkvOW1gwXpM1rXwcnSMQzmwQLUsNihlrhmaMREtHugrg-pgNREyfLk9E-uCs3rgljlm-7yZl_XVH/s320/001.JPG" /></a> <br /><div>After a short time-out for taxes, I'm back and focused.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Here's a picture of my cut & paste work at the dining room table. Where else would you do it? So I have a sheet for each of the 10 kids, the parents, 4 friend families who have information and a "history" file where my mom added in things like "war ended" etc. or "phone system in town". Things that add to the general interest. Also I want to go back through those newspapers (it's cool that the local library has the hometown paper on microfilm ready to look at anytime) and gather up some ads for women's & men's clothing for the time, a sample of prices for stuff, cars or whatnot that give one a sense of the time period to use with the people photos we have.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>If I were gathering the "cut & paste" news clippings today, I'd take my laptop to the library and type most of it in (too bad they don't have the OCR for this). I've fed my share of dimes into the library microfilm readers to make hard copies--and for longer stories, use the dimes--it is worth it. But the short stuff....I'm lucky I took typing in high school and am a blur at the keyboard. </div><br /><div>That reminds me of another big chore coming up...I plan to go through the photos (most of them group shots) and save them as such, but also take "head shot" crops of individual people that I can add to their personal stories. Pictures really warm up writing and let their humanity shine through.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Of course, whenever I get away from the computer for any time, I'm yanked back looking for more information. I went back into my Ancestry tree and there were so many things I hadn't done yet. I try to be careful and not include living people in the tree (even if the records might be there). The thing is that many records weren't there before, but they are now. It's really amazing how much Ancestry.com has blossomed over the years--things go so much more smoothly with searching and they're dealing with zillions of records. It's not quite as fast as on "Who do you think you are?", but it's pretty impressive. So I've added a bunch of new stuff to my people (and not just from shaking leaves), but by searching on them again and finding new stuff about them on that primo first page or two.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Also, other sites are growing. With all my work on the our tiny town newspaper clippings, I checked in with GenealogyBank.com (I decided to spring for it over a year ago and haven't been disappointed) and found they now have a two or three crucial years in the next larger town which notes occasional things from our little burg. That added to the fun! Of course, at some time I have to stop and decide we have enough information to get to the cut and print phase!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-56358902996638765502011-03-22T12:56:00.000-07:002011-04-04T11:26:44.053-07:00May All Your Relatives Have Lived in IowaMy steep learning curve on the Organization "hill" continues. For the most part, I can list mentions of folks in documents in the person's file with the title of the Document & description. <strong>Also I've learned to name the documents that aren't a specific date according to type, not just name--so start with Grave, Cemetery, etc. and then the location </strong>when you save them in your word processor file<strong>. </strong>It's easiest to check the records according to the file type and to keep them together. Then I copy that file name to the person's page, and/or insert the whole thing or a clip (of just their data), or a summary. For the most part, a clip is sufficient. I don't want the individual people pages to be a tome in themselves! As I've said, I have clippings my mom has gathered, some newspaper articles & local news from the Buhl area. Then I have what I've found in my Ancestry tree (like census and military service and other stuff), then I check the internet for a more complete search. Everybody has their favorite sites to check, but <strong>my favorites if I know the places people lived are the state Genwebs</strong> (just google "Iowa Genweb"). If you know the town and not the county, you can look that up there. Then after going to the county site, you can search. It makes sense to use quotes around names, and remember to try a reverse order (like Smith, Helen). Frequently cemetery records are listed that way. If you have a less common last name, you can just search for that. But if you're in the Smith field, you may want to be sure to add the first names. If I have a "Smith" with a great (unusual) first name, I may try them first to see if I can get some good hits that might relate to the other family too. In the Iowa Genweb, they have great stuff like full obituaries and 50th wedding articles from the local papers just crammed with great family information. They can give you wonderful descriptions about these people's lives and who they were, what they loved to do. In one obit, they mentioned a 50th anniversary date so I've gone to our libraries "Interlibrary Loan" as you can ask for librarians from other places to check specific dates for obituaries and articles like the anniversary. I can't wait to hear back on that! Anyway, I salute the Iowa genweb--they rock! Thank goodness part of the Ring family lived there! I'm also doing my cut-and-paste journey through the Buhl newspapers from 1909 to 1918. Many great family stories are in those small-town papers. Long ago, my mom went through the papers on microfilm, then handwrote the items (tedious!). Then she typed them up in order by year (tons of work). Then she was going through those to decide what related to whom in the family. She had already organized a number of the people, but I've taken over the job. I made a photocopy from the original typed version, and I'm cutting the articles out and pasting them to the people sheets in order of dates, then noting others mentioned as well. That's what takes the time. But when I go visit mom in May, we'll have the information all neat and orderly to play with and work together on the writing. Fun!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-65650097318113644342011-03-18T13:23:00.000-07:002011-03-18T14:11:57.449-07:00Issues setting up the organization & input<strong>Organization is Everything!</strong> Setting up the organization for a big task as putting all this mishmosh of data into individual files is so important. It can even be a dealbreaker. For example, I tried adding more info (rather than my usual cryptic bits into my Excel spreadsheet) and I saw large-scale bloat pretty quickly in my document. Since it is set up in a vertical stance, I realized I'd need to scroll further and further to get between people--probably risking carpal tunnel or thumb issues with the wheel.<br /><br />So now I've decided to<strong> set up Word files for each person</strong>. I figured I'd create as I went along. First I added the 1919 letters sent from the Rings to Anna Snell on the death of her uncle Fred Larson. Fred had put his crop in and fell ill, then came up from his ranch to the Ring home for help. He had contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (think fatal western Lyme disease) from a tick bite and died within 10 days. There were 2 letters, one from Fred Ring, and one from his sister Nina Ring Ferguson. These letters included notes about a lot of the family, so I felt I should note what was said that was interesting on each of the people referred to. <br /><br />I created a <strong>set name for the document</strong> "1919 May 13 letters re Fred Larson" <em>using a format starting with date because of the need to keep things in order for the timelines</em>. I saved this document in a new folder named Ring Family Documents and Pictures. <strong>I've decided rather than just attach scans of pictures, that I might paste pictures & scanned newspaper articles into Word Files where I can note whatever the reader might need to know</strong>. Things like who's who or more information on the article. Or correcting incorrect information. Ultimately in the digital form of the Ring Saga, I'll also attach the printable photo files.<br /><br />On to creating the People Pages! Yay! Hmmmm. Then I opened a new folder and called it Ring Family Stories for the People Pages. Pretty quickly I ran into trouble as all these people have nicknames and such and I won't want to have to type their whole names "Wihelmina Fredericka Ring" very often. But I need to be able to locate them, and I need to be able to remember what I called them, so I can add the searchable names as a list at the bottom of each document. <br /><br /><strong>To keep myself consistent with names, I added a name list sheet to my Ring Family Excel file</strong>. That way I can put in everyone's name, last in one column, first & middle in the other, and sort to my heart's content. <em>So many decisions to make!</em> I decided to go with married last names for women (to cut down confusion), but I'm still waffling on that, and I don't want to put in too many documents and then decide to change it, as I'll have to go back and fix too much. I did decide to list women with their maiden names as middle names so maybe that'll help--though they end up sorted with their husbands instead of their birth families, but that's probably best. We've got 5 generations in this group, so I have resorted to <strong>noting on each person's page their family relationship by generation. </strong> Gotfred Laursen -- Charlotte Laursen Ericksen --Fred Ericksen -- Walter Ericksen, with Walter as the 4th generation--but now it's clearer where he came from.<br /><br /><strong>Format of File Names:</strong> Then I found that when I saved their names in Word, it was alphabetizing them by first name--not my favorite method, so I renamed the files to Ring, Johanna format. That way it's easier to find people's filess and find out if there's one missing. As I'm entering all these people, it sure seems like there are a lot more of them than I'd thought! <br /><br />One thing I hadn't realized is how annoying it can be to note mention in the document for what seems like millions of folks. To ease that, I copied the "Title" of the document and kept the original open to the list of people I'd decided were mentioned in it. Then I'd open the file for that person in another window, then paste in the Title and mention the type of comment made, then close that one and move to the next. It seems a little more streamlined now. I'm so glad my mom had collected cool things like letters & diary entries as well as the obituaries. Since the Rings lived in a small town, we have wonderful entries from the small home-town newspaper to enter into this information too!<br /><br />If any of you out there has any ideas of how you've sorted this kind of genealogical information, please make a comment or email me at <a href="mailto:WriteFamilyStories@gmail.com">WriteFamilyStories@gmail.com</a>.<br /><br />Keep sorting!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-75531836940956394522011-03-16T12:09:00.000-07:002011-04-04T11:20:31.879-07:00Create a Timeline, Contact list, Update trees, Paper or Digital<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7KGsvKnJwg2COYsCRlcNndtLLJwLxuPNiIqEa3u8T0DImtAcuAEbUfSPSFJq5jSg1ozvZExAkTjcyZ0BBnH2Et9J6Pj0ss-EfUf32jsLsCklKy7eCQFijXX9GPw4QefiFPdmOZG5DIL_/s1600/067.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584777980423014018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7KGsvKnJwg2COYsCRlcNndtLLJwLxuPNiIqEa3u8T0DImtAcuAEbUfSPSFJq5jSg1ozvZExAkTjcyZ0BBnH2Et9J6Pj0ss-EfUf32jsLsCklKy7eCQFijXX9GPw4QefiFPdmOZG5DIL_/s320/067.JPG" /></a> <br /><div><strong>Clear Distractions</strong>: We went to see our amazing Grandbaby Luke (9 months old). He's another reason I'm doing this project--I want him to know about all the strong and interesting people who have come before and can inspire him. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>So I've missed a few days with my crummy cold--but I'm still charged about this project! I just dropped out of my current writing critique group to give me more time to work on this effort. It's important to clear your area when you begin cooking--same thing for big projects. You have to clear the distractions out of the way (as best you can). </div><br /><div>While I was sick, I went through my mom's printed copies of her tree. I have so many copies! She probably made me multiple copies and gave them to me at different times, but also there are ones that she wrote information onto when she would see her cousins at an elderhostel and catch up on grandchildren, etc. Some of the information has blanks, as when any group talks about what's new. People don't have the information written down, so they often can't exactly remember the birthdate of the new one, or what state the spouse was from. So <strong>I went through all of these pages and updated my descendancy tree</strong> (which I do on an Excel Spreadsheet to keep the lines for the generations straight). Since I can easily add lines to the spreadsheet, I include some data about where they lived, and even use the first column on the left to note the census years I have records for. So now I know everything my mom knows about who is in the family, but there are plenty of spaces to fill in. Also, <strong>I need to get my mom's help in contacting the distant family members and getting the way to contact them</strong>, so I have clear methods to share my Ring Saga. We're going to visit the farm fairly soon, so that will go on my list. Many of the people she has contacts for, are her aging cousins, and not their children. I need to make sure I can find these people to share my hard work! Plus, they're the ones to contact to fill in the spaces in the tree--and I need to introduce myself and ask them for information. (Aack--yup more mishmosh paper!) One big issue I have is all the little bits of information and little pieces of paper to gather into a coherent whole. I also have a tree on Ancestry.com and I've attached a lot of information & records to that. My mom has written many summaries, and I wish I could just cut and paste those, but they're from her genealogy program from the dinosaur era and I'm lucky I have a printed copy. So I'm doomed to retype all that stuff. Luckily I type like the wind. :) <strong>Crucial Decisions</strong>: To organize all this mishmosh, I'm pondering my next move. At first, I thought I'd take all the bits of information and stuff it into my spreadsheet descendancy chart, though I realize the "bloat" factor may become a mess. The other problem is difficulty putting large amounts of text into Excel. I also already have file folders on these folks in the Ring family, (though I long for a paperless office). I can cut apart my photocopies of obits, etc. and stuff them into the folders, but some of them mention the rest of the family members, and might be needed as a reference, but I can note their location. Eventually I really must scan all the news articles and all as I'll want to include them in the history as a reference (either digitally or printed). <strong>So to go paper or digital even in the sorting process?</strong> <strong></strong>Another aspect to keep track of in the sorting process includes a timeline. When did these bits of information take place in their lives? That's a good way to keep your data from jumping around all over the timescape. Also, <strong>creating a timeline is a super useful tool in genealogy</strong>. You can place a person and their life events in contrast to what's happening in the world. I'll want to have a timeline for both individuals and the whole family. It may show us some interesting interactions. <strong></strong>Right now, I'm going to try a little of both and see how it goes. My current plan is to create a Word file for each person with their personal part of the mishmosh, which I'll organize by timeline, and a family file for group stuff. As I'm adding, I'll make notes in my land & farm descriptions file for things that relate. Yay--time to start organizing!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-75947834051583499412011-03-03T07:19:00.000-08:002011-03-03T07:25:57.937-08:00Getting the records together<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ta_glX4bguJIo02yJVs021FF7EILw6natFS1wSQ82NpxWmieyG5MYn2WIoV0E0U2M-_s4vKGNpViiI0uSyGtm6ZUi4nuLBvavhd5X95nynBMS4MWY-FkEPs6JxlHcdCUfEONvzSXl0H_/s1600/125.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579875205778038146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ta_glX4bguJIo02yJVs021FF7EILw6natFS1wSQ82NpxWmieyG5MYn2WIoV0E0U2M-_s4vKGNpViiI0uSyGtm6ZUi4nuLBvavhd5X95nynBMS4MWY-FkEPs6JxlHcdCUfEONvzSXl0H_/s320/125.JPG" /></a><br /><div>I'm diving into the files or boxes full of stuff and starting the sorting process and converting stories to digital from newspaper sources.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I'm hoping there are other armchair genealogists out there like me who can share about what they've done and how that went over with the family. There are so many choices to make about style and content. Please feel free to comment and to email me at <a href="mailto:writefamilystories@gmail.com">writefamilystories@gmail.com</a> to share your questions and problems.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>My Mom has done a lot of work putting people into a software program. I finally forced her to identify the old pictures by going over one weekend and photocopying all the pictures, then having her tell me who was who and I labeled each photocopy so I'd know. Then another weekend I scanned all the pictures at 800 dpi (dots per inch) and have them on my computer.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Today is a special day--my Mom's 86th birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-30866007232510995632011-03-02T11:33:00.000-08:002011-04-04T11:35:08.809-07:00Writing the stories--meet the Ring Family<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDBLhOn-Q7-gNbK5v6qaSeoySF4UA80eVSc-N5cJCJadbRipVyHdlUzmyVT-zV8mwsXGslkyxKnGj4M9XAAVWLGMNHsqB_I0uAM5vEySj-iHfoLlr-1TABTVONZiwZ6gvKLE6y1C6HjSl/s1600/200-0059_IMG.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579573725697452802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDBLhOn-Q7-gNbK5v6qaSeoySF4UA80eVSc-N5cJCJadbRipVyHdlUzmyVT-zV8mwsXGslkyxKnGj4M9XAAVWLGMNHsqB_I0uAM5vEySj-iHfoLlr-1TABTVONZiwZ6gvKLE6y1C6HjSl/s320/200-0059_IMG.JPG" /></a> I'm taking on the job of writing the family stories for my mom's Ring family, and this blog is about the things I learn about the process along the way. Sometimes I'll use some information and stories from my Ring family to demonstrate how things work or not, but this blog is more than my Ring stories. Meet the Ring family. This picture was taken a few years ago, and we have L-R, Doris Ring (aka Auntie Doris), Betty Ring (aka Mom), and me. The picture has a great background of the area in Southern Idaho where I grew up (on a farm) and where the Ring family lived for the past 100 years. The land is a high valley (Magic Valley) which is at about 3800 feet elevation, yet is disrupted by many basalt canyon areas (like the Deep Creek Canyon pictured behind us). Best known in the area is the Snake River Canyon and "Thousand Springs" where natural waterfalls pop out of the canyon wall. The land is desert, but in 1908, a series of canals was created to bring water from a reservoir to the area and create new farm land. But this arid desert retains its old habits--it is stinking hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter, but at least it's really windy. You couldn't budge my parents from this spot on the planet. The air is clean (even if it smells like the cattle in the nearby pasture), the mountains are visible at most compass points, and the sky is huge and lit by billions of stars by night. Your closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away, and you can go kick clods and pull weeds in the north 40. With that comes a sense of distance, of freedom, of ownership of your land. The biggest thing that ever happened in the area is when Evil Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in 1974. This is the land of farmers and pickups, cowboys and rodeos, and a choice only between country music radio stations. When Evil came to town, so did the Hell's Angels and it shook everybody up. The only motorbikes in the area are the little ones the men ride with a shovel propped on the back to go check on the irrigation. Clearly, my stories need to include descriptions of the land, of basic farming principles as needed, of using a canal system, and orientation of where the farms were located, helping us to view those relationships for ourselves. <strong></strong><strong>As I write the stories, I'll make notes to my "land and farm descriptions" file to connect explanations and even fill out detail. </strong>(This is a fiction trick as well. When you describe places and people, it's important to copy and paste that into another file so you can recheck what has been stated, so the character's hair color doesn't change from page to page.) I even need to include the tidbit about Evil Kneivel trying to jump the canyon. I feel a strong temptation to start my writing with the locale, but that's the easiest way to avoid the hardest part, the personal stories. Plus Idaho is merely the final location of the Rings. They started in Denmark, then lived in Iowa for 20 years, then moved to get their own land in Idaho. My Auntie Doris (pictured above) passed away this last summer and I miss her terribly. We would talk periodically on the phone, about her health and the family history. She taught me a lot about looking at the different viewpoints of people for a single event. I wish she were still here to participate in the Family Stories. I dedicate this blog to my Mom and my sweet Auntie Doris; the Ring girls, Betty and DorisAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3930657988856034795.post-89787462005104033012011-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:002011-03-16T12:09:25.329-07:00Finding the courage to begin-I'll be committed to it!I've considered myself the "family genealogist" for some time now, taking classes, setting up trees on Ancestry.com, locating lost people and facts, scrolling through ancient newspapers on microfilm & basically gathering enough documents to have my home office bursting at the seams.<br /><br />I love the hunt of solving a puzzle and tracking down records that can tell us more. I love the detective work and the thrill of the chase, but so far I've shied away from the rest of the task. It's a lot easier to stay in the "collecting" mode and pretend you're on "Who Do You Think You Are?"<br /><br />The family members nod & smile when I tell them some sad or pithy tidbit from my research of the past, but I realize they are probably glad someone else is willing to take on this task. Did I promise to combine all the stories and put them into something that is readable, that makes sense, is interesting, and helps everyone in the family understand who they are deep-down, once they're aware of the stories of the strong, smart people they hail from? Yup, that's the part I've slinked away from--and many of us put it off until those bunches of boxes are bequeathed to the next generation. What often happens is that those records, those treasures, are lost with a death, as when the number of boxes gets over 2, no one wants that complex of a job to do, and no one has room to store them.<br /><br /><em>My mantra with all my genealogist friends is that we'd better not die before we write the stories we've worked so hard to gather</em>.<br /><br />I've been through the notes done by my mom's cousin, who spent many enthusiastic years traveling great distances to glean more and more information. When Mom told me he'd passed away, I set to contact the family before they might be inticed to toss it all. Luckily, all his work was still together, but in the closet. None of them had looked at any of it. His enthusiasm hadn't ignited in his children--and that's a funny thing. People who are interested in genealogy, family history; whatever you call it, tend to be few and far between. Maybe they're just intimidated by the amount of work to do. That's probably it--I'm intimidated too! Who wouldn't be?<br /><br />So the first thing to do: REDEFINE THE TASK<br /><br />I've worked in many modes, one of them in psychiatry. If you're stuck and feel too intimidated to continue, redefining the task to become something you can do is the best way to deal with it.<br /><br /><em>So let's call the task, "Writing the Family Stories", as writing in a way that might be interesting to the family and their children. </em><br /><em></em><br />Just like in writing fiction, if you start off wanting to make a special point, the whole thing gets preachy. We'll let the stories hopefully work the magic themselves in helping people figure out the impact on their own lives. The stories will sometimes tell of moments of brilliance & serious mistakes, of strength and weakness that comes in every family. And let's hopefully figure out how to tell the stories truthfully, without having to wait for everyone to die first. Personalities are powerful, and are part of the real history for the players in our little group.<br /><br />That's why I've decided to do a blog about Actually Writing the Family Stories! I am setting off on this task and feel there are a lot of people who would like to learn with me as I go along. I have had fiction writing classes, plus years in a critique group which I hope will help me "flesh out" the family stories a bit, without turning the whole thing into a bodice-ripping historical romance, nor the most dry and boring of news stories, but I can share what I know.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04052092269815622133noreply@blogger.com0