Organizing and Planning – GenealogyAtHeart.com

Preserving Your Records – Do It Now!

June 1982 Flood, St. Petersburg, Pinellas, Florida

Was watching the news and saw a drone image of the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Pete., Florida after Hurricane Idalia went through. Looks like my old stomping grounds flooded again.

The photo above is me with our dog, Misty. The flood was unexpected and not due to a hurricane, though hurricane season had begun. It was the result of heavy rainfall and a high tide. Luckily, the water stopped before entering our home.

We weren’t so fortunate three years later when Hurricane Elena decided to sit offshore for two days. We lost all furniture (shown above) except for the crib, which was on high casters, and our kitchen table and chairs which were made of solid wood. Every appliance was shot – refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, washer, dryer, water heater, and air conditioner. All the flooring had to be replaced. So were the baseboards and lower part of the wallboard. That meant walls that had wallpaper had to be all redone and other walls needed to be repainted. A window had broken when a branch hit it, letting water in, and slashing the drapes. The wind whipped through the house and knocked mirrors and pictures off the walls. We had no phone or electricity for 3 weeks as we had to let the lines dry out. I don’t even like to think about the yard cleanup – dead fish, snakes, and insects hiding under the sea grass, branches, and assorted debris blown in from who knows where.

The pic below is from a different storm, Hurricane Frances. By then we had moved to Tarpon Springs. Our home was spared but a large branch of an old oak in our backyard wiped out our neighbor’s fence as it fell. Insurance didn’t cover it so we took turns with the chainsaw to cut it up, and lug it to the front, for the city to pick up. They weren’t really happy about it, either.

My heart goes out to those who are rebuilding once again. As I mentioned above with Elena, Idalia didn’t even make landfall in the Tampa Bay area but it caused widespread damage there. That area is overdue for a 100-year storm which makes the likelihood of another disaster on the horizon increase.

I’m not trying to invoke fear; I’m trying to point out that one day the big one will arrive.

If you don’t live in Florida don’t get a smirk and think this doesn’t apply to you because it unfortunately does – fires, floods, tornadoes, derechos, hail storms, snow storms, and the list goes on, can affect you wherever you reside.

If you haven’t already planned for preserving your records you must make that your priority.

I’ve blogged about it previously and now would be a good time to review that.

In an emergency, you aren’t likely going to have time to collect and save all your items. Sometimes, all you can do is grab your keys, wallet, and phone.

Rebuilding after a loss is stressful, exhausting, and mentally painful. There’s so much to do it’s hard to know where to begin. Genealogy is not going to be your priority.

Now is the time to make sure your genealogy collection is preserved.

If you have already scanned your documents check to make sure they are all preserved. Read this blog to see why and this one to get them organized. Need help on using the Cloud? Here’s how.

Sure, things can be replaced but your lifelong work of collecting photos and records would be lost. Take the time NOW to digitize. From someone who has experienced too many hurricanes to county, you’ll be thankful.

Memorial Day Weekend-Fields of Honor & Find A Grave – Create a Virtual Cemetery

Since I’m back in my home state I plan on visiting the cemeteries where my ancestors are buried this weekend.

First, I’d like to share a touching tribute to the soldiers who died during WW2 https://youtu.be/Pt4JYWd6hS8

The link was sent to me by Carla Mans who is involved with the Fields of Honor, a non-profit in the Netherlands. Check out their memorial pages and if you have a photo of a serviceman to contribute, please share it with the organization.

Last month I attended a Findagrave presentation by a local volunteer, Chuck Johnson. I have been a member of Findagrave for over 14 years and have blogged about hints using the site in the past. I learned from Chuck, about an option I didn’t know was available and might be helpful to you.

After logging on to your free account at Findagrave.com, click on “Cemeteries” on the ribbon. On the new page, shown above, look at the middle right side and you’ll see a link called “My Virtual Cemeteries.” I never noticed that link, nor the one above it, “Favorite Cemeteries.”

When I lived in Florida I often volunteered for this organization to fulfill photo requests for individuals who wanted to see a tombstone picture but lived too far or were unable for health reasons to visit the cemetery and take a photo. I haven’t yet done that in Indiana and learned from Chuck that there are a number of volunteers in my new locale who have been fulfilling photo requests.

If you are a volunteer, you may be interested in adding the cemeteries which you frequently visit for photos under the link “Favorite Cemeteries.” You’ll save time that way when you need to access the cemetery info.

What I found most fascinating about Chuck’s talk was the option to create your own virtual cemetery. Why would you do that? Like me, you probably have relatives buried in a number of different cemeteries in several states and countries. By using the My Virtual Cemeteries link, you can create a cemetery for each of your ancestral lines, thus, connecting your family memorials in one location. For example, my Duer line goes from Devonshire, England to Bucks, Pennsylvania, to Sussex, New Jersey, to Trumbull, Ohio, to Mercer, Ohio. By creating a virtual Duer Family Cemetery Line – I could have the individual Duer memorials for those who are buried in those locations listed together so I can readily access their information without having to remember their assigned Findagrave number, how their names were entered in the database, or where they were buried.

Initially, I wasn’t sure this was a great idea as I didn’t want to confuse other users who might come upon my virtual cemetery and think it was an in-person burial location. Chuck emailed me after the lecture that the virtual option can be either public or private, sort of like Ancestry.com does with family trees.

This leads me to another reason why you might want to use this feature . . . it costs to have an Ancestry.com subscription and I’m not sure, after I’m deceased, my adult children would pay to continue accessing all of the information I have placed in my tree there. Sure, I have it also saved to RootsMagic, however, as I’ve blogged about, the software updates have been problematic and the version I’d be using at my death might not be available for my future family to be able to open. I also save to Legacy Family Tree; I haven’t blogged about their issues but since they were bought by MyHeritage.com, I’ve been unable to update that software.

Findagrave is now owned by Ancestry but it has remained free to use. I have no crystal ball to know if it will always be free but I’m fairly confident that Ancestry realizes they have a cash cow with the Findagrave website – lots of volunteers putting info there that Ancestry links to their other paying site. So, Ancestry.com is getting a lot of info for free and then charging others for the work that the volunteers did.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Wish I had thought of that!” but you can cash in by using the Findagrave feature on a memorial you control by putting information in the bio section. If you don’t have memorial control, you can click on “Suggest Edits” and hope the owner agrees to your suggestions. You can also contact the memorial creator and ask that they turn the rights to the memorial over to you. If they don’t respond, contact Findagrave. I have personally known of a couple who died and had created memorials for some of my family. Findagrave turned the memorials over to a cousin who was closely related to the memorials created by the deceased volunteers.

Once you have updated the bio info on Findagrave and you’ve created a My Virtual Cemetery, you have the genealogical information for a line available to you for free. This means your family can also access it by 1) creating a free account on Findagrave and you giving them access to your created cemetery or 2) you making your created cemetery public so they can just go to Findagrave.com and view the information.

Sure, you could do this for free on FamilySearch.org, however, your information may be changed as it is a world tree so everyone has access to making changes that you might not agree with.

Also, keep in mind that Ancestry.com will be charging others to use your bio information. Personally, that does not bother me as I make my tree on Ancestry.com public. You may have another opinion, however.

A special thanks to Eckhart Public Library and Chuck Johnson for providing information on this Findagrave feature.

Autumn Genealogy Project Idea

This past week, I began to identify all my Gateway Ancestors – those are the folks who were the first to come to the U.S. In some cases, they don’t go back very far. For example, my maternal grandmother came with her mother and brother in 1912 to join her husband who had come earlier. Others came in the 1800’s, like my Leiningers and Kuhns, or the 1700’s, like my Landfairs and Hollingsheads, and some in the 1600’s, my Duers.

I decided to make a quick write up for each Gateway from their emigration to my parents. I wanted to tackle the Duers first because, well, I’m just enamored with them for one and two, they’ve been here for a long time so I figure if I start with the longest descents the rest will go quicker.

I came up with this idea after watching a National Genealogical Society (NGS) video from the May conference. I always intended to write about these ancestors but perhaps like you, never made the time or the effort to get that project done. I think the way that I’m proceeding makes it easier to get going on it. Here’s my plan:

Identify who you’d like to write about. In my case, it was my Gateways.
Go to wherever you keep your records for that individual and review them. I keep everything in several places – my personal tree on my desktop, on Ancestry.com and at MyHeritage.com. I also backup periodically to Dropbox and an external hard drive. Putting them in several places means I can gain access easily wherever I am, such as my home office, or out and about on my laptop or cell.
Open up a Word doc. Give your work a title and add your name as the author. In the footer, add page numbers. I always use “Page 1 of 10” or whatever number where I’ve ended because families tend to pass around documents and not always copy all of the pages. This way, the receiver will know they obtained the complete work. I also included an asterisk in the title with an explanation in the footer noting the descendancy will be a direct line to my parents. I did this because most of them had large numbers of children and I really want to only focus on my line for this project. That’s not to say it isn’t important to research the siblings because it definitely is a must do but for this project, not so much. I also include my email address in the footer so people that discover this can contact me. I plan on posting it on my Gateway’s Gallery on Ancestry and under Biography on MyHeritage. I’m doing that so other researchers can find it easily as it will show up in the Search function on both sites.
I selected using the NGS Quarterly style to write. I have no intention of ever submitting it to that organization for publication but I chose that style for several reasons. It’s formulaic (and boring, yes, but I’m not writing fiction nor am I trying to paint a picture of the ancestor’s life). Formulaic is good because it will be redundant writing, a sort of fill-in-the-blanks of the person’s life. I want that so I can analyze the information that I have acquired and identify any holes that I might have. I discovered immediately about Thomas that I had a “birth” date of 29 Sep 1663. It wasn’t a birthdate; it was the christening date. Does that matter? Yes, because I don’t know if he was christened on the day he was born, shortly after or as an adult. Given his death date, I can determine he was christened in his youth but not necessarily on his birthday. I also realized I never looked at his original christening record that is available on FindMyPast.org. Instead, I had relied on Ancestry’s Family Data Collection – Births. That’s a database of transcriptions first published in 2001. I needed to go back and find the original film to verify the information recorded was correct. It would be lovely to be able to go to Great Britain and view the original document but that’s not going to be happening anytime soon so I’ll have to do the best I can with the image. Another plus of the Quarterly style is that it will allow me to quickly determine how many people are in the line. With other styles, that information is not readily available. This style also provides more information about all of the couple’s children.
I highly recommend using Numbering Your Genealogy by Curran, Crane, and Wray if you’d like to explore more methods. It’s available through NGS and can be downloaded or printed so there is no delay in your getting started.
Make sure you use the footnote or endnote feature on Word (under References) so you can cite where you got the fact. If you don’t have a source for the fact you have, then use the highlight function on Word (Home-Font-the pencil icon with a color under it) to highlight that you must search for the source. I used that feature to remember I must go to FindMyPast.org to find the christening record. Once found, you can go back to the Font-highlight and click “No Color” to get rid of it. This way, you can quickly continue writing and citing for what you have and then research what needs clarification or is missing later.
Typically, the original source only is noted and I know I drive my colleagues nuts by listing ALL sources where I found the fact. I do this because I don’t know if the original document will be lost. If that occurs, then I’ve added where I found transcriptions or films of the image, etc., and that I verified the other documents I listed confirmed what the original document recorded. You do whatever the spirit tells you lol!
Your writing will not be very long; probably not more than a page or two unless, like my Daniel Hollingshead who loved to flip real estate, you have lots of records. Thomas Duer’s summary would be one page without citations. Remember, you aren’t recording a detailed story here, just the facts. If you decide you have the time and want to elaborate, then you have an outline already done to help you on your way. The clip at the top of this blog is for three of the five paragraphs I wrote on Thomas. Of his known children, I placed a + sign before son Thomas, (not shown) as I will be writing about him next. I will not be writing about the couple’s other seven children.
You may want to add a timeline to your Word doc. I haven’t done that but may if I get to a situation where documents I have acquired are conflicting. The timeline can help sort out if there was a transcription error, a confusion of identity, or some other situation. For example, I discovered last week a conflict regarding a family I was writing about for a journal article. The female gateway came to the U.S. in 1925 but on her naturalization records, she stated she came in 1939. Both are true. She first arrived in 1925, got married, had four children, and then took them back to her native country for a six month visit. When she returned, she used the second coming as her date of arrival. It was the most recent to her naturalization paperwork and the law required that at the time. So, fraud may not be involved in record discrepancies. Instead, she was following the law of the land at that time. A timeline helped me quickly identify the two emigration dates and that I needed to explore further.
When you’re done writing it’s time to upload and share. You want others to see your work so they can correct or add to your findings.

Since it’s autumn, now that you accomplished your task, make yourself a nice cup of tea and enjoy. You deserve it!

Finding the Family Jewels – Bibles, Included!

Ever wonder what happened to an object that was once held in high regard in your family but has since disappeared? Maybe you aren’t sure if there ever was such an item but you’d like to explore the possibility. This blog is for you…
When I began internet genealogy back in the 1990’s we still had dial up service. Remember that? Going through your home phone line to connect resulted in no one being able to get a phone call while someone was surfing. With all the junk calls I get daily, I’m thinking that wasn’t such a bad option, but I digress.
Back then, my husband would joke that it was okay he couldn’t make a phone call because I was hunting down the family jewels. Clearly, our families never had much jewels but I did wonder whatever became of the muskets or hoop skirts or Bibles. Most likely, the muskets broke and when the hoop skirts were no longer haute couture they were either repurposed or trashed. The Bibles, however, never went out of style so what happened to them?
Your first step in locating the long lost item is to research if it ever was. Start by asking your oldest living relative. I know that no Bible was brought from the old country by my maternal side because I asked my grandparents, who were the gateways, if they brought it with them. Both said they brought one suitcase filled with clothes. Case closed, pun intended!
I never asked my paternal grandparents that question, though, because my grandmother died when I was a child and my grandfather remarried, moved away and we never had contact again. My father then became the oldest relative and his reply was, “You’ll get the book when I die.” Huh? I questioned further and he meant there was a family history book that had been written in the 1970’s and he intended for me to have it. Except that didn’t happen. Since my step-mother would not give it to me, my second step became casting a wider net. I had two aunts but neither responded to a letter I wrote (this was before wide use of email) so I posted on a genealogy website that I was looking for a copy. Two people responded that they had copies and provided me a look up. One even reached out to the author who was living in Europe and he sent me an electronic database of his book. Today, you can easily accomplish this by messaging distant family members who have online trees that contain the ancestor whose information you’re seeking or you can check worldcat, Google Books, Hathi Trust, Internet Archives and Archive Grid to see if the whereabouts of what you’re hunting is listed there. Facebooks’ Family Treasures Found would be another site to check. One of my aunts eventually responded and sent me her copy. Patience is key here for lots of reasons; perhaps the site you messaged isn’t used much by the recipient or life just happened to get in the way. In my case, my Aunt wanted to check with her two daughters to make sure they had no interest in the book. They didn’t so that’s how I ended up with a copy. Actually, I ended up with two copies because my step-mother took pity on me after my mother died and gave me the book. So now, I have two – one for each of my kids or for another family member that may sometime in the future contact me with the same request.
Getting the information through look up was wonderful, however, if what you’re seeking is a one of a kind item then this approach may get you closer but not really fill your need.  Step 3 will save you time and it’s quite simple – just go online and research if what you’re seeking is documented to have existed and if so, when and where was it’s last location.
If you’re following me, you know that I’ve been working all summer on my Hollingshead line. In my research to verify the identify of Daniel Hollingshead in three locations (England, Barbados, New Jersey Colony) I looked everywhere online and emailed numerous archives to check for information that hasn’t been digitized. It was during the online portion of the research that I discovered Daniel had brought a Bible with him from England as it was noted in old biographical books highlighting descendants in the late 1800’s. To aid in keeping the whereabouts of the Bible’s locations known, I went to Step 4, I created a timeline. For simplicity here, I’m not including the source citations but my timeline in Excel notes exactly where the information came from so I can analyze it later:
1683 Leicestershire, England – Daniel’s birth as reported in 5 books (1965, 1911, 1900, 1886, 1882) Lancashire, England – Daniel’s birth place as reported in 2 books (1870 & 1857)1686 Leicestershire, England – Christening record for the 2nd Daniel born (1st Daniel 1679-1685)1688 Bible printed in Oxford, England
You can clearly see the problem with the conflicting place and dates. Further research shows no Daniels born in Lancashire during this period. Only two Daniels were born in Leicestershire during this time, both to the same parents. Probably every book is wrong with the birth year as there would be no reason for the family to name a 2nd child Daniel until the first one was deceased. Yes, some families do that but this line hasn’t shown that to be the case although they often reuse names when a child dies. More likely, Daniel 2 was born between 1685 (1st Daniel’s death) and 1686 (christening record). Typically infants are baptized soon after birth but that might not have been the case. A family member may have seen the 1683 recorded but was really written was a sloppy last digit that should have been a 5.
Here’s another problem the timeline unveils – the published date of the Bible would be AFTER Daniel’s birth, no matter what year is correct. Still, I want to locate it as it would hopefully confirm the birth location and would have been the next closest document made to Daniel’s real date of birth.
Here’s the next problem – The Bible mentioned in some of the books state that Daniel brought the Bible with him when he came to New Jersey. I need more info to further develop the timeline.
If you’re wondering why I would need to know where the Bible was kept that long ago it’s simply because if it is found, I need to understand how it was passed along. Since I don’t know if the Bible contains any genealogical information as many Bibles exist and families don’t record vitals in them, I need to know where it’s been so I can validate the information it contains, if any.
Ship manifests haven’t been found for him so it’s not known exactly when Daniel emigrated. The books mention he, along with several brothers, were in the Battle of Blenheim. So, did Daniel take the Bible with him in battle (August 1704)? No clues there. Did Daniel return to England after the battle? Don’t know! At the time of the battle Daniel was not the oldest son so the Bible would have likely been in the possession of a brother who died in battle. If the Bible had been brought to Blenheim, Daniel would have assumed ownership of it at that time.
It’s probable he did return to England after the battle and took the Bible with him when he decided he was permanently leaving England so that would have been between 1705-1711. The last date is when his first child was born in Barbados; since he met his wife in Barbados he probably arrived between 1705-1710. So my timeline continues:
1705 Battle of Blenheim (now Germany)1711 Daughter born in Barbados1714 Wife dies in Barbados1715 Daniel listed in Barbados census1716 Daniel remarries in Barbados1717 Daniel purchases land in New Jersey Colony1717-1718 Two children born to second union in Barbados1721 Beginning of numerous land sales in New Jersey Colony1730 Daniel dies intestate in Somerset, New Jersey Colony
Step 5: To determine where the Bible went after Daniel’s death is to expand the tree to include all of Daniel’s children from both of his marriages. You also must keep in mind customs from the time period. Understanding how the family thinks is key to finding the current location of the item.
My line follows Daniel’s first child, Mary. She would not have inherited the Bible for several reasons – she was from the first union and she was a female. Clearly she was not a favored child by her step mother as she was not named in the will. Daniel had older sisters in England so if the family was unconventional for the times, an older sister and not Daniel would have kept the Bible after the oldest sibling died. I know that Mary did not have the Bible as there was no documentation found in her line to ever note she had it. There is no documentation that any of the female children ever had it.
Daniel’s eldest son, the second child, would seem the person to have inherited it but that does not seem to be the case. Numerous books and documents show that Francis did, as the oldest male, manage the assets after Daniel died intestate and quickly lost them. From the will of Thomasin, Daniel’s second wife, she acknowledges his ineptitude by naming one of her youngest daughter’s as administrator to her estate and gives each of her adult children only a shilling. Her manumitted slaves receive most of the proceeds from the remaining estate. You may think that the administrator would have received the Bible, since she was given the responsible task of handling the final paperwork, however, she had married late in life and had no children so she did not get the Bible.
Two of Daniel’s male sons had died before his second wife. They had no children so we can eliminate them from the hunt.
That leaves one line – 6th child, 3rd son William. Oh joy, William had 9 children. This may seem overwhelming but following what we know – most likely to be passed to a MALE with CHILDREN, we can quickly eliminate who got it. It appears that son James inherited it as books from 1882 & 1886 state his son, Stroud Jacob’s wife, had the Bible in her possession after Stroud died, along with “old family papers.” So now I want to find both the Bible and the papers.
First, I want to understand why Stroud had the Bible. He was the third son and fourth child. The eldest died with no children, we can skip the female (sigh) and the next son left to go out west and never married. Makes sense why Stroud would have it.
Fast forward to 1900 when the Bible was known to be in the possession of one of Stroud’s grandchildren, a Jeannette Jackson. WOW! How did a female get so lucky? Times were a changing and it seems everyone of the now fewer children got something. Harriet, the oldest, had died but her oldest daughter was Jeannette who got the Bible. Stroud’s second child had died childless. The third child, James’ son received a breast pin that was passed down to Edgar Pinchot Hollingshead. The eldest, a daughter, received a painting on ivory of one of Daniel’s sons, William (same line).
Now this should be easy, right?! 1900 wasn’t that long ago and so we just need to track Jeannette and we’ve found the Bible. Not so fast…Jeannette died unmarried and childless in 1923. Two brothers predeceased her. Her sister married but had no children. Now we’re at a dead end. Not!
STEP 6 is to research further in new areas. Since we’re looking for a record from less than the last 100 years newspapers are the way to go. Thanks to a “cousin” helping me with the search, a record was found in a Pennsylvania paper (and the Bible came to New Jersey first, remember!) that said an Elizabeth Malvern Hollingshead was going to “loan” the Bible to a local historical society in 1924 for an event that was to be held. Loan is the key word here but still, I reached out to the historical society to see if a) they still have it on loan or b) they reborrowed it sometime since and know where it is. Alas, they do not but they do have the “old family papers.” Bingo! I’ve at least traced part of the missing items. I’m awaiting their lookup for confirmation of vitals.
Now it’s time to go back to Step 5 and trace Elizabeth’s line to the present. That was done and the most likely candidate was emailed at his work email. He hasn’t responded. I know he’s reading his work email because it was an interesting system – it notified me that he had been on the site the previous day to my email.
Finding a long lost heirloom is a matter of patience and persistence. Keep notes, enlist others to lighten the load and you will hopefully find what you seek. Happy Hunting!

Practicing What I Preach About Organization

Hello, Dear Readers! Didn’t blog last weekend because I was trying to do what I recommend everyone do – organize your genealogy. It is NOT fun!
Let’s start with the negative to get it out of the way…
It resulted in my allergies going bonkers from the dust (and the Sahara Dust Storm further put me over the edge), bags of refuse for the trash collectors to have to heave away in the intense heat (we’ve had advisories for a week now) and a field day for the cats who were running through the piles knocking them to the floor just to see paper fluttering. Why do cats do what they do?
On a positive note:

I can find everything I need quickly
I have a lot more office space
I have a much healthier environment
I found a few personal genealogical gems
I feel great that I am well on my way to completing the task

I would love to tell you I started this major undertaking because it was the right thing to do but that wouldn’t be honest. Two weekends ago, we had a generator installed since I’ve got a freezer full of food that I typically don’t have at this time of year due to the ‘rona. In Florida, summer is the lean times, meaning we grill and eat lots of quickly made cool foods right from the fridge. Open a can of kidney beans for a salad, mix up a can of tuna with some mayo and you have a sandwich, you get the picture. Since our groceries were in such short supply of canned goods and charcoal from the break in the supply lines, I didn’t stock up as usual and instead, had to rely on frozen items. I don’t want to lose all that food when the power goes out, which it does in our area frequently, so we decided to buy a generator and have it installed.
That meant we had sporadic electricity the day it was installed so I didn’t blog. I had all intentions of doing that the following day but, I was bored so I decided I would just go through one of four tubs I keep in the office where we store our warranty receipts and other important papers. That project consumed me for the next few days so the blogging didn’t happen.
I may have mentioned in past blogs that my family and I have been fortunate so far escaping covid which is spreading like wildfire in my area (well, we think one of our kids had it in late January and the other in early February but it was mild compared to what could have been and hubby and I didn’t get it, although we were in close proximity to both of them at their sickest. One kid tested with the results of no immunity so we have no idea what they had but it matched all but one of the symptoms. Hmm.)
I don’t know what “virus” infected our appliances but in the past three months, the following has needed repair: refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave (still waiting for parts), toaster, coffee maker, iron, sewing machine, vacuum, pool vacuum, pool heater, laptop power cord, cell phone, blow dryer, flash light, water softener, ceiling fan, chain saw, pole saw, blower, jet ski battery and then, there was the well guys cutting the lines so we had to have the internet and phone cables reinstalled and they broke several sprinkler heads so there was more fixing needed. Luckily, most of those items were under warranty (which says a lot about how items are made these day). Although that saved us tons of money, it resulted in my constantly pulling out the four tubs to find the necessary paperwork to contact companies to arrange repairs. The organizational system quickly became a mess and I knew I had to devote time to cleaning it. With the electricity off it seemed like a great time to devote to it.
You may be thinking – why does she keep this stuff in tubs? Simply because I live in a hurricane state. After losing everything in Hurricane Elena in 1985 I learned that file cabinets aren’t the way to go here. Put stuff in tubs and you can easily transport in your car when you flee and have the documentation to prove to FEMA when you return. Plus, no bugs get in and it does cut down on dust somewhat.
I got the brilliant idea to change the file folders from “Small Appliances”say, to the room in which the item is held. That meant making new labels; I love my Dymo but that’s starting to act weird, too. Any item we no longer owned went into the trash and those remaining went into a pile on the desk based on the room they were housed. That’s where the cats had a field day.
My reorganization left me with space in the tubs so I decided I’d tackle an attic niche where we store tax returns. I had taken Judy Russell’s APG seminar earlier that week and according to her, I only needed to store the IRS documentation for 7 years. I’ve had much more saved and although I hated the thought of pulling it all down and going through it, decided I had to do it. That’s where I made my personal genealogical discoveries that are meaningless to everyone but my husband and I. I found his very first tax return from the 1970’s when he worked part time at Pepper Pot Pizza. I found my Work Permit signed by my guidance counselor and school nurse for my first job while in high school (it was for a summer job as a “basket girl” at a local pool – I became a mole that summer, standing for hours in a dark room that was a partial basement handing patrons baskets to put their belongings in and then retrieving them when they were ready to leave. It smelled of chlorine and sweat. Yuck! But I was making $2.00 a hour so all way good.) I found paperwork for family members who were deceased that my husband and I served as administrators. Looking over some of the medical records reminded me of things I once knew about the person but had filed away somewhere in my brain and wouldn’t have been able to retrieve had the documents not jogged my mind.
Tossing all that stuff out felt great and now everything is together! You’d think I’d stop there but I was on a roll so I next decided to clean a small tub that I place in person conference syllabuses. I decided to pitch what wasn’t important to me and scan what was. I am in the middle of that project now.
I am leaving two shelves of genealogical gems to clean out when I retire someday. They once were housed in the attic (hence the dust) but when we cleaned the attic out a year ago I moved them to an indoor storage area. I seriously hate the thought of going through that stuff and figure it will take me a few months to get all that organized – it’s WW2 diaries, notes from older family members, letters, etc. What does one do with old film, negatives, camcorder stuff? We’ve digitized all of it to DVDs and some to the Cloud but what should I do with the original? It’s probably deteriorated and no longer viewable even if I had the device to see it. I actually was ready to pitch it but hubby said no which is surprising as I’m the one who usually hangs on to stuff. Let me know if you’ve faced this situation and how you resolved it.
So, for the remainder of today, as I look out at the milky white sky, I’ll be scanning my dwindling pile of syllabi. Think I’ll get another cup of coffee first. Have a great weekend!

Identifying Tree Errors – A New Approach

My online family tree is aging and just like we humans need as we get older, regular check ups are important to maintain its vigor. I think I just discovered a different approach to identify errors to keep my tree robust.

My first computerized tree was done on a TI99 home computer. I had to insert a cartridge to view the genealogical program (which is now in my attic). In 1995,we had switched over to a desktop system and we were online thanks to AOL. I downloaded PAF from FamilySearch.org and spent a few weekends transferring my info from the old software to the new. I’ve been transferring that same tree as it grew ever since.

Around 1997, I created a tree on Rootsweb (now owned by Ancestry.com). My old tree is frozen in cyberspace and I cringe at some of the errors I’m not able to correct. I believe that’s the only tree I’ve got stuck in time.

Over the years I’ve transferred the root tree to various online sites – Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast.com, Geneanet.com, WikiTree.com, and AmericanAncestors. I’ve used Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic, and Family Tree Maker software to help identify and correct errors. Last weekend I found another source to fix mistakes in lines I haven’t looked at in years.

Geneanet.com allows you to view tree statistics, whether you’re a member or not. Simply click the down arrow next to your tree’s name which accesses the menu. Under the heading Family History, click Family Tree Statistics. Although the number of people in your tree with the same first name is interesting, it’s not going to fix errors. (As an aside, the largest number of my peeps are named John and Mary, just like my grandparents). To find errors, click “The 20 who lived the longest.” There I discovered I had an ancestor that lived over 500 years and he wasn’t named Methuselah. Clearly, I had entered John Clark’s death date in error, typing 1918 for 1418.

The next individual, Thomas Eaton, had lived for 311 years but not really. He had been pruned once from his line so I deleted him. He was just an unlinked soul lost in my tree.

Now click “The 20 oldest persons still alive” and you’ll be able to identify folks you know have passed but you haven’t found their death date. My oldest was Melba L. Jones born in 1899. Using FindAGrave, I discovered she died 2 Jan 1993. I like how this feature helps me keep my tree current on lines I don’t check often.

I like that only 20 questionable individuals are provided at a time so it makes the task less onerous. It’s still a pain to maintain trees at various sites so I’ve been keeping one current which is linked to my desktop and then every 6 months, update the others. In the interim, when people find me at the other sites, I just redirect them to my always maintained tree.

Now that I’ve Spring Cleaned my tree, I’m ready for more research. Happy Hunting!

Lineage Society Application Tips

Most of my client work this past summer has been for assistance in joining a lineage society. The reasons for the interest varied; one elderly gentleman wanted to give memberships to grandchildren as holiday gifts, several had affiliating with an organization on their bucket list and decided the time was right to pursue membership, and a few wanted to memorialize an ancestor.

In most of the cases of the clients who contacted me, they didn’t need much help. They actually didn’t need me at all which I told them. Joining a lineage society is not difficult although some have more stringent requirements than others in validating the provided evidence.

If you’re thinking of joining, you will first need to establish a relationship from yourself to the ancestor who would qualify for the society. That means, proving you’re connected to your parent and your parent is connected to your grandparent and so on until you reach the qualifying ancestor. For most people, obtaining vital statistics aren’t difficult; they just require completing a form, submitting payment and being patient to wait for the document to arrive. Creativity comes into play when the ancestor lived prior to required vital records being available. In those cases, church, Bible, cemetery, immigration, pension, and wills might be used to prove the relationship.

If you have a known relative who is a member of the lineage society you wish to join, most of your work is already done for you. All you need to do is prove your connection to the member.

What seemed to be my clients’ biggest hurdle was in following the direction of the society’s application. One individual told me he had once had a high security clearance for his job and that paperwork was simple compared to a state lineage society application. If this is your roadblock, here’s some tips to get the job done:

1. Make sure your ancestor meets the society’s requirements. This sounds silly but it isn’t. If you’re trying to join a county Pioneer Program, for example, your ancestor must have lived in that county during the years the program stipulates. Boundaries change and that may make your forefather ineligible. West Virginia was once part of Virginia, Pinellas County in Florida was once part of Hillsborough County. Check out the area’s history before beginning will save you time and money.

2. Make a copy of the application and use a pencil to print the information it requests. This way, you can eliminate the worry of a web fill in the blank document not saving and you can have a hard copy to verify each connection. It’s much simpler to have all the information on one handy dandy form to type into the society’s online application than to try to flip pages of all your proof documents to find the required data and input it at the same time.

3. I recommend checking off each name, date and location that you recorded on the hard copy application by looking back at the record used. For example, if the birth certificate states the name is Mary Ellen then that name should be recorded on the application and not Elle, the individual’s nickname. Nicknames should be included if they are found in official documents. I had a several times great grandmother that completed a War of 1812 widow’s pension under her nickname, Polly. Her birth name was Mary. She was illiterate and didn’t sign the pension application but Mary and Polly were used interchangeably on the document. In situations like this, I would write Mary Polly on the application.

4. If you have questions as you complete the form, simply email the society’s contact person. In most cases, they will be helpful as a good society values new members. My opinion, if they aren’t helpful then why would you want your ancestor’s name affiliated with them?! Save yourself grief and memorialize in a different way.

5. When you submit the application, make sure you’ve kept a copy as there may be a question or two and you can readily have your own set to refer to as you respond to the question.

I have found that awaiting confirmation of membership is often a slow process so patience is required. Most societies are composed of volunteer members so your application is reviewed around their spare time.

Not sure what lineage societies are available? Check out this Wiki list. Warning – that is not a complete list as many more societies are available. Contact historical and local genealogical societies for additional opportunities.

Memorial Day – Record Preservation

Memorial Day Weekend is here in the States! As many reflect on their deceased loved ones I’m pondering those loved ones’ records. Why? In my area, we’re under the first Tropical Storm warning of the year (and Hurricane Season doesn’t begin until June 1st) and a flood watch.

Records loss happens to all of us. That misplaced paper receipt to prove the warranty is still valid, the disappearing paper estimate that the roofer left or the W2 that you never received in the mail from a former company is frustrating. We’re fortunate that today there’s technology to help us with work arounds to obtain the missing document. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with records of past generations.

You’re probably tired of hearing the importance of preserving your acquired ancestral documents. Backing up my data is as fun as going to the dentist. Although I love my dentist and his staff, I don’t love the dental experience. I know that it’s important to keep my teeth and gums healthy so I continue to make and keep my appointments. So why do I have such a hard time with keeping my genealogical records updated and safe?

If you’re like me, scanning and saving those documents are just not as fun as hunting down the record. I have to admit that I have, on more than several occasions, had to refind a document that I needed and that definitely wasn’t fun. I thought, if I got into a routine like I do with brushing, flossing, and gargling, I’d be set with my record saves. I just realized that my genealogical process still needs refinement as I tried to locate a death certificate I could have swore I had placed in the Cloud and it just isn’t there.

I want my records to be readily available when I need them. Standardizing my File Name system helps, as does the lovely Search function on Dropbox and OneDrive. Yes, I use both. Paranoia may destroy ya but I believe putting my tree in one and my records in another protects the information in case one of the company’s system fails. (I used to use CDs, DVDs and thumb drives but I’ve abandoned those for Clouds since my latest technology doesn’t have those functions available).

Now my plan is all good until the weather takes a turn for the worse like today. Late last summer, I had no electricity for several days. Granted, accessing my genealogy was not my priority at that time, but when the power goes out and there isn’t impending danger, I still want to continue with my genealogical work. I’m thinking that I should be making a hard copy of online finds so I can work off the computer in times like those. I also need to recheck my existing hard copies and make sure that I’ve scanned and saved every document so if disaster strikes, when life returns to normal I can pick up where I left off. To insure I do this, I selected a line a month to check on. I’ve penciled a day on the calendar to make it official and hopefully, I’ll not cancel that appointment.

Organizational Article You Must Read

I came across the following article in the Washington Post this past week and I had to share it with you – Americans are Pack Rats. Yes, we are! I had read this shortly after blogging an article for another genealogy organization about an experience I had with a pack rack relative and my frustration in not being able to locate a photo because I kept getting the response, “Well, it’s around here somewhere.”
My genealogy is well organized but occasionally, I have difficulty putting my hands on something I know I have. My most recent mysterious disappearance is of 2 handwritten letters for the eBook I’m currently working on. I’ve transcribed the letters but for the life of me can’t locate the originals. I’ve always kept the entire set together in the same order that I scanned them. After scanning, I transcribed the letters in order. The first letter and one written 13 months later have disappeared, along with the scan. The transcription remains. I’m considering this my Spooky October Happening as I have one or more each year; some unexplainable genealogical occurrence that is just weird. I’m hoping by November I can recover the documents.
But back to the article, I’m thinking that if the author’s approach is culturally established, it sure explains why my husband’s side didn’t have a lot of hand me downs. I’m still searching for a pic of his great grandmother, for goodness sakes.
I understand the article’s author’s motives but I think that I’d like to continue to use the family china until I’m either unaware of my surroundings or die. I wouldn’t want it pitched after my death so I think some items just ought to stay with the current owner until the very end. I use the label system. On items that have family value, I’ve placed a label on the bottom with the name of the original owner. That way, my descendants can easily identify that it’s an item that had significance. Whether they pitch or not is up to them. Knowing my family, they’ll keep it or pass it along to a family member who would continue to value it.
This isn’t a pleasant thought but end planning is necessary long before your life ends.

More Genealogy Tips Based on Renovation Musings

If you’ve been following my Genealogy At Heart blog, you know that hubby and I have been in the “middle” of major home remodeling which we began the day after Thanksgiving. When I say middle I really mean it – we’re half way done. Through this chaotic journey I’ve been able to apply quite a few lessons learned from the experience to genealogy which I wrote about a few weeks ago.

On Palm Sunday, our adult kids planned to come over and we were going to take a much needed respite from the renovations to attend a local art show. To plan that in, we worked hard the previous day as we hoped that the hardwood floors would FINALLY be installed in the upcoming week. For that to happen, we needed to finish prepping; we had some minor holes to fill in the concrete and to tile the entry stoop.

I’m a list person – I love to organize via writing and then cross out items when the task is complete. I’ve used technology but for this major project, reverted back to a paper and pencil method. It’s quite motivating to cross out the completed items! I do this with my genealogy, too. Using Excel, I have a spreadsheet that lists the Who (surname), What (I’m going to accomplish – research, transcribe, analyse, etc.) When (the date I place it on my list), Why (the goal, either short or long term) and How (I brainstorm where I’m going to find the info or what I need to complete the task). Some items have been on my list for a long time and others I can quickly accomplish.

Like genealogy, home maintenance doesn’t end. I don’t put “clean up my work space” on my genealogy to do list just like I wouldn’t place “mow the lawn” on my home renovation list.

Some items on my genealogy list may be much more difficult to accomplish than others. I’ve been trying to locate the parents of my second great grandmother, Mary “Polly” Dennis for years and don’t expect resolution tomorrow but who knows?! Records show up in the most unexpected places. Likewise, the hunt for a new door threshold (seriously – cannot find one anywhere that fits our front door!) has got to have a resolution quickly or my power bill will be astronomical. Although there are other important tasks to work on, finding that threshold has to take precedence. Which leads me to flexibility…

I’m not holding my breath that my floors will be installed this week. When I called to verify that the floors were in, I was told the order was partially filled. It’s been nearly a month since we ordered and the company cannot explain why the entire order isn’t ready. I wasn’t thrilled or surprised. Like in genealogy, expect the unexpected. If the company cannot provide the missing items we’re going to have to look elsewhere. Sure, it will take longer to finish but in the end, I sure will rejoice just like I do when I’ve found an elusive ancestor.

Because I’m paying as I go with the house renovation, my initial list only took us to the hardwood floor install. I knew I had the funds to get to that point AND the house would be livable again. So late Saturday after dinner, hubby and I went back to the list and I let him do the honors of crossing out all of his specifically assigned tasks that he accomplished that day. All that was left for him was to grout the newly installed entry tiles. It was time to make a new list for phase 2. Although I’m looking forward to the day my home renovations are through, my genealogy to do list will never end and that’s just fine with me!