Category: Generations Remembered

Genealogy Information

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Federation of Genealogical Societies

The Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference is getting reved up for the 2011 meeting in Springfield, IL, Sept 7-10.     If you plan to attend, it is time to get registered, find a hotel and start planning what sessions you will attend.  I usually try to attend every year, but will have to sit it out this year due to other commitments.

As we get closer to 2012, you will hear more about the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  The Federation is helping the National Archives and the genealogy community digitize the War of 1812 Pension Applications.  There is a counter on their website that lets you see their progress.  They are about 1% of the way and need financial assistance to complete the project.  Donations are gladly accepted, so go to the Federation website at www.fgs.org. and make a donation.

There are so many things to hear about at FGS.  And one of the most important parts is the exhibit area where 100s of exhibitors display their software, books, maps, etc.  It always seems like I come home with about 100 extra pounds of books.

All folks who profess to be a genealogist should attend at least one major genealogy conference per year and a number of local meetings to keep current with new ideas, records and websites available.

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Snedekerville School No. 3 Bell At Historical Society

Today Al and I returned the Snedekerville (PA) School No. 3 bell to Bradford County.  The bell was in Grandma White’s house for many years until it was given to Grandpa White’s nephew, Bob Spencer in Wallingford PA.  Bob and Mid used the bell for many years, then gave it to their daughter who has now given the bell back to me.  I thought the most fitting place to put the bell is back in Bradford County.  The Bradford County Historical Society was happy to get something for their museum from Snedekerville.  If anyone has anything from Sned that they would like to contribute, please notify the Historical Society.  They have a wonderful museum in the former Bradford County Prison.  Their genealogical collections are equally as terrific.  Check their website for visiting hours and information about their collections.  http://www.bradfordhistory.com

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First Families of Pennsylvania

Well it finally happened.  It was a long time coming, lots of research, but I finally made it into First Families of Pennsylvania through the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.  It is a wonderful program that honors the Pennsylvania ancestors and preserves your research.  There are 3 levels of participation:  Colony and Commonwealth: 1638-1790; Keystone and Cornerstone:  1791-1865; and Pennsylvania Proud:  1866-1900.  I was awarded a Colony and Commonwealth certificate for proving my 8th great grandmother, Sarah Shoemaker, came to Philadelphia in 1686, with her 7 children and bought 200 acres of land in Cheltenham area.  She must have been a very hardy soul.  Her son, George married Sarah Wall, who inherited a house from her grandfather, Richard Wall.  The Wall house still stands in Elkins Park, PA and is owned by Cheltenham Township.  You can tour the house on Sundays or just relax in their lawn any day.

What have you done lately to preserve your history?

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18th Century Market Fair at Fort Frederick

Today a friend and I went to Big Pool, MD for the 17th annual Market Fair at Fort Frederick State Park.  What a wonderful time.  If you want to get back to the 18th century living, you shouldn’t miss this next year.  Everything has to be authentic.  No visible signs of this century.  The porta potties are behind a burlap wall so you can’t see them.  Credit card machines are out of sight.

Lots of people are in 18th century dress, buying 18th century clothing or dreaming of that next purchase.  The beautiful gowns, hats, shoes, etc for the women is so fun, I almost left reason behind and purchased a beautiful silk gown.  But where would I wear it?  I had a gown made for the PSSDAR State Conference Banquet, but it wasn’t truly authentic.  I had a zipper put in so I could dress myself at the banquet, since I didn’t have my trusty, Pal Al with me.

The men had even more to chose from.  They had wonderful handmade shoes, hats, coats, stockings, and guns.  I was surprised how much the men got into dressing as men of yore.  They had wonderful costumes from kilts to waistcoats and buckskins.  There was even a VERY authentic Native American walking about.

There were almost 150 vendors with everything you could want for your 18th century outfit or home.  Because this is a juried show, you can count on the authenticity of everything.  The seamstresses and taylors have studied for a long time to provide good quality products.

Can you tell I enjoyed myself?  Despite the threat of rain, the turn out was phenomenal.  Fort Frederick is a wonderful place to visit when there isn’t a Market Fair, they have plenty of activities coming up this summer.  Woodmont Open House May 14 & Sept 10, Colonial Children’s Day June 4th, Artillery Programs, French and Indian War Muster Aug. 27-28 and a ghost walk on Oct. 22nd.

 

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Who Do You Think You Are?

For those of you who are following WDYTYA on Fridays, this past week was different from the others.  Kim Cattrall was tracing her long, lost grandfather and found out he was quite the scoundral.  This is a far cry from the wonderful, wonderful lives of most of the other people researched.  I think it gives you an idea that you may not always find you are related to the Queen of England or high society, but there is an occasional horse thief or two that you should be prepared to find.  That’s what makes genealogy so interesting.  It is also something to think about ahead of time in how you are going to handle the information you find.  Would your grandmother be horrified if this got out?  Kim’s mother and aunts initially didn’t want to contact  the other family involved, but after the filming did contact them.

Watch for this week’s episode of WDYTYA on NBC.

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Who Do You Think You Are?

Another good week on Who Do You Think You Are?  This week was Rosie O’Donnell, last week Tim McGraw and the first week was Vanessa Williams.  All were well researched by the best in the industry.  It will give you an idea it is very easy, but it took a lot of researchers and alot of hours.  Don’t let that deter you.  There are lots of professional researchers who are willing to help, but be humble.  It took them many years to learn what they know. Listen to their advice and don’t try to tell them their business.

Try out Ancestry.com and pick up a book on genealogy, or better still, take a course in genealogy.  Ancestry and FamilySearch are two of the best websites.  Write everything down and cite your sources.

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Nothing Like Good Ole Legwork

Today I’m on a mission to locate a living relative for a client.  The person was born in 1930 after the 1930  U.S. Federal Census was taken.  So where do I go next.  I tried the county websites for the  last known address, which was in 1980.  Nothing popped up on the website, but I called the local historical society and they told me about a county website that has government records on line.  They had nothing on the family at their society.

When I went on line for the government records, I located a marriage record, but they did not put the complete information on line, such as dates of birth.  I called the courthouse and located a person who was willing to look on microfilm at the original record.  This gave me dates of birth for the bride, my target person and her new husband.  He was born 1919, she was born 1930. They were in western PA when married in 1980, so next I started looking on Switchboard.com for any people with the same last name, living in that same general area.

I located a number of families with that same last name and started calling them.  On the second call I found a nephew of the husband of my target person.  Through this person I found that the husband died some years ago, but the wife maybe still living or her children.  Now it is just a matter of following up further with her to connect my client with her cousin.

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One-Name Study Course

Today starts my Pharos course on One-Name Studies.  I have registered my Duart family name with the variants of Dewart, Doward, Dhu-Ard and Duard.  This should help me reach out to others researching the family name.  It is a fun course, from England, done entirely on computer.  I’m excited to get started and will keep you posted on the outcome, but keep an eye on my One-Name Study – Duart website.  You can reach it by clicking on the One-Name Study emblem on my front page.

On another note.  The TV program “Who Do You Think You Are?” begins again on NBC on Friday, Feb 4th at 8:00 pm.  Last year’s program was a great success and brought lots of people into genealogy.  Beware of how easy they make it look.  They had hundreds of people and research hours to bring you a 3 minute segment.  It is still pretty amazing what you can find on your family, if you just look.

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Genealogical Education On Line

Last week I got an email about a complimentary webinar from Legacy Family Tree.   I thought I’d try it out.  I have taken other course through webinars and found them fun and informative.  It was Google for Genealogy web products. What an amazing search engine you can use for so many functions.  Google has 155 products and many are easily adapted for genealogy.

I have been on line for Google searching, Google Books, Google Maps and Google Earth, but if you travel frequently for research, Google Calendar, Google Voice, and Google Transcription would be very handy.  For working at home, Google Alerts would keep you on top of what is added on the web about your family, Google Translate would help with those German records you can’t decipher, and Google News Archives might help you locate that obituary.

There are so many records on line, try to locate them first through a search engine.  You might be surprised with what you find.  With Google, you need to have an account.  It is free to sign up.  There may be some costs to certain products if you want to order maps, etc.

I’m looking forward to more Legacy webinars.  Check them out on line at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp

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What do you do with your genealogy if nobody cares

I was talking with a friend recently, about what to do with family information such as bibles, ancestral charts, family histories, etc. if you don’t have children or family that cares about family history.  There are so many genealogical societies clammering for this kind of information about families in their area.  Don’t let all of your and previous generation’s hard work go to waste.  Look for a library, genealogical society, or archives that will accept your collections.  It is a matter of going on line to Google, or similar search engines and locating an appropriate repository.  Type in a county and add historical society.  You will be very surprised to see what pops up.  If all else fails, contact Historical Society of Pennsylvania, if your family is from this State, and work with them to get your collection.

Telling family is not enough.  Put it in your will.  While you are at it, you should also make a record of all your holdings and where they should go when you are gone.  If you take a walk around your home and look at those bowls from great grandma Grace that you definitely want to keep in the family, WRITE IT DOWN.

Carnaval glass bowl in dining room china closet was from great grandma Grace and is to go to Aunt Martha Jones when I die.  Add information about the value of the piece if it has been appraised.  Add some history about the item, if you know anything and put this all in a notebook with photos.  Grandfather clock in living room on desk.  The clock was a wedding present to grandpa and grandma Green in 1921, was given to son, Paul and wife in 1963 and was presented to daughter, Suzy Smith in 1985, at her wedding.

Too many times we have not planned for keeping heirlooms and genealogical information, so it gets thrown out or put up for sale, to be lost to that family forever.  Plan ahead, we all gotta go sometime.