Monday Musings

This past week I found myself working on several different projects - some very basic some rather detailed, but all part of staying on track with my genealogy.

The genealogy vacations that we took in June & July produced a ton of obits, colonial records, deeds and more.  I think (notice that word think?) I finally have all that scanned and lots of it is linked and typed in to my ancestors files.  A lot of what I had from that trip were images that I collected at various repositories and they need to be cropped and typed in, then linked.  It appears that most of that has been taken care of.

The hardest project I have going on is the stack or two of papers that I'm just not sure what to do with.  Some are small cemetery readings that I pick up here and there.  You know the kind,  its a small family cemetery, the one that PERHAPS one of your great great grandparents is in, only they aren't listed.  But someone else in the family is... maybe the great grandparent is there or maybe not..  but what to do with the listing?  Yeah, those sort of things.  BTW, I ended up putting that in the back of the County Cemetery book for that county that I bought back in 1990.  Not everything is on Find A Grave so those books still come in handy!  But I have a stack or two of those sort of things laying around.  So working on those too!

Lastly,  I am working on a couple of new talks.  For those who aren't familiar with me I also do speaking and I have a list of talks.  A few new ones are in the works.  Hope to get them up on my speakers page later this week.

Take all those genealogy projects and toss in getting the flower gardens ready for the winter,  decorating to some degree for the different holidays, and the sewing projects I'm working on for Christmas...  you get the idea!  But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Researching!
  Karen

On The Road Again!

The plants are watered, the laundry is all done, the suitcases are packed.  The alarm is set, garage door is down...  and we are off.  Actually we've been on the road now for 10 whole research filled, fun days.  Days full of meeting people, researching and just enjoying being out & about. 

The primary time spent so far has been on the ancestors & their families in Montgomery County, Ohio.  With so many ancestors there we've been spending lots of time there.  This time however, had to be the best!

I've been searching for a repository for the Germantown Press, the newspaper for Germantown, Ohio for quite a few years.  This past Thursday, the librarian at the Montgomery County Genealogy Center, found the paper at Wright State University. 

On Friday morning we set out for Wright State.  After breakfast and a wrong turn into Wright Patterson AF base we finally arrived.  We went in search of a visitors parking pass, got it and managed to locate the library.  The staff was helpful and courteous.

At long last I was able to get to the Germantown papers.  I really like it when I find a "one stop shopping" location for the newspapers in the area's I'm researching.  On Friday, I finally found that for the Montgomery, Preble & Darke county area's of Ohio.  Wright State University library fits the bill perfectly!  We will be back!

Happy Researching!
  Karen

Overwhelmed? Let's Simplify!

I'm constantly amazed at how some people can take something that is basically a simple task and make it difficult.  Granted there are some things that you really need to do in a certain way, and changing that way could change the outcome of the whole project.  There are exceptions to every rule BUT....  99% of the time things can be simplified for the best. 

Sometimes you have to step back and think about how you want to go about it, but once you get it life suddenly gets much better.

Some ways to simplify your life....

• Plan your meals in advance, write them down on a calendar so there's no last minute dash to the land of frozen blobs called a freezer.  It really does help relieve the "Oh my goodness its 5pm and I've done nothing about dinner" panic that you get when you've been sitting doing genealogy all day.  
• Use your crockpot.  Its not rocket science (if you need recipes contact me, I've got several thousand crockpot recipes I can share), use your imagination, you'd be surprised how much you can research knowing that dinner is almost made with very little effort on your part. 
• Believe it or not, you do not have to be "connected" to the phone every waking, breathing moment of your life.  Put it on vibrate.  Trust me, the FB posts will wait.  You've got voice mail.  You don't have to take every call.  
• Turn off the TV.  Goodness,  ever hear garbage in garbage out?  When was the last time the tv did your dishes or washed your clothes.  Save your tv time for something you REALLY want to watch - like maybe Who Do You Think You Are or something like that.  Do you really care who's view they are talking about on The View?  Seriously?
• Taking time to get up out of your chair is good for you,  it also allows you to get things done.  Seriously.  Toss in a load of laundry. Set a timer.  Go upstairs and work.  Timer goes off. Move clothes to dryer. Set timer.  Go upstairs and research.  Timer goes off.  Fold Clothes & put away.  How is that hard?  Certainly manageable by anyone reading this blog I'm sure.
• I know this one isn't for everyone BUT,  I have to toss it here because it truly simplifies things for me.  I asked for and received from my son, a robot vacuum.  I know that people are skeptics but it works for me.  Lets face it, how many people vacuum under the bed, the couch and other hard to get to places every week?  My vacuum is programmed for every Monday morning and it works.  Maybe savings? Maybe a group gift from all your kids?  Either way it simplifies things for me.  
• Organize all your errands on ONE day a week. I do all my errands on Tuesday's.  Its also MY DAY.  I do no housework other than making our bed.  I do what makes me happy that one day a week.  If there are no errands to run I know I can sit here in my office and do this FOR ME.  Usually I run my errands, go to lunch with friends or family, and then work on my computer (I take my laptop with me) while I wait for my Tuesday night hang out with friends to begin. 

In the long run, we can all find ways to simplify our lives, to make things easier for us.  These are just a few things I've done to simplify my life.  Simplifying makes more time for me to do the things I have to do, but still allows me time to do the things I want to do, whether its genealogy, sewing, reading or working in my flowers. 

How do YOU simplify?

Wedding Wednesday - Elopement!

Hopkinsville Kentuckian, Pg. 12 SEP 1908, Pg. 5

      Madisonville Soldier
  Captures A Trigg County Bride

   Another romance has resulted from the stationing of troups in Trigg County.  Two or three months ago, a Middlesboro Soldier married a pretty girl at Golden Pond.  Amos Winstead, a Madisonville soldier, lately on duty at Cerulean, is the next of the military boys to capture a Trigg County bride.  On Sept. 2 he eloped with Miss Sarah Nabb, a pretty daughter of C.T. Nabb, and they were married in Nashville.  Parental objections made the elopement necessary.  The couple met first a year ago, while the bride was a schoolgirl at Georgetown.
   The Cadiz Record says the groom is an electrician in Madisonville, and is said to be a splendid young man and of a good family.  He has been given a discharge from the State Guard and is now out of the military service.
  The Bride is a very beautiful girl of sixteen and very popular.

Wedding Wednesday - A 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

 Golden Wedding

  Fifty years ago, October 32, 1863, Lewis H. Zehring and Miss Elizabeth Gebhart, daughter of Emanuel Gebhart, were united in marriage by Rev. C. Albrecht.  For a half century they have resided in Miamisburg, excepting a brief period, when they resided in the country near town.

  Squire Zehring is one of the best known men in the county, and has always been active in the life of the community.  For over thirty years he served as justice of the peace, and for over forty years has been a notary public.  He served three years as county commissioner.  He is still a director in the Mutal Building Association, in which he was secretary.  For ten years he was mayor of Miamisburg, and is now a member of the Board of Education, and a cemetery trustee.  Industrious, genial and faithful, Squire Zehring counts his friends by hundreds, and though past three score and ten, is still a young man in thought and action.

  Handsome invitations have been issued to many friends for a reception at the Zehring home on Linden avenue this afternoon and evening, when an opportunity will be afforded to extend congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple, who have enjoyed fifty years of life in unbroken wedlock.

  Their two daughters, Dr. Blanche Zehring of Wells College New York, and Mrs. Laura Zehring Dosch of Elizabeth, N. J., are both at home visiting with their parents for the happy anniversary.
**The Miamisburg News (Miamisburg, Ohio), Thursday, 23 OCT 1913, Front Page; Copy in files of Karen Krugman.

Monday Musings - As The World Turns

The leaves on the trees are starting to show their beautiful colors.  Nothing more beautiful here in SE lower Michigan than fall.  Beautiful colors everywhere you look.  What does that mean for me?  More time in my office and less time out in my flower gardens.

We returned from vacation and our daughter was in an auto accident.  Pretty bad when you consider she was doing 15 when hit 1 the other driver running an out of order traffic light doing 50. But she is doing very well,  baby Jacob bit his tongue but it hasn't stopped him smiling, and that unborn baby she is carrying,  its fine too!  We are blessed!

We have discovered that we are to have another grandson! Yep, that baby that was so well protected by his awesome mom by staying away from that exploding airbag is a bouncing beautiful baby boy!  I am excited.  We are blessed!

Hard to believe that Jacob will be a year old in the next week.  He's into everything, he's so busy ALL. THE. TIME.  He wears me out.  I guess that's why 50 something women don't birth babies (usually?).  He's just beautiful like all my grandsons are.

Genealogy?  Family History?  Those are all family history.  Our family history and such an important part of our lives.

On the genealogy front, I've been cropping and naming images, I have about 1200.  Its coming along quite nicely!  Also working my friend Jim in Ft Wayne in publishing some cemetery records and the one family line that we share.  Add to that the three new talks I'm working on and you've got alot of typing going on.  I'm inspired by the blogs I read, so many productive women do so many great things.  Such an opportunity to learn.  I am in awe!

Enjoy your day!

Monday Musings

Been a busy few weeks here and an awesome weekend to top it all off.   We've been staying busy with yard work.  This past winter was so cold here in Michigan and the snow amounts were so bad...  I know I've not seen this much snow here since I moved here 21 years ago.  That said,  our roses took a major hit.  After much research and discussion we opted to cut them back drastically and see if maybe over the next few months they will come back.  I'm pretty sure that at least two are done.   We have many flower beds here at Karma Gardens and keeping up with them at times can be a daunting task.  That's okay, the beauty they provide more than outweighs the work we do to keep them up.

Took a break from the upkeep of the property and went to Lansing on Friday and Saturday for the Summer Seminar put on by the Abrams Foundation & the Michigan Genealogical Council.  What a great job they did.  A wide variety of speakers covering a wide spectrum of topics.  I think all the attendees really enjoyed themselves.  Friday night was the lock in,  38 lucky persons were "locked" in the Michigan Archives for an evening of research.  What a great evening.

There will be another seminar at the library on Saturday November 1st.   All the details are in process but from what I saw at this past weekends seminar, the focus will be German & Pennsylvania research.  Mark your calendars!  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Happy Monday everyone!

Karen

Monday Musings

This weekend Mr. Brown Eyes and I returned from a week of researching and hanging out with friends in Ohio.  We had a great time researching, chatting and porch sitting with some great friends from the Darke County area of Ohio.

As usual when you spend a week researching you return with lots of great information.  We enjoyed some research time at the Montgomery County Records Center & Archives,  Garst Research library and the Brethren Heritage Center.

One of the fabulous things that happened was that the Brethren Heritage Center had just gotten a donation of funeral home records and we were given the opportunity to go thru those.  What a gold mine of information that was!  We had great weather for our entire time away.  As usual its great to go away but always so wonderful to return to our home here at Karma Gardens.  (Yep, we named our property! Been pondering that for a while now.)

On the home front,  we are to be grandparents again in January!  Our daughter and her husband recently announced they are expecting baby #3. This will be grand baby #5 for us.  Needless to say we are so excited.

The construction is now complete on the kitchen redo that we were working on.  Its so nice having all that dust gone and the new kitchen up and functioning.  We are so blessed to have been able to get that major project done.

The Michigan State Archives is sponsoring a two day genealogy seminar on July 18th & 19th (wow! Only two weeks away!).  You can read more about it here.  I do know that the lock-in is already full, but I'm sure there are plenty of good seats open for the rest of the seminar.  I will be speaking there on Saturday the 19th.

I'll be spending lots of time typing over the next few weeks.  How are you spending your summer?

Happy Researching!
Karen

Back In The Saddle Again!

Its been a while since I blogged.  I must admit I was worried I wouldn't get back to blogging.  But here I am.   Its been a busy month or so, with a kitchen remodel and our daughter announcing the arrival of a new branch to our tree in Jan 2015.

Now that all the "dust" (literally) has settled (and been removed) its time to get back on track with the genealogy.

Last weekend, we made a research trip to Medina County, Ohio.  I'm completing my work on Mark's family that were in that area.  They arrived as early as 1832 and remained there even today.  This is Mark's grandmother, Mabel Reusch's family.

Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging featuring all the "stuff" I found there as I get it all entered in my database.

Happy Researching!
  Karen

Really? A Month? Yeah A Month! BUT....

It was worth it, at least for me.  I have gotten so much done in my office.  I've now gotten EVERYTHING that was laying around all scanned.  Much of it is named, cropped and linked.  But there is SO MUCH MORE to do yet.

I do have some "non genealogy" stuff around that needs to get put elsewhere.  I did get my closet all re-organized which I've been needing to do since I moved in 7 years ago.  I love my plants so there's probably way too many of them in here as well.  Everything in this office is "me"... plants, photo's ... you know, STUFF.

How much stuff do you keep in your office that isn't genealogy?  We won't even go into the book shelves, full of all my genie books.  I need to go thru those next...

NEXT?  Yes, there's always another project in the works?  Mine include cleaning up my sourcing and  going thru all my books to see if I missed any gold mines since my last flip thru.

I "attended" the Legacy Family Tree Webinar on sourcing in Legacy.  I never knew it was so easy.  My sources were done on my own, and now after seeing how easy Legacy has made it,  I want to convert all of mine over.  Sadly, that project will be one slated for another time, as it will be a major undertaking.

Maybe all this is the forerunner to my spring cleaning - with all the snow we had its made for a long winter here in Michigan.  I'm looking forward to spring SOON!

Thanks for waiting for me to return!  What have you been up to while I was working on my project??

Up Up And Away.... Well Sort Of

One of several newspaper clipping found in photo album of Mr. Brown Eye's grandmother, Dorothy Shanklin Ligon Trott.  Date & paper unknown.  Dorothy was an avid flyer, logging many miles in the air.  She flew with the 99ers, a ladies flying group.  One of her favorite flying times were the races that she participated in.  At this point she was residing in Lake Angelus, Michigan.

Organized?

I've been following quite a few posts on The Organized Genealogist on Facebook.  I'm constantly amazed at how organized/disorganized people are.  On the other hand as organized as I try to be I find sometimes no matter how hard I try things here on my desk get out of hand.  Whether its a research tangent or just coming in from a research trip, there always seems to be papers laying about.

I've been using my FlipPal scanner alot to get images off of printer screens, which works great, but then after a while you do have to take care of those as well.  I guess for now I'm just behind.  Hopefully I'll get it under control soon? 

How about you?

Worst Family History Book Ever!

So, we've come come to the Germantown Public Library here in Germantown, Ohio.  Imagine my excitement when I see on the shelf a compiled family history on one of the families I am working on.

Hard bound in its fancy binding, it's quite a thing sitting there on the shelf, calling out to me...

I remove it from the shelf to see the absolute worst written family history book ever.  552 pages of nothing but names and dates.  To some that is no biggie, but tell me please, how it is that you can write a book on family history and not include NOT ONE PLACE NAME in the entire book?

Did I mention no index as well?

Sadly, same book is now resting back on sad shelf....  Ironically, what little I saw, I knew more than the author who "compiled" said work anyway!

Bummed!

Whose House Is It Anyway?

In working in some photo's I found two house photo's.  One photo of the house is a full frontal view, the other a side view.

The other photo with the side view - has two people and a horse.

Both appear to be taken about the same time frame.  So tomorrow in Ft Wayne I am going to search for a city directory hoping that I can get an address for the two families who MAY have lived in the house.

We are headed to that area in a week for our research trip.  Hoping to do a drive by (I believe the house is still standing) and see if we can identify the house.  If so maybe we can identify or at least confirm my suspicions as to who the persons are in the second photo with the house.

Stab in the dark but hoping my suspicions are confirmed.  We'll see!

Talk About A Learning Curve!

The change from PC to Mac is hard enough but toss in the switch from Legacy to Reunion and boy do you have a learning curve.

Hence my not having regular posts up this past week.  The move to Reunion has been challenging to say the least.  I'm at least comfortable navigating my way around Reunion now, although there are still some challenges.

The two biggest I am working with right now are all the linked images that WERE linked in Legacy but are now just hanging around in the photo file waiting to be RELINKED.  Problem that made things challenging is that in Legacy I can could link my images to my facts.  HUH? you say...  well its like this -
If I have a will I can could link the scanned images of the will to the WILL FACT.  That was Legacy. In Reunion,  there is no linking to facts, everything is linked to the person.  So all my images for any given person, whether the images are a birth certificate, a will and some land deeds, they all are linked to his one and only image file.  Only ones that can be linked separately are items to do with the marriage.  

I must say I really am not fond of this feature, it bugs me.  But, not only can I not link them back to my facts, but unless the image was a preferred image linked to the PERSON when it was in Legacy, I have to go back in to each and every person and relink all the wills, deeds, newspaper articles etc that were previously all nicely linked.  NO LIKE!  

The other big issue that I am dealing with is the SOURCE list.  Anyone who knows me knows that sourcing is a big deal.  So I have about 1800 source items.  It has them all as "free form".  I am having to go into each one, classify it as a book, periodical or something else.  It then gives me choices of what items to list - call number, author, library etc etc.   Not the most fun I've had in a long time.  Another feature that has me miffed.  NO LIKE!

The programs available to genealogists for the MAC are just so limited so you get to pick the lesser of the evils and make the best of it.  I'm sure that in time, once I get these little "miffs" taken care of my thoughts on how irritating this whole process was will pass.  Until then....  well, lets just say,  the hormones aren't the only thing driving me crazy!

Happy Researching!

Monday Musings...

Well, after 9 days on the road, I'm back home.  We got back and promptly stepped back into the routine we call life.

Gotten used to my new Mac, it helped taking it on the road.  I had a chance to use it when we were in Salt Lake City researching.  More on the research there along with the findings just as soon as I get a chance to get those pages scanned.  It was awesome to say the least.

After many gedcoms and much pondering, thinking and rethinking I've decided that I'm going to do what I need to do to make REUNION genealogy software work for me.

I've loaded my latest gedcom and I've started to correct the sources.  I also figured out that anything that I had in my notes and made bold now has a series of characters both in front and behind.  Luckily I didn't do that very often.  I'm spoiled by Legacy allowing me to search for females either by their birth surname or their married surname.  I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen (if at all) in Reunion. 

So yes, I do have some work to do, but I really think it will be fine in the long run.  If I decide to give up I've always got Legacy sitting over in Parallels.  Lets hope not!

On the brightest side, we find out today (if baby cooperates) what the gender of the new grandbaby is...  Did I mention I bought a pink t-shirt on our trip just for the new granddaughter errrr grandbaby?

Happy Researching!

Military Monday - Draft Registration (GA -1917)

Draft Registration, Jesse Lee Dean (1917)

Jesse Lee Dean was a half brother to my ancestor, Joseph Ansley.  They shared the same mother, Marietta Waddel Ansley Dean.  Jesse was born to Robert Lee Dean & Marietta Waddel Ansley Dean on 12 FEB 1892 in Jackson County, Georgia.  

Wedding Wednesday - Nunn & Harrell (1838)

 

 Marr Rec Abner Nunn & Margaret Harrell

Claiborne County, Tennessee

15 DEC 1838

Pg. 64

Abner Nunn was a second cousin to Mark thru his Hurst line.  Abner's parents were Elisha Nunn (1791- ?) and Delilah Hurst (1817- ?).  Abner and Margaret Harrell, who was also the daughter of a Hurst, were the parents of 8 known children -
  Calloway, Mary, Isaac, Rhotin, Julian, Harmon, Martha and Floyd. 

Research on this line is currently ongoing. 

Wedding Wednesday - Hurst & Nelson (1845)

I certify that I solemnized the rights of matrimony between Nelson Evans & Elizabeth Hurst by uniting them together as husband & wife Nov. 9, 1845
     /s/ G. M. Clerk
I do certify the of matrimony were celebrated by me between the within named persons Nov. 9, 1845. 
   /s/ W.L. Turner, Minister of the Gospel
                                                     ***************
 Elizabeth Hurst was the 3rd great aunt of Mr. Brown Eyes.  She and Nelson were the parents of 10 children - James, George, William, Isaac, John, Thomas, Sarah, Mary, Nancy and Granville.  Nelson dies in 1864 in the Union Prison, Rock Island, Illinois.  It is unknown to the compiler the date & location of Elizabeth's death & burial.

**Claiborne County, Tennessee marriage records, 1845, Pg. 84, marriage of Nelson Evans and Elizabeth Hurst.

Military Monday - Civil War Records - A Good Thing!

This civil war record lists dates of service, pensions, unit & rank and when you get really lucky, the death date and place at the bottom.  Using that death date I was able to pull his death certificate below!