Not Your Average Bump On A LOG (Reunion)

It seems every one has an opinion, some people love them, some people have no use for them.  In my case I can't imagine not having them.  Reunion calls them "LOGS", some programs call them "To Do" lists.  Whatever they are called,  I love them! 

Switching from Legacy to Reunion, which was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make with my genealogy, took a bit of a learning curve.  No lie, pure honesty, and it took some work to get my genealogy to be workable.  BUT,  I do believe it was a very good decision.  Now that I've got things under control (read that as still under construction lol) I'm having a good time making Reunion work for me. 

One of the best features about Reunion is the Logs feature.  Below are some images of how I have made the logs work for me -

The first shows a screen shot. You can see here that the Logs are found on the sidebar with your other basic choices.  Very easy to find and get to. 

In the second screen shot below you can see the list I've made of the places I am currently, or I hope to be researching.  I've got Allen County library, along with all these other places that I have found I need work done. I've even got one for things that I really need to do right here at home.  Each place that I have listed has its own "page", where you can keep track of the items that you need to locate at that location. 

In this third shot you can see how I am using this Log feature by keeping lists of what I need to locate in each log, including call numbers and notes. Being able to color code things like call numbers is really helpful as it helps the call numbers stand out from the other notes.  In this example you can see that I have call numbers showing in Blue.  I've also been adding notes, in red,  into my logs when I've researched something and perhaps didn't find what I wanted or maybe found other information. 

I find the flexibility that is available in the "LOGS" very useful.  Lots of room to make your to do lists as extensive and detailed as you would like them to be!  If you note the upper right hand corner of the LOG you can change fonts, font sizes, colors, bold, underline etc., all of which contribute to the flexibility of the LOG. 

If you are Reunion software user and haven't given these a try,  hopefully this post encourages you to try the LOGS feature.  Are you using the Logs feature?  If so, do you use it in ways that I have not shown here?  I'd love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment and tell me how you use the LOGS feature!

Happy Researching!

Karen

Happy Birthday Mandi!

When I was expecting, I wanted a little girl so very badly.  God answered my prayers, and he gave us the very best daughter we could ever wish for.  She's an awesome mom, faithful, loving wife, sister and one of my very best friends.  I won't say her teen years were the best ever, but I'm so proud of the woman she has become.  There is NOTHING that she can't do - remodel a kitchen, a bathroom, lay tile,  refinish floors - you name it.  She's wonder woman and I'm proud to say she's our daughter.  Love you Mandi!

                                                      HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANDI! 

December 1983

Summer 2010

With Her dad, Mark, Saturday, Nov 7, 2015

Technology Tuesday - IPhoto - It's So Easy!

First of all,  this "blog" entry is heavy on images today.  So if you are on dial up you may have trouble with delayed loading.  So you've been warned.

I've always been a windows user, UNTIL about a year and a half ago my son introduced me to the world of MAC.  I love my MAC.  There was a bit of a learning curve, won't deny it.  And I must say I'm still learning.  The hardest thing for me was not having that photo editing software to work with.  I'm a creature of habit, once I find something that works for me, I don't change it. Ever.  Well toss that out the window.  Being on this Mac I had to change my editing software.  No choice. 

So I sat down one day  and went thru the video's at UTube until I found some on using iPhoto.  Wow.  If you get someone who really knows their stuff you can conquer about anything.  So let me show you how I learned to work with my images in iPhoto!

First thing you have to do is figure out where you have the images you want to work on and then where you want them to go when you are done with them.  Once you have that you've got it made.  Now comes the fun part.  So here we go!  The captions UNDER each photo will explain the process for that screen....  READY?

 Above -  The screen that starts it all.  Ignore the "Recent". Look at the pull down window.  See where it says, IMPORT TO LIBRARY?  Yeah that one.  Click on it.  When you do it opens .....

 Yep, it opens this window above.  I have a windows photo storage thing going on here so I follow the path to where the photo's are stored.  In this case I had previously removed some images from flash drive #3 and stored them as you  see above.  So I followed the path  you see above and clicked on that folder.  It will immediately grab those photos (yes that entire file folder) and import them into iPhoto.

Once your download is complete you will see your photo's displayed as you see above.  Up in the right corner it will even tell you how many photo's you have in that download.  Next you need to choose the image that you want to edit.   You need to choose the photo that you need to edit.  When you click on the photo, it will put a yellow "frame" around it. 

After you see the yellow frame, look down into the bottom right hand corner of your iPhoto screen.  You want to find the image you see above.  Pretty straight forward eh?  You want to click on EDIT.

 Once you click on EDIT,  the the window above will appear.  Not rocket science at all.  It does exactly what it says it will do.  The primary ones I use are straighten and crop.  It should offer a bit of comfort knowing that you can always UNDO or REVERT TO ORIGINAL. 

As you can see in my image above the headstone photo is a bit off kilter.  So I've chosen "straighten".  The Slider bar and grid on the screen make it easy to straighten about any image you have need to.  Not complicated, simple and functional.  Just what the technology challenged need! 

 Once you have finished straightening you click on Crop and the window you see on the right opens.  It gives you all sorts of choices.  You can start at the top of the list and work your way down.  As you choose you can see right on your screen what it will be like on your image.  How can you miss it when its showing you as you do it?  When you get it done the way you like, you simply click DONE.  That's it.  You edited your photo and had no strokes or heart attacks.  No you are ready to move the images you've edited into a folder.  Once again you'll have to decide where to put the photo's. 

 Next step is back to the window again.  File>EXPORT.... yep you are going to send the images to a new home.  No stress, No worry!  Its really quite simple.  Click on Export and you'll get another window....

When you get this window you've really been busy.  So you choose the kind of picture - I chose TIFF, but Jpg and others are in there as well.  I always mark HIGH QUALITY, and I include Title & Keywords and Location information. I also tell it to USE FILENAME......

Finally It will say SAVE AS....  and you name the image you want to send and where it is going.  Be careful here, because once you fill these in and click OK.... the images will be moved INSTANTLY. 

SEE, I told you it wasn't that big a deal.  And once you do it a couple of times it makes things so easy!   Hope this helps.  I'm not the biggest techie in the world but when I find something and it works I like to share it.  I know that not everyone likes or uses iPhoto,  but if you've thought about it, now might be a good time to give it a try!  

Happy Researching!
  Karen

Wedding Wednesday - Zehring & Gebhart

 *Golden Wedding

  Fifty years ago, October 22, 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.

*Miamisburg (Ohio) News, Thursday, 23 OCT 1913, Front Page

Monday Musings

Here we are yet another Monday!  It was a busy weekend here.  We drove about two hours or so north of here and went to the Bala (Canada) Cranberry festival.  It was all about the tasty cranberry! And they did indeed have it all.  One of the highlights of the Cranberry Festival was seeing the Canadian Golden Helmets perform.  The Golden Helmets is a precision motorcycle group made up of officers from different towns here in the province of Ontario.  You can read more on them and see a pic here.  Be sure to click on the photo, they are a fine looking group.  They did a great job and we totally enjoyed watching them.  We brought some cranberries, so I'll be putting those to good use. 

Mr. Brown Eyes did a bunch of census work on Sunday.  He enjoys doing that and I'm not going to argue with him.  I love the thrill of the hunt, chasing our ancestors down but truthfully typing in the census stuff just bores me tears.  Somehow after talking to others who do genealogy I'm not alone.  I love finding them, learning what they offer up in the census but somehow I just can't get into that typing stuff on it the way MBE can.  Thankfully he enjoys it and doesn't mind.

Today, after the small amount of housework is done I'm hoping to get some more images cropped, named & linked.  I've figured out how to do editing in iPhoto.  I must say I love it!  It's simple and does the job without tons of techincal difficulty. 

Speaking this Friday night at the Brighton District Library (Michigan).  So we are going back to the states for a few days.  Will be good to hopefully see the grandkids, family & friends.  How much can we squeeze into a weekend?  Dunno but going to find out eh?

Happy Researching!
Karen

Overwhelmed? Let's Talk Priorities!

In Monday's post on feeling overwhelmed, my number #1 to help decrease that way of feeling overwhelmed was to prioritize.  Often when you are overwhelmed just figuring out where to start is difficult.  So I'm going to offer some suggestions - elaborate on just how to do the things I suggested. 

The first thing I suggested was to PRIORITIZE your life.   For me it wasn't that hard,  I already knew what my priorities were.  I just needed to see them again.  Remind MYSELF of what they were.  We get so caught up in just being alive that we sometimes let things get out of hand. 

So I sat down and made a list of just what matters to me.  Your list may change as things change in your life.  The list of a retiree will probably be different than that of a new mom or a mom with small children. 

I won't put my whole list up here but an example of my list would be:

1. My family - includes husband, children & grandchildren
2. Our home
3. Genealogy
4. Gardening
5. Reading

As I said this is not my exact list but it gives you an idea of what I mean by prioritizing.   My family WILL ALWAYS come above all else.  Granted there are boundaries on that,  but we won't go into that here.  Last month when our daughter was injured in a car accident everything else went by the wayside while we stepped in to take care of her, the children and home that they share.  They were our priority.

Second on the list was OUR home.  No, OUR home is not all my responsibility, but I take great pride in taking care of our home.  I am a homebody, I love being here at home, surrounded by the photo's and things that make this house our home.  And I like it kept a certain way.  That's important to me.  So I make a window of time each day available for its upkeep.  I'm primarily an early bird so I'm up getting Mr Brown Eyes off to work.  While I'm up and he's headed out,  I plan dinner, toss in laundry, straighten up, make the bed and I'm done with housework and usually in my office by 8:30.  In the summer it might be later because I enjoy weeding and doing gardening when its cooler outside.

Third, fourth and fifth - the genealogy, gardening and reading really are flexible to me.  Alot depends on other factors.  If its going to be a beautiful day outside I might take my laptop and work on the patio, with breaks from typing to pull some weeds.  The only two items on that list that are locked in stone are #1 & #2.

It ALL boils down to PRIORITIES.  It really is that simple.  So what are your priorities?  Have you made your list?  What makes your list? 

Tombstone Tuesday - Clay & Powell

Headstone images by Mark Krugman

2008

The joint stone inscriptions for Jesse H. Powell & his wife, Nancy "Nannie" Clay Powell. 

Jesse married Nancy Clay, daughter of Edmund B. Clay & Sarah Jones in 1867 in Decatur County, Georgia.  They rest together in Bethel Baptist Cemetery, Decatur County, Georgia.

Nancy is a second cousin several generations removed.

                         BELOVED WOMAN PASSES TO BEYOND 

MRS. JESSE H. POWELL PASSED AWAY AT CYRENE, SATURDAY, JULY 10TH

In the death of Mrs. Nannie Clay Powell, Cyrene and community have lost one of their most prominent citizens. As a result of a third strike of paralysis, the end came on Saturday afternoon, July 10th, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. B. Donalson, in Cyrene. The news of her death brought a shock to the community though she had been in very poor health for more than a year.

Mrs. Powell was born and raised in Talbot county and shortly after the Civil War came to Decatur county with her two brothers, David and John Clay. In 1867 she was married to Mr. Jesse H. Powell, and together they established a home known by many for its royal hospitality and prominence in the upholding of the section and community. For forty years this Christian couple lived and taught by precept and example, the blessed truths of righteousness. No begging hand ever left this home empty nor was a deaf ear ever turned to a needy call. Two citizens have invested their lives in a most genuinely useful and helpful way than did this Godly couple. Since childhood, she had been an active and consistent member of the Baptist church. Nothing brought to her more pleasure than serving in some capacity for the progress and maintenance of her church.

She leaves two sons, W. G. Powell, of Cyrene and J. T. Powell, of Brinson and eight daughters, Mrs. E. S. Perry, of Iron City; Mrs. E. Rich, Mrs. A. J. Rich, Mrs. J. B. L. Barber, of Bainbridge; Mrs. P. D. Rich, of Colquitt; Mrs. W. C. Sims, of Brinson; Mrs. J. B. Donalson, of Cyrene; Mrs. Walter Love, of Jacksonville, Fla.; more than thirty grandchildren and great-grandchildren loudly lament the loss of this admirable woman.

Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at Bethel church, conducted by her pastor, Rev. H. H. Shell, of Bainbridge. By six of her stalwart grandsons, her body was borne to the grave and there deposited by the side of her husband, who preceeded her several years.

 *The Post-Search Light*, Bainbridge, Georgia, on microfilm (Bainbridge, Georgia: Gilbert H. Gragg Library), obituary for Nannie Clay Powell, vol. 6 no. 16, Thursday, 22 July 1920, page 1.

Wedding Wednesday - Apple & Foust (1857)

Marriage record for Joseph Foust and Sarah Apple.  The interesting thing about this marriage record is that Sarah Apple is actually Sarah Apple Kreitzer, widow of George Kreitzer. 

George Kreitzer & Sarah Apple had married 1 MAR 1838 in Jefferson Township, Montgomery County, Ohio.  They were the parents of six children.  In the spring of 1855 George was declared legally insane and dies 25 APR 1855 in Montgomery County. 

Sarah remarries to Joseph Foust 19 JULY 1857, Montgomery County, Ohio.

Its not uncommon to find women who remarry after the death of the spouse using a maiden name.  I guess it caught me off guard when I originally found it many years ago.  I just wasn't expecting her to use her maiden name so at first glance I just passed right over it.  Good thing I went back and got it. 

Sarah is the daughter of John Apple (1782-1861) and his wife, Catherine Bolender (ca1799-bef1880).

Talk About One Stop Shopping!

Coffin order for Martha J. Guest Clay, Wife of David H. Clay.   David H. Clay died 16 DEC 1903 in Decatur County, Georgia and Martha died 10 APR 1927 also in Decatur County, Georgia.  Above paper found in the Confederate Pension file of Martha.   She applied for the pension after the death of David.  

My comment about one stop shopping refers to the header on the casket order form....

Tombstone Tuesday - George W. & Sarah M. Kreitzer

George Washington Kreitzer was born 13 NOV 1866 in Montgomery County, Ohio and died 12 Ap 1916 in Greenville Township, Darke County, Ohio.  His death certificate (#24356) indicates that he died of Bright's disease.  He was buried 15 APR 1916 in Abbottsville Cemetery, Van Buren Township, Darke County, Ohio.  

George was the son of Thomas Kreitzer (1838-1906) and his wife, Anna Heck (1840-1914).

He married 17 APR 1892, Montgomery County, Ohio to Sarah Maria Valentine.   She was born 21 SEP 1867 in Miami County, Ohio and died 28 OCT 1918 in Greenville,  Darke County, Ohio.  She was buried 31 OCT 1918 in Abbottsville Cemetery, Darke County, Ohio. Her death certificate (#61774) indicates that she died of cardio asthma.  Sarah was the daughter of George H. Valentine (1840-1907) and Susannah Deeter (1847-1922).

George & Sarah were the parents of five children -
Isaac Leroy "Roy" Kreitzer (1895-1967)
Clarence Franklin Kreitzer (1897-1942)
Anna Susannah Kreitzer (1900-1928)
Lawrence Edward Kreitzer (1902-1975)
Charles Elmer Kreitzer (1905-1906)

Resolutions....

I know that alot of people make all sorts of new year's resolutions.  I've personally never put much effort into it, usually because I have so much going on I remember sometime around Jan. 5th or 6th.  Not good right?

So this year I thought I'd put a couple of New Year's Resolutions here.  Then come back next year and see how I did.  Dangerous but what the heck. 

1.  Continue the quest to go paperless in my office.  Make a focused effort to keep as few papers in my office as well,  bringing home scans instead of piles of papers.
2.   Learn more about Evernote and make a more concentrated effort to use it efficiently.
3.  To be more consistant with my blogging.  Making a concentrated effort to blog Monday thru Friday.  Every week. No excuses. 

There, that's it.  Next year this time we'll check back and see how we've done.  I've been following my good friend & fellow blogger, Anne over at Gene Notes and I'm inspired by her ability to make resolutions, remember what they were, and actually be able to go back and show progress.  Congrats Anne!  That rocks!  Now lets see if I can do it.... 

Did you make any resolutions?

Tombstone Tuesday - John W. Kreitzer, No Longer Missing!

John W. Kreitzer & his wife, Mildred R. Kreitzer are the featured headstone today.  Work on this couple & their family is a real work in progress.

Several weeks ago Mr. Brown Eyes and I went down to Dayton to visit a good friend who had recently been released from the hospital.  After a nice visit and lunch we headed back to his home.  Having recently moved we decided to do a quick drive thru the cemetery that is located on the street behind his home.  With him being a genealogist as well,  we found it to be a nice drive.

Partially thru the cemetery we came across this stone.  I know who John W. Kreitzer's parents are, I just had no idea what had happened to him.   This headstone is not on Find A Grave so my searches there for him always went no where.

A search of death records on FamilySearch.org gave me full death dates on both, but so far no obits.  So I'll be adding them to my obit search list for Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.  Gee, another research trip for next summer!  Break my heart!

John W. Kreitzer (16 OCT 1907 - 3 FEB 1979) is the son of John D. Kreitzer (1878-1962) and Minnie M. Stauffer (ca 1885 - ?).  Mildred's parents are unknown to me as of this writing, but she was born in 1911 and died 5 JUN 1979.

If you have further information on this couple I'd love to hear from you!

Karen

Tombstone Tuesday

Services Held Here Monday
  Funeral services were held Monday afternoon at the John A. Arpp Funeral Home, Germantown, for George O. Kreitzer, 79, of West Carrolton, who died Friday morning at the Delp Nursing Home, Dayton. He had been in failing health for the past year.  Pastor Paul Ressler officiated at the services and burial was in Germantown Cemetery.
  Kreitzer was a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Germantown, and a retired machine operator at Moraine Box Co. in Dayton.
  Survivors are four daughters, Mrs. John Fox and Mrs. Lawrence Miller of Germantown, Mrs. Ray Phillips of Bradenton, Florida and Mrs. Gerald Zeck of Columbus; a son Firman Kreitzer of Miamisburg; a brother, Clarence Kreitzer of Farmersville; 14 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.

Are You Listening Family Search?

So today I've been working on my files, typing in the obits and things I've found on my recent research trips to Dayton, Ohio and other area's.  As a rule I try to be fairly positive in my posts, as I really think that a positive outlook is better for everyone!

It's strange but my complaint really isn't about indexing... its just a general complaint - two in fact..

1.) I absolutely hate despise the fact that I ask for a female in my search and it tosses in males and/or males with the middle initial of the female name I asked for.  GRRRRRRR

2.) Could you PLEASE tell me why when I give you exactly what I want... i.e. I spell the name correctly, give you the correct year of death and the place and you give me hundreds of entries that absolutely nothing that matches my search.  BUT if I give you a wild card search with that same information replacing two little letters with ** you find me exactly the person I was searching for?

REALLY? 

Just curious...  But seriously? 

Monday Musings

The switch to Reunion has really slowed things down around here as far as genealogy goes.  Many of my facts that I had customized in Legacy really didn't transfer in well at all.  All in all I do believe it will be worth it once we get everything straightened and reorganized. 

Still inputting information from our Dayton, Ohio trip over the 4th of July week.  We do that trip every year and no matter how often I go there are still more obituaries to find, headstone's to photograph and people to meet.  It never gets old.

I'm considering some changes to the blog, mainly mixing things up on different days.  I thrive on change so you just never know what's going to change or when.  For now still in pondering stage.

This coming Saturday we will be researching in Ft Wayne, I've got a to do list there that is actually printed out and comb bound.  Much easier to keep up with all the pages.  Mr. Brown eyes will work with me in the morning and then slip off to go play bridge all afternoon.  We so enjoy these trips together.

Earlier this month I started a reorganize and declutter of my office - it started with getting all those pesky computer wires (you know you have them too!) up off the floors.  I used a very large clip and now all the wires are clipped up in several places to the back of my desk.  Its easy, rather inexpensive and it works!  I also have one of those large clips holding up the power strip on the end of the desk!  I'm cleaning out the cubbyholes on the hutch of desk and then to hit the folder holder with all the file folders.  Its time to get this taken care of!

How about you?  What are you working on this week?

Wordless Wednesday

My grandfather, Ray Phillips with four of his five children, at home on the farm

Treasure Chest Thursday - A Portrait of Grandpa

Raymond W. Phillips

  Raymond "Ray" was born 30 AUG 1909 in Miami Township, Montgomery County, Ohio to Elwood Phillips(1887-1963) and his wife, Edna Martha McCune (1888-1970).  Raymond married on 11 NOV 1933 to Pauline Kreitzer (1912-1988).   They were the parents of five children - Phyllis E., Richard W., Carolyn L., Herman G., and Gary R. Phillips. 

**Photo from the personal collection of Karen Ansley Krugman.

Tombstone Tuesday - Kreitzer

George Kreitzer was born 19 JAN 1884 iN Jefferson Township, Montgomery County, Ohio and died 6 DEC 1963 in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.  He married 12 JAN 1910 in Montgomery County, Ohio to Flora M. Boomershine.   George & Flora were divorced 13 NOV 1941. 

Their daughter, Pauline was my grandmother. 

Treasure Chest Thursday - A Photo of Grandma

Pauline Kreitzer Phillips, Prob. Miamisburg or Germantown, Ohio

Date unknown

  Pauline married 11 NOV 1933, Liberty, Union County, Indiana to Raymond William Phillips (1909-1984).  They were the parents of five children, Phyllis E., Richard W., Carolyn L., Herman G., and Gary R. Phillips.  Pauline died 19 APR 1988 in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida.

**Photo from the personal files of Karen Ansley Krugman

Treasure Chest Thursday - Declaration of Gratitude!

Many years ago when I began researching I had only two generations on most of my family.  Being the networker that I am using the internet became a vital tool for expanding my file.  One of my greatest "finds" was a cousin named Liz.   I've lost track of Liz for now, but I owe her a great deal. 

My family are not "keepers", there aren't a lot of family heirlooms, and only a limited amount of old photo's.  But what I have I cherish!  The two items above came from Liz.  The man in the top photograph is my ggg grandfather, John Peterman.  John was born 26 Jul 1826 in Bavaria, Germany.  He died in German Township, Montgomery County, Ohio 16 APR 1902.  He was married 21 MAR 1852 in Montgomery County, Ohio to Henrietta M. Hegele. They were the parents of 9 children -
  Henrietta, Mary P., John G., Margaret C., Anna M., Roseanne L., Ida M., William H., and Lillian B.

The photo at the top is a photograph of a portrait that Liz had of John Peterman.  The lower image is of his Declaration of Intent.  The remainder of his "papers" have not been found.  But I'm thankful that I have these. 

Liz, if you find this - I'm so thankful for these two items you shared with me.  Drop a note if you come across this, I'd love to hear from you!