Relatively Speaking - Cousins Who Blog

Happy 28th Birthday Andrea!

To Spike's favorite dog walker, to our favorite mail getter, house watcher & friend

Hope its a great birthday Andrea!

(daughter of fellow blogger & Cousin, Anne over at Gene Notes)

Relatively Speaking Monday

As many of you may know the Wild Ones have found several "family" ties in our years of researching together. We've found relationships between the WO's themselves - Carol & I, Anne & Carol, Anne & Mark (my husband) and a step tie between Diane & my husband Mark... there are more I am sure, but none of us expected as much when this all started.

One of those relationships is between myself and Carol, who does Reflections From The Fence .

Our common link is to Michael Kesler & his wife, Anna Maria. Carol's ancestor Henry (ca1750-1812) is brother to my Jacob (1757-1843). Jacob was a Revolutionary War soldier. Jacob was born supposedly in Pennyslvania although I have seen other sources that say Virginia. He was married to Maria Katherina Hauser (1748-1823). I descend thru their son, Johan Jacob and his wife Catherine.

(Pg.9 of Jacob's Rev. War Pension papers)
In my research I've encountered quite a few people, a couple at church, one or two when speaking that are "cousins", usually not what I would call close but still related on any one of several lines in my family tree. My husband Mark on the other hand, seems to be related to half the world as we know it because of his ties to the Ligon family.

It really is a small world isn't it?

Happy Researching!
Karen

Relatively Speaking...

I've been thinking all weekend about what to write about on the Relatively speaking blog for this week. What is it that I want to blog about? Sitting here at my desk I look up and my little "robin" is sitting here looking at me. He doesn't chirp or hop about. He just sits here - with his little saying on the log under him. His saying is very simple - "Cherish Life's Simple Pleasures".

Life's simple pleasures can mean so many things to so many people. For me life's simple pleasures are family, friends, grandkids (did I already say grandkids?), my flowers, a good book, a little stitching or just watching my bird feeders. I'm very blessed to have lots of simple pleasures in my life.

When I stop & consider the simple pleasures in my life I have to wonder about the simple pleasures that my ancestors found in their lives. I've heard stories of my great grandmothers & their love for their flowers, their sewing and quilting and more. Alot of those simple pleasures seem to transcend generations, as I find myself enjoying much of the same sort of things.

I find myself looking at my daughter (yes I already see some of those in her life!), son & grandsons and wonder if these same simple pleasures will again transcend the generations. I sure hope so!

Take some time today to enjoy your simple pleasures! I plan on doing just that. Just as soon as I finish this blog entry!

Happy Researching!
Karen
[Photo taken 2005 by Mark at the Inn at Honey Run in Holmes County, Ohio. Another of life's simple pleasures, a weekend get away with someone special at Honey Run! Just beautiful!]

Monday Musings

Today the prep continues for the May research trip to Pennsylvania. More digging, more adding to the to do lists for each county & repository. I think today's prep will focus on headstone photographs.

A few years back (2007) we went into the same area's we are going this year. We were with friends and it was more of a "sorta" research trip - more a "hanging out" trip. We did visit quite a few cemeteries & we found lots of stones with the surnames of interest. But we didn't really do any serious research.

With the visiting of two historical societies & a few local libraries this will be more of a research than a "hanging out" trip. So today I will be reviewing the headstone files to see what if any headstones I missed, or if I missed any cemeteries that I wanted to locate & photograph.

The photo above is of Bowmansville Mennonite Cemetery, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Just a wonderful little cemetery nestled in amongst the Mennonite farms of Lancaster County. I photographed many stones in this peaceful place and going back thru them is something I need to do before we return to Lancaster County.

And so the prep work goes on...

Happy Researching!
Karen

Today's Relatively Speaking is over at Carol's place - Reflections From the Fence. Stop by for a read!

Ancestor Approved Award

Imagine my surprise when late yesterday I visited my blog and discovered that I had been awarded the Ancestor Approved Award, not once but three times!

Thanks to Anne at Gene Notes, Joan at Roots 'n' Leaves & Linda at Documenting The Details for sharing this award with me!

The Ancestor Approved Award asks that the recipient list ten things you have learned about any of your ancestors that has surprised, humbled, or enlighted you and pass the award along to ten other bloggers who you feel are doing their ancestors proud. Here are the 10 things I have learned from my ancestors.

1. Never trust family lore - the death of Mabel Phillips & the circumstances surrounding her death taught me to always go the extra mile & find the original record if possible to find the answers.
2. Its okay to just leave or put somethings back in the vault at the courthouse, you don't have to tell everything you find. Especially if living persons could be hurt by your discovery. Not naming names on this one.
3. I was surprised to find that my great great grandmother, Susan "Shug" Sellars Nix was a tea leaf reader.
4. Disappointment popped up when I discovered that my ancestor LeRoy Nix was wanted for desertion of his family. Didn't help any that I discovered it on the front page of the local newspaper.
5. Finding Amish & Mennonite (Yes, I have BOTH) ancestry in my tree has encouraged me to try & be more understanding of others. I find myself asking how I think my ancestor would handle certain situations.
6. Finding the many ancestors in my family tree that served our country in military efforts of days gone by gives me new appreciation for those serving now.
7. Reading the court records from the 1700's where my female ancestor was outspoken & at one time was given "20 lashed laid hard on", has given me new perspective on how fortunate I am to live in the time in history I do. Where I can speak my mind and not fear for my own personal safety.
8. The perils of an ocean crossing that lasted weeks almost months for some would have been enough to possibly keep this girl on one side of the ocean. Don't know that I would have the courage that my ancestors had to make the voyage & start all over!
9. In the face of adversity stand firm, work together & you will get thru it, seen over & over again, thru the death of children, loss of farms & homes and more.
10. I think the biggest thing I learned was patience - not saying I have tons more than I had when I started doing genealogy 20+ years ago, but all my ancestors in some form have shown patience and taught me patience. Has to be one of the hardest lessons learned from them but also one of the most rewarding.

The award also asks that I pass the award on to ten other deserving genea bloggers who I feel have done their ancestors proud...

1. Amy over at We Tree
2. Julie at Who Will Tell Their Story
3. Katie at You Are Where You Came From
4. Greta over at Greta's Genealogy Blog
5. Jenna at Desperately Seeking Surnames

I'm sure if I tried really hard I could list the other five, but I'm stopping here... these five really have awesome blogs - and they are well worth taking time out to read! Enjoy ladies! Your ancestors are sure proud of you!

Today is Relatively Speaking over at Anne's blog - Gene Notes - Cousins That Blog - stop on over for a read...

Happy Researching!

Karen

Relatively Speaking

Humor or Bad Memory ??

I have this ancestor - his name is George Sellars. He was born 19 JUL 1877 & died 21 SEP 1951. From all appearances George appears to be a normal person. He's born, he died, he married, he had children (8 of them in fact!).

The thing that amuses me or possibly is it confuses me, is that he appears to have quite the sense of humor - or maybe he just had a really bad memory?

Some bio on George. He was born in 19 JUL 1877 in Decatur County, Georgia, he married 2 JAN 1902 to Emma Strickland. They shared many years together until George dies in Manatee County, Florida on 2 SEP 1951. They had eight children together, all but one living to maturity.

The thing that makes me wonder about the memory or the sense of humor was the census records involved. Every census that George was on, he alternated how his name was presented. If he was George Thomas on one he was Thomas George on the next one. If he was T.G. on one he was G.T. on the next. Was it a game to him? Was this his sense of humor? Or was it just really bad memory?

When I first started to research George I had a difficult time because until I saw his pattern emerging. At first I thought nah, this is coincidence. No one could remember 10 years before... I certainly can't. Heck did I sign my census as Karen E. or Karen A. or maybe it was Mrs. Mark... and this guy doesn't miss a lick. He's right on the money everytime.

Sense of humor or bad memory? I'd like to think its a really great sense of humor!
Thanks George for the laughs!

Happy Researching!
Karen

Relatively Speaking

Fellow blogger & Cousin Anne is up today for the Relatively Speaking blog with her take on Reaching Out - something not enough of us take the time to do. Stop on by & get her take on it.

I'll be back tomorrow - I'm speaking three times this week, you can see my speaking schedule here for the locations nearest you. Use member last name Krugman.

Happy Researching!

Karen

Organization

Organizing your genealogy is one of those things that I believe is an ongoing process that may not be resolved in a day or even a week. I guess alot depends on just how organized you would like to be. I think everyone would like to be more organized than they are. Something about that old addage about the grass always being greener....

I've been organizing & decluttering for a while. Not just my office but our entire house. After doing genealogy for 20+ years you start to rethink how you've been doing things. The introduction of new technology certainly seems to affect the organization process. For example I remember when our "new" camera was a Sony Digital camera - large & semi-bulky and the photo's were all saved to a 3.5 disk. WOWSERS! We took HUNDREDS of photo's on those disks and we had them all labeled and saved in cute little boxes in the office.

One day the camera wasn't happy anymore and suddenly the shock hit - OMG! These new camera's don't save to disk. They save to memory cards or memory sticks? What do we do with all those disks NOW? Oh wait, when you upgrade the computer they no longer include a floppy drive in those new computers either. Lordy! If its not one thing its another eh?

So technology does affect how & when you organize - especially in this digital age. The fun part is that no one really knows for sure how long all these Cd's, DVD's etc are really going to be good for. Sometimes the old paper & pencil doesn't seem so bad eh?

Organizing your genealogy is a process that you will think & rethink over the years, but its certainly one that will require your attention at some point. My best advice to you is to ask lots of questions, expect lots of answers. Mull them over & then decide what works best for you. Maybe a combination of this one & that one. Maybe all this one. Whatever works for you is what is best. If it doesn't work the way you want, you won't use it.

Today is the beginning of Relatively Speaking - Cousins Who Blog. I encourage you to stop by the main post for today over at Carol's. This will be a weekly blog appearing every Monday at one of the three cousins blogs. Next Monday, Anne over at Gene notes will be doing the honors. So stop by and give a read. You just never know what we'll be discussing next!

Happy Researching!
Karen

Relatively Speaking

I'm taking today off from posting, but wanted to give you all a heads up on a new blog theme with my friends & cousins, Carol and Anne called Relatively Speaking. We hope this will be a once weekly blog inspired by the many discussions we generate! You will find our introductory post on Monday, January 4th here.

Happy Researching!