The Ancestors' Geneameme

 The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item  

Which of these apply to you?

Which of these apply to you?

1.               Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents

2.               Can name over 50 direct ancestors

3.               Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents

4.               Have an ancestor who was married more than three times

5.               Have an ancestor who was a bigamist – more than one ancestor, one was a bigamist three times that I know. All close relations to each other.

6.               Met all four of my grandparents

7.               Met one or more of my great-grandparents (A perk of being the oldest of the oldest.)

8.               Named a child after an ancestor – all of my children

9.               Bear an ancestor's given name/s

10.            Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland -unlike most people, one small branch

11.            Have an ancestor from Asia

12.            Have an ancestor from Continental Europe – all the others

13.            Have an ancestor from Africa

14.            Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer - many

15.            Have an ancestor who had large land holdings – several more than 160 acres 

16.            Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi – he was also removed for something he said

17.            Have an ancestor who was a midwife

18.            Have an ancestor who was an author

19.            Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones – Catherine Smith, wish me luck.

20.            Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng

21.            Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X

22.            Have an ancestor with a forename beginniing with Z

23.            Have an ancestor born on 25th December -plenty but nobody direct

24.           Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day -plenty but not direct

25.            Have blue blood in your family lines

26.            Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth – my dad

27.            Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth - two

28.            Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century - many

29.            Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier - many

30.            Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents – I collect signatures

31.            Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X

32.            Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university – My uncle was first, I was second

33.            Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence  A few fights, and hunting off season

34.            Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime -nothing other than a few thefts. My husband’s had a 5 family members murdered, it was on America’s Most Wanted

35.            Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine– Blog, genealogy and historical magazines

36.            Have published a family history online or in print Three books, working on 4th

37.            Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries

38.            Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family

39.            Have a  family bible from the 19th Century

40.            Have a pre-19th century family bible

Be a COVID Memory Maker

Soon after the pandemic started here in the U.S., I asked my mother if she knew how her parents’ families weathered the 1918 Spanish Flu crisis. She didn’t know. Only a few very distant relatives died from it. Her parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents all lived. We don’t know if they had the flu and lived or never got it.

 In 2020, what was first predicted to take just a few weeks, turned into lasting a year plus. On the one-year anniversary of the COVID pandemic, it seems appropriate, and maybe even a little fun, if we, family historians, reflect on 2020 and leave behind some stories and thoughts about the year, as part of our history.

Here are some prompts: 

Mid-March 2020 many events suddenly closed down (March Madness college basketball, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, professional hockey and basketball to name a few.) What sudden closing did you miss the most?

Did you rush to buy something or do something in particular, just before stores, restaurants, and other activities closed?

 Did you buy something that later your realized really helped? Did you buy something you thought would be useful, but never used? Did you buy too much of something? What was it?

Look at your phone. What was your last text before the shut down? What was the last photo on your phone?

How did you change the way you shopped for groceries?

How did you get your first mask? What was your favorite mask or mask type? (pleated, paper, cone shaped, straps for ears or around head) Does your mask reflect something special? (Sports team etc.)

What old hobbies did you return to? What new hobbies did you embrace?

Did you change physically? (Gain/lose weight?)

Did you change how you dressed?

With hairdressers and barbers closed, what did you do about your hair?

What did you eat or drink more than normal? (It’s okay, most of us did.)

What was the craziest thing you did?

What new or creative ways did you try to keep yourself physically healthy? Mentally healthy? Spiritually healthy?

Did you reach out an intentionally help others? (This includes take-out meals at local restaurants or donating so others could be helped.)

Did your income change drastically? (Up or down.) What did you do?

For those of us that closely followed the guidelines (staying home etc.), what exception(s) if any did you make?

What activities were you grateful that continued (although perhaps in a different format such as zoom?)

Any “heros” you want to name? (Personal or nationally known.)

Describe your first zoom meeting. Who and why did you meet? Did you prepare a background?

What was the funny or odd thing that you saw or heard while on zoom?

What was something small that you surprisingly missed?

Pre-2020, most of us had a list of projects to work on “when we have the time.” In 2020, we had the time! What projects did you work on and/or complete?

What are some new ways of doing things that you hope to continue?

What did you stop doing, that you’ll probably try to not do again?

Could you see family? Parents? Children? Grandchildren? Friend? Were there restrictions?

What was the farthest distance you traveled? Where and why?

Did you do anything that resembled a vacation?

In the summer of 2020 some normalcy returned, outdoor dining, meeting friends outside etc. Name something you did or were happy returned, even if only for a few months.

How did your work change? If you temporarily worked from home, also describe what the return to work was like.

Many workers were recognized as essential. What occupations did you realize were more important than you previously thought and you were grateful for their continued work?

How was your family’s education effected?

Did you change the way you vote in elections? Will you continue the new process or return to the old?

Did you get COVID? If so describe your experiences and symptoms.

Did you care for someone with COVID? Were you ever exposed? Did you ever take a COVID test? Describe your experience.

Did you or someone you know become very ill or died due to COVID? Write about him or her.

Were family celebrations postponed, cancelled or re-imagined? (Weddings, funerals, birthdays, anniversaries?)

How did you schedule/receive your vaccine? Did you intentionally try hard to find one?

How did you feel after getting vaccinated? (Physically and mentally.)

Who is someone not on your quaranteam that you really can’t wait to hug?

Who on your quaranteam helped you get through the long days? Did you thank them?

What advice would you pass on?

(Answer the questions that speak most to you. Feel free to pass any questions on to others - you have my permission. If you don't feel like writing, use some of these to as a converstation starter at dinner. Enjoy!)

Pandemic Progress

Before and after genealogy photos? 

Yes! What did my tree look like before March 2020? What does it look like today? Lots of time for research. See how it's grown? 

March 2020

                                                                   September 2020

What did I do?

1. I purchased a month's subscription on Archion, found a needed marriage record which gave birthplaces. Using familysearch, I was on my way to find more family.

2. YDNA pointed me to a German researcher who wrote a 400 page book on that line of the family.

3. I found I'd been misspelling a surname for years. Making that correction located many family records at familysearch.

4. Records are only available in a closed familysearch affiliate? That didn't stop me. I took my laptop to the public library affiliate, sat outside, logged into their wifi internet and then on to their website to use familysearch. (After a few weeks, they realized I was there. When the internet was down for a couple of days, they called me so I didn't make an unnecessary trip. Nice of them!) Not sure what to think about this technique. Dedication? Or a little genea-crazy? Both?

With extra time, I hope you were as lucky to find family and family stories in 2020. We have just a few months to find a vaccine and get to the Covid finish line. Stay healthy and safe! Finish strong!

Pandemic De-Cluttering and a Heirloom Book

How many of you have used this time to de-clutter? I raise my hand. It has been an excellent time to pull everything out of a closet and put half of it back. It can take several days, but who is going to see the mess on the floor? First, out went all my old hobbies, sewing, cross-stitching supplies, my eyes will not allow me to return to. Luckily our town has a sewing club for at-risk girls that was thrilled to have these items.

Next, old papers, letters, and diaries! I saved the best, but let’s just say my family is not going to be reading my diaries during my crazy college days. Or break-up letters from old flames, I barely remember.

And yes, some great discoveries were saved. All our wedding planning notes from over 40 years ago. Costs, our vows, invitations, lists of invitees. A letter I had written to my sister about my husband’s and my first date. While 75% was thrown away, the remaining 25% are treasures to enjoy. Instead of a box, they are filed, easy to identify and locate.

Next was china and silver. Over the years, I’ve been given several sets of each. Thankfully, my daughters eagerly agreed to split my grandmother’s, the most sentimental of the sets. She’d brought with her when she immigrated in 1949. One daughter took the plates, the other took the larger pieces for serving. So thankful. For the other china and silver, I used replacements.com  that gives you a reasonable compensation for older place settings via a contract. All you do is carefully pack and mail.

As we enter week 8 of the Illinois stay-at-home orders, we were pretty cleaned out, but I had one more project in mind. We still have a larger home, with many sentimental items from our parents and grandparents that we enjoy. But what will happen to these when we down-size or are not around to tell the stories. Heirlooms without stories are just stuff. Right? I created a book.

First, I took photos of the most sentimental of items. I labeled them by general descriptions to make photo organization easier: furniture, small items, jewelry. I also grouped small items together in a few photos. Then using Shutterfly, I created a photo book with a simple description in the caption.

Shutterfly is very user friendly, and it did not take long to do. I uploaded the file of photos, which were already in order, at one time. Using the custom book option, I selected the size and style of book (8x8 modern gray) and with a press of one button, all of the photos were added to the book in order. I made a few changes, added the captions and in one night had it almost finished. Looking it over in the morning, I made a few additions and subtractions and it was ready to publish.

 Shutterfly is more for photos than story telling. A few items had a longer story than what I could write using the captions. So I also created a word document, describing the bigger story on some of our more treasured items. I referred to the document in the book, so they know to look for it. The document can be updated as I give things away or add something I didn’t photo. Not everything was photoed. My kids know what my husband’s Lionel train looks like, but I described it in the document.

I plan to give each child a book and one to keep with our will. The bonus is that if we ever do downsize, we’ll have a photobook of our most sentimental items to enjoy. What de-cluttering ideas do you have while we all wait at home? I’d love to hear.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun: What Genealogy Books are on your shelf?

Which ones are my favorites?

Randy’s suggestion for tonight was to take a photo of my genealogy books and post. I just cleaned out a bunch of books, and realize taking these photos, that I still have quite a few favorites. Mostly you can see the titles in the photos but here’s a few to mention:

General genealogy books. On the left is Overland in 1846 by Morgan detailing the wagon trains to Oregon. One of my family, Rice Dunbar captained a train. The orange one is The Genealogist's Google Toolbox by Lisa Louise Cooke - so helpful. Several books by Emily Croom. To the right of them are two books for writing (what else?) books: Publish Your Family History by Dina C. Carson and Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. This was super helpful, it's a way to document sources with parenthesis instead of little numbers. So much easier. 

I love any books by W. Daniel Quillen are good resources. Of German Ways by Rippley is a very old book my husband bought about German traditions. (In the background are posters of my presentations.)

Lots of resources about countries Germany, France (the blue book French Genealogy From Afar by Anne Morddel) and Poland. The green book with the tiny wording is the book I wrote about my husband's family, The Ambellans from New York including Warren Spahn. The purplish book next to it is about Oberhoffen-sur-Moder, the town my husband's family came from. The horizontal books to the right are a recent French/English dictionary, a very old French dictionary (helps with archaic words) and a Dutch/English dictionary. You can see the orange German-English Genealogical Dictionary and another Ernest Thode book in the middle. 

This is when I get into the details of my Luxembourg and Belgian histories. They are written in French. The book on the left is a children's story book in French.

Okay, if you want to know anything that was indexed by the Henry County, IL Genealogical Society, I have it! Eighteen books on births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, wills, and naturalizations. I was fortunate that a cousin who co-researched our Hiram R. Dunbar with me in the 1990's, sent them, for which I am extremely grateful. 

This was a very fun exercise! Hmmm...exercise, time to take my daily walk which is one of the few pleasures we are allowed to do in Illinois. (I am in agreement.) Stay safe everyone!

Randy Seaver's Saturday Fun Night

Rootech!

Have you gone to Rootstech? If so which years? I’ve only been once, 2018. 

Describe your experience. Amazing time. Huge!

Who was your favorite speaker? Henry Louis Gates. I wanted to see him for a very long time. Arrived an hour early thinking I’d be the first one there, but there were hundreds of people who came even earlier. I got a great seat and he gave an inspiring speech.

Did you talk with any genealogy "rock stars"? No, but I snuck a photo of Randy Seaver in the blogger area!

What was something you learned that you use over and over? I went to my third choice presentation when the two others were filled, but it was the best. U.S. Church records by Sunny Morton. She’s written a book about it since then. I use these records often. Did you know that one study showed you have a 65% chance of finding the town of origin in US church records? (Many times the immigrant is asked "Where were you baptized?")

Describe something you enjoyed in the vendor area. I loved seeing so many wonderful companies. I was pleasantly surprised by the scanning project that binds papers into books. And the antique experts who evaluate items.

Do you watch the streamed classes live? I tried this year, but missed the classes I wanted to see (wrong time.) But I watch most of the recorded programs. They are already available for 2020.

Did you visit the library? Yes!

Describe your experience. Spent hours and hours there. Friendly volunteers. Found a lot.

What was your favorite Salt Lake City experience not genealogical related? (A restaurant, a landmark etc.) We saw the Mormon Tabernacle choir practice in front of the large pipe organ. Wow!

What was a pleasant surprise about your visit that you did not expect?

1)The light train between the airport and hotel was cheap, clean, and easy. 2) Men in suits and ties and women in dresses. 3) How older people seem to mentor younger people. More connections between generations.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun - Surnames

Randy asked us to look into our data base and generate a report of our top 20 surnames. In Familytreemaker it's a pretty easy report. I was surprised that "None" came in third. But I looked at other genealogists who did this exercise, and while the name changes (LNU=Last Name Unknown) we typically have a variation of this when we don't know the name. My names are mostly in my direct or secondary lines. I'm surprised by the Louis name, while in my direct line, it is very far back so I'm surprised I dug up that many people. Another surprise is that my maiden name and my husband's surname did not make the cut.