Saturday Night 2019 Positive Geneameme

Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night blog had some great questions. At first glance, I thought, “I don’t have anything ‘new’ to add.” But then I got to thinking and realized that 2019 was a great year for genealogy.

1.     An elusive ancestor I found – Ancestry’s Thru-lines located two more generations (early 1700’s) of several lines of my Luxembourg family. They moved to another town, and another researcher found the records in an unexpected town.

2.     A great newspaper article I found – I found the Dutch newspaper, the Delpher, online for free. I traced obits from 1920’s to current to track down a living relative of the one brother (there were 15 siblings) of my 2^nd gr-grandmother Emilie Verbeke, who did not come to the United States.

3.     A geneajourney I took – I spent three wonderful days in Washington DC. Two days at the archives and one morning at the DAR. Lots of Civil and Revolutionary War records.

4.     I located an important record – My 3^rd-gr-grandfather, Hiram R Dunbar and his son John went to the California gold rush and came back wealthy. I thought because Hiram owned a dry-goods store in Illinois, maybe he made his money that way. But in John’s Civil War papers, he stated that he and his father mined for gold. Now I know!

5.     A new found family member shared - I found the only living descendent of my husband’s grandmother’s only brother, Herman. She had one photo of Herman. I’ve been looking for a photo since 1979.

6.     A genea-surprise I received – I actually finished my book “The Ambellan Family of Buffalo, New York including Warren Spahn.” Took three years (not counting the 30 years of research.) It’s selling well on Amazon.

7.     Social media post I was proud of – I got the most hits on my post about How to Read Difficult Writing (https://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2019/03/tip-for-reading-difficult-writing.html) but this is the post I’m also very proud of -https://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-genealogy-book-is-published-yippee.html

8.     A new genea-mate - I “met” many relatives, some of them “shirt-tale” by writing my book. I included contact information, and I’ve received phone calls, emails, and ancestry’s message. Made some great connections and learned new stories.

9.     A new genea-skill I learned – I am proud to say I know how to edit, index, create a cover and pretty much everything else need to turn a manuscript into a published book.  Took three and ½ solid months.

90.  I joined - ??

11.  A genealogy session I learned something from – I attended the DuPage Genealogical Society’s conference. Thomas MacEntee spoke on book publishing. I hung around and asked questions after the amazing presentation..and you can guess what happened next.

12.  Blog post that I learned something new – I read many of the Best posts listed on Sunday in Randy’s blog. There is so much I’ve learned – too many to pick out one in particular.

13.  A DNA discovery – A DNA match to my Buffalo Schattners, and the Schatners from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

14.  I taught a genea-mate how to – I teach a beginning genealogy class nearly monthly. Afterwards I’m willing to set up meetings to help the attendees. I love volunteering at my local genealogy library to inspire people to find family.

15.  I demolished a brick wall – (Does this count?) My brick wall was finishing my research into the form of a book. I had the manuscript for several years.

16.  Great website I visited – I spent a lot of time using newspapers.com this year. I can use it free from home through my public library card.

17.  A new book I enjoyed – Before and After by Lisa Wingate about an adoption scandal, How to Find Your Family in U.S. Church Records by Sunny Morton. Not new, but new to me Publish Your Family History by Dina C. Carson.

18.  I was excited to meet – Michael LaCopo. He gave a hilarious speech, at a dinner, about what he’s learned in 30 years of family research, that only we genealogy people would understand. I drove over an hour to see it and it was a 2019 highlight. We spoke after.

19.  I’m excited for 2020 because – I’m going to t-r-y to finish a second book and I’m teaching in New York. I created four new presentations and I look forward to rolling them out.

20.  Another positive I’d like to share – Even after 30 years, there’s always something new to learn and you never know where your research will lead.

   Happy New Year!