Tag Archives: genealogy

So That’s What She Looked Like!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had pictures of all of our ancestors? One of the joys of being on Ancestry (note: they employ me!) is that you can connect with so many people.  I met a cousin a while back and we messaged back and forth.  Lovely lady.

And a week or so ago, she said she had a picture of Elizabeth Jane Wallace.  Now Elizabeth, my 2nd great great grandmother, doesn’t even have a grave marker.  This was too much to hope for, but sure enough here it is:

elizabeth jane wallace and martha cash

Elizabeth is in the lower left, her mother Martha Jane Cash, is in the lower right.  Is it me or do they appear to be short a few teeth?  Upper right is Aurelia Donald Brogan, upper left is is Ethel Jane Brogan.  Martha died in 1913, so it was taken before then.  Ethel was born in 1890, so I would guess the picture was taken between 1905 and 1913.

What a delightful to have!

 

I’ll Be Speaking In Virginia on April 2nd!

WCGHA_LogoHighRes

Will you be in the southern Virginia area the weekend of April 2nd? The Family History Institute of Southwest Virginia will be held Saturday, April 2nd, 2016.

I’ll be presenting two sessions: Researching Women in the South and Proving Kinship with Land and Chancery Records.

You can register for the Family History Institute of Southwest Virginia on the Wythe County Genealogical and Historical Association site for $59.    I was there 2 years ago and it was a whole lot of fun!  Hope to see you there.

Between The Leaves: A Google Hangout from Ancestry.com

We’ve start a new series on Ancestry.com called Between the Leaves.  It’s a genealogy chat show for some of the genealogist who work at Ancestry.com: Myself, Juliana Szucs Smith, Amy Johnson Crow and Crista Cowan.  The first episode was a lot of fun to film and I can’t wait to do the next one!

Enjoy!

Random thought of the day…..

There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.
— David Eagleman from Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlife

Fun with Rebel Mouse. Tuesday’s Tip.

The Ancestor Hunt has done a fun new thing with twitter hash tags on Rebel Mouse.

Try this one: https://www.rebelmouse.com/genealogy/

Rebel Mouse #genealogy tag

Rebel Mouse #genealogy tag

There is also one for #familyhistory: https://www.rebelmouse.com/familyhistory/

It’s a really interesting presentation of twitter #hash tags.

My Top Ten Follow Fridays

I thought I’d do a few top ten lists this final week of 2012.  Here are the top ten stories that you clicked on from my Follow Friday listings and other posts:

Blown With DNA from the Legal Genealogist

  1. Blown Away With DNA from the Legal Genealogist
  2. uencounterme – A Way to Plot Cluster Genealogy Research from Geneabloggers.com
  3. Workday Wednesday The Dispatcher from Gail Grunst Genealogy
  4. 10 Awesome Onenote Tips You Should be Using All the Time from makeusof
  5. Family Lore and Indian Princesses from Evidence Explained
  6. Five Tips for Safely Reading and Photographing Tombstones from Karen Miller Bennett
  7. Brickwall Case of Oscar F Brown from Ancestral Breezes (be sure to read all parts!)
  8. Tech Tuesday: Using Pinterest for Your Family History Photographs from Tall Tales of a Family
  9. Wedding Wednesday: Robbing the Cradle from Kathryn Smith Lockhard
  10. A True Love Story? from A Southern Sleuth

All are worth another read.

Follow Friday — Senseless Vandalism and Other Posts to Make You Think

Here is what inspired, moved and made me think this past week:

Wisdom Wednesday — Sure it’s fun and addictive, but it’s not all that easy

So I’ve be blogging for a few months now and it has indeed been a lot of fun.  I spent the last couple of days thinking about what kind of posts have gotten some of the best responses.

Posts that have a story associated with them.  Can be small snippet of a story of lengthy piece.  But it seems those with a genealogy bent to their personality love a good or even passable story.

Posts that talk about how I’ve done it wrong. Confessing one’s genealogical sins seems hard at first, but it seems to have brought out some camaraderie.  Let’s face it — none of us are perfect.  And we all started as really naive and clueless family historians.  Who knew a birth record could be wrong?  Who knew that vital records don’t exist for everyone and are not readily available?  Who knew those stories about Indian princesses are just stories and not facts?  But figuring this out and then learning how to fix our errors?  That is one of the joys of genealogy.  We never stop learning.  I enjoy discussing the learning process as much I enjoy discussing my ancestors.

Posts about the forgotten.  This was and still is the main goal of my blog.  I don’t want my ancestors, good, bad or ugly to be forgotten.  They have  made me who I am.  And remembering those who have left no one behind, such as my maiden aunts and bachelors uncles, seemed to have struck a real chord with many.

So I think I’m on the right path.   It’s OK not to be perfect.  Which is good, because that is not in my DNA.   And sharing our mistakes maybe can make it easier for others.  Or at least we can share in our “can you believe I did that?”

And telling the stories.  Making the records come to life.  That is the fun and addictive part, isn’t it?

Wisdom Wednesday — The World is a Limitless Place

I am a perpetual student because the world is a limitless place. — Elissa Scalise Powell

I had the honor of being in Elissa’s class when I was a student in the Boston University Online Certificate program.  She was inspiring then, and in a recent post on APG mailing list, she delivered the above gem.  (I couldn’t find this attributed to anyone else, so I assume it is hers.)  It was part of a great discussion about education.

When I was a computer science student at the University of Arkansas working on my bachelor’s degree, I remember sitting in an architecture class and thinking, there is absolutely no way I am ever going to know all there is to know about this.  It inspired me to go get a Master’s Degree at Purdue.

I had that moment in my BU class where the light went on and I knew I would have to pick and choose what I became truly knowledgeable about in Genealogy.

For me, I want to know all I can about Southern Genealogy, specifically Virginia, and the Carolina’s and the Civil War.  That is where my family’s history lies.

Oh, and sourcing!

Some days I feel like I am making progress and some days I am overwhelmed.

But I keep reading and practicing.  Because the world is indeed a limitless place.

Presenting Your Story: Everything I Know About Hyman Victor

Teasing the story out of the records is half the battle.  Presenting the story so it is interesting, well that is something else.

I love this particular example: Everything I know About Hyman Victor (a link from Elliot Malkin’s site dziga.com)

Each piece of evidence, each record is presented as Exhibit.  Each Exhibit has a picture or image and a description that helps the reader understand the image and a bit more about Hyman Victor.

I love its simple yet powerful presentation.  It is compelling.  And it has the ability to be updated easily.  Find a new document?  It’s easy to add.

If you are looking for inspiration on how to tell the story of your ancestor’s, look to see what others have done.  Inspiration is everywhere.