A Geek Girl Does Genealogy

tap tap Is this thing still on?

2011-06-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

...so it's been quite awhile since I've update this, hasn't it? The main excuse is: life got in the way. Busy is good, but I haven't had the time to focus on the genealogy research that I wish I could.

The last few months haven't been entirely without steps forward, though:

We had a family reunion last weekend, where I had grand plans to sit in a corner and scan pictures to my heart's content... and then I had massive technology!fail, and I had to content myself with making color copies. But it was a two day event, with between 25 and 50 people there, and people got to see cousins that they hadn't seen in decades. In my case, I got to talk with family members whom I last talked to when I was about 15. So. That was a lot of fun!
We made plans to get my great uncle's research materials (that went into The Family Book) back to my state, wherein I and two of my other genealogically inclined cousins in my generation will sort through it, scan everything we want to scan, snag any originals that might be hidden in corners, and then donate it to... someplace. The Family Book is 900 pages or so long, and while not all of that is Family Stuff, a good portion of it is. So. It's going to be a big job.
...I got put in charge of figuring out how to create a technological way for our family to stay in touch, so now I'm trying to design an easy to use website that everyone in the family can have access to. (It is password protected, so no one will be able to access it without my giving them access to it.) That's what I've been working on today. There's going to be a blog and/or forum for family updates and chit chat. There's going to be a wiki for the family history aspect. And there's going to be a photo album for all of the family pictures. (Does anyone have a family website for their family? Are there things that I should be adding to this whole adventure?)

I think that if I get a website together for this family, I may try to do it for the two other branches I've been researching, possibly without all of the password protected-ness. But that is me jumping ahead of myself again...

I hope that everyone is having good luck tackling those brick walls!

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Toys

2011-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

Week 7: Toys. What was your favorite childhood toy? Is it still being made in some form today?

My first favorite toy was one, I believe, my parents got for me at our church's bazaar. Or some place like that. I'm pretty sure it was hand made. That favorite toy was Pink Kitty. Pink Kitty was, quite logically, made out of pink gingham, and was much (much, much) loved. Pink Kitty also got left on an airplane once, and thrown out, and my dad looked through trash bags to find her. Which he did.

Pink Kitty also had two siblings: Yellow Kitty, who arrived at the same time as Pink Kitty, and Red Kitty, which my mom made for me, when it became apparent that both Pink and Yellow Kitty were going to be loved to pieces. Um, literally.

Pink Kitty, Red Kitty, Yellow Kitty

(and younger!kitty going: what are these new toys that you have

not shown me before now? are they for ME?)

Then, when I turned three, I got Woofer for Christmas. Woofer was not immediately my new favorite toy, but he was just the right size to wrap my arms around in bed, and by the time I was five, I know he had become the favorite: a spot he never left. In fact, 27 years later, he still lives on my bed.

Woofer, the loved. (And still in remarkably good shape for being 27!)

On the off chance anyone here also uses a mac...

2011-02-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

Has anyone used either Dragon Dictate 2.0 for mac or MacSpeech Scribe to transcribe audio files -- for instance, seven or so hours of recorded conversations with grandma?

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - TV and Radio

2011-02-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Week 6: Radio and Television. What was your favorite radio or television show from your childhood? What was the program about and who was in it?

While I enjoyed a whole host of Saturday morning and after school cartoons (particularly the Disney entries such as DuckTales, Tail Spin, and Chip 'n Dale, as well as Inspector Gadget and the Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain) the block of TV that I remember best was from my pre-teen years, with Saved by the Bell, Hey Dude, and Out of this World.

Saved by the Bell starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, and Mario Lopez. At least, these are the three actors that have gone on to have somewhat significant careers post-SbtB. Mark was most recently seen in the show Raising the Bar, while Mario Lopez has become tabloid fodder. After joining 90210, Tiffani can now be seen on White Collar, and has made herself one of the best things about the show. (Which I love a lot.) Her Funny-or-Die video "Tiffani Thiessen Is Busy" made the Internet rounds several months back, and it made a lot of people into fans.

Hey Dude starred several young actors, although the only name on the list that I still recognize is Christine Taylor, who is now Ben Stiller's wife. It was a show about the staff at a dude ranch and was apparently Nickelodeon's first original live action TV series.

Out of This World is about a girl who is half human, half alien, and on her thirteenth birthday discovers that her powers have manifested. One of those powers is the ability to stop time by pressing her index fingers together, tip-to-tip. This was probably my favorite of the shows, and at age 11, all of us went around pressing our fingers together just wishing that time would stop now, now, now.

The one story that my grandma likes to tell about my dad and radio is that one time, when my dad was rather young and my grandparents were out for the evening, he was listening to the radio. Possibly to Inner Sanctum (was that a radio show?). He got so scared, he ran down to the neighbor's house a quarter mile away (this was farm country) and stayed with them until my grandparents came looking.

Ancestry: Finding new cousins!

2011-01-31T19:02:00.000-08:00

In the last few days I've been contacted by two distant cousins on Ancestry, wanting to know more about how my tree tied into theirs, which is making me feel as if I'm not so much a beginner at this whole thing any more -- even though I totally still am. One of the people who contacted me -- if he's right, it's possible that two branches of one side of my family married into one branch on that same side, probably two generations apart, in two different states.

I've been doing a lot of work with our family pictures (and adding head shots to Ancestry as I go) and my own version of the family history is starting to take shape, oh-so-slowly. I need to start spending more time transcribing my recordings I've made while visiting my grandmother. My oh-so-sneaky plan is to type it up and give it to her to proof read, and then hope that it sparks more stories. My grandma has the best stories, but she usually clams up when she knows that she's being recorded.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Food

2011-01-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

Week 5: Favorite Food. What was your favorite food from childhood? If it was homemade, who made it? What was in this dish, and why was it your favorite? What is your favorite dish now?

My first favorite food, I believe, was tuna casserole. Until I was seven and got the flu after eating it, and I haven't been able to eat it since.

My next favorite food was macaroni and cheese. I love macaroni and cheese beyond the telling. It could be homemade or out of a box, and 9 times out of ten, I will love it. I'm not sure I could eat it every day of the week, but a few times a week, for sure!

My favorite homemade food that my mom used to make for me was baked spaghetti casserole. It's so good, and simple, and she still makes it for me every time I go home.

My favorite dessert used to be flan. I considered myself an amateur custard connoisseur for a time and the two best ones I ever had were at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in Corvallis, Oregon, and a coffee flavored one at a sea food (?) restaurant in San Rafael, California.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Home

2011-01-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

Week 4: Home. Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today?

The house that I grew up in was a corner house in the Sunset district of San Francisco. It will probably always be large in my memory, but I don't think it actually was a very large house. It was two stories, with two bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a study downstairs for my dad. It also had a two car garage and a postage stamp of a garden to, I believe, the west. When I was young, it was painted white, but when I was seven, we painted it a peach color. (I was the one who suggested the color; I was very proud of this fact. And, within the next few years, several more houses in our neighborhood were also painted that color. We started a trend!) That was also the year we painted my room, and I opted for a lemon yellow, and my mom made a Monet's water lilies bet set.

I have some very fond memories of the San Francisco house. It had a marble staircase from the front gate to the actual front door, and my mom made that her green house, so there were plants everywhere. There was another staircase going to our basement that I just loved to play on. When I was two and three, in the midst of the imaginary friend stage of my life, I had a "pet" squirrel that lived in the banister. The living room seemed huge to me, and was an oh-so-wonderful place for me to set up all of my stuffed animals and just play and play and play.

The bad thing about the San Francisco house was that it was on the corner of some rather busy streets, and it wasn't in a bad neighborhood, but my parents wouldn't let me go outside and play by myself, ever. I could go out with friends (once I got to be seven, eight, nine), but never by myself.

Eventually, my parents hit a point where they could put x amount of money into paying for me to go to private high schools in San Francisco, or they could put that same money into a house in Marin that they could retire in while I went to public schools. They opted for the latter (best choice ever!) and we put the house on the market in 1993. We planned on letting the house sit on the market for at least 6 months, as it was a rather slow time in real estate. And then we got 3 offers in a week.

The house is still there, and every time I go home and take the airporter, I peer up our old street and look at it. It looks smaller now, but and it's yellow instead of peach, but I smile every time I go by it.

A new project -- because it's impossible to finish one, before starting another!

2011-01-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

I had a lovely visit with my grandma this afternoon, and took the tape recorder down so that I could get more stories. My grandma has an arsenal of old stories which I pretty much hear every time I go down (or every other time, at the very least), and those were the most important stories to get down, as they are her favorites, and nothing says 'grandma' to me better than those stories. But, I actually got some new stories today, too! So that was a plus.

I also brought up a picture album which has even more photos I hadn't seen before (and even better, photos of people at least 5 (and possibly 6) generations back) and the trying not to be a pest granddaughter in me is hesitant to take the photo album apart, because I will have to replace the pages. They are old and acid worn, and the stickum will fail. However, the librarian and genealogy mad person in me keeps looking at it and saying, acid, so much acid, and all of the names of all of the people are on the backs of the photos. I must take them off the pages and see who they are! I told my grandma my plan, so I am going to replace the pages. But I feel as if I'm being a bit of a pest.

My plan, I think, is going to be to scan the pictures, then put them into a Microsoft Publisher layout of some sort, and then print them on white paper (possibly card stock) to put into albums to give to family. And also put them on CDs to give to everyone. I can also intersperse the family stories. I'm still at that point where pictures are just the coolest thing ever. All of these people I've been reading about, right there, in front of me. It's also amazing to look four generations back and say, yes. The family resemblance is totally there.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Cars

2011-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Cars. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.
This is an especially appropriate topic as I just bought a new (to me) car yesterday.

The car that I consider to be "my first car" was a 1986 Honda Civic. It was one of those hatchbacks that was oh-so-prevalent in the 1980s, and I have no idea why my parents got it, except that perhaps they knew that they were going to be hauling me and all of my friends around, and it seemed like a good family car? (The two cars we'd owned previously to the Honda were a VW Wagon and a Chevy Camaro. But while I remember them, vaguely, I was too young for them to make much of an impression.)

Anyway. The Honda Civic. It was white, and we named it Henrietta Honda, but called it the Baby Honda, and we all loved that car so, so much. I will always consider it to be my first car (even though it was never officially mine) because it was the car I learned to drive on, and it was the car I drove myself to school in, and it was the car I (occasionally) drove my friends around in. Living in San Francisco, with car alarms going off every night, my parents were rather wary of car add on technology, so the Honda didn't even have a radio (which my friends found oh-so- annoying), but I didn't care, because it was my Baby Honda. The last night it was "mine," I took it for a drive around my county, around all of my old high school drives, and I pretty much cried when we handed the keys over to the dealership. It was such a good little car.

The first car that was officially mine was the next car we bought, a 1991 blue Toyota Camry. This car became mine (officially) when I moved halfway across the country, but became mine in all but deed when I went to grad school in 2002. This was always my dad's favorite car, and I don't think he wanted to give it up, but it was old and they wanted a new car. I drove it until 2008, when I hit the point of having to put more money into it than it was worth.

When I traded it in, I bought the first car that I bought for myself, which was a black 2008 Mazda3. Which I also loved dearly, and had so much fun driving it. Until I totaled it 3 days before this past Christmas. (Everyone was fine! That's all that matters!) And so now I own, as of Friday, a 2010 Hyundai Sonata, which so far I am quite pleased with.

And that is The Geek Girl's History In Cars.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Winter

2011-01-07T18:56:00.000-08:00

I am doing this early, I know, but I wanted to do something tonight.

Week 2: Winter. What was winter like where and when you grew up? Describe not only the climate, but how the season influenced your activities, food choices, etc.

I grew up in San Francisco (and then north of San Francisco, in Marin) and winter... was not what 90% of the world would consider to be a "true" winter.

In San Francisco, we got fog. Which was oh so different from the other three seasons. (/sarcasm) It would be 40-something degrees, balmy by the rest of the country's winter standards, but cold for us. Still, my mom would make hot chocolate with marshmallows, and occasionally we'd light a fire in our fire place. In the mornings, I would sit in front of the heater in our living room, trying to absorb the warm air.

Then we had a brief interlude in Oregon for seven months (while my dad was on sabbatical) and I got my first snow day. There were snow forts and sled rides and at age 10, I decided that snow was the greatest thing ever.

Then we moved to Marin, which might only be across the Golden Gate Bridge, but the climate is completely different from San Francisco's. (Seriously, there's a hill in Corte Madera. You drive up one side of the hill, it's foggy and 50 degrees. You drive down the other, it's sunny and 85.) So, in Marin we got rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain. There are a few things I remember about the winters in Marin:

Every year, or so it seemed, we had Flood Watch on the creek in our town. This was of particular interest to me since my high school was right on the creek, and every break, you would go outside to see how much the creek had risen in the 50 minutes you'd been in class. There was one day it was rising 6-inches an hour--a day when every other school in the county was closed, bus service was suspended, and Highway 101 was shut down, and yet, my principal refused to cancel classes. Until there was no possible way for students to get home. It did flood about 4 years ago, after 28 days of rain, but the downtown area seems to have come back more strongly than before.
Also, for the first few years we lived in our current house there, the power seemed to go out any time the wind blew. Our favorite story about that was when the power went out right in the middle of my mother cooking dinner -- lamb chops -- and since we had an electric stove, we couldn't keep cooking. So, my dad and I went door-to-door on our block (it was a very close knit block) trying to find someone who had a gas stove, so we could finish cooking dinner. And then, once we did, my dad escorting my mom up the street with a frying pan full of lamb chops, safely underneath an umbrella.

After living in Marin, I moved to Oregon, which is where I first lived in a place with snow. (I had been skiing at Tahoe once or twice, and had visited my grandparents in Kansas when it was snowing. But I hadn't ever lived anywhere with snow.) It didn't snow a lot in Oregon, but the first time it did, it was right in the middle of finals, and my entire dorm went outside at midnight and started to have a snow ball fight. It was rather awesome.

Then I moved to Kansas, where we get several snow storms a winter (with the first significant snow of the year probably coming either tomorrow or Sunday), and I don't so much mind driving in snow, but ice and sleet are the bane of my existence. The first year I was here they had an 80-year ice storm, where you could hear the branches cracking all night long. I've been here long enough now that I'm even looking forward to the snow, just a bit. I just wish I didn't have to go out in it!

Mostly, my thoughts on winter can be summed up as: hot chocolate; spiced cider; eggnog in front of the Christmas tree; jeans that are wet up to the knee; never leaving home without an umbrella; listening to the rain on my parents' picture window; snowballs; (hoping for a day off of work!); curling up on the couch with my cats, reading, and watching the weather outside; and loving how peaceful the world seems to be in the middle of a snow storm.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - New Year's Memories

2011-01-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

My family has never been one for wild New Year's Eve plans. Mostly, we stayed at home and watched the ball drop, and that was it. There is also a chance that we played Scrabble, but I associate that more with Christmas Eve. My dad instilled a fear of being on the roads on New Year's Eve, so I've pretty much stuck with those oh-so-exciting traditions.

One NYE stands out, though.

My parents were married on December 30th, and so, for their 25th Anniversary, they went into downtown San Francisco for a NYE celebration at one of the big hotels. My mom bought a party dress (super cheap, because there was a rip in it, but she mended it and made it better than ever), and I got to stay at my friend's house for the evening.

A new great (great great great) aunt Amelia?

2010-12-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

...I think that I may have just found a new family member, several generations back.

It is too premature to be sure, of course, but it's looking rather possible right at the moment.

Search one, on Family Search, was for Henry [variation on our last name]. I found the census record that I'd already found awhile ago. And then there was an Ohio death record for an Amelia Emerson, which I clicked on, and a Henry [more common spelling of our last name] was listed as being her father. This record also listed her birth date as being 1832, which would place her between John (1826) and Jeremiah (1834), and also seems to fit timing-wise, as the rest of their children were born 2-4 years apart, rather than eight.

Search two, on Ancestry, for Henry's wife Mary, brought up an 1870 Census record for Mary [variation on our last name] living with an Emerson family, with a birth date that matches an earlier verified census record. This would have been the year after Henry passed, in the same city that they lived for many, many years. (Before moving to Illinois, where Henry passed away.) Amelia wasn't listed in this household, but an Emlina (with a birth date off by 8 years) was, with the same children I found in the 1860 census.

Search three on Ancestry, for Amelia herself, found an Amelia [last name] living in the same city that Mary, Henry, and the rest of the children were living in, using the same variation on the last name that Henry, Mary, et al. were using that year. At age 17, she was living with another family, possibly as a servant or nanny?

I'm thinking that this is looking pretty possible! And it's also exciting, since this is the line that my cousin has researched extensively, and there is no mention of an Amelia in her notes (although there is a Millie, who might be Amelia, without any information at all).

A crazy thought

2010-12-25T00:06:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I had a crazy thought.

Wouldn't it be fun, I thought, to flesh out and update the little 3-page family history that my grandma had written up for the town's centennial celebration several years ago and give it to her for Christmas? So, I went to the library (on my day off!) and dived right in, sure that I knew what I was doing. (Spoiler: I so didn't know what I was doing.)

That idea sort of fell by the wayside as I got more and more lost in the number of people in our family tree, but then today, as I was out trying to find just one more present for Grandma, I decided, you know what? Why don't I try to compile all of the information I do have, and give it to her for Christmas tomorrow? So, I've spent about 6 hours on Ancestry tonight, double checking information and adding names and dates from the 600 page book on the family my great uncle published about 10 years ago, and ha, the 5-generation chart that I imported into Ancestry's book making program? Is 127 pages. And that's just my grandma's family. My grandpa's side of the family is an additional 60 pages.

I really hope I have enough ink for my printer tomorrow morning!

Dear Genea-Santa (2010)

2010-12-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Genea-Santa,

I am still such a beginner at this, that I think my biggest wish would be to just learn a whole lot more about this whole researching-your-family thing, including what resources are out there. I've already learned a whole lot in the last year, but I know that I have so much left to learn.

I would also like another 5 or 6 hours in the day to try to sort through all the information that I do have, and try to get it in some semblance of an order. (I can dream!)

Also, I'd like to be able to decide on an organizational scheme, please.

My pie-in-the-sky wish, though, is for clues in proving one way or the other whether there's any relation between the Shadle family and the Schedla family, since the Ancestry Masses (which may or may not be right) have them both tracing back to Judith Gemunde (+/- an r), yet the dates and names for what I think happened just don't quite match up with the dates and names I've found so far.

Thank you,
The Geek Girl

Arbuckle Coffee Cards

2010-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently I'm motivated to scan things this morning.

Most of the items in the box of postcards that I brought back from my grandma's were letters sent to my great grandma Minnie, both chatty 'how are you doing' letters, as well as 'get well soon' notes, as she was sick with goiter.

There were also a few advertising cards, though, which my great grandfather collected. The ones that I scanned this morning were the Arbuckle Coffee cards, which were packaged with Arbuckle Coffee. I had a bit of a ding-ding-ding! moment as I was looking up the Arbuckle Coffee company, because it was an Arizona-based company, and my great grandfather lived in Arizona for a bit of time around the turn of the century. I really just can't picture him buying "imported" anything, so my guess is that he probably collected them then. Five more (of the 18 I scanned) behind the cut.

A Peaceful Christmas To You

2010-12-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

This month, Travis, over at TJLGenes, has been posting old Christmas cards, which I've really enjoyed looking at. So I'm going to copy him, if only for a few days.

Today's card I picked mainly because I liked it, but also because it holds a bit of a mystery, in that I have no clue who these cousins are. I'm 95% sure that they are in the Francis family (huge family I've done minimal research on--also they list great-grandma Minnie (Francis) first), but there is a possibility that they could be from the Holcomb family. Given, I believe, between 1908, when Harry and Minnie were married, and 1915, when my grandfather was born.

On back: Aunt Minnie and Uncle Harry. From Nellie and Birdie.

Tonight's discovery...

2010-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

(without the documentation to back it up. yet.)

...is that apparently three branches of my family tree are now Trisler/Trissler's. Two on my mom's side, two on my dad's. Including the apparently quite infamous Dr. Peter Trisler. Also: two of them are named Mary Ann. So far I have yet to be able to connect them at all, but that name just keeps appearing!

From great-grandpa's school book

2010-12-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

I was scanning some documents to send to my genealogically-inclined cousin tonight (her father and my great grandfather were obviously in the the same school, and practiced 'co-signing' IOU's in their school books at age... 10? Something like that. I thought she might like to see it. I also found a Christmas card that her father and his first wife sent to my great grandparents, probably around 1915 or so.) Long story short: I found the above in the same school book. It is my great-grandfather's vision of what the world will be like '20 years hence', written on (I'm supposing) December 18, 1897.

It reads:

Twenty Years Hence
December 18, 1917. The Klondike region is now furnishing a great abundance of gold. The North Pole has been discovered and ~~explored~~ is now being explored.

Farming is now carried on altogether with machinery. The population of the United States is about 125,000,000. Chicago is the largest city in the United States.

There is 48 states in the union, every industry is now prospering, and every body and nation is at peace.

To which I say: aww!

On Interlibrary Loan and Kansas Libraries (and libraries in general)

2010-12-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

I was just reading through the January 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine, and saw the article on Interlibrary Loan (ILL). It was a very good article on the general process, but I know there are a few other Kansans reading this, so I thought I'd give a few more specifics for public libraries in our state. [ETA: And I meandered back into specifics on the ILL process from a librarian's POV, so it might be of interest to other people who are not Kansans, too!]

Kansas libraries do not charge for interlibrary loans. So, if the item you are looking for is located in another Kansas library (and is not a reference book in said library) there will be no charge. If the item comes from out of state, and that library does charge for interlibrary loans, the library that you check the item out from will pass that cost onto you. (My library used to have you fill out a form and designate how much you're willing to pay to get the item there. You could put nothing, you could put $5-$10. It was up to you. Then that was how much we were authorized to go up to. Now we okay charges before ordering.)

You can access the major interlibrary loan catalog through your Kansas Library Card. This is different than the regular library card you use to check out books, etc. It is free! It also gives you access to lots and lots of databases, including the InfoTrac databases (which, if you have a student at home, is becoming almost essential).

I call the interlibrary loan catalog the Great Big Catalog in the Sky, because it pretty much has everything in the world in it, but it's real name is OCLC/WorldCat. When looking up records in OCLC, you will notice two designations of libraries that own the item. One type will have the library name in solid black font. This means (as far as I know--there is probably an exception to prove the rule) that the library does not lend items through ILL. If the name of the library is a link, though, that means that they do lend through ILL.

By clicking on the link, you can visit the library's catalog, and while you usually have to do the search for the item again, you will then be able to see if the item is checked in or checked out, if it's a reference item or a circulating item, or if it's even still around. Just because the library lends items, though, doesn't mean they will be willing to lend the item you are looking for. Some libraries don't lend media items, other collections probably have other restrictions on them. My library lends our entire circulating collection -- however, if the item is new, you will be far less likely to get it through ILL. Also: my library won't place ILL requests for people on items that the library owns. So, if you want that new DVD but our library's 15 copies have 104 holds on them, you can't place an ILL request and get it more quickly.

Also, just because you see that the library 3 towns over has the item you're looking for, doesn't mean that they will be the one to send it to you. When a library gets an ILL request, they place an 'all call' out to 5 different libraries at a time. The first one to get it into the mail 'wins'.

Libraries may or may not use forms for placing ILLs. This past year, my library switched to an online request system. If your library is anything like mine, you will search OCLC through your library's catalog interface. On the one hand, this is good: it's a familiar screen. On the other, there are a few things you need to be aware of:

It is best not to limit your search by media type. Not all libraries refer to, say, CDs as CDs. Some will call them sound discs. Some will call them audio recordings. When you limit to CDs, you will not be searching these other two categories.
If you don't limit by media type, and you do a keyword search, you might pull up thousands and thousands of results. If this happens, and you don't know what to do next (because you shouldn't have to look through thousands of results!) ask your friendly neighborhood librarian for help. They will have access to the OLCL catalog on their computer and can limit their searches in ways you can't through library catalogs. Also: they can see how many libraries own an item and how easy it might be to get.

At my library (or at least in my section) we are happy to walk people through the steps to place an ILL over the phone, so you can do it from your home computer. If you don't have a computer at home, you can certainly place the ILL at the library.

ILLs are not a fast process. We generally say 2-4 weeks, however we've had customers wait 11 months to get an item. In my 'ILLs on Media' spiel, I generally say that I like for 100 libraries to own an item before I tell a customer that there's a relatively good chance of us getting it. We have had people get an item where there were only 3 copies in the world, though, so you never know.

Genealogy items are obviously going to run a higher chance of being reference materials, though, so if you run into problems there, you might explore having the owning library photocopy the information that you need and send it to you via Interlibrary Loan. Or, they might have a mail-based reference service, as my library does, where there is a charge for staff time, as well as a per-page charge.

...and that was a whole lot longer than I thought it was going to be, but was hopefully helpful to someone!

A few finds...

2010-12-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight's genealogy moments:

My great grandmother Minnie was a great collector of postcards, and seems to have saved quite a few of them (possibly all of them) from her married life--and a few from before then. Many of them were 'get well soon!' cards, as she was sick with goiter, but there are also several chatty notes from friends and relatives. Tonight I sorted them into the 'friend' and 'relative' piles.

My most interesting finds from the evening:

1) Illustrations done by my grandpa, age 3, which he sent to his mother in the hospital.

2) A letter from my great-great-grandfather to my grandfather, typed in 1937, which began: Well, Luther, I am going to write to you this time. I told Harry [ed. great grandfather] when I wrote to him last that would be my last to him. But I have changed my mind and concluded I would stay awhile longer in this good old world... He lived about a year and a half after that; my father was named after him, and he passed away about 3 weeks after my dad was born.

3) I really think I would have liked my great-great aunt Florence quite a bit. She sent two birthday postcards to my great-grandfather Harry (her brother).

The first one began: Dear Brother: This is to remind you that you had a birth-day, but I forgot until now.

The second one began: Dear Brother: This is to remind you that you are still having birth-days.

I didn't know my grandfather nearly as well as I would have liked, as the only time I got to spend with him was a week here, a week there. However, the above is EXACTLY the sort of humor that my dad shares with his siblings, and I think that this sense of humor is, perhaps, a family trait.

I had some conversations with my cousin-by-marriage (also a librarian) over Thanksgiving about how so many primary sources are being lost due to the fact that people aren't writing letters or keeping journals like they used to. Which is very sad. It's almost enough to make me want to start writing letters to my friends again. Or possibly I should start saving my emails.

This is where the librarian laughs at herself

2010-12-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

The problem, perhaps, with beginning my genealogical research in this age of information access any time, any where, is that I haven't truly had to work for any of the information I've found thus far. Yes, I've spent hours on Ancestry and Family Search, going through census records and whatever other records they feel like giving me, and I've certainly looked in quite a few books -- and even found the maiden name of my great grandmother (x8) randomly, in the county next to where my cousin thought that they'd been married -- but my first instinct is to try online.

But I am a librarian, and I love my books, so I really shouldn't be surprised at the wealth of information that books contain.

I was going through Family Tree Maker for Mac two nights ago, trying to get rid of those oh-so-helpful little green leaves (I actually love the green leaves, but I'd already attached all of the information in Ancestry and didn't want to be doing it again) by attaching records to people's names, when I came upon Andrew Clemmer Smith. Who is, maybe, my great grandfather x4. Or maybe 3. I attached all of the records that FTM suggested, and didn't find the names of his parents. And then I went through the family tree suggestions (for a second time) and still saw no record of his parents' names, just as I hadn't found any suggestions the first time through. I had pretty much decided to give up for the night, as Andrew Smith is not exactly an uncommon name, but then I remembered that I'd done a Google search on him once before, and had found out that he was apparently a famous band leader. I hadn't copied any of the information down, though, so I said to myself, why not do that Google search again?

I immediately found the article on his band leading prowess, but then, just a little bit farther down, I saw a Google Books record, and when I clicked on it, it took me to A History of Adam's County, Ohio, which (spoiler) is my new favorite book ever. It had a 3 page article on Andrew Clemmer Smith! It had a picture! I also learned that on top of being a successful band leader, he'd been a Representative to... something. I think it was the Ohio State House and not actually the House of Representatives, but I need to do more research there. Also? In the second sentence, it listed his parents' names. It talked about sons and daughters and who they'd married, and how they were all good Presbyterians except for the (gasp!) daughter who'd married the minister from another denomination, but they supposed that was a pretty good reason for not being Presbyterian.

So, yes. Books! I am a fan of books! And I'm looking forward to seeing what nuggets I will unearth this week.

Thursday pictures

2010-12-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Holidays are fun, definitely, but exhausting. My parents left yesterday, so I am trying to get back on my own schedule. And also try to figure out how to tackle the mass of information and photographs/letters/journals I brought up from my grandmother's with me. (I still need to reply to comments that were left while I was gone! I read them all on my phone while I was gone, but my phone was not the best place to do replying type things.)

Today's project was scanning the miscellaneous pictures that I grabbed from my grandma's. She has many (many, many) pictures in albums, and more on the walls, but I'm only working on scanning the ones that are loose.

These are some of my favorites:

My dad. This picture made me laugh a lot, because my dad is a photo-chemist and has always (always, always) worn a hat when ever he goes outside, so that he will not get burned, and he has tried to make my mom and I do the same. Apparently he started the tradition at a young age!

My great great grandfather, my great grandfather, his sister, and two of her children. Taken in 1910, I believe.

Five of my grandma's siblings, taken in 1942. Yes, most of them played basketball.

My grandfather's Sunday school class, taken in 1925. I really want to know what play they were putting on!

Poking my head in

2010-11-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

I have not abandoned the genealogy blog, I promise! The holidays have just meant that a good portion of our family (my parents included) descended on the area where I live, and my time has been spent (mostly) at my grandmother's place. While this has meant that I've been without Internet access, it's also meant that I've a chance to talk to many, many family members, show off what I've learned already, and record hours and hours of conversations between my grandma and my dad and his two siblings.

This visit with my grandma, I've been inspired to poke into corners and cupboards I hadn't yet poked into, and I've hit a few goldmines:

First, there was the box of postcards that my grandparents, great grandparents and their siblings, and possibly a great-great uncle all collected. There are probably 200 of them, most of them in mint condition, although about 20 of them have been written on, and I'm looking forward to figuring out who they're from and what they say and piecing information together that way.

Second, there were three diplomas (or certificates of grade completion?) that belonged to my great great grandfather.

Third, I found my great grandfather's diaries, which run from 1899 (or so) to 1903 and provide day to day records of his activities (for instance: shucking 8 ears of corn).

So, I will have plenty to keep me busy for the next few weeks or months!

Two questions from a beginner

2010-11-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

I am hitting the point in my nine day work week where my brain is going, ha! what is this thing called thinking? I do not understand! and by the end of the day, I pretty much only have energy to watch TV. But, after the holidays are over I should have some more time to dive back into the genealogy. So, a question for anyone reading this:

What is your preferred method of organizing your information? I've been trying folders and binders, but each time I think I've finally got a handle on my organizational method, it starts to fall apart on me. (Sometimes I am such a librarian, it hurts.)

Also, does anyone have a link to a good explanation of a genealogical numbering system? I'm thinking that I'm getting to the point that I'm going to need to start a numbering system, and I am just totally confused as to how that works.

Geneablogging: Military Monday

2010-11-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

The librarian in me is wanting to do research! and write articles! and keep a steady stream of information going! but then I get started poking around Ancestry, or other such databases, and I lose track of time. So: time for another story.

My grandma came from a family of eight children. She was the third youngest, and is currently the only one of the siblings that is still living. I actually started my genealogy hunt two months ago in hopes of fleshing out the three page family history that deals with my grandpa's side of the family to give her for Christmas. (It is probably not going to happen, as information keeps exploding around me, and I still have no idea how to organize most of it.) Her two younger brothers were Mike and Ralph.

(Side note: My great uncle Ralph was actually the family genealogist. He published an 800+ page book on that side of the family. It is a truly impressive tome, although I have yet to figure out his numbering system.)

Mike and Ralph, as far as I know, both served in the Navy (?) during World War II, and they were in different companies, different squadrons, had no idea where the other one was (as far as I know), but as fate would have it, they both ended up on the same island in the Philippines, possibly only for one day. (The family story doesn't elaborate further than this one day.) But not only were they on the same island, they ended up having the same mealtime, and being close enough to each other in line that one of them was able to recognize the other one from a distance.

So: Mike (I think), asked to cut in line. Excuse me, he said, that's my brother up there. And so the other seamen allowed him to move up the line. He continued to move up until finally, he was right behind Ralph. At which point he punched Ralph in the arm. Just as Ralph was getting ready to fight back, he turned around and saw who it was, and it was a joyous family reunion.