Shannon M. Thomas | Mostly Genealogy

Marine Casualty Card Database

2020-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

While I was writing Top 10 Blog Posts for 2019 I discovered that my top post was US Marine Casualty Cards from 2014. Wow! {There is also an update to the original post here where I show some more information that was sent to me.} I went back to read the post and discovered that the links no longer work.

I did a little digging and found a link to the Casualty Card Database at the Marine Corps University website. At this site you click on the war you want to search and download a searchable spreadsheet. Once you locate your Marine you send an email to request the card. There are also links to download information about what the codes mean on the cards.

I also found that you can search the U.S. Marine Corps Casualty Index, 1940-1958, at Ancestry.com. It gives the casualty date, type, unit, and service number. There is a link to go to another website from the Ancestry database but that link does not work. {I believe it is the same as the link from my original post.}

Have you used this database before?

5 Tips to Break Down Your Brick Wall

2020-02-04T03:09:00.000-08:00

Originally posted at Lost Tree Project as a guest post February 2019.

Eventually we all hit a brick wall. My first brick wall was with Joseph Thomas {my husband's 3rd great grandfather} I spent months searching. Brick walls can last weeks to months to years. Below are some quick tips to help you break through that brick wall.

Research another ancestor for a while and then go back to your brick wall . You will see your brick wall ancestor with new eyes.
Use a checklist to see if you missed any records. {You can find my Evernote Research Checklist in my shared genealogy notebook.}
Revisit your research. Maybe you missed a piece of information in a document. Maybe something seemed like it wasn't important but now that you have more information you find it is important.
Learn something new. It does not need to be genealogy related. When you shift your thinking to something else and then go back to the brick wall you are likely to see your research problem in a different light.
Take a break from your genealogy. Read a book, watch your favorite TV show, binge on Netflix; do anything to shift your mind off of your genealogy brick wall.

Doing one or all of the 5 things above will help clear your head and allow you to see your genealogy research problems with a clearer head.

How do you break down your brick walls?

OneNote | A Look Inside

2019-01-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

I still have a few more notes to move over from Evernote but I am loving OneNote. I keep to do lists, goals, projects, ideas, genealogy research and so much more in OneNote. So what does my setup look like? Lets take a look!

{I usually use OneNote 2016 but I have tried the Windows 10 app and it works just as good.}

The first screen shot below is OneNote 2016 and the second is from the Windows 10 app. My first notebook is my task management notebook. In this notebook I have my Inbox, which is my default section for incoming stuff, calendar and lists. {Emails that I have sent to OneNote and screen clips go in my Inbox section.} The next notebook is for my blog, and then the Genealogy notebook is for research notes, then I have the GBT notebook which I use for notes and reminders for GeneaBloggersTribe, the Reference notebook is for things that don't belong in one of the other notebooks, and the last notebook is the Archive.

Lets take a closer look at some of these notebooks. The Task Management notebook {screen shot below} is my most used notebook.

Inbox - is a temporary holding area for things I want to read later or save. These notes are frequently moved to other sections or deleted once I am done with them.

Calendar - I am in this section several times a day. I have a weekly note that I use for todo lists and reminders. There is also a calendar note that is updated weekly with appointments. {I still keep a Google Calendar and use that to update the calendar note.} This section is also where I keep my health tracker and sleep tracker. I usually have three months worth of calendars in this section.

Contacts - You guessed it, important emails and phone numbers are kept in this section. I use one note per contact so I can leave notes about what I contacted them for. {I use this mainly for genealogy purposes.}

Master Lists - I have one big list of things I want to do, need to get done, and the honey do list. Cleaning lists are kept here as well.

To Buy - This is for things that I want to buy eventually or products that I am researching.

Family Reunion - I am in charge of the reunion and I have lists of things to make sure I have the day of and ideas for the reunion.

Goals - This is for the goals that I want to complete this year. I review this every month to make necessary adjustments and leave notes on my progress.

Templates - This section is used for the templates that I created that I use all the time. I have a template for my weekly to page, a template for my sleep and health tracker, etc.

Quick Notes - This section is where the quick notes go.

Also, in the Task Management notebook will be sections for projects and then once that project is done I can archive or delete the section.

My blog notebook has sections for my content calendar, post ideas and some templates for writing blog posts. The Reference notebook has sections for stuff that does not need a separate notebook like some scrapbooking page ideas, bullet journal ideas, etc. The Archive notebook is where I put project sections when I am finished with them. I also use it to archive my weekly pages and monthly calendar.

In my next post I will share my Genealogy notebook.

How are you using OneNote?

Wordless Wednesday | Christmas 1978

2018-12-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday | A Christmas Photo

2018-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

OneNote | Anatomy of a Notebook

2018-12-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

For this post on OneNote I was going to show you inside of my notebooks but I thought you should know how the notebooks work first.

Notebooks have sections, pages, and groups. A section can have a page and a page can have subpages. A group can have sections with pages, subpages and also groups.

Some things you can do in notebooks are:

You can name sections, pages, subpages and groups whatever you would like.
You can click anywhere on the page and start typing.
You can add images, tables, etc. {you can even add calendars}.
You can add audio files as well.

There is a lot you can do in OneNote to make it your own and make it work for you. It took me some time to get it to where it is now. I will be showing you inside my notebooks next time!

Do you use OneNote? How do you make it work for you?

Wordless Wednesday

2018-11-28T10:22:00.001-08:00

Dec 1982

Evernote to OneNote | Importing Notes

2018-11-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I posted about moving to OneNote from Evernote. To start the process I searched for a way export my Evernote notes into OneNote. At the OneNote website you can download a OneNote importer. Once it is downloaded double click to open and follow the instructions to link your Evernote account. {Save the importer because you will be using it a lot to import your notes}.

I do not suggest selecting all of your notebooks and doing them at one time, especially if you have a lot of notes. Before I started the importer I did a little housekeeping in my Evernote notebooks and deleted notes that were not needed. You can also create some dummy notebooks in Evernote to break up your notes into smaller chunks so you do not run into any issues when importing to OneNote. Once in OneNote you will want to move your notes around into your new organization system.

Select your notebook, select next and let the imported do its magic. It will ask you to sign into your Microsoft account. It will tell you that your notebook in Evernote will be imported as a notebook in OneNote and each individual note will be imported as pages in the notebook. You can select to have your tags imported to OneNote as well. The tags will show up in each note as a hashtag {#} and they are searchable. {I did have them brought in but realized that I did not need them.}

It does take some time depending on how many notes you are importing. When it is done you will see the screen below.

To get back to where you select Evernote notes to import click on #2 on the left in the image above and start the import process over again.

In the next installment of Evernote to OneNote I will show you my setup.

If you have any questions about OneNote or Evernote you can email me at sthomas51004@gmail.com or you can use the Contact Me button above.

From My Family to Your Family

2018-11-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Changes Are Coming!

2018-11-19T13:36:00.001-08:00

Wordless Wednesday

2018-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday | Halloween

2018-10-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

Goodbye Evernote, Hello OneNote

2018-10-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

What? I'm leaving Evernote behind!

As most of you know I have been a huge Evernote supporter from the beginning and I have had a paid membership from the beginning {until October 1st}. There has been a lot of talk about Evernote not lasting much longer because they have been making a lot of changes and letting people go. That got me thinking about what I would do if they did cease to exist. I started looking at all of my options and the best option, for me, is OneNote. I already have it on my computer and it is free. I can use OneNote on my desktop, laptop, phone, and table all for free. I can still use tags {a bit different than what I am use to but it works and I am finding that I really don't need that many tags}. I can still search for things and actually find what I am looking for. I can still clip stuff from the web using the OneNote clipper. I'm currently working on moving notes from Evernote to OneNote. It can be a bit tedious but the process has forced me to look at my notes and get rid of the ones that are not important or just don't apply to my interest right now. I have found that about 50% of my notes are being deleted. Yes, I am deleting notes!

If you are wondering about the fate of Evernote and what will happen to your notes my best advice is to start looking for an alternative to Evernote and try out a few of the options. Make sure you have an exit strategy just in case. If you are moving from Evernote what are you using?

Don't worry, there will be more posts on the move in the upcoming weeks.

Evernote to OneNote | Importing Notes

Halloween Family Traditions

2018-10-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

2018 Pumpkins

My family has been having a pumpkin carving party for the last several years. Each year I go on a hunt for some new patterns. Today, I want to share some of my favorite places to get patterns.

Do you carve pumpkins with your family? Please share your pumpkins with me.

Wordless Wednesday

2018-10-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

2016

Wordless Wednesday

2018-10-03T17:27:00.001-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2018-09-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Easter 1980

Wordless Wednesday

2018-08-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Evernote Tags and Notebooks | How I use them

2018-08-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

I did a post in 2015 called Tagging and Notebooks in Evernote and since then some things have changed with my tagging and notebook system in Evernote.

The image below shows what my tags and notebooks looked like in 2015.

The next two image show my tags and notebooks today.

As you can see I have a lot more notebooks and tags currently. The number of tags changes quite often because a lot of my tags are temporary, and I also delete notes when I am done with them. I routinely go thorough Evernote and delete notes that are no longer relevant. Once I do that I eventually have tags with no notes so I will go through my tags frequently and delete all tags that do not have any notes associated with it.

Each notebook stack, except for 5 - HOUSE, 7 - TEMPLATES, and z FILING CABINET z do not have an @ tag associated with it. The tag for 5 - HOUSE is currently nested under the @SHANNON tag because it keeps my tag list shorter and because there are only a handful of notes in that notebook. {5 - HOUSE notebook stack is a temporary notebook that is holding some projects we are working on in and when those projects are complete most of the notes will be deleted and any that need to be archived will go to z FILING CABINET z.} I do this so that none of my notes will be without a tag and because it keeps my tags organized under each section. I tag my notes sparingly because Evernote's search feature is so powerful. I can always find the note that I am looking for very easily.

I have gotten some questions about what is in my 1 - GENEALOGY notebook stack. {To be honest, this notebook stack is a mess right now.} The images below show my 1 - GENEALOGY notebook stack and my @GENEALOGY tag stack.

Notebook Stacks

!!INBOX - has temporary notes. Things that need to be added to my Legacy Family Tree database and snippets of information while doing research. There is also a Genealogy Master Note that is updated frequently and it includes links to notes in other notebooks that reference research that I am doing, best practices for a document I am working on, etc. I try to clean this notebook out weekly.

**RESEARCH** - is a big mess...lol. This notebook currently has every genealogy note in it. I have been going through this notebook and making sure the information in the note is in my Legacy database, if it is an image I am making sure that it is saved to Dropbox, etc. I delete the note if I do not need it any longer or it gets put in one of the other notebooks.

BEST PRACTICES - holds notes pertaining to Legacy Family Tree and how things are entered into my database and include templates to extract information, etc.

CCH&GS - this notebooks holds notes with information on people that I want to research at my local historical society.

EDUCATION - holds blog articles, webinar notes, handouts, etc.

RESEARCH NOTES - holds research notes for people that I am researching.

Tombstone Tuesday

2018-08-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Edward C. Lewis

Born : 1 Oct 1824 Blairstown, Warren, New Jersey, USA

Died : 14 Aug 1891, Union Township, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, USA

Buried : Aug 1891 at Oakdale Cemetery, Hunlock Creek, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, USA

Edward is my 3rd great-grandfather. He married Eleanor Bonham 27 Mar 1842

You can read more about Edward in this post.

I have added Edward to my to do list as I still have some unanswered questions. Watch for more on Edward C. Lewis.

Wordless Wednesday

2018-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dad, Me, and Mom Easter 1980

Evernote Genealogy Shared Notebook | An Update

2018-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been working on updating the Evernote Genealogy Notebook with some new templates and new screen shots. If you have not joined the Genealogy Notebook you can find the instructions here. I have also reorganized the notebook so it is easier to find things. All notes are now linked through the index and the note titles and numbered to correspond with the index.

Updated Index Note

Putting Pen to Paper

2018-08-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Over at Anglers Rest Julie Goucher posted Planners, Notebooks & How it Came to be about her planning system. I thought I would share how I plan and keep track of everything that I do.

As most of you know I use Evernote for my brain but sometimes I just have to write things down. I have always used some sort of planner. I even used Evernote for a planner for a while but I missed putting pen to paper.

There are tons of options for planners. I currently use a Chic Sparrow Traveler's Notebook. It is in the Mr. Darcy Leather and the color is a retired color called Mayflower. {This was gifted to me by a wonderful person and friend...she is the best} I've also grown to love fountain pens but that is a post for another time.

Inside the front cover there are some sticky pockets with clips and some business cards. On the right is a dashboard that I made and in the pocket are some stickers.

This is the other side of the dashboard with a picture from our wedding almost 14 years ago. On the right is the front of the Rhodia dot grid notebook that I use.

The back of my dashboard with a notepad in the pocket. On the right is another notebook that I use for GeneaBloggersTRIBE stuff. In this travelers notebook I have room for 4 notebooks. I currently have three in this one; the one you do not see is where I write down my monthly goals.

I keep many different things in my Rhodia notebook. I track my migraines and my fibromyalgia pain each day.

A monthly calendar with appointment and important dates and bills that need to be paid.

Each week has a two page spread where I keep my work hours, appointments, and to dos. There is also a tracker for each week where I track cleaning, blogging, and personal care.

At the end of all of my weekly spreads there is a place for notes. Usually there are genealogy notes here. Sometimes it will include notes from YouTube videos, Podcasts, and Webinars all about various topics. If I jot something on a sticky note it ends up here as well. {This note is about how my husband and I are 5th cousins...another post for another time.}

I also use my Google Calendar for monthly appointments and future planning so I have it with me on the go. My travelers notebook usually sits on the left corner of my desk where I can easily get to it. It is perfect for tossing in my bag if I need to take it with me.

What planner do you use? Or do you do something different?

Shannon M. Thomas | Mostly Genealogy

Marine Casualty Card Database

Top 10 Posts of 2019

5 Tips to Break Down Your Brick Wall

Top 10 Posts for 2018

OneNote | A Look Inside

Wordless Wednesday | Christmas 1978

Wordless Wednesday | A Christmas Photo

OneNote | Anatomy of a Notebook

Wordless Wednesday

Evernote to OneNote | Importing Notes

From My Family to Your Family

Changes Are Coming!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday | Halloween

Goodbye Evernote, Hello OneNote

Halloween Family Traditions

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Evernote Tags and Notebooks | How I use them

Notebook Stacks

Tags

Tombstone Tuesday

Wordless Wednesday

Evernote Genealogy Shared Notebook | An Update

Putting Pen to Paper