Gen Wish List

Cleaning Up The Letter D

2012-01-26T10:52:00.000-05:00

I've started a project cleaning up my database. Whenever I finish a letter of the alphabet, I'll write a blog post to report about what I learned about the surnames that start with that letter.

This week I finished the Letter D. Here were some of my finds:

I had 4 people with the surname Deitrich that married into my family tree. I knew that 2 of them were siblings. After looking at the census records, I was able to determine that George A Dietrich was the son of Jacob Deitrich. George married into my Dincher line and Jacob, along with his sister Anna Maria, married into the Eiswerth line.
Decided that when Benjamin Potter (age 62) married Polly Demaree (age 61) in 1849 he probably didn't marry a virgin. So I deleted the maiden name of Demaree for her.
Found the marriage record of James Dunning and Nancy Craig in Boone County, Kentucky. They went across the river to get married. And now I'm up to 9 surnames found during the adventure!
While trying to track what happened to George William Dygert after his wife's death in 1932, I found that his wife lived until 1934. Grace Lavina Suckling died on 4 November 1934 (not 1932) after a car backed up over her. I found accounts of her death and marriage in the Niagara Falls Gazette, available online at Old Fulton NY Post Cards. I also discovered the Niagara Falls city directories on Ancestry and was able to track the family of Grace, her sister Hazel, and brother William Francis Elvey Suckling. Now I know when WFE Suckling moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan and I have an additional project to look him up in the city directories when I am at ACPL next.
Finding the Niagara Falls Gazette online made me search for all my surnames in that area. I was able to find 2 articles on the death of William Watson Suckling, Grace's father. Even though he died in St. Catharines, Ontario, his obituary ran in the NY paper. We are always told to search across borders for our ancestors, but I never think to search across country borders. Glad I did!

I made some great finds with the letter D. Now it's onto the letter E. Which is going to take forever just to get through all the Ecks and Eiswerths, not to mention the other surnames.

Other letter cleanups:

Unknown surnames
Letter A

Letter B

Letter C

The First Ever Midwest Geneabloggers Meetup

2012-01-25T10:55:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, March 24, I will be hosting the first ever Midwest Geneabloggers Meetup in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Terri O'Connell and I have spent some time organizing this event and now it's time to share it with you.

Part One:

Spend the day researching at the Allen County Public Library. Their Genealogy Center has the 2nd largest collection of genealogy materials in the country. The library will be open from 9AM to 6PM on Saturday.

While there, you could even attend librarian Steve Myer's workshop on Irish researc h on Friday and Saturday. The workshop costs $50. (I attended part 1 a few years ago and it was great. I would be attending the second part if I thought I had a chance of finding my Irish roots in Ireland.)

Part Two:

At 4:00PM, we will start migrating the fun to my house on the north side of Fort Wayne. We will be ordering pizza for dinner. I'll also pick up some salad supplies, pop and water. You are welcome to bring a side dish, dessert or additional drinks to add the the food on hand, but it is not required. There will be a $5 fee to cover the food.

The party will run until my husband kicks us out (which might be 4:05PM).

If you want to spend the night in Fort Wayne on Friday or Saturday, Terri O'Connell has reserved some hotel rooms. The hotel is on the north side of Fort Wayne near my house, but not the library. So keep that in mind. See her blog post and contact her for the details.

For those that want additional time at the library, ACPL is open on Friday from 9AM-6PM and Sunday from Noon-5PM.

Please email me at genwishlist@gmail.com if you plan to attend. Also send me a link to your blog and where you are from so that I can easily make a blog post of who is attending. (I also need to warn the library of how many crazy bloggers will be coming.) I'll send you my address and other party details as we near the fun!

I can't wait see everyone. It's going to be a blast!

Two Great Reasons to Visit Fort Wayne This Spring

2012-01-23T13:40:00.000-05:00

There are two great reasons to come to Fort Wayne this spring:

Midwest Geneabloggers Meetup - Saturday, March 24
Bloggers will be descending on Fort Wayne to spend a day researching at the Allen County Public Library and then in the late afternoon partying at my house. Terri O'Connell and I have been working together to put together this event. She has a teaser up on her blog and I'll have all the details for you here later this week.

Indiana Genealogical Society Conference - Saturday, April 28
Registration is open for the IGS annual conference. The conference will be held at the Allen County Public Library. One track will feature our main speaker, Debra S. Mieszala. The second track includes talks on FamilySearch from Michael Hall, searching Ancestry with Melissa Shimkus, and writing a family history from Curt Sylvester. You can also research in the library all day. Visit the IGS website for all the details.

I hope to see many of you at one or both of these great events!

FGS 2013 Conference in Fort Wayne - Request for Lecture Proposals

2012-01-19T14:15:00.000-05:00

Below is the press release for the 2013 FGS National Conference - Request for Lecture Proposals. FGS 2013 will be held August 21-24, 2013 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I am happy to be serving as National Publicity co-chair, along with Kerry Scott. Even if you are not a genealogy speaker, add FGS 2013 to your calendar so you remember to attend all the great events that will be happening.

For Immediate Release
January 19, 2012

2013 FGS NATIONAL CONFERENCE REQUEST FOR LECTURE PROPOSALS

Deadline for Submissions is May 15, 2012

January 19, 2012 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces a Request for Lecture Proposals for the FGS 2013 Conference, “Journey Through Generations,” to be held August 21 – 24, 2013, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The conference will be held in conjunction with the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana and the Allen County Public Library as local hosts. Outstanding nearby research facilities and attractions will enhance the conference experience. The deadline for submission of lecture proposals is Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

The 2013 FGS Conference theme, Journey Through Generations, has dual meaning. It symbolizes the literal journey our ancestors took through America's heartland, on rivers, railroads, Indian trails, wagon roads, canals and the Underground Railroad. The theme also infers the virtual journey that genealogists take through bygone times and distant places as they explore the lives of their ancestors generation by generation.
Topics relating to the Midwest, migration patterns, technology, regional repositories, and religious and ethnic groups are encouraged. Wednesday, 21 August 2013, is an all-day "Focus on Societies" program for genealogical society officers, board members, volunteers, and other interested parties.

The program committee specifically seeks new and dynamic proposals that will provide exceptional and unique educational experiences for conference attendees. Proposals for workshops and sponsored talks are also encouraged.

Categories for submissions include:

Focus on Society Management
Methodologies and Strategies
Transportation (e.g. canals, Great Lakes, railroads)
Midwestern Records (e.g. land records, early forts and settlements)
Military Records
Repositories
Record Types
Technology
Religious Groups (e.g. Quakers, Amish, United Brethren)
Ethnic Groups (e.g. German, African American, Native American, Polish, Irish)
Genetics and DNA
Migration/Immigration

Speakers are strongly encouraged to submit multiple proposals (more than four), as most speakers will be invited to present a minimum of three lectures at the conference. There is no limit to the number of proposals a speaker may submit.

Submission Requirements

Send proposals in PDF, Microsoft Word, or RTF format. File names should include your last name, first initial, and proposal topic. (Example: SmithR - TechStrategies). Each proposal should include:

Speaker(s) name.
Speaker(s) contact information, including mailing address, phone, email, fax, and website, if applicable.
Prior speaking experience. Speakers who have not spoken at a national conference are encouraged to submit a video, audiotape, or CD recording of a recent lecture by mail.
Speaker(s) biography.
Speaker(s) brief brochure biography (50 word maximum).
Lecture title (not to exceed 10 words).
Lecture brochure description (40 word maximum).
Lecture outline/summary.
Lecture audio-visual requirements. FGS does NOT provide projectors, computers, or internet access for speakers.
Intended audience level: beginner, intermediate, advanced, any level.

Send proposals, as an email attachment, with “FGS 2013 Lecture Proposals” in the subject line, to program2013@fgs.org no later than May 15, 2012. If submitting lecture recordings by mail, please email program2013@fgs.org for the appropriate postal address.

Compensation

Selected speakers receive an honorarium, travel compensation, and conference registration as well as per diem and hotel nights based on the number of lectures presented. (Sponsored speakers only receive conference registration and syllabus materials. See more about sponsorships below.) Non-sponsored speakers receive compensation according to the FGS Conference Speaker Policy at www.fgs.org/conferences/speakerpolicy.php.

Sponsored Lectures

Societies and businesses are encouraged to submit proposals for sponsored talks. The sponsoring organization will cover its speaker's costs to present the lecture. Sponsored speakers will abide by all speaker deadlines and syllabus requirements. Sponsored speakers will receive complimentary FGS conference registration and electronic syllabus materials.

Additional Information

Camera-ready handouts are required for each lecture or workshop presentation and will be compiled in a syllabus distributed to conference participants. The deadline for submissions of syllabus materials is April 15, 2013.

Invitations to speak will be issued in October 2012. Syllabus format guidelines will be sent to speakers at that time. The deadline for acceptance and submission of signed speaker contracts is November 1, 2012.

About the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) was founded in 1976 and represents the members of hundreds of genealogical societies. FGS links the genealogical community by helping genealogical societies strengthen and grow through resources available online, FGS Forum magazine (filled with articles pertaining to society management and genealogical news), and Society Strategy Series papers, covering topics about effectively operating a genealogical society. FGS also links the genealogical community through its annual conference -- four days of excellent lectures, including one full day devoted to society management topics. To learn more visit http://www.fgs.org.

Cleaning Up The Letter C

2012-01-12T11:21:00.001-05:00

I've started a project cleaning up my database. Whenever I finish a letter of the alphabet, I'll write a blog post to report about what I learned about the surnames that start with that letter.

I'm moving right along with this organization project. I only have 2 main families in the Cs, so I was able to get through them quickly. Plus I had already done a lot of work on the Cleveland family when I entered the source details from the family history where I initially found most of the information on that line.

Here are some highlights from the C surname cleanup:

Still can't find Charles Caldwell in the 1830 and 1840 censuses. But I did find his wife, Rachel Washburn, living with possibly her husband's family in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. I had already found her in 1850. In 1870, she was listed as blind. I was also able to find her in the Athens County (Ohio) Home from 1876-1877 thanks to Julie's Genealogy website that includes an index to the records from the home.
Laura Cleveland and William Tubbs were in Athens County, Ohio in 1840 and 1860. Finally found them in 1850 in Illinois by searching for their daughters.
Deleted Henry Bruner from my tree because he never actually married Emeline Dunning. They got a license, but no marriage. I still don't have the original record for this license, but it goes to show which index you use can make a difference in your assumptions. The first index I used just named the parties and date of marriage, but the second one had notations when the marriage return was not found.
Found the marriages of Ruth Brown to James Ward and Elizabeth Brown to Jesse Russell in Brunswick Maine. I was able to trace my Brown family thanks to Sons of the American Revolution applications.

You might notice that half of the C clean up is actually Bs. That's because I make a notation in Evernote of items I need to find on my next trip to the Allen County Public Library. So even though I was done going through the Bs in my database, I still had some research to do.

On to the letter B!

Other letter cleanups:
Unknown surnames
Letter A

Letter B

2012 Genealogy Resolutions

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! 2012 should be an exciting genealogy year with the release of the 1940 census and Pennsylvania death certificates! I hope that 2012 is a wonderful year for everyone and many brick walls come crumbling down.

Here are my genealogy resolutions for 2012:

Research
Indiana Deed Records - I'm currently ordering the microfilm of deed books in Switzerland, Ohio, and Dearborn Counties in Indiana. I'm hoping that by tracking my ancestors' land I will learn more about their lives and possibly find a few hidden relationships. Last year I got bored with probate records, so let's hope that land records are more exciting.

Joseph Hillis Brick Wall - When I found the parents of George Hillis, I was so excited. That was until I found out that his father gave 5 places for his place of birth. I found the obituary for Joseph Hillis this fall. He died in Boone County, Kentucky but was buried in Rising Sun, Ohio County, Indiana. I'm hoping to find another obituary for him in the Rising Sun newspapers, particularly one that names his parents. I also need to make a trip to the Ohio County Historical Society and see what is in their Hillis family file (along with a few other families).

Organization
I've already written about my organization project. The short version is that I am checking for missing sources in my tree and looking for new sources that I didn't know about or were not available when I last worked on an individual. I just need to stay on track and clean up the entries for 5 ancestors every day.

Writing
"Publish" Eiswerth surname book - I'm not sure exactly what this means yet. Do I want a hard copy made and distributed to the family? Or do I want it kept as a digital format so that I can change it as I find new details? Either way I need to add some more photos and the 1940 census before its done.

"Publish" Grandpa's military service book - Last year I put all the documents that my grandpa saved from his WWII service into a Word document. I need to add some of his WWII photos and some history and then I will be done. Again the publishing question exists.

Write Bascom surname book - It's time to spend some time on grandma's line and share those stories with her. This should tie in nicely with the deed records project.

Education
Conferences

Indiana Genealogical Society's Conference, April 28, Fort Wayne, Indiana - featuring Debra Mieszala (Full disclosure: I'm Vice President of IGS and on the conference committee. Details should be coming soon.)
National Genealogical Society's Conference, May 9-12, Cincinnati, Ohio (I'll be running the IGS booth and receiving the complimentary registration that goes with the booth fee.)
Summer conferences and institutes are all maybes right now. It depends on what I can con my husband into letting me get away with. I will be choosing at least one:

Midwestern Roots, July 20-21, Indianapolis, Indiana
FGS, August 29-September 1, Birmingham, Alabama
GRIPitt, July 22-27, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

National Institute for Genealogical Studies - I finished the American record series in 2011. I just have the Analysis and Skills advanced course to complete to finish the methodology series. Then I need to do some electives to meet the 40 course requirement for the certificate. I'm probably going to take the English record series for my electives. I hope to get most of the way complete by the end of 2012.

I didn't do too bad on my 2011 resolutions and I hope to accomplish even more this year. This fall I decided to stop being a substitute teacher. Right now, I'm a full time make breakfast, clean the house and make dinner wife. So this year I also hope to pick up a few genealogy related jobs to pay for my hobby and develop my skills for a possible future career in genealogy.

These are my resolutions. What are yours?

Cleaning Up The Letter B

2011-12-31T08:59:00.005-05:00

I've started a project cleaning up my database. Whenever I finish a letter of the alphabet, I'll write a blog post to report about what I learned about the surnames that start with that letter.

I have 7 main family lines filed under the letter B, plus a ton of my relatives married people with B surnames. The letter B took a while to get through, but it did not disappoint.

Here are just a few of the gems I found in the Bs:

Found the obituary of Catherine Bank, wife of John Weis in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania newspapers. I was also able to track them down in the census and city directories after I found their address in the obituary. Thanks to Leslie Lawson for the obit lookup.
Realized that a family history had spelled a woman's first name incorrectly. It's Ursula Barrows, now Visula. Then I was able to find her marriage to James Madison Washburn and track the family through the census.
Found marriage records for Margaret Bascom's daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Smith, which led me to finding Margaret in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses, Indianapolis directories and a second husband. Still need to find the second marriage though.
Finally put together everything I had gathered on Fanny Bascom and was able to follow her children around St. Louis, Missouri after her death in the 1840s.
Found the marriage of Philo Dibble Bates and Ann Magdalene Whitmore in Ontario. Then I found Ann's death in British Columbia.
Tracked the John Bower and Maria Katharina Schilling family in census records and found John in the same cemetery as his wife. Imagine that!

These are just the highlights from the B surnames in my tree. Only 24 more letters to go!

Other letter cleanups:
Unknown surnames
Letter A

2011 Genealogy Resolutions - Review Time

2011-12-29T11:51:00.001-05:00

It's the end of the year. So it's time to review last year's resolutions. Here were my 2011 genealogy resolutions:

Research Goal: Collect more original records. Included in this goal is ordering more microfilm from the Family History Library, visiting the Indiana State Library and visiting Switzerland County, Indiana. I also hope to visit Lycoming County, Pennsylvania again this year in order to improve my writing goal.
I started ordered microfilm of probate records in Indiana and then got bored with them. So I'll have to come back to them at some point. I was able to visit the Indiana State Library, Switzerland County, and Lycoming County this past year. I found lots of records to help me find my ancestors and hope to visit more repositories in 2012.

Writing Goal: Write a book about my surname line, Eiswerth. I was finally able to connect this family in Pennsylvania together and find them in Germany. This year I hope to gather the German parish registers, more tombstone photos, and other original records and publish them as a coffee table book for my family.

The prelimary edition of the Eiswerth family book was published and shared with family in August. I have since added more German church records, agricultural records, and photos to the book. I am waiting for the 1940 census before I decide if I want to make hard copies or keep it alive as a PDF.

I also started a book on my grandfather's military service. I just need to add some history to it and it should be done soon. Of course it would have been done awhile ago if I could find some motivation to finish it.

Scanning Goal: Scan all of the slides in my grandma's house. I knew that my grandpa had made a ton of slides, but I underestimated how many were there until I actually looked at them in December. There are 3 shelves full of slide boxes. I took home just the first shelf of 14 boxes. I'd like to turn each box into a video slide show and put them on DVD.
I never want to see another slide again. I finished all the slides at my grandma's house and then did all the slides that my parents had. I then organized all my photos and hopefully I will be able to find them now.

Education Goal: Continue National Institute for Genealogical Studies courses. I should be finishing the intermediate courses soon and then it's time for the advanced courses.

I finished the intermediate courses and all but one advanced course.

Conference Goal: Although I want to go to every genealogy conference, I will definitely be attending the Indiana Genealogical Society conference in Indianapolis on April 16 and the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Springfield, Illinois in September. I have decided to skip the Ohio Genealogical Society conference in Columbus, Ohio because I wasn't too excited about this year's program lineup and I think a trip to the Indiana State Library is a better use of my time and money.

I had so much fun at FGS again this year. I'm working on the husband so I can go to Birmingham for FGS 2012. I was also able to attend the IGS conference and the Kentucky Genealogical Society's seminar with Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Blog Goal: Write more about my ancestors and start blogging about my husband's ancestors (more on that soon). I need to get into a better routine about writing up my genealogy finds before I continue my research.

I started the Mr. Gen Wish List blog and scheduled a bunch of posts about his ancestors. So that side is taken care of for a while. I haven't found a good routine for writing about my ancestors yet but maybe that will change with my crazy organization goal for 2012.

So that's how I did on my 2011 genealogy resolutions. How did you do?

Cleaning up the Letter A

2011-12-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

I've started a project cleaning up my database. Whenever I finish a letter of the alphabet, I'll write a blog post to report about what I learned about the surnames that start with that letter.

I didn't find anything exciting by reviewing the letter A surnames. But I was able to find more family histories that needed the source details added. Although they weren't "A" surnames, I still found:

That I forgot to do the last generation in a family history. I stopped with my common ancestor and forgot about the extra entries for a few of her children. Then I was able to find:

The middle name of one woman
That one man in my database was actually 2 men. The woman had married cousins with the same name. Then I was able to find the 2nd marriage record and detangle the two men.

In another family history, I found that they mixed up the woman's maiden name and first married name. Then I was able to find her first husband, obituary, and burial place.

I also went through a family history that was created for my maternal grandmother's side of the family in the late 1990s. Everyone wrote in with their own stories of the family. When I ask my grandmother about her life, she tells me that she doesn't remember. But 15 years ago, she was ready to write those stories and share her memories so that her children wouldn't forget. Luckily the person who put the book together, recorded who wrote most of the stories. So every time it said that something was written by my grandmother, I transcribed it and put it into a Personal Historian file for her. So now I have the stories, even if she won't tell me them herself.

I also plan to cut up those stories into small parts and send them out to my family over the next year. That way they can build on the stories and also help me to identify which child was causing what trouble.

So even though I didn't find anything exciting in the letter "A", I still was able to find gaps in my database and fill in more blanks.

Other letter cleanups:
Unknown surnames

Cleaning Up My Genealogy Database

2011-12-05T11:17:00.001-05:00

Last month I wrote about the amazing finds that I had made in my research just by cleaning up my database. I said that I was going to write about my process, but then I never did. So today I will share what I am doing to make my family tree database better.

First thing I did was to create a list of all the people in my database. I could have kept this as a digital file and highlighted within it, but I wanted to use my pretty highlighters and I get some odd satisfaction out of actually crossing things off a list. This list will help to make sure that I get everyone. I've found more people to add to my database, but I've decided not to add them to the list. I'm trying to add them and all their details properly the first time (and they'll get their turn the next time I decide to do this).

For each person in my database I am:

Checking that all facts have sources.
Making sure that all sources have source detail to tell me what the source said and why I added it to each fact. Nothing annoys me when I am trying to figure out who was in a census with someone and it's not in my database. The record is there, but not the transcription. I like being able to see the information I want quickly and not having to waste time trying to decode someone's awful handwriting for the 10th time.
Research for person in online databases. So many new databases have come online recently. I keep pretty good track of what is new, but I will never remember all the places that family members lived. So it's is good to go back through everyone and see what new resources are available to find them.
Check Find A Grave. Add person if not listed. Request photo if not found. At one point, I thought I would just visit and take all these photos myself. But that is not realistic, especially for all those collateral lines. Now might not be the best time to request photos with the snow and cold weather, but I've already gotten 5 photos back. Plus my requests will be waiting when someone wants to take a walk through a cemetery on a warm day.
Compare RootsMagic database on my computer to my online tree on Ancestry. I love my Ancestry tree and all those little leaves. Probably because I'm smarter than those leaves. I don't just add everything it suggests, I evaluate the sources and add them if they fit. But I love those leaves because sometimes they find sources I would never cross my mind. Keeping my Ancestry tree current with my research should help to get more leaves that fit my tree.
Make a list in Evernote of sources to check at the Allen County Public Library on my weekly research trips.

So why am I taking the time to do this? There are 2 main reasons. First, my research skills have improved tremendously in the last 3 and a half years. It's time to go back and use my improved research skills on my own tree. Second, I'm bored with my research. I've been stuck with my research and have been ordering microfilm and other records. Which is good. But sometimes I just want to do some good old fashioned census research. I thought that I had finished that within my own tree, but I am amazed at how many people I lost track of and have now been able to find. I'm still going to order microfilm, visit repositories and request records, but I like having something I can do at home and online.

My goal is to do 5 people a day. There are over 1800 people in my database, so I'll be able to finish this clean up before the end of 2012 if I keep doing a little every day. I am skipping all the people in one branch of my tree that I think has a bad connection. Whenever I finish a surname letter, I'll write a blog post on what I found. I've written about the unknown surnames already and will post about the letter A tomorrow. Currently I'm working on the Bs which will take a while since there are 6 main family lines under that letter.

What are you doing to improve your database?

7 Maiden Names, 1 Divorce, and 30 Deleted Ancestors

2011-11-18T17:18:00.001-05:00

This week I started a new project focused on cleaning up my genealogy database. I'll explain what I'm doing in another post next week. Since that post was starting to get out of hand, I thought I would share what I found so far.

This week I went through all the people in my database without surnames. I also started adding source details for family histories that I used. Here's what happened:

I found the maiden names of 7 women in the following sources:

Burial record with parents' names.
Obituary citation on Find-a-Grave that led me to newspaper images on Ancestry.
Texas marriage index.
Published Massachusetts vital records.
Marriage record already cited in database, but never recorded her maiden name.
Ohio marriage record.
Bible record that was again already citing the marriage but I never recorded the name.

I also:

Found divorce index for my great grandfather and his second wife.
Deleted one woman because I'm not sure if the will I have for her husband is actually for the right guy. Too many men with the same now in the area.
Deleted 29 names and my Mayflower connection when I realized that the "proof" in the family history was an old lady remembering a name in a book her grandmother had. I guess it's good that I found out before Thanksgiving.

It's amazing what you can find about your ancestors when you look at them again. Stayed tuned to hear the details of my new project.

Brick Wall - Where did Joseph Hillis originate?

2011-11-11T13:00:00.001-05:00

Last week I wrote about my brick wall in the KAVCIC family. I never thought I was going to get anywhere with that family, so it was exciting to find most of them in the passenger lists. Finding them in Austria/Slovenia is going to be a whole other thing though.

While I was looking for them, I was supposed to be working on a blog post about Joseph Hillis. I like to pick one ancestor who is being a pain and make them my #1 brick wall. The last one I had was Joseph's son, George. I couldn't find the names of George's parents anywhere. But then I found a death date for him and that led me to his death certificate and that held the names I was seeking. I found George with his parents in Boone County, Kentucky. I found his mother's parents and grandparents and great grandparents. But I couldn't find anything about Joseph.

Here's what I know about Joseph:

He was born 29 April 1832. (obituary)
He married Susan Brown MORSE on 12 May 1856 in Ohio County, Indiana. (Indiana Marriage database)
On 25 May 1857, son George was born in Rising Sun, Indiana.
In August 1859, son Valorous was born in Indiana. (He is named for his maternal grandfather.)
In 1860, Joseph and Susan are living with their two sons, George and Valorous, in Spencer County, Indiana. (1860 census)
In 1863, Joseph registered for the civil war draft. He was living in Ohio County, Indiana.
On 28 January 1864, daughter Mary Francis is born in Rising Sun.
In September 1865, daughter Lizzie is born in Indiana.
In 1880, Joseph and Susan are living with their children, Valorous, Mary and Lizzie, in Boone County, Kentucky. (1880 census)
In 1900, Joseph and Susan are still in Boone County. (1900 census)
Joseph died on 25 February 1907 in Boone County. (obituary)
He was buried in Rising Sun, Ohio County, Indiana according to his obituary. (obituary)
His occupation was fisherman.

Now the problems:
I have never been able to find the family in the 1870 census. This could be attributed to the family moving around the Ohio River.

There is no one birthplace listed for Joseph. Gathering all the census records for him and his children, his place of birth is listed as:

Ohio - 2x
England - 2x
Pennsylvania - 7x
Virginia - 1x
West Virginia - 1x

In 1880, the census enumerator wrote that Joseph's father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother in France. In 1900, it is written that his father was born in Ireland and his mother in Pennsylvania.

George named his first born Joseph Mills Hillis. His father never used a middle name or initial, but the Mills name might be from his family.

I was able to find his obituary 2 weeks ago. The Boone County Public Library in Burlington, Kentucky has an newspaper index on their website. I found an entry for Joseph and received the obituary in my email in a few days. So now I have some other places to look.

Here's my plan:

Search the Rising Sun, Indiana papers for mention of his death and burial.
Search the family files at the Ohio County Historical Society. They have files on Hillis and Morse.

So it's road trip time!

Chipping at Brick Wall - Mary and Helena Kavcic passenger list

2011-11-03T11:58:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I wrote about finding Apolonia Kavcic, wife of Enos Kavcic, on a 1893 passenger list. While writing the post, I started thinking. Where were her two daughters? One of the reasons that it took me so long to find Apolonia was that I kept searching for the family. I went back to my research and realized that Apolonia and Enos were living in Pennsylvania with their American born children in 1900. But their two Austrian born daughters, Mary and Helena, were no where to be found.

Then it was time to redefine my search criteria. Instead of searching between 1890 and 1900, when I thought the girls had arrived, I searched for them between 1900 and 1910. And of course they came right up. Again the surname was indexed as Kaveic.

They arrived on 14 December 1902 in New York City and were headed to their father living in East Palestine, Ohio.

Of course in the time it took me to go to the grocery store and get around to my new search, Linda Swisher over at Round Tuit Genealogy had already found the daughters. But since I didn't check my email until after I found the girls, I can pretend that I found them first.

Linda also found a potential candidate for their father's passenger list. Janos Kavulzis fits the June 1892 immigration date that Enos Kavcic gives on his immigration. The ages also match. He was headed to Ohio, another match. But I'm still not sure about the surname. It's a little too different for me. Janos also lists his occupation as a joiner. The only occupation I have for Enos is coal miner in 1900.

So I am now 3 for 4 in finding the Kavcic family on ships and I have some hints for the last guy.

Chipping at Brick Wall - Apolonia Kavcic Passenger List

2011-11-02T10:51:00.000-04:00

I've been looking over some of my brick walls in order to write some blog posts. Originally I thought I could just write up where I am stuck and hope that someone searching the internet would have an answer for me some day. But then I started chipping away at them and have made progress on my own.

The last few nights I have been searching for the KAVCIC family on passenger lists. I know they were in the United States by the time their son Charles was born in September 1894. I also know that they were still in Austria when daughter, Helena was born in 1891. Last night I searched the Philadelphia passenger lists on Ancestry and finally found them!

Well actually I only found one of them, but it was still progress.

Apolonia Kavcic (indexed as Apolenia Kaveic) left Antwerp, Belgium on 29 November 1893 aboard the S. S. Pennsylvania. She arrived in Philadelphia on 15 December 1893. Her husband paid her fare and was living in East Palestine, Ohio. [Or at least near it since I find the family living in Darlington Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1900 and 1910. Just over the state border.]

Her last residence was Sairachberg. It was Austria, but is now Slovenia.

So now I have to go back and try to find the passenger lists for her husband, Enos Kavcic, and their daughters Mary and Helena. Enos states on his naturalization papers that he arrived in the United States in June of 1892. But of course I haven't been able to find him yet. The girls aren't listed in the 1900 census with the family, so they might have immigrated between 1900 and their marriages in 1907 and 1909.

At least I have some more clues now. I also need to contact the church in East Palestine and see what records they have on the family.

Interesting note: Apolonia arrived on 15 December 1893. Her first child born in the US, Charles, was born on 6 September 1894. I guess Apolonia and Enos missed each other while they lived apart.

Indiana Genealogical Society - Always A Hoosier Project

2011-10-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

The Indiana Genealogical Society has a project called "Always a Hoosier". This project is all about user submissions. If you have ancestors who was born before 1930 and is buried in Indiana, you can contribute information about them. All you have to do is fill out a simple form and prove that they are buried in Indiana. Include a photograph of your ancestor or their gravestone to liven up the entry. All entries are printed in the IGS newsletter along with the contact information of the submitter.

If you ancestors lived in Indiana, but were buried somewhere else, you can record information about them in the IGS project "Once a Hoosier".

IGS publications are all digital. But they are printed and preserved at the Allen County Public Library and other libraries in and out of the state.

It's a great way to preserve the story of your ancestor and find new cousins. I just submitted a bunch of ancestors along with the gravestone photographs that I found on my trip to Switzerland County back in the spring.

Current Project - Recording My History

2011-10-26T10:54:00.000-04:00

Over the past few years, I have research my family history, recorded family stories, scanned family photographs and shared what I have found with others. But there has been one area of my genealogy that has been lacking: the part about me.

I've scanned photographs of myself growing up. I've recorded the important dates of my life in my genealogy program. I've recorded a few of my memories.

One of the problems with recording my own history is that I took all my personal history items from my parents' house when I starting getting involved in genealogy. So then when I scanned what my parents had my stuff wasn't there. Of course there were photographs, but no report cards, no awards, no baby book, no yearbooks, no Puffalump. All of my stuff has been buried in my closet. I knew I wanted it. I knew I need to preserve it. I just never did anything useful with it all.

So now I am on a mission to record "my history". I pulled everything out of my closet so that I could get to the good stuff. I am scanning photographs, photo albums, yearbooks, report cards, and everything else I forgot I had.

Here are my tools:

CanoScan 8800F (for scanning large documents and photos) - current gen is the 9000F
Flip-Pal Scanner (so I can scan photos while watching television)
Lightroom 3 (to organize all the photos I find)
Personal Historian 2 (for recording all the information I find)

Hopefully this won't take too long. I mean there is less than 30 years of history to record. And I'd really like to be able to get to my bookshelf without tripping on all the stuff that should be in my closet.

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links were used for the tools I am using.

Tombstone Tuesday - William and Lucetta ECK

2011-10-18T21:46:00.000-04:00

William
Eck
Feb. 20, 1823
Oct 5, 1900

Lucetta
Eck
Aug. 26, 1826
Mar. 6, 1905

Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011

Watching Someone Analyze Your Blog Is Weird

2011-10-17T13:27:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday I went to the Allen County Public Library to crash my friend Melissa's class on genealogy blogs. (You may remember Melissa from FGS. She was the one causing trouble and blaming it on me.) She told me on Wednesday that she was using my blog in her presentation. Very cool! The class discussed the different blogging platforms, where to find genealogy blogs, how to read blogs and what to write on your own blog. Melissa did a great job and hopefully inspired some new genealogy bloggers.

What I didn't realize was how weird it is to have someone discuss your blog. Melissa didn't just show my blog and say how awesome I am and move to the next blog. Oh no, she analyzed all the features on my blog. Here's where you can subscribe to Tina's blog. Here's where you can follow Tina's blog. Here's where you can see all the categories on Tina's blog. Here's the surname page on Tina's blog. Here's the archive on Tina's blog.

Looking at my blog and all the features of it on the big screen got me thinking.

Why was my archive set up on a weekly basis? That was find back in the beginning when there wasn't much time elapsed on the blog. But it makes more sense to set the archive by month now.
Should my categories by listed by frequency (as they are now) or in alphabetical order? Or in a cloud (even if Melissa isn't a fan)?
When was the last time I updated my surnames page? And why haven't I set it up like on my husband's blog with the area where they lived?

So I went home from the class and did a little blog tweaking. Even the crasher learned something.

[It is also really fun to tweet while crashing a genealogy blog class. Then the presenter gets emails asking her what she's doing with other people's blogs.]

Organizing my Digital Photos with Lightroom

2011-10-12T11:40:00.000-04:00

One of my genealogy goals this year was to digitize all the slides at my grandma's house. I knew that she had a lot, but I didn't realize that it would take 3 trips and months to finish just the scanning of the slides.

Then I took another trip to visit my dad's side of the family in Pennsylvania. There I was able to scan a few photo albums. I also scanned all the photos at my parents' house while I was there.

By the end of the summer, I had tons of digital photos from many families and across many decades. The problem was that when I wanted one to add to a blog post or for my family history books, I couldn't find the one I knew I had. If I couldn't find the ones I remembered, imagine trying to find the rest.

Over the summer, I used a few different software programs to add metadata to my photos with varying degrees of success. In the end, I decided to purchase Adobe Lightroom.

Lightroom lets me import all my photos. It allows me to add tags and copyright information during the import process. I can add tags in batches or tag individual photos. I can add captions. I can move photos between folders within the program. I can rename groups of photos using a variety of their preset naming structures or create my own.

I love being able to sort the photos in a variety of ways. User order is my favorite. Since I have photos from a variety of collections for the same event, I was able to put them in order. Lightroom also lets you compare two photos and decide which is best. You can then delete the other one or rate the two photos. For example, these features came in handy when I was trying to organize a group of family photos taken in 1991. My grandfather liked to take a large family photo, then photos of each of his daughters' families, then just the grandchildren and so on. I had scans of photos from my grandma's collection and from my parents. I really didn't need 4 copies of the same picture, so I organized the photos by who was in them and then compared each photo. Then I could just keep the best ones.

Lightroom was just what I needed to organize all those photos. I haven't even discussed the photo editing side of the software. I haven't used it much yet, but I plan to use it more now that everything is organized.

The next photo project? Scanning and organizing all the photos in my closet. Good thing my husband got me a Flip-Pal at FGS.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. The links above are Amazon affiliate links. I get a small percentage of your purchase price at no additional cost to you. I do not see or fulfill your order.

Tombstone Tuesday - Michael F DINCHER

2011-10-11T21:44:00.000-04:00

Michael F.
Dincher
Born Jan. 18, 1825.
Died Nov. 2, 1897
Aged 72yrs. 9 M. 14 D.

Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011

Isle of Canes by Elizabeth Show Mills - Book Recommendation

2011-10-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

Everyone knows that Elizabeth Shown Mills can write an epic book on source citations. But how many of you are aware that she can also write an epic historical fiction?

I just finished reading her book Isle of Canes. Never before have I seen a fictional narrative include source citations at the end. Elizabeth Shown Mills takes all the sources that she has found while researching the families that lived in the Isle of Canes in Louisiana and interweaves the facts into a captivating story.

The Isle of Canes is a region between the Cane River and the Little River in Louisiana, south of Natchitoches. This region was settled by blacks who gained their freedom in the late 1700s. The mixing of the races (white, black, Native American) and the languages (French, Spanish, English) creates a whole new culture for the citizens on the Isle. These free blacks became enterprising men and women and owned vast plantations and even slaves.Throughout the book, the family lives through slavery, freedom, war, and reconstruction.

Little has been written about this minority of blacks that gained their freedom and became the masters. ESM does a wonderful job of bringing their history to life. I highly recommend reading Isle of Canes.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review in any way. The above links are Amazon affiliate links. That means that a small percentage of your purchase will come to me. You do not pay more and I do not see your purchase.

Tombstone Tuesday - Maria SCHILLING DINCHER

2011-10-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

Maria
wife of
Michael F Dincher
Born
Jan. 6 1829
Died Nov. 2, 1903
Aged
74 yrs 9 M & 26 D

Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Anthony ZWEIER

2011-09-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

Anthony Zweier
Died
Dec. 23, 1858
In the 68 year
of his life

Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Elizabeth ZWEIER

2011-09-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

Elizabeth
Wife of
Anthony Zweier
Died
Feb 1 1863
Aged
65 Yrs & 7 ds

Immaculate Conception Cemetery

Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Mary BAUER ECK

2011-09-13T21:32:00.001-04:00

Sacred
To the Memory of
Mary Bauer
wife of Joseph Eck
Who Departed This Life
May 1 1848
Aged 58 years and 6 months

Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Bastress, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Photo taken by Tina Lyons, July 2011