My Genealogy Blog

The Ancestry Insider: Ancestry.com Intends to Acquire Archives.com

2012-04-26T09:53:00.001-04:00

The Ancestry Insider: Ancestry.com Intends to Acquire Archives.com: Ancestry.com announced Wednesday that they have signed an agreement to purchase Archives.com for $100 million plus assuming some of their ...

The Ancestry Insider: Indexing Tips: The Palmer Method in New York City ...

2012-04-24T15:41:00.001-04:00

The Ancestry Insider: Indexing Tips: The Palmer Method in New York City ...: To the young person attempting to read cursive handwriting for the very first time, or after only a brief study in school, indexing cursive ...

Welcome Mylinah

2012-04-20T14:06:00.002-04:00

I became a grandmother for the first time on Wednesday! I am in love with a 6lb 13oz, little girl! I already started her " How I Came To Be Book" with all of her family history!

1940 Census

2012-03-22T13:24:00.000-04:00

11 more days until the 1940 Census!

On April 2, 2012, NARA will provide access to the images of the 1940 United States Federal Census. Unlike previous census years, images of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made available as free digital images.

There are no name indexes for the 1940 census. At present nobody has a 1940 name index. If you would like to help index the census go to familysearch.org and download the program, it is very user friendly.

Although there are no name indexes, check out http://stevemorse.org, a web site with tools to help you find people in the census based on where they lived.

1940 U.S. Census

2012-03-18T22:27:00.000-04:00

Is anyone helping to transcribe the 1940 Census?

A Guide to Mormon Family History Sources

2012-03-15T10:05:00.001-04:00

A Guide to Mormon Family History Sources

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

2012-02-28T12:48:00.000-05:00

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

by LTC Ken McIntyre

"Carved on these walls is the story of America , of a continuing quest to preserve both Democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream." ~ President George Bush

SOMETHING to think about - Most of the surviving Parents are now Deceased.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W - continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained within the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

• There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

• 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

• 8,283 were just 19 years old.

• The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

• 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

• 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

• One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

• 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam .

• 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam .

• 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

• Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

• 54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

• 8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

• 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

• Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

• West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

• The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest . And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

• The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam . In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedys assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

• The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

• The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors..

Please pass this on to those who served during this time , and those who DO Care.

http://www.moaafl.org/Chapters/KOSMOAA/Interests.aspx

U. S. Census

2012-02-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

37 days until the 1940 U.S. Census!
See Ancestry.com for more information.

NGS Home Study Course

2012-01-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

I have COMPLETED the NGS American Genealogy Home Study Course!!! Woop! Woop!

Genealogy Know Your Records, Military 02 Army and Navy

2011-12-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

Maria (Pick) Bruck

2011-11-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

My 2nd Great Grandmother's papers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services came in today. There is a picture of her!!!!!! Maria immigrated to the United States from Romania in 1927. Now I just have to translate the paper work, most of it is in German.

The Ancestry Insider: Copyrights, Contracts, and Trademarks; Oh My!

2011-11-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

The Ancestry Insider: Copyrights, Contracts, and Trademarks; Oh My!: If you smelled a setup yesterday, you were right. “What are they up to now?” “They,” the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group of Northern Illi...

Home Movie Day!

2011-10-13T16:24:00.000-04:00

Saturday 15 October 2011 is Home Movie Day! For more information visit their web site at:
homemovieday.com

Family History Month

2011-10-04T11:37:00.000-04:00

Old Photograph

2011-08-30T12:35:00.000-04:00

I found this picture among my grandmother’s photographs that I inherited. There is no information on the back of the picture. No one in my family knows who this person is and I have never seen this picture before.
Does anybody know what kind of uniform this is? I have searched the internet and found nothing. My family was from Indiana and Kansas, if this is any help.

Almost Done!

2011-08-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Almost done the American Genealogy home study course! I'd be done sooner if I can just get pass this one assignment. I have to do a narrative report on an ancestors "compiled service record". I received a copy of my ancestors civil war records from the National Archives, there are quite a few papers but they mostly have the same information. My report "should be complete enough that it could serve as a substitute for the photocopied document" it sounds easy enough.......

Emotions running high in cemetery land dispute

2011-07-15T12:48:00.000-04:00

The Shuler family is one of the founding families of the cemetery, and they are upset that a neighbor bought the land from the church that oversaw it.
Read the story: Emotions run high

McRae/Anderson Genealogy: Tombstone Tuesday - There's More Than Meets The Ey...

2011-07-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

New Genealogy Blog:
McRae/Anderson Genealogy: Tombstone Tuesday - There's More Than Meets The Ey...: "The city of Brockton, Massachusetts has many cemeteries and if I look around hard enough, I can probably find someone of relation in each on..."

National Digital Newspaper Program

2011-05-26T12:39:00.000-04:00

The Library of Congress has announced that it recently added 230,000 pages to its digital newspaper archives. The project includes some newspapers from 1860-1922, 22 states plus the District of Columbia. These newspaper pages can be searched, clipped, or downloaded to your computer.
http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/

The Journey Takers

2011-05-20T13:19:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed reading this book and thought I would pass it on.

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Leslie Albrecht Huber's ancestors were journey takers, leaving their homes in Germany, Sweden, and England behind to sail to the US and start new lives here. Huber sets out to trace these journeys and to understand her family - who they were and what mattered to them. As she follows in their footsteps, walking the paths they walked and looking over the land they farmed, she finds herself on a journey she hadn't expected. Based on thousands of hours of research, Huber recreates the immigration experience in a way that captures both its sweeping historical breadth and its intimately personal consequences.

Tombstone Tuesday: Alfred & Katherine VanNess:

2011-05-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

My sister Michele and her friend went to Cedar Grove cemetery to photograph The VanNess’s tombstones. There was only one headstone the rest were flat monuments with nothing on them. There were two other monuments; one stated Wife the other Husband. We know from Cedar Grove Cemetery tombstones inscriptions and interment that Alfred A VanNess is buried in section CAT-844-2A, his wife Katherine (Jones) is buried in section CAT-844-2C. Arthur VanNess (I believe to be their son) is buried in section CAT-844-3B, Harold VanNess (relationship not established) is buried in section CAT 844-2B and Lillian(VanNess) Quillian, Alfred and Katherine's daughter is buried in section CAT-844-3C.

The headstone looks like it was knocked out of place or maybe the ground in uneven it looks like someone tried to fix it?

The symbol on the headstone is hard to read. I looked up the VanNess family crest and this symbol does not look like it.

Does anyone have any idea what it might represent?

Wordless Wenesday: Alfred Abram and Katherine (Jones) VanNess: My 2nd Great grandparents

2011-04-27T12:21:00.000-04:00

I finally found information on my brick wall! Researching my 2 great grand parents I could not find any information on them, I had names, place of birth and approximate birthdates but nothing showed up on Ancestry.com or Familysearch.org. I gave up after a while then one day last week I decided to start reaching them again.

I knew they lived and died in New York so I googled New York Deaths, I found a site called http://www.italiangen.org, they have a online search index for New York deaths, marriages and naturalizations. I found this site before but I thought this site just catered to Italian genealogy so I did not even bother to look at their indexes, this time I gave it a shot and typed in their names. Bingo! They showed up on their death index along with a death certificate number. I could have had this brick wall solved months ago!

I sent for their death records and Katherine’s came in the other day. This is her! Her place of birth, birthdate and parent’s names match what I have. Her death certificate stated the cemetery where she was buried. I googled the cemetery http://thecedargrovecemetery.com and to my surprise they had an online interment search. I typed in her name and there she was! The site gave me her lot and plot number. Along with Katherine, Alfred and several family members are buried by her. They even had a map of the cemetery sections, how convenient.

My sister lives in Brooklyn, I live in Florida, so I called her and she told me she is only 15 miles from the cemetery. Guess what she is doing this weekend? Yep, she is going to the cemetery for me to take tombstone pictures. The whole time family members were buried 15 miles from my sister and we did not know it!

Immigrant Ancestors Project

2011-04-26T20:46:00.000-04:00

The Immigrant Ancestors Project, uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries. Check out their web site at Immigrant Ancestors Project

Sentimental Sunday: Family Traditions: Easter

2011-04-24T19:09:00.000-04:00

My Genealogy Blog: Family Traditions: Easter: "When my children’s father and I divorced, one year I would have the kid’s for Easter then the next year he would have them. Fair enough but ..."

Family Traditions: Easter

2011-04-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

When my children’s father and I divorced, one year I would have the kid’s for Easter then the next year he would have them. Fair enough but when it was his turn I was sad.

When I met my second husband eight years ago he had the same arrangement with his ex-wife. One year we would have all of the kids then the next year when we had no kids we did not know what to do with ourselves!

Well about five years ago my husband and I decided we would have our Easter on Saturday, this way every year we would have all the kids and then on Sunday they could visit with their other side of their family.

As the years gone by and the children got older Easter has become a main event! Family, friends and friends of the kids have joined our Easter!

From hunting for Easter eggs, volleyball, basket ball, ping pong, slip and slides, pony rides and the best…..the annual Rooster run! Who ever catches the Rooster gets a prize…usually money….not only do the children run, put up $50.00 and watch the adults run! It is so funny. I promise the Rooster’s do not get hurt, they can outrun everyone.

Somehow the tradition of a fish fry was incorporated into our Easter along with “wild game”. My husband is an avid fisherman and hunter. This year besides fish we are having wild turkey and boar.

I posted the event on face book and the response is overwhelming, I have family coming that I haven’t see for a while. Everyone is posting what they are going to bring.

My daughter posted that she could not wait that it is her favorite family event. Her friend posted that her five year old daughter is so excited she is counting down the days!

That is a good feeling.

So what do my husband and I do on Sunday……clean up!