I'm "stealing" this. But I just have to share it!!

I get Randy Seaver's excellent blog Genea-Musings by subscription in my morning email. The other day he posted about a hilarious cartoon that comes out three times a week all about genealogy. It's called Geneapalooza and is by genius guy, Esto Frigus. Check it out here.

So here's the thing. There's no link offered or info on how to contact Esto Frigus so I can't contact him to get his permission to share one of his cartoons, so I'm just going ahead and violating copyright and "stealing" it. Actually, I kinda doubt that Esto would pursue this "crime" through legal channels because I'm only saying very flattering stuff about him and his work:) It's super funny... if you're an avid genealogist! If you're the spouse, family or partner of an avid genealogist then maybe you'll not see it as quite so hilarious. Here's an example.



See more from Geneapalooza at http://geneapalooza.blogspot.com/

Thank you Esto, wherever you are!!  


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2015/01/im-stealing-this-but-i-just-have-to.html

And now something I saw on Facebook...

 

 

 

I've been away from my little blog for a while. Been distracted by the holidays and then taking the DAR's GEP courses, that's Genealogy Education Program. There are three courses and you take them online. Only open to DAR members, and really don't think anyone else would be interested due to the heavy DAR slant. But it was worth it. It took a month out of my life and saturated a lot of time. It culminated in a writing assignment in which we wrote a Service Study that used direct evidence only to differentiate between four men by the same name living in Lancaster County during the Revolutionary War. I was so overwhelmed that I finally made an Excel spreadsheet and then figured it out! Got 100%, I did, I did:) And as a bonus, the Geni at HQ even gave me a tip on how to make it even better. How's that for delivering?

 

Now it's back to the Nut Tree here and post with some regularity on an irregular schedule. You know how it goes:) Really, I do not know how Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings does it, posting a couple of times a day!!

 

The plan is to share with you some of the stuff I learned or was reminded about while taking the GEP course. I won't deal with all the info that's DAR specific, just the tools we all use everyday. The process will help me remember what I learned and who knows, maybe it will tickle your fancy too.

 

Here's one for instance. On one of the DAR Facebook pages a woman and a prospective member lamented that her "Revolutionary War" ancestor turned out to be a Loyalist! No problem, the members assured her. Did she know that in her 7th generation back she had 256 ancestors to choose from. And in her 8th generation she had 512 ancestors. If she was young enough, she might even find that one of her 1024 ancestors in her 8th generation could have served. The general consensus was that if some of her ancestors were here during the Revolution and she had found a Loyalist she was highly likely to find a Patriot too!!

 

 

The URL for this post is : http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2015/01/and-now-something-i-saw-on-facebook.html

Randy Seaver's SNGF: Thanksgiving Memories

Every Saturday Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings blog throws out a challenge to other bloggers called SNGF or Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. The topics are usually an attractive ploy to this blogger so I have to resist dropping what I'm doing and whip up a post. This week I just have to succumb to his bait and do it because he's challenged us to recall and blog about one of our Thanksgiving memories. So Randy, here's my Thanksgiving Memory.

I have a lot of good memories from childhood Thanksgiving feasts but I want to blog about another kind of Thanksgiving. I remember this one in particular because it always reminds me of the deep human need to establish community and form a family of choice no matter where we go and how far from home it is.

In 1988 we had just moved to Florida and the beautiful west coast resort island of Marco Island. The population swelled to 10,000 in the winter tourist season but was less than half that in the hot steamy summer months. Thanksgiving was one of the last holidays to be celebrated by the locals before the winter visitors descended in mass. By Christmas you could feel the difference at the local supermarkets because the check out lines were longer and the prices higher.

We moved to Marco in the spring, just as snow birds went back north, and by fall we had a whole army of new friends. Everyone there was from somewhere else and had moved to warmer climates for health or just to retire. People made new friends with a greater ease than I'd ever seen before. It seemed that all it took was one diner out and you had a new set of best friends. A group of about a dozen or more of us were the new Rat Pack. We went to every concert, every special event, and hosted parties like only those new to a group of friends can manage.

We ladies fixed it that instead of having small Thanksgiving meals on our own we'd do it together. Two o'clock in the afternoon satisfied those whose tradition was a mid-day meal as well as those whose custom was to eat at a later hour. Drinks upon arrival with finger food, and then the big feast a bit later. Our new best friends Jeanie and Bob were hosting. It was settled with enthusiasm and plenty of laughter.

On Thanksgiving morning we awoke to a thin layer of ice on the pool! Icicles had formed on the gutters and it looked more like Massachusetts than Florida! The novelty added to the festive nature of the day.

Jeanie, who had somehow escaped cooking a turkey all of her married life until this point had gotten volunteered by Bob. Jeanie kept saying, "I can't believe he did that," which didn't make it less so. I spent the afternoon before Thanksgiving at her house prepping the turkey, mixing up enough stuffing for an army, and and giving pep talks as well as spouting things my mother taught me about turkeys. The glasses of wine helped a lot. Jeanie seemed ready for the task.

Remember me mentioning the ice on the pool and gutters? Well it proved too much for the delicate nature of the county's electrical grid. Jeanie was to put the gigantic turkey in to roast at 9 AM promptly, and she did. At about 9:45 the electricity went out. My phone rang immediately and all I could think to do was tell her to keep the oven door closed. At any cost, just keep it closed and pray to the cooking gods. At a few moments after 10 the power sprang to life and we were back cooking again. Then 25 minutes later it went out again but for only 10 minutes. And so it went all the morning and into the afternoon.

Guests began arriving just after 2, and the bird was still cooking and it smelled great. Jeanie and I and a few of the ladies who were known to be the best cooks huddled in the kitchen while Bob and his guys poured as much libation as was decent to at that hour.

Not everyone knew what was going on. There were those few in the know and had been sworn to secrecy and those who knew nothing. By the time all had arrived along with their offerings of nibbles, side dishes, salads, and deserts, the consensus was that the turkey was probably done. Probably. Well, maybe. Someone ran back home to fetch a meat thermometer so we could know how much trouble we were in and if we'd be waiting until 7 or 8 that night to sit down to the feast. Meanwhile power was going out with increasing regularity. The candles in every room made a lovely glow while four women fretted in the kitchen. Gosh, that big turkey looked good and smelled good, but was it raw inside? We waited as long as we could, opened the door and stuck in the meat thermometer. It was broken!!

By 3:30-ish all had arrived and it was time to get going and serve the bird. It was a gigantic creature. But was it fully cooked? And what of the stuffing? One of the older ladies who had raised a large family pushed up to the bird, grabbed a big bowel and a gigantic spoon and went mining for stuffing with gusto and confidence. When her head rose out of the fragrant steam of the bird's inner regions, she pronounced for those crowded close in that the big bird was indeed done to perfection! Hurrah!

By this time there were plenty of empty wine bottles and a few scotch glasses as well. Our appetites were primed and everything smelled wonderful. The turkey was brought to the table for carving with pomp and revelry, and Bob carved it like the master of the manor that he was. (Hmm. Was that why he volunteered Jeanie to cook the bird?) All praised Jeanie and her deft handling of the big magnificent Turkey.

To this day I don't know if it was the best turkey of all times... or whether that was the wine talking. It was a rousing success and we all had a happy fun day and evening. It was a memorable Thanksgiving.

By the next year Maury had been taken by complications of diabetes and his wife moved back up north to live with the kids. Paul and Mary sold their business to their son and moved away. We only stayed two more years before we moved to San Diego. That Thanksgiving was like a moment out of time.  Gosh, that bird really was tasty!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/11/randy-seavers-sngf-thanksgiving-memories.html

The One Lovely Blog Award!

 

I get email feeds from the blogs I really really like and don't want to miss and the rest of the blogs that interest me I read in my news reader. At the top of my list are a scant few that always get looked at no matter how fast my morning is running. Tops amongst them is Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings. It's educational and newsy, and often just darn amusing. Seriously, if you aren't subscribed go do it now. And while you're there take a close look at the tabs at the top. You'll find Best Of posts and the tab for Source Citations. That's worth the price of admission right there!

Anyway, Randy received the "One Lovely Blog" Award. The award is one of those things that goes around the blog-a-sphere from time to time. It's a swell way to shine a spotlight on the blogs you follow and would share with a good genea-buddy. It's a nice thing:) Randy then did me the honor of including this blog on his list of Lovely Blogs. Isn't that Lovely? I think so:)

Here are the rules, as stated on Randy's Genea-Musings:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
2. Share Seven things about yourself 
3. Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!)
4. Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

So I'm going to take some time and think about which 15 blogs to nominate and then think some more about the 7 things I want to share here about myself. Then I'll be back real soon and make a proper post. How's that?

 

But right now I'm doing Number 1. So here's a proper Thank You, going out to Randy Seaver.

 

 

 

THANK YOU, Randy Seaver!

 

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-one-lovely-blog-award.html

This is this the 501st post for this blog

Sure, Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings (my favorite blog!) has me beat and left me in the dust with his recent announcement of  8000 incredible posts, but this is a big deal for me. This is the 501st blog post!

When I started this blog two and a half years ago I really didn't know what was going to happen and if I'd keep with it or whether it was going to be too much work and not enough return so I'd toss it in the untended blog scrapheap. But it turned out to be way more rewarding than I ever expected!

My original thought was to blog in an effort to keep what best might be described as a hunting journal. I figured that if I set out my plans in writing as a blog post I'd have a better chance of keeping on track. Then if I reported back I'd have a place, public as it might be, to see what happened. Sounds now like I'm describing a research journal, and I do think in retrospect that a research journal was what I wanted... I just didn't know about research journals because I was a real newbie then.

As I learned things I figured that I'd post them in an effort to examine new concepts or resources. I was learning stuff right and left so there was always plenty to post!

I also posted about my ancestors and stories I heard about them and what the research and records told me about them. I've always been a total fool for a good story, even if they prove unfounded. And along the way I saw that at the core of most of these old stories handed down is a solid gold nugget of truth. I'm not talking about the Indian princess thing or descending from royalty stuff but stories with amazing specificity. I love stumbling into the detailed stories! I also love seeing how the same story can change along different branches descending from a common ancestor. Now that's pure fun!

But the very best feature of having a blog is one that I didn't anticipate. I truly thought that no one would read it except for Mom and a cousin or two. Mom did, of course, because she's Mom. But cousins pop in now and again but certainly don't visit on a daily basis. No, the very bestest thing that happens here is catching new-to-me cousins. I just love that! "Cousin bait", they call it.

I have to tell you, sometimes I go off searching about an ancestor on Google and if I've written about them here, this blog usually comes up in the first couple of Google results. How cool is that?! Right now I'm enjoying a new cousin contact about every other week.

I've never had a problem coming up with something to write about. Guess I'm just like that: if I'm excited about something I'll think to blog about it. In the past I've used GenaeBloggers's daily blogging prompts just because they are so nifty. And if I feel ill or tired I just don't blog for a while because my heart isn't in it.

There are so many good resources for bloggers now that I'd almost like to start over, but no. I like where I am now that I've done 500 posts. Here's looking forward to the next 500!

Mom. She's the one who got me interested in this genealogy thing.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/09/this-is-this-501st-post-for-this-blog.html

Military Memories: Figuring out who served in which war

While work continues in the background on our Farrell's Connections project (see some previous posts) I'm following the GeneaBloggers writing prompt for the month of May with short posts on Military Memories, from Jennifer Holik. One of the things that stumps me and gets in my way is trying to figure out which ancestors might have served in, say, the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. Have to confess to ignoring the Spanish-American War entirely. At least I've kept a list of Revolutionary War Patriots on a big post note next to the desktop computer as I stumble into them. But really, isn't that kind of pathetic? There must be a better way.

This morning I read a blog post with the solution to this problem from Michele Simmons Lewis who writes the helpful blog, "Ancestoring". Her post provided a very useful link to another blog run by Ancestry.com with a beautiful chart of each major war and the war years with a corresponding range of birth years. The Ancestry blog says:

You know you should look for military records for your ancestor, but what war did he serve in? Our friends over at Fold3 created this handy little infographic to use as a rule of thumb. There are exceptions to every rule, but this will get you started!

 

 

OK, now just to be clear, click here to get to the infographic. I'd love to post it here for your immediate enjoyment but also want to respect copyright of the Ancestry folks.

 

Thanks Michele!! I can not even begin to tell you how many times I've sat here counting on fingers trying to figure out if it was possible a particular ancestor served. Now if Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings would just come up with some super slick way to search our tree programs for possible candidates... problem solved!

 

 

Enoch Clise (1843-1896), served in the Civil War, my second great aunt's husband who was mayor

of Frostburg twice. Frostburg is the little mountain town in Western Maryland where my  recent ancestors came from. Nice photo, huh?

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/military-memories-figuring-out-who.html



Thank you, Randy Seaver and Genea-Musings

I'm coming to see that I'm a sort of odd ball genealogist. It's on again and off again because of how my life is, and I'm still a learning amateur, and totally embrace it. My document filing is sporadic, my file names need a good clean up, and my methodology is patchwork because I learned on the fly. I'm probably not alone in that regard:)

I'm a second generation genealogist and am working off a tree Mom built and is still working on now and again. Mom is 95, in case you haven't met her! She has about 70,000 names on that tree and they mostly were born, resided and died in the area around Western Maryland, the adjoining state of West Virginia, and south west Pennsylvania. I consider my genealogy research skills, such as they are, to be half-assed at best. I only do what I do because I'm perched on Mom's tall shoulders. Besides, it's the stories I love.

Because I'm so ragged around the edges and always trying to do better I was pretty much shocked out of my PJs and fuzzy pink bedroom slippers this morning when I read Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog post entitled "Best of the Genea-Blogs for 2013" and found this blog sharing number 16! Can that be right??!! Yup, it's what he said.
Wow. Just wow. Thanks Randy. I mean it, thanks so much.

Randy and I are two very different kinda folks, I gotta say. He's a real numbers guy and I love that about Randy. And me, I'm so very, very not. Look at this post by Randy on Genealogy Industry Benchmarks. I have a feeling that Randy gets goose bumps compiling this stuff because he's so excited about it. Look at what he did there.

And here's a Randy post that blew me away: 52 Ancestors Friday: Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922). See what he did there? That's pure Randy. I scrolled down, impressed, looking at all the data he's collected about his ancestor and great grandfather, and honestly my mind sort of froze up along the way, until I came upon this:
Family stories about Frank Seaver include that he was a dapper, handsome man, and had black curly hair and brown eyes, and looked like his mother, Lucretia Smith.  He was about 5'10" tall.  He was jolly and full of fun, but liked to drink beer, and smoked a pipe.

There he did it! He got me right there and an image of Frank Walton Seaver formed in my head. Did they call him Frank, I wondered as I read it? Yeah, I bet they did. A dapper jolly man who liked his beer and smoked a pipe would be called Frank. Good ol' Frank, they'd have said about him.

See, that's me all over. I collect the data and record it dutifully. But I long for the story and the photo, especially the candid one. Can't help it. Just my nature.

Seeing my name and blog listed in Randy's blog post is gold plated encouragement. Guess that if Randy mentioned this blog 6 times last year I should stick with it. Thanks, Randy:)

My Grandfather, Cambria "Camey" Williams (1997-1960) and one of him favorite hunting dogs.

Me. Never met a dog I didn't like.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/01/thank-you-randy-seaver-and-genea-musings.html

Wisdom Wednesday: This Week's Stuff I Learned

I've learned some stuff this week. Nothing really big, but just enough to make me feel like if it continues to go in this direction, I can eventually find my genealogical way out of a paper bag. I like posting on Wisdom Wednesdays, one of GeneaBlogger's blogging prompts, as a way to keep score and hold myself accountable. Here's the post last week so you can see what was going on then, if you care to.

Citing Sources. I have spent some time this week on good ol' Cindi's List checking the usual places where I can learn about citations and how to state them properly. That's where I began my search for an agreeable learning experience because frankly friends, I did not think sitting in a corner with Evidence Explained for a year and a day was going to do it for me. I gathered up all of my citation reference material and examined it for what might work for me and it engaged me in a new way such that I could see that what was needed was a visual representation of citing sources.
Here's what I found and I immediately had a gut reaction to it: hey, this rocks my world because this little gem is going to save my genea-life. It comes for the guru to us all, Elizabeth Shown Mills, of world famed, Evidence Explained. She has given me hope that I'll not always be at sea when it comes to citations. I'm off to download her book now.
Look at this, below, from her web site under the tab, "Sample QuickCheck Models". It's brilliant! It's like she designed it just for me, the experiential visual learner! I'm thrilled. So thank you, Elizabeth Shown Mills, wherever you are right this very minute! Here's an e-hug:)

 

Thanks Mom! Mom has great stuff. I'm a second generation genealogist and spent the first year and more wondering if there was anybody left in the world for me to find because Mom's tree is gigantic! If the line ends at a brick wall, you can bet she and Aunt Betty have been hammering at it for quite a while.
But then as the ensuing months went by I came to see that we complement each other perfectly: she loves adding people to her Big Tree and I love weaving all the stories together into the family chronicles, no matter what the form. I am especially appreciative this week because one of the items on the to-do list was to go back and review the stuff in the spiral notebooks I call, Conversations With Mom. Each morning when I call to see how we are, after the cat stories, the talk eventually rolls around to the ancestors. She tells me who she's working on and I teller her how much I don't know by asking stupid questions. And, I write it down in spiral notebooks. So it was time to browse through the three I have so far going back at least three years. Now I'm asking Mom more questions... and hopefully they are less stupid. Aren't I lucky to have Mom to ask about all the ancestor stories? I think so.

The Family History Writing Challenge  Wow! This project is such a valuable resource for me that I feel like I fell into a gold mine! Thank you Lynn Polermo, who organized this festival of writing, and all the participants and seasoned writers who stop by and throw out baskets of pearls:) Until this challenge I didn't know how much I could write a day if I was ready. All I need is a good cuppa whatever and my resources and sources in order and at hand, then I can chase up to 1,000 words a day. Had no idea. Not a clue.

Now that I've been doing this tally on Wednesday I'm more focused about keeping the learning moving along. Am thinking that once the Writing Challenge is over I'll jump into the world of webinars. Yeah, that sounds like a whole lotta fun. And I want to sign up real soon for the Chula Vista Genealogical Society's workshop day on DNA with CeCe Moore on March 30. Randy Seaver over in the blog neighborhood at Genea-Musings wrote about it here. Yeah, I gotta go do that because I'm sitting here waiting for my results to come back from 23andMe, and I want to play with them when they get here.

Photo of the Day from the Archive:

 

Mom fixes my hat, Easter, about 1951.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/wisdom-wednesday-this-weeks-stuff-i.html

On The Job Training

As I often say here, I'm a relative newbie to this genealogy thing. Mom get me started and has filled me in on a lot of methods as well as tips and tricks. I've been very lucky to be handed a gigantic tree and lots of research. And I've learned from work that wasted her time or things she wishes she'd done differently. But I'm such a beginner! Bottom line: I have so very much to learn. And I learn as I go so it's on the job training.

I've been a tad dismissive of the seeming obsession with citing sources and the form that takes. Truth told, rolled on the floor laughing at one of Randy Seaver's post to his excellent and enlightening blog Genea-Musings at http://www.geneamusings.com/ that dealt with a particular citation, perhaps a census as I try to remember. In his post he gave a couple of different versions according to various accepted forms. I had a fit of laughter because, A) I could hardly see the difference because I'm so untrained, and B) I was at that moment lucky to remember where I got a particular document let alone how to properly cite a source according to such high genealogy standards.

I have an academic background and am not totally ignorant about the need to cite sources or proper form. I have a working understanding of the Chicago Style Manual. But I have to say that my initial impression of citing sources and the seeming obsession about it in the hard-core genealogy community (read: professionals) was one of amusement. I'm changing my tune.

OK, sure I'll never have Randy's dedication or mastery of source citation, - or probably anything else - but I get it as to why it's important and why one needs to be consistent about how one does it. How did this shift in attitude come about? A little book, just a hundred twenty-something pages long called, "Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian," by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Her big book shares the socks off me! At least right now;)

Every day I read and think about the next item she presents. The organization of the book is efficient enough such that I can wade into it and be "safe" without getting bogged down or overwhelmed. One concept at a time starting with the most basic so as to lay a proper foundation and build upon it. And I stick with each concept until I'm comfortable with that. It's a slow process but for me it makes sense:)

Photo of the day from The Archive:

My GGGF
Charles William Zeller,
1829 - 1901
Born in Germany and died in Chicago.

Date of photo unknown.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/on-job-training.html

Mom's Big Tree

I must have told you about Mom's really big tree by now... maybe mentioned it about a skabillion times! She has 70,600 plus individuals on it. That's a lot, right? Mom said that she heard of someone who had 100,000 individuals on their tree but I dunno... That's hard for me to wrap my mind around.

Last time I was back east to see Mom we chatted about her Big Tree and how she likes to share information with interested people. She has, however, been reluctant to just put her Big Tree out there for the world to see. Her objections are twofold and quite reasonable, I thought.

A number of years ago a relative asked Mom for information she had complied regarding Samuel Albert House.  The relative didn't like what she saw, specifically that Samuel Albert was born out of wedlock... so she changed it. Unfortunately this relative got busy sharing her doctored information and now it's out there as gospel. Mom got burnt. And when Mom gets burnt she gets mad.

Another objection Mom had to making her tree public is that she didn't want people bothering her with the "where did you get that" question. You see, Mom has been at this since the 1970s when she kept meticulous notes on chart sheets and index cards. If you are old enough to remember doing genealogy in the good old days before the computer you know what this is about:) So when Mom got her first version of Family Tree Maker way back when, she put in the bare-bones information knowing that she possessed all of the back up data in her big blue binders.

On this most recent trip I spent some goodly amount of time browsing Mom's blue binders containing the Williams and Whetstone families information. There was one letter in particular in which every paragraph invariably contained the words, "where did you get that?"

Today of course, Mom is busy using sources and notes. We love Notes on FTM because Mom can use it as a note to me about random details she remembers.

Anyhoo, when I saw Mom last week we chatted about the best way to share her Big Tree. And do it in a way that no one but us can change it. I emailed Randy Seaver (expert and author of the blog Genea-Musings at http://www.geneamusings.com/) when I got home to ask him what our options were for uploading Mom's Big Tree GEDCOM. Randy, as always, was super helpful and pointed me in the right direction, anticipated my next question and offered pointers to keep us on track while selecting the best options. So Thanks, Randy!!!

We chose Ancestry.com and yesterday I uploaded all 62,967 individuals on the version of the tree I have in my possession at the moment. (Mom has more on the latest version of her working tree but I don't have it here and that's another story.) The upload was super easy... after I went and purchased the download of Family Tree Maker 2012. When reading Randy's emails I realized that I had FTM 2010 and it wouldn't have the automatic sync feature that would make my Gen life easy:)

I selected the Share button in the upper right of the screen in FTM 2012. It asked me what tree I wanted to share on Ancestry.com and how I wanted to name it. Did that then clicked the Upload Now button and went to lunch. Checked about 20 minutes later and it wasn't done yet. At about the 45 minute mark I got concerned. Went on Ancestry's web site to see how worried I should be. Maybe I should have uploaded the GEDCOM from the Ancestry.com web site's Family Trees drop down menu? But not to worry, a moment later when I went back to my open FTM program screen it told me the work was now done and asked if I wanted to see the tree online? You bet I did I did!

Seems like the only glitch is that some of the individuals born in the 1700s and 1600s were marked as living. Now that's inconvenient! So I have been busy going through as many branches as I can discover, trying to find all of those tagged as living - even when there is a death date - and change it to deceased. If I miss anyone they won't show on Mom's Big Tree because the Ancestry setting we've chosen hides anyone listed as living for security.

Mom's Big Tree is named "Virgiania Williams Kelly's Big Tree" on Ancestry.com, so if you run into it, say hi:)


Today's photo from the Archive:

Me, 1st birthday:)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/moms-big-tree.html

Randy Seaver's Forum Pointers

So as you can tell, I'm kinda new to this genealogy thing and very enthusiastic. I was slowing down a while back and took a look at Randy Seaver's recommendations on what to do next. He's the guy behind the stimulating and informative blog, GenaMusings at http://www.geneamusings.com/

Here's what I posted to this blog when I was stuck: 
"Think I'll go back and look at Randy Seaver's list of what to do next, posted to his GenaMusings blog not too long ago, titled, "My Research Problem Solution Advice". Here's the link: http://www.geneamusings.com/2011/07/my-research-problem-solution-advice.html "

One of the things Randy suggested was using forums so off to the forums I went. Only problem, where are they and which are the best if you're only going to use a couple so you can keep on top of them? No problem... I'll email Randy!

Here's what he replied and it's so clear and concise that even this newbie can follow it. Thanks a million, Randy! 

1)  The Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards at http://boards.rootsweb.ancestry.com  This has surname, locality and topic boards and is the biggest.
2)  The GenForum message boards at  http://genforum.genealogy.com also have surname, locality and topic boards.  different format and selection.  Lots of cross-posting with the other board.
3)  The FamilySearch Forums (http://forums.familysearch.org) has locality and topic message boards, and how-to boards.  This will be a big forum suite in years to come.
There are other forums and message boards but none have the volume that these three have.  The Rootsweb and Genforum message boards are easily searchable , and Google picks up content.  I doubt that there is a decent search capability yet on the FamilySearch forums, and I'm pretty sure that search engines don't crawl it yet.