Bloggiversary & Veteran's/Binary Day

Today is 11/11/11. A day that represents three things:
(1) My first bloggiversary: I started my blog a year ago today. Thanks for all you who read my posts.
(2) Binary Day: I graduated with a math major and use computers a lot. There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary and those who don't. I'm the first, although sometimes it takes me some time to calculate it out.
(3) Veteran's Day: I am thankful for all who served so I can live in a free country. God bless America!

In my direct ancestry, I have at least two veterans.
My Civil War ancestor is Jesse Fields. I have researched him quite a bit. I have his gravestone photo, death certificate, and records of immigration, as well as his service records. It helps that I have chatted with one of my Fields cousins, who happens to live in the UK. What is frustrating with this ancestor is many trees I have seen have the wrong death date for him. It would take me too long to message them all, so I'll just say "oh well" on that one. Jesse was born in 1828 in England, and served with the state of Wisconsin in the Civil War. He died in Nebraska in January 1918. He is my ancestor through my paternal grandmother (my dad's mom, etc.).

My Revolutionary War ancestor is Gurden Chamberlain. Gurden is my ancestor through my maternal grandmother (my mother's mother's line etc.). I have found a distant relative's SAR (Sons of American Revolution) application on Ancestry.com, so hopefully when I get started on my DAR application it won't take long. On that app, it states that Gurden served from the state of New York as a private in Captain Abner Horley's company of Colonel Peter Van Ness regiment of Albany county militia. There is a date of October 28, 1781 and I'm not sure what that represents now.

My husband also has a Revolutionary War ancestor and a grandparent who served.

We are fortunate to live in a free country, the United States of America! Now let's hope the current politicians don't ruin it. (LOL)

Charging for Genealogy Research?

We had a small genealogy meeting last night, but I was encouraged to possibly become a "professional genealogist" or at least a genealogist for hire. The county historical society occasionally gets requests, as well as the library. Plus I have gotten a few of my own. So I have questions for my fellow genealogists.

1. How much do you charge? Per hour? And do you charge if you don't find anything? I have no qualifications yet, so I was thinking $10 an hour or so.

2. I do quite a bit of research out of kindness; how do you know when to charge? I know for this one individual, if he bugs me for anything more, I am going to charge him. I have helped him locate a marriage and my gravestone photos are already posted for free. I did not order the marriage license, and I won't unless he pays.

Then for me, I need to decide whether to keep specific hours, and therefore might need some daycare or just to fit it in. I didn't think I was going to start this for a couple years, when at least one of my children is in school.

I live in a somewhat rural area, so I'm not sure I will have loads of business. However my idea that I've had for about a year is incorporating genealogy with another business, which for me would be taxes. I am good with details and numbers, but then again, I don't have qualifications for tax preparation either.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome. I thank you in advance. If you don't want to comment, you can message me on Twitter, Facebook or email.

Census Confusion

Yesterday evening, I went to my local genealogy meeting. While we were there, a friend asked to look at this census for her.
http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=1910uscenindex&h=185177839

It's the 1910 census for a family. It looks like the parents are Jim and Sue Evans, and they have children: Henry Evans, Claude Futrell, Clyde Futrell, Bettie Futrell, Virginia Futrell and May Futrell. Hopefully at least some of you go "what"? Does this make sense. Pulling up the image, we see the Futrell children at the top of page 27A, so going back to 26B we see the three Evans family. Okay, let's look closely at the places of birth and relationships.
Jim Evans, head, born in Kentucky
Sue Evans, wife, born in Missouri
Henry Evans, son, born in Tennessee, dad born in Kentucky, mom born in Missouri.
Note at the top left the Evans are on Moscow Avenue.
That all makes sense. Now back to page 27A for the Futrell children:
Claude Futrell, son, born in Tennessee, dad born in TN, mom born in TN
Clyde Futrell, son, born in TN, dad born in TN, mom born in TN
Same thing for the three daughters, all born in TN with dad and mom born in TN.
Also note on the left the enumerator is on Holly Street.
So where are their parents? Because Jim and Sue Evans don't seem to be the Futrell parents.
Well scroll one more page forward to page 27B and scroll clear to the bottom.
WOW!
There are the bottom are J. G. and Carrie Futrell. J. G. was born in Missouri (okay, I would've expected Tennessee, so this may not be correct), and Carrie born in Tennessee. Look up at the top and the census taker is again (still) on Holly Street. So here are our choices:
A. For some reason the Futrell children are living with the Evans in 1910.
B. Page 27A and 27B got switched by the census taker, and really the Futrell children are where we would expect, with their parents.
At first my friend thought choice A was correct, as she had heard maybe Carrie was considered "idiotic" in a previous census, so perhaps she was unable to take care of the children.
After I showed her this, she now agrees with choice B. It looks as if the census taker got these pages switched.
It turns out that "idiotic" comment was about a different relative.

Lessons learned: (1) Always look closely at the people (and sometimes pages) around your people on the census. (2) If something doesn't seem right, have a genealogy friend take a look at it. A fresh set of eyes can bring a new perspective.

Week 38 of 52: Hobbies

From Geneabloggers challenge, "52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and Family History"


Week #38 – Hobbies

Week 38: Hobbies. Did you have any hobbies as a child? Which ones?

Intro: I haven't done any of these challenges. I've read a couple of them, which must not have seen interesting to me at the time. Today I thought I'd do this one. I needed a blogging idea, as I'm behind on my blogging goal. 

Yes I had hobbies as a child. My brother and I played some board games growing up; I remember playing Monopoly for a LONG time one day with him. I think he beat me, and we either had lots of snow or it was pouring buckets that day. I READ A LOT! I would ride my bike to the library 2-3 times a week to get books. The librarians knew me well, and even though there was a limit of 2-3 books, they'd let me take 4 or 5 and know that I'd have them back in 2-3 days. The times I had to go from Tuesday afternoon til Thursday afternoon when the library was open meant I had to stock up, plus on weekends I stocked up. My mom used to ask me to do a chore and I'd say something like "In a little bit, I'm at a good part." She learned to respond "Well you'll still be at that good part when you get back". It didn't work, but good try, Mom. 

My dad collected stamps, so I tried collecting stamps for a short while. I found it boring. I listened to music as a pre-teen, sitting by my radio on Friday or Saturday nights listening to the weekly Top 40 (with Rick Dees). That was 80's music. I would try to tape certain songs off on my cassette when listening, wishing the DJ wouldn't talk over the songs much. 

As a family, we used to play cards with our grandparents. My mom's side played 10-point pitch, and Dad's side usually played rummy. When my brother went to college and Grandma lived in town, my parents, my Grandma and I would play bridge on Sundays after church and lunch. We usually had lunch with Grandma at the retirement home. My brother didn't like bridge and didn't learn it much, so if he was there, we played call-your-partner 10-point pitch. 

Of course now I still enjoy reading and music. My music taste has changed some. Plus genealogy is now my favorite hobby! 

Review of 2011 Goals

Well 2011 is more than half over so I thought I'd see how I'm doing on my 2011 goals. So first relisting my goals, and then how I'm doing:

Now to plan for 2011, here are my goals, in no particular order:

1. To finish my husband's Mayflower application

2. To finish photographing the Osceola Cemetery and put it on Findagrave and possibly start another one

3. To have a sizable (at least 20) group attend our event March 28 with Megan Smolenyak

4. To write a blog at least twice a month (24 times a year)

5. To update my Kearney County NE GenWeb web site at least monthly

6. Organize: Set aside 1 hour each week to organize, whether it be my computer or papers

7. Look into the NGS Home Study course

8. Research: Continue to research, and hopefully into records with which I have less experience (land records, probate records, etc.)

9. To do a better job at keeping up with my obit transcripts, to have each month done by the 10th of the following month

10. To keep up reading my emails better, to get no more than a month behind in reading the GenWeb ones.

11. Work on my husband's SAR and my DAR applications. 




1. Still working on it, so not gotten much, if any further than I was several months ago (not good).
2. Working on it, I have 7 blocks photographed and almost 6 blocks of memorials online. (fairly well)
3. DONE! We had unexpected bad weather so we only had around 30 people come but for our small town, that was great! I think we would've had a few more if weather was better. 
4. Doing pretty good, I think one month I only had one post, but made up for it the month before or after. 
5. Doing horribly on this one, haven't updated it since I wrote the goal. 
6. Doing okay, got my genealogy mess by my computer organized into a bookshelf. Could always do more and better on this one. 
7. Done a tiny bit on this one (so not good).
8. I have done a little research online with land records and found one of my great-great-grandfather's homestead info. Started this goal but would like to do more. 
9. I have pretty much quit on the obit transcripts; the webmaster decided not to do the paper I was doing anymore and she offered me another one but I haven't done it. 
10. Up until last night I was a year behind on those emails, so now I'm about 11 months behind, so not doing well on this one either. 
11. Haven't done anything on these either. 


Well this means I still have lots I can do for the rest of 2011. Although no excuse is a good one, I did get pregnant so have been extra tired with less energy for at least 3 months. I seem to be motivated for only certain things, or bounce around from one to another, but so far, this is just a hobby for me, although some day I would love to get paid for doing something I love. 

Family Reunions

Apparently July is the time for family reunions, and after many years of gathering at Christmas, three years ago my mom's side of the family decided to gather in the summer instead. Weather being what it is in the Midwest (Kansas and Nebraska) and having many teachers in the family, summer seems to work better.

The first year was a bit of a trial run, so we also organized it around a surprise birthday party for my mom's 65th birthday. We didn't plan many activities but mainly figured out where 30-40 people were going to eat a couple times a day and where we were going to stay. Year two took us to Kansas for several activities and some down time for naps for kids, socializing and swimming. Year three we were back in Nebraska which included a trip to the cemeteries to visit some ancestors, and I brought (some of) my genealogy info to share. Now my immediate family is in charge for year four, so we will see what that brings.

Some things to consider with a family reunion:
1. Location, location, location (for food, activities and hotels we find a good-sized city is needed)
2. Activities for all ages: we've had swimming, shooting guns, shopping, bowling, cemetery tour, roller skating
3. Some down time: several of us still have young children who "need" naps, plus usually we just want to talk and catch up with our family
4. Traditions: Our family would be disappointed if my mom didn't bring chocolate angel food cake, I didn't bring mint brownies, and Aunt Mary didn't bring her sugar cookies.
5. Date and duration: Some people stick with the same weekend each year. We tend to try to find a weekend that fits with most of the family. Some reunions are just a few hours around lunch or dinner; we usually do most of the weekend, Saturday morn through Sunday noon. People usually don't have to take much time off work then.

That's about all I have. Feel free to add your suggestions. We don't have a very large family reunion, although we now are over 40 members if everyone attends. I think each year there has been one family not come, which is disappointing but the schedule doesn't always work for everyone.

Hope you take some time this summer to enjoy your family and have fun together!

What's in a Name?

How did we get our name? What is the most popular first name in your family tree (program)? Have you found any unusual names in your research or other research? How did/do you select a name for your kids? These questions recently came to me, so I thought I'd jot them down to discuss.

My first name is Beth (not Elizabeth, just Beth). I am not sure exactly how I got my name (maybe I should ask my mother), but my conjecture has been that since my mother's name is Betty, they picked Beth because it is similar. Yes, we both get asked if our full name is Elizabeth. Neither of us is Elizabeth. Sometimes I wish my name was Elizabeth, because then I would have nickname options. Not many nickname options for Beth. 

We selected the name Kirk for our first child because we like it, and after a Christian evangelist (and former child actor) Kirk Cameron. My husband also likes Captain Kirk of Star Trek, and I kind of like Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN so it seemed like a good name. We chose his middle name after my dad; my son has my dad's middle name. So now (if you didn't know) I am pregnant with our second child, and we have to select names again. We have two girl names in mind, but are having trouble with a boy name. My husband has a couple of ideas on boy names, but I'm not sure I like them. You are welcome to leave suggestions in the comments. We don't like "popular" names; we'd like him not to have the same name as several others in his class (or our town). It needs to be slightly unusual, but not extra weird if you know what I mean. One name my husband likes is Experience, which is the name of one of his ancestors. I don't like it, so there's very little chance our child will have that name. When I was pregnant with Kirk, he liked to tell people we were going to name him Abimelech, which means "my father is king".

Of course I and at least my mom and my sister-in-law are hoping we have a girl so then the boy name won't matter. My husband wants another boy, which might be easier as we already have boy clothes and toys. I think my two nieces (one almost 9 months old and one going to be born in September) need a girl cousin to play with. My closest girl cousin in age was over 3 years younger than me, which is not a big deal now, but when you're growing up it seems bigger. 

In certain cultures, they use naming patterns. For instance I learned in Germany they often use the same first name and then go by their middle name or one of their middle names. I have found several Johanns (Johns) in my family tree. Sometimes a child is named after a relative. Often they name the first son after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandfather, the third after the father, etc. That makes for confusing family trees. Also I learned just because he is John Jr. does not mean he is the son of John Sr. He may be the younger John in the family. 

Hopefully you learned something from this post or it at least got you to thinking of your names.