Great Grandma

I just heard the news yesterday. My grandson and his girlfriend are going to have a baby. That is all I know right now. No name, no sex, no date, just have to wait till I hear more, but isn't it wonderful!! Another member of the family line is going to be born. Will this child be interested in his/her ancestors? Will he/she be wanting to continue the research? This child will have a couple of whole new lines to work on; his/her mothers and his/her fathers plus all those that connect on those two. I will try to have the childs' father's father's mother's line completed as much as possible. The childs father's father's line has already been partially done and is published.

I know I was going to speak of Scrapbooking this time and I will. This will give me a chance to do a few baby pages for the scrapbook. I still have so much to do; many photos still need to be scanned onto the computer so that I won't lose them if something should happen to the originals. I will be using some of the originals in the scrapbooks I hope to make for different members of the family. And this will be something I know I can pass on to my descendants. Someone in the family will care for them after I am gone. But I am not going anywhere for a very long time except to Kansas City and Indianapolis this year.

Speaking of scrapbooking. I have been getting scrapbooking ideas in the form of a binder and it's leaflets from "Photos, Memories and More" for over a year now. I have started a second binder and will probably get a 3rd and 4th before it finally ends. There are many pages of ideas for every imaginable event or date or happening that can be thought of. Some I may never use, but others I am sure to make use of. Today I hope to have the time to start on some more pages. Later on I will have to purchase more protectors and more papers as I will be making different sizes of scrapbooks. The one I am keeping is of my mother and father and their siblings and children and their friends. It is the largest one, a 12X12 post bound book. The other one I have is a 8.5X11 3 ring binder type. I want to get more like the 3 ring binder one to give to my family members. The best way to hand down your ancestor tree and pedigree along with the photos and history is through scrapbooking. You are able to use everything you can find to make the lives of the people you are scrapbooking about come to life. Those small things that were kept because of sentimental reasons like the wedding bouquet, the invitations, the graduation announcements, birth announcements, newspaper articles, and yes the death obits and certificates also. The scrapbook is about the whole life, not just the good things though we do want to remember all the good things we can about our ancestors. But if there is a criminal record for a great great grandfather, go ahead and use it. Did he get thrown in jail for stealing a coat? or food? Why do you suppose he stole? What is the real story behind the act? Was he hungry and out of work and lost his home, maybe his family too? Or was he just a ne'er do well? Was he a "black sheep" of the family? What makes up your family ancestry? Who were these people who ultimately gave you life? Learn as much as you can about the times of your ancestors - the history of where they lived and what were the weather conditions, the political conditions, the geography of the area; the economy of the times that helped to make the decisions your ancestors made.

And for those of you who are living today - keep a diary of your life and let your descendants know what your circumstances are, what your area of the country is like, what the economy is and how you handled the hardships you face; your political views and the places you traveled and the great things you saw or were a part of. And don't forget to mention the little known things, like a nickname you had, or your favorite flower or color, your favorite food, and did you have a garden. Everyday life may be boring to you, but to your descendants it will be an exciting time in history that they will enjoy reading about and seeing with your eyes. Mention the people you know, or met and how they affected your life. Give a good accounting of your years and leave it for all the descendants that you have a part in making who they are. Until next time.

Reunion Update

The King Family Reunion will be held in July this year, the actual day is still undecided, but it will probably be about the 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month. More will be posted as I find out when for sure it is going to be.

A few years ago it was changed to September, but before that it was always held in July and they decided to go back to July for the Reunions of the King Family.

Magazines, RSS Feeds, Societies

How many Genealogy or Family History magazines do you subscribe to? I like Family Tree Magazine. It advertises that it is "America's # 1 Family History Magazine!" and I believe it. There is so many helpful articles in one issue that it takes a while to try them all out. The best feature at the moment is the "state research guides" that they are putting in that you can take out and put in a binder. They do two states per issue and will have Ohio, Florida, Maryland, Ohlahoma, Mississippi, and New Jersey in the coming months.

One of the articles has to do with Surnames. Now you might not think you could write much about "surnames" because, you know, everyone has them. But WOW! wait till you read the article. Or wait till you start researching your own Surname and see just how many you will come across that also has your given name. Talk about confusing!! And when you start looking for that ancestor that you just know is going to be the one that gets you into the SAR or DAR and find out there are 20 or 30 with the same exact name, and possibly the same birthplace, and even the same birth month and you don't know the exact birthdate of your own ancestor - well, it is frustrating to say the least. But take heart, there are ways to find your one true ancestor. The article lists seven (7) ways to look at your Surname and find out all about it. And you could find a lot more relatives than you thought possible to boot.

There's always good articles in The Family Tree magazine and I recommend everyone to subscribe to it.


Another good resource to have are the RSS feeds for blogs, articles etc that are published on the Internet. I subscribe to Arlene E'akle's Virginia blog and Genealogy Insider and even the Midwestern Roots 2008: Family History Conference to keep up on the news. I am going to be adding more as I come across those that interest me.



And how about Genealogical Societies! Right now I am a member of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) which is holding its annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri this year and in Raleigh, North Carolina next year. I plan on going to both as they are very informative and you meet lots of Professional Genealogists that offer tips and other information that can be very useful in your own research. It is also a very good idea to join those societies that are located in the area of your ancestral research. Mine is in New York mostly, so joining the Central New York Genealogical Society is my next project. They have "Tree Talks", their publication of genealogical records from around the State of New York. Each one covers portions of records from different counties within New York and you have to receive them all in order to have the complete record so a continuing subscription/membership is vital. You can purchase back issues of Tree Talks if you happen to miss one for one reason or another. Tree Talks publishes abstracts, bible records, has book reviews, and queries and articles on genealogy and research, military records, births, deaths, will records, marriages, tax lists, cemeterys and so much more. It is a good idea to have a lot of binders to put these in as they come as loose leaf pages so that you can someday have complete volumes in one binder. They have been around since 1961 so there are plenty of volumes to collect.


Next time I will be talking about more genealogical resources and scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is a creative way to do your family tree with pictures, anecdotes, articles that belonged to great- great grandma, special events that occurred in your ancestors or your own life. Till next time.

Some Great Sites:

I was looking for anything to do with Genealogy and Family History and I found Arlene Eakle's website and blog. She has a new blog on Virginia now that looks to be very interesting. I also like her booklets on Kentucky as I have some ties to Kentucky where my in-laws live, and their ancestors came from Virginia. My ancestors came from New York, and now I see she has a whole set of volume's on "Researching Your Roots in New York - Break Your Losing Streak!" I will definitely have to purchase these even though I have loads of New York information from my mother's research. I also purchased her "Family History for Fun and Profit" but have not used it yet to continue my research. Arlene has also purchased a large warehouse that she has turned into a Genealogy Library where you can leave your genealogy research if it needs a permanent home and will be available for research by others. So I am thinking that because there is no one in my family that really is interested in continuing my research or having all my genealogy records that I will be donating them to Arlene's library where I know they will be well cared for and organized into some semblance of order. I also have all my mothers research that will also go along to be well cared for.

Another genealogy blog that I am personally acquainted with the owner is "history- genealogy site" by Barbara deMare of New Jersey. She has much information and methodology noted on this website and if you are interested in Chapel's, Smiths, Carpenters, Halls, Avery, or Stratton she may have some information for you. Her ancestors were here in the USA in early 1700. Give her blog a read and see what you think of it.

In case you are not aware of it, there is a place called Tribal Pages that you can use to enter your family history on, post pictures, make it available to all or give it password protected security just for family members. I have two sites, one for my family and one for my in-laws family. What I like about these is the ease of use, easy editing, and the nice look they have. For a price you get more room for pictures and no ads on the site, but the price is very reasonable. I have lots of room for everything I want to put there but haven't been working much on it lately. Was without my computer for a few months and just got it back on the Internet recently and am trying to catch up on all my projects.

May is a special month for me as I am going to the National Genealogical Society's conference in Kansas City, MO. I have never been to one of these conferences and I am wanting to go especially since my friend Barbara will be there as well as my other friends Helen and Sue. We are called Famgeno's as we have a website on MyFamily.com where we congregate with others to discuss our genealogy research and family matters and have chats once a week. We have many members though not all join in the chats. We have become like a large extended family and three of our members have found connections to each other in researching their ancestors. It is truly a small world.

I am hoping to put more information on my blog in the coming months about my research and about my trip to NGS in KC as well as other websites, magazines etc that I find useful. I may be able to help someone else out there find something they need.

Until next time I remain dedicated to my mother's memory and her search for her ancestors.