20th Carnival of Genealogy: One Woman

The 20th Carnival of Genealogy is up, and I think you'll enjoy the stories that have been posted. As stories of women are wont to do, they evoke a range of emotions from anger to questioning, inspiration to joy. Jasia's started quite a blogging tradition, and there are now 15 submitters to the carnival. But enough from me...go read!

February Scanfest Report

Today was the first ever Genealogy Bloggers Scanfest, and I'm happy to report that a fun, productive time was had by all. I was joined at 12 p.m. PST by Lee and Jasia for a couple of hours of scanning and group chatting via Windows Live Messenger. We talked about our scanning projects: Lee was scanning ancestral tintypes, which sadly were not labeled; Jasia was scanning reproductions of old family photos from her mother-in-law's lines; and I was scanning a family record book my great-grandparents filled out with genealogical information.

While we worked, we chatted about preservation, scanners, photograph types, the responsibilities of being the "family archivist," blogging, our families, and even what we were making for dinner! It was a great way to connect with each other, and I look forward to doing it again!

The next scheduled Scanfest will be Sunday, March 25th, again from noon to 2:00 p.m., PST. We hope you'll join us! E-mail me at kidmiff AT gmail DOT c o m to be added to our chat list.

18th Carnival of Genealogy is Posted

I tried to blog this earlier, and ran into a hiccup...so here goes again! Jasia, over at Creative Gene, has posted the 18th Carnival of Genealogy. The topic is "5 Best Tips for Specific Research Areas." Nine bloggers share their tips for researching in specific locations including Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Northeast Indiana, Detroit (Polish ancestors), San Diego (CA), Texas, and Upstate New York. There also a blog on five generic tips that can be used for any kind of research. So take a look and check it out. Even if none of these research areas apply to you, you may get an idea or two of how to do research in your ancestral locations.

The topic for the 19th Carnival of Genealogy is "Shelter from the Storm: Stories of Home and Hearth." I encourage you to take a try at blogging on a specific topic...it's a lot of fun!

Things You Didn't Know About Miriam

Jasia over at Creative Gene recently tagged me for a meme (whoa, I learned a new word!) in which I have to divulge 5 things about myself that you don't know. I decided to raise the bar a bit, and I'm listing below 5 things each from both my personal and genealogical life for your reading pleasure:

Personal:

1. My "real-life" job is a paraeducator in special education. Under the supervision of a certificated instructor, I teach literacy and mathematics at the junior high-level, as well as assist students in their elective classes (Industrial Arts and Technology), Health & Fitness, Vocational Training, Social Skills, and Living Skills. I work with a wide range of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, Autism/Asperger's Syndrome (my favorite students), Marfin's Syndrome, Down's Syndrome, and mental retardation. I have also worked with children who have spina bifida, traumatic brain injury, and Fetal Alchohol Syndrome.

2. I enjoy different needle arts, all of which are self-taught: crochet, knitting, cross-stitch, plastic canvas stitching, and sewing. Crochet is my forte'. The photo below is of an afghan I designed and created for my son last year to match his bedroom decorating themes of Star Wars, Spider-Man, and other movie/comic book characters.

3. On New Year's Day 1987, I marched with The Salvation Army band in the Pasadena Rose Parade (I played the flugelhorn). As an aside, The Salvation Army (TSA) band and the Pasadena High School band are the only bands that have a standing invitation to the Pasadena Rose Parade. All others must receive a special invitation only. It is considered a great honor for any band to participate in this parade. On the other hand, I have also marched in the Butte, Montana Fourth of July parade with TSA, and that was an unforgettable experience as well (potholes, drunken miners, etc.)! Between TSA band, various school bands, and church music programs, I also have played cornet, alto horn, clarinet, piano, autoharp, concertina, and even the timbrel (in a drill-team-style group for The Salvation Army). Sadly, am no longer involved in any music groups.

4. I am a cat person. My current pet is a gray and black tabby female named Tessa, who we rescued in the neighborhood about 3 years ago. She loves to play "catch" with her rabbit-fur-covered fake mice.

5. Sometimes I wish I could duplicate myself! Then I could have enough time to do both genealogy AND create graphics. I use PaintShopPro 6, and have created many backgrounds, images, and animations, some of which are available at my graphics website, Kidmiff Kreations. Being a wife, mom of two teens (my kids drive me crazy; I drive them everywhere else!), employee, and hobby-genealogist, I haven't been able to keep up with this. I tend to dabble in graphic creation and design much more in the summer.

Genealogical:

1. I am a Mayflower descendant through Richard Warren (twice), George Soule, John and Joan Tilley, their daughter Elizabeth Tilley, and her husband John Howland. My children's father is a descendant of John and Elinor Billington, and their son Francis Billington. Those Billingtons! John was the first white man hanged on the North American continent (for murder), and Elinor was once condemned to be whipped for gossiping. Francis may have been the son that William Bradford wrote about, who nearly blew up the ship on the voyage over, by making a squab (firecracker) IN THE GUNPOWDER ROOM! After landing, John, Jr. got himself lost for three days, throwing the whole colony into a panic, until he was found and returned by (fortunately) friendly natives.

2. Due to the small genetic pool in colonial New England, I am related to myself quite a few times. My children's father also descends from that same Puritan/Pilgrim pool, and between the two of us, it's amazing our two children were born with all the correct number of body parts!

3. My own black sheep ancestors include 4th-Great-Grandpa Uzza Robbins, a hot-tempered blacksmith from Potter County, Pennsylvania, who murdered his son, and later his second wife (with his step-daughter nearly losing her life as well). Learn how Uzza lost his head, post-mortem, here.

4. Although I have never lived there as a permanent resident, I consider Michigan my home state. Sixty-nine of my direct biological ancestors spent all or part of their lives in that state between 1836 and the present. This includes all ancestors from my parents through my great-great-grandparents' generation, plus many in the older generations, including two sets of 5th-great-grandparents. In addition, I have 12 direct adoptive ancestors and 25 step-ancestors (married to my direct ancestors) who were also Michigan residents.

5. If I never find another ancestor, I still will consider my genealogical research to be successful, as my first goal when I began my quest was to reunite my paternal grandmother with her biological family. She and her younger brother had been kidnapped from their mother's home by her father when she was three years old, and abandoned at an orphanage. I was successful in achieving my goal, and you can read some of this story in my great-grandmother's AnceStory.

There, you now know more information about me than you ever cared to learn! I hereby tag Cameron and Maureen, David Bowles, Maureen Taylor, Denise Olsen, and Dana Huff. Pass it on, folks!

The Year in Review (2006)

Jasia is encouraging those of us who participate in the Carnival of Genealogy to write about our New Year's (Genealogy) Resolutions for 2007. Before I do that, I need to write about my accomplishments in 2006. Too often, when we set out to make New Year's Resolutions, we don't take the time to credit ourselves for all we HAVE done. Our resolutions tend to have a negative theme in that they stress what we should have been doing, yet didn't do (lose weight, pay off debt, quit smoking, etc.). So here's a list of things I achieved in 2006, genealogically speaking:

• My main theme in 2006 was to get documentation for my great-great-grandparents' generation. I think I did pretty well. I searched for 8 birth records and came up with 4 (one was a duplicate, though). During my search, I did find quite a few birth records for siblings of these ancestors, which expanded my knowledge of their families as whole groups. I now have 6 of the 8 marriage records and 9 of 16 death records needed for this generation. I have 15 obits and 15 grave photos for this generation, thanks to the wonderful volunteers at RAOGK and Find A Grave.
• Speaking of RAOGK and Find A Grave, I performed many volunteer services doing records lookups and some gravestone photography at local cemeteries. I researched the life of Herman THOENI, a gardener for the Campbells, a wealthy Spokane family from the turn of the century, whose home is now a part of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. I also took on more responsibilities for my local genealogical society. Helping out the genealogical community is one way of paying forward the many favors I have received over the years!
• My husband's ancestry is one that we've had a lot of info on for many years, but precious little documentation, so this year, I started gathering evidence to support all the events I have listed for his ancestors: vital and census records, obits and grave photos.
• I started keeping better track of my research, using research log forms bound in a notebook, as well as a research log in Notepad, and this blog. I don't always have time to sit down and blog my research notes, but I can always quickly whip open my Notepad log and jot down a few notes, everyday. I learned this trick in an article in Smart Computing magazine: Open Notepad and in the first line of the file, type .LOG (make sure you enter this in all uppercase). Press ENTER twice. Then choose File and Save. Create a name like "Research Log" and file in a folder you'll easily remember ("Genealogy," etc.). I created a shortcut to my desktop by right-clicking on the folder icon and choosing "create a shortcut." Then I can easily access it. The cool thing about this Research Log is that every time you open it, it date and time stamps the log, so it's all ready for you to record your notes.
• I purchased a copy of RootsMagic, upgrading from my old Family Origins software. I love that it has an electronic form for easy citations of sources! I also purchased GenSmarts, and it has given me tons of possibilities for finding and researching documents of my ancestors. I was able to obtain a good used laptap, and although it doesn't currently have a wireless card, it is handy to do non-Internet computer tasks. We also upgraded to a new, larger, faster computer with a flat screen monitor, and DSL Internet connection. These technological upgrades and additions help make Internet research faster, more efficient, and productive.
• Through my local community college district, I taught online genealogy for three quarters, as well as two Internet genealogy classes for my local genealogy society. I didn't get much of a chance to add to my Atlas Project website, but did create another genealogy site for a client.

Now that I've listed what I've done, I can write about what I want to achieve in 2007.