Update on FindAGrave

FindAGrave now has 38 million memorial pages listed on its free website, which includes many details about the individuals' lives, links to other family members' memorial pages, and photographs of the individual and/or his or her tombstone! As an indicator of how fast this website has grown over the years, on December 21 of last year, I reported they had 28 million memorial pages. All of these are created by visitors like ourselves.

If you would like to learn more about FindAGrave, you can request my free syllabus as well as read my post on the Family Linking Feature.

Find-A-Grave: Family Linking Feature

I read on the Genealogy Guys Podcast blog that Find-A-Grave has just added a family linking feature, and being one of my favorite user-contributed websites, I had to check it out. I wonder if Jim Tipton ever envisioned the popularity and diverse uses of Find-A-Grave when he created it: from celebrity grave hunters to support groups for mothers whose children have passed away to military re-enactors to those memorializing loved pets to genealogy enthusiasts! The first thing I noticed when I visited the site today is that there are now 28 million non-famous graves entered in this database (I remember just a few years ago when there were just 7 million). I think it is the attraction to so many individuals that has allowed Find-A-Grave to explode in growth!

When I presented a hands-on tutorial presentation to my local genealogical society in November 2006, I gave some basic instruction on how to create HTML links from one family member's memorial page to another in the Biography section of each page. (If you have not had the pleasure of searching--and contributing to--Find-A-Grave, you can e-mail me here for a copy of my syllabus for that class.) Here is the page for my great-granduncle, Angelo Merrick ROBBINS, Jr. with links to his parents' and siblings' memorial pages, which I created with the above method. This view is slightly different from the view everyone else will see when visiting his memorial page, because this is my behind-the-scenes perspective as "owner" (creator) of the page, with the ability to edit the information.

Click on any image in this post for an enlarged view.

As you can imagine, creating these links was rather tedious and time-consuming, requiring a lot of copying and pasting of links and careful typing in of HTML code. Naturally, I did not create links like this on many memorial pages, although I wanted to. The new feature is so much easier! First of all, in order to link individuals, you must be the creator of the child's or spouse's page. Click on the Add Relationship Links at the bottom of the Biography section:

An edit page will load:

I opened new tabs in my browser and found the memorial pages for Angelo's parents, Angelo ROBBINS, Sr. and Mary May KIMBALL. At the very bottom of each memorial page there is now a memorial number:

I highlighted and copied the number. To do so, take your mouse and move your cursor directly in front of the first digit. Left click your mouse and hold the button down while you drag the cursor across all the digits. The number will be highlighted:

Let go of the mouse button. Now hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and then press the C key. You have just copied the number. Go to the Edit page and using your mouse, put the cursor in the box where you wish to paste the number you have just copied. Hold down the CTRL key and then press the V key. When you enter the number, the Edit page will load the person's name and birth and death dates so that you can verify you have entered the correct memorial numbers:

You can see that you can add more than one spouse (up to five, actually). Adding the Year Married apparently orders the spouses by marriage date on the memorial page (the marriage year does not appear on the memorial page, however). Here's the page with the new feature added:

And here is Angelo's mother's page (Mary May KIMBALL) after I had added her as a parent to all her children, as well as added her father and second husband:

The neat thing is, once you start adding family members, Find-A-Grave's Reverse Relationship feature starts connecting all these individuals automatically, eliminating some of the repetitiveness of adding family members to each other's pages.

I have to admit, there are a few things that I feel could use some improvement. You can see on Angelo, Jr.'s page that his mother is listed before his father. I'm not sure why that is, and I would prefer the father's name first as that is how it would appear in most family tree documents and reports. Secondly, the children of Mary are not listed in birth order, or death order for that matter. They're not listed in alphabetical order, either, nor in order (or reverse order) of the way I added Mary as their mother. It just doesn't make sense! Thirdly, I would like to be able to add children to an individual, and not just add parents to a child. And lastly, I think other relationships should be made available, possibly user-defined: siblings, step-family members, in-laws, domestic partners, etc. I realize that these can be added to a biography using HTML, just as I originally added these family members before the new Family Linking Feature was available. Overall, I am pleased with this feature and see it as being extremely useful.

A few other changes I noticed at the site; women's maiden names are now italicized:

And you can transfer ownership:

Here's the transfer page:

I may request ownership from the creators of a couple of memorial pages of my ancestors that were probably made when someone transcribed a cemetery or obituary. When that happens, there's obviously a lot of missing information a non-family member wouldn't have. I hate to create duplicate memorial pages, so this is a good option.

Kudos to the Find-A-Grave team for continuing to develop features to enhance their site and encourage users to participate more! Now go out and play with the new toys!

Some Random Acts of Kindness

If there were an award for "Worst Genealogy Lookup Volunteer," I'm sure I'd be the winner, hands down! With all my computer/Internet problems this spring, coupled with a busy life, I haven't been able to keep up with my lookup requests until recently. Yet I can't blame everything on my busy life; I have a tendency to overcommit, and I'm learning (the hard way) to say no. When a distant cousin on my husband's side asked me if I could build her another website to promote her newest book, I had to turn her down, since I haven't even been able to stay on top of a site I'm currently working on!

All that said, last February, I posted a series on "Random Acts of Kindess" Week, and encouraged my fellow genea-bloggers to post about their contributions. I wanted to report to my readers what I've done, not as a "break-my-arm-in-patting-myself-on-the-back" way, but to give an idea of what giving back to the genealogical community entails. I have been the recipient of so many kindesses, that of course, I want to pay it forward. Perhaps in reading this, others will be inspired to do the same.

First of all, I made a couple of small financial contributions to a couple of favorite genealogy-related websites, because I believe in what they are doing to help out the genealogy community. When I've had to make non-genealogy online purchases recently, I've tried to do them through my fellow genea-bloggers' affiliate stores. I've also tried to remember to click on their various advertisements, although many times, I read blog posts through my Google Reader instead of at the actual blog site.

Secondly, I took some training from Carol Nettles, the volunteer coordinator at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. EWGS is creating an index of the Patchen file that will eventually be put on our website. The Patchen file was begun 50 years ago by Lee Patchen, who worked for 20 years, clipping out obituaries from Spokane newspapers and pasting them onto index cards, which were filed in dozens of those old fashioned card catalog drawers. A number of us are adding data from these obits to an Excel file which will eventually allow anyone with Internet access to lookup their ancestor and request a copy of the obituary. So far, I'm about 2/3 of the way through a drawer. I'm a pretty fast typist (keyboardist?) and yet it's taken me about 4 hours to index about one foot of cards (some prep work is involved; there are references to published works mixed in with the obits)! While I have no ancestors buried in this area, I feel this is a great payback to the genealogical community, especially since I've used the wonderful results of such work at the Western Michigan Genealogical Society's databases!

Next, I've taken some random photos of graves at Greenwood Memorial Terrace here in Spokane, and using the Washington State Death Index online at FamilySearch Labs, I've slowly been adding memorial pages to Find A Grave for these individuals. Graves that have caught my eye include Civil War veterans' and the many graves in the old part of the cemetery, which for some reason, is not kept up like the main part. It is very rural-looking, no grass, lots of trees and bushes, and has an old-fashioned feel to it.

Lastly, I've had 11 lookup requests since March 27th, most of which I've fulfilled. Two requested death and cemetery records for Muskegon Co., Michigan (I have access to these on microfilm at my local Family History Center). One of those requests occurred before FamilySearch Labs added images of Michigan Death records from 1867 - 1897 to their site. One of the requests was for a death after the early 1910s, which were not microfilmed, so I gave the requestor the link to the online Muskegon County Death Index and recommended if she found the death listed there, to purchase the record through the county clerk's office, rather than the state department of vital statistics (it's cheaper through the county).

Another individual e-mailed me to ask if I had access to all Michigan marriage records (such as a state index) or just Muskegon County Marriages. I wrote back to tell her it was only the county records. However, just today I wrote again to inform her that Michigan Marriages, 1867 - 1925, are now at the FamilySearch Labs site.

There was a request for four lookups for family members in Greenwood Cemetery in Walker Twp., Kent Co., Michigan. I could not find three that died in 1896 in the index; the death in 1870 occurred before the records were kept (and I believe when the cemetery opened) in 1880. I recommended a local researcher in Kent County who is inexpensive, professional, and thorough, and whom I've used on occasion with excellent results.

Three requests, one through RAOGK and another through Books We Own, asked for burial information at Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Clark Co., Washington. I used to own the burial books for this cemetery, as a large number of my husband's ancestors and relatives are buried there. However, I donated the books to my genie society's upcoming book auction, because the listings are now online. However, I keep my volunteer information available at these websites for this cemetery, because there are many people who are unaware that the burial records are online. I was happy to pass this information on to the three requestors.

I've had three requests for lookups in the microfilmed 1899 City Directory of Washington, DC, which happens to be one of many items on a microfilm that contains Muskegon County, Michigan records. I've fulfilled two of these requests. There is also an unfulfilled request for lookups in the microfilmed Grand Rapids City Directory in the 1860s and 1870s. All of these films are those I've put on permanent loan at my local Family History Center.

Speaking of lookups, Genlighten will soon open has recently opened its website as a place where individuals can connect with low-cost volunteer researchers. Dean Richardson, who Randy mentioned at the Jamboree, has also started a blog for the site. Given my terrible record for looking up records in such an untimely manner, I've not signed up as a researcher, although I am considering it (must finish other commitments, first). I see that DearMYRTLE endorses the site, and I think this will become a wonderful resource for our genealogical community. UPDATE: Dean posted some clarifications and corrections in the comments section of this post. Please take a moment to read these!

I've wanted to do more FamilySearch Indexing, but other commitments, time contraints and my laptop not working well have created challenges in this department.

How am I doing? Not too badly, I hope--except for taking so very long to fulfill lookup requests. I'd like to read posts from other genea-bloggers on their contributions, too, so if you have some, please add your post links to my comments section. Also, be sure to read Renee's Genealogy Blog as she writes about her adventures in FamilySearch Indexing.

Find A Grave Site Now at 19 Million Grave Records

I noticed over at Find A Grave that they now have 19 million grave records which you can search, in their non-famous grave area (for most of us, those would be where our ancestors are listed!).

When I first starting using this wonderful site over six years ago, I believe they only had about 5 or 6 grave million records. Even a year ago, when I presented a tutorial on using this site to the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, there were only about 13 million grave records! If you would like a copy of my syllabus from that presentation, please e-mail me (click on "View my complete profile" in the lower right-hand side bar to get my contact information).

Obituary of Mahala (SAYERS) WILKINSON - 1937

VENERABLE LADY IS SUMMONED BY DEATH AT LUCHINI HOME

Mrs. Mahala Sears [sic] Wilkinson, 89 years old, died at the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Luchini, 115 Walnut street, at 2 o'clock Wednesday [2 Jun 1937] morning, following a critical illness which began with a heart attack last Saturday.

The aged lady had been in precarious health since July 8, 1936, when she was found to be suffering from a serious heart malady. She got along quite comfortably, however, until last week when the sudden heat wave brought on the condition which resulted in her death.

The body was taken to Whitehall [Muskegon Co.], Michigan, Mrs. Wilkinson's old home, Wednesday morning, and the funeral and burial will take place there beside her husband, and among loved friends and scenes.

Mrs. Wilkinson was born July 8, 1847, at Prince Edward [County], Ont., and came to the States many years ago. She is survived by Mrs. Floyd Luchini, Alma; Mrs. George Lewis, Mrs. A. L. Ainger and John Wilkinson, all of Whitehall, and Fred Wilkinson, of Kelso, Wash. Mrs. Luchini has the sympathy of many Alma friends in her loss.

--from The Alma Record and Alma Journal, Alma, Gratiot Co., Michigan, Thursday, 3 Jun 1937, unknown page.
------------------------
Mahala was my paternal 3rd-great-grandmother, a Canadian immigrant, herself the child of Ulster Scot immigrants from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. My paternal grandfather fondly remembered her from his early childhood. She used to run her finger down the slope of his nose and say, "Love is like this," then run it back up, saying, "but marriage is like this!" I had some digital scans of photos of her with my grandfather and his younger brother taken around 1923 in Whitehall, and she appeared rather frail even then. Unfortunately, I did not know enough about re-writable CDs at that time, and those digital scans have been lost. The originals remain with my paternal grandmother in Texas.

This obituary gives me more detailed birth information (date and location) and a complete death date, than what I originally had. A photo of her tombstone in Oakhurst Cemetery, Whitehall, Muskegon Co., Michigan can be found at Find A Grave here.

Ancestors in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census - Part 12

View historical documents and photos from America's Boom and Bust era (1920 - 1935) here.

April 1st was Census Day for the 1930 U.S. Federal Census. In honor of that census day, throughout the month of April I posted lists of my known direct ancestors and where they were residing during that census. I am continuing this series into the subsequent months. I'll also list who's missing; for us family historians, missing individuals on census records can be the most frustrating and intriguing challenges of genealogy!

I introduce you to Martin HOEKSTRA and Jennie TON, my great-great-grandparents on my mother's side. Both first-generation Americans born of Dutch immigrants, it is possible they met while working in the laundry business, perhaps the American Steam Laundry Company of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, in the mid 1880s. Martin was a teamster; his job would probably have entailed driving wagonloads of dirty clothing and linens from the customers to the steam laundry, and then delivering the cleaned items back to their homes. Jennie was a laundress, and doubtless had one of the hardest and most thankless tasks in the business! Isabella Mary Beeton's Book of Household Management (paragraph 2372) describes the duties required of laundry maids in private homes in the 19th century...they must have been similar to those in a laundry company of that era. Hot, wet, and dirty work involving dangerous machinery and chemicals would have been the working environment for a laundress in those days.

Jennie and Martin were both probably very used to hard work. As children of immigrant laborers, they had grown up expected to do their share. Jennie, especially, had had a hard life. Her parents had immigrated from Nieuwerkerk, the Province of Zeeland, the Netherlands, with an infant daughter to Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio in 1857. Although they apparently had nine children in all, only three--Jennie and sisters Nellie and Mary--survived to adulthood. By 1873, the family had moved to Grand Rapids, and her father died the following year. Jennie's widowed mother remarried to a widower in 1875, but died herself three years later. The step-father in turn remarried another widow, and Jennie and her sisters were expected to contribute to the household. The older girls worked as domestics and Jennie, at 11 years old, was working as well. Probably not welcome in a household where both adults were step-parents, she ended up living with her mother's brother and sister-in-law, never obtaining more than a third-grade education.

Martin and Jennie were married in his parents' hometown of Holland, Ottawa Co., Michigan on 27 November 1886. It's possible that Jennie was expecting their first child at that time, as she was born less than eight months later. I have blogged about finding their marriage record in a previous post.

By 1930, the days of working for a laundry company were long over. Martin and Jennie had raised four children, Grace, Maude Mae, my great-grandfather John Martin (I blogged about his 1930 enumeration here), and Peter Louis Ton HOEKSTRA. These children were married with families of their own, producing eleven grandchildren. Martin had worked for years as a carpenter and contractor, both privately and for the railroad. Sometime between 1920 and 1927, they had bought a home at 1225 Cooper Avenue in Ward 3 of southeast Grand Rapids, a predominately Dutch immigrant neighborhood. In 1930, Martin was working as a decorator in building construction. Their home was worth $3,000, although they did not own a radio. Neighbors on both sides of them did own radios, so that indicates there was electricity in the neighborhood.

On 15 April 1930, Martin and Jennie were enumerated at their home at 1225 Cooper Avenue in Ward 3, Block 1478 of Grand Rapids (ED 26, Sheet 21A):

Household 7; Family 7; Hoekstra, Martin; Head of household; owner of home worth $3000; No radio; Family does not live on a farm; Male; White; age 61; Married; age at first marriage: 19; Did not attend school since 1 September 1929; Able to read and write; Born in Michigan; Parents born in the Netherlands; Able to speak English; occupation: Decorator for Building Construction company; Works on own account; Employed; Not a veteran

Jennie; Wife; Female; White; age 62; Married; age at first marriage: 19; did not attend school since 1 September 1929; Able to read and write; Born in Ohio; Parents born in the Netherlands; Able to speak English; occupation: none

Jennie was very close to her granddaughter, my maternal grandmother, Ruth Lillian HOEKSTRA, who shared stories of her grandmother with my mother and me over the years. According to Grandma, Jennie was sweet and gentle. She had learned how to cook and make bread at a very young age. She called her husband "Pa," and did whatever he said. My grandmother, an independent-minded woman, used to get riled up over this, because according to her, Martin was "a tartar"!

I look forward to when the 1940 U.S. Federal Census is publicly released, as Martin and Jennie should appear on it in either Grand Rapids or Allegan, Allegan Co., Michigan. The latter location is where their son Louis lived and they moved in with him and his wife in their old age. Jennie died at the age of 76 in Allegan. Martin was visiting or living with their daughter Maude when he died in Detroit the following year, also at age 76. Both are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Allegan, along with son Louis. Their graves can be seen at the Find A Grave website here. They are the only photographs I have of this couple's life.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11)

On Vacation

Tomorrow I'll be headed out with the Midkiff Clan for the wilds of Northeast Washington for a week of fun, sun, practical jokes, and late-night sessions of Balderdash! Having no wireless Internet service available, I'll be catching up on a lot of reading and possibly doing some offline blogging on my laptop to post later when we return to civilization.

In the meantime, here's some suggestions for those of you who can't bear to be without their AnceStories fix (ahem!):

• Go back and read my old posts. I've been genea-blogging since January 16, 2006, albeit at another URL; all the old posts were moved to this blog last winter. See "Blog Archive" in the right-hand menu.
  
• Read my journal prompts at AnceStories2: Stories of Me for My Descendants. Start your own blog or journal, if you haven't done so already, and record your stories.
• Read my other blogs, The Atlas Project or &Etc. There's not a lot on them right now, but they'll give you some other perspectives of my life. For a look at where we're vacationing right now, see the slideshow of last year's vacation on &Etc.
  
• I do have quite a lot of my ancestors' biographies on my website. For the pure genealogists out there, no, they don't have citations. They were written for family members from family stories I heard, backed up by documents I found in my early research years. But I've been told they're interesting...! I also have handy forms here.
• Visit the websites I've created for others: Midkiff: A Family, Town, and Way of Life and The Vorpahls' Website.
  
• Visit some of my favorite websites: Find A Grave, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, or Footnote.
• Visit my social networking pages listed on the right: Fuel My Blog, Technorati, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog, and BlogCatalog. You'll probably see other blogs that capture your interest linked to mine. And please don't forget to visit "My Favorite Genealogy Blog Links" in the right-hand column, especially if you're new to reading genealogy blogs. There are some terrific bloggers with great material that I hope you'll discover.

There, I've listed seven things to do for the seven days that I'll be gone. I can't wait to get back and read all the new posts from my favorite bloggers when I return!

More About Charles F. Wightman, Musician, of Co. C, 26th Illinois Infantry

Talk about your creative genes! I blogged about Charles F. Wightman--buried in Greenwood Memorial Terrace--last week, and recently received an e-mail from Brad Hanner, who is researching the history of the 26th Illinois Infantry, having an ancestor that served in Company K. Apparently Charles was more than just a musician:

Seems like a rare tri-color lithograph after Charles' sketch of the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia is selling for $850 at OldPrintGallery.com! The website has an incorrect middle initial for Charles, but a little research proved out that he was the only Charles Wightman to serve in that regiment, or the state of Illinois.

More on Sgt. Walter Scott of the U.S. Colored Troops

Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie astonished and blessed me by picking up the story of Sgt. Walter Scott of Company K, 27th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, who I mentioned in a post last week. Craig wrote a "brief" study on Walter Scott, which when printed up in Word, was a three-and-a-half page story that I plan on sharing with my genealogy society this afternoon.

I'm so impressed with Craig's research, because it gives an example of what can be found on the Internet these days, from starting with only a name and regiment number to a three-and-a-half page biography!

Walter's grave can be seen here at Find A Grave, and I provided a link to Craig's study on the memorial page. While I am at the library for the society meeting, I plan to see if I can find an obituary (and other records) to add more details to his life story.

Some Civil War Soldiers Buried in Spokane, Washington

As I mentioned before, I photographed a few Civil War veterans' graves in Greenwood Memorial Terrace here in Spokane on Sunday. Here's a list of the veterans, with links to their memorial pages and grave photos on Find A Grave:

C. R. Bardwell - Company C, 6th Minnesota Infantry

His wife, Mary E. Bardwell.

Eugene S. P. Bolton - Company A, 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery

F. W. Fiske - Company C, 8th Minnesota Infantry

Martin Holston - Company B, 1st Illinois Cavalry - UPDATE 23 Sep 2007: Read his biography here.

Pvt. Albert B. Hurd - Company H, 6th Minnesota Infantry (He already had a memorial page and photo, unbeknownst to me, but I added the photo I took.)

Hiram O. Johnson - Company H, 9th Indiana Infantry

Pvt. Joseph Litterneau - Company F, 12th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry

William W. Mason - 39th Massachusetts Infantry

John W. Proctor - "U. S. Soldier"

Corp. Christian Sanders - Company F, 6th Wisconsin Infantry

His probable wife, Elizabeth Sanders.

Sgt. Walter Scott - Company K, U.S. Colored Troops Infantry (I'd love to find out more of his story! African-Americans have always been a definite minority in this community, especially at the time this man would have lived here.) - UPDATE: Craig Manson, at GeneaBlogie, has created a "brief study" of Sgt. Walter Scott's life here.

John C. Squires - Company I, 2nd New York Heavy Artillery

Henry S. Walker - Company L, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry

James B. Warren - Company D, 18th Missouri Infantry

Musician Charles F. Wightman - Company C, 26th Illinois Infantry

I used the Sons of Union Veterans National Graves Registration Database to try to find more detailed information on these men. There wasn't much, but I did get some full names where I only found initials, a couple of dates (most of the stones did not list birth/death dates), and some explanations for some of the abbreviations.

These are but a handful of the 393 known Civil War veterans buried in this cemetery and the 803 total buried in this county. I want to know more about these men, and perhaps this summer I can do some research on them, or find their obituaries in the microfilmed newspapers in the downtown library.

An Afternoon at the Cemeteries

Yesterday afternoon, my 16-year-old daughter accompanied me to two local cemeteries so that we could honor the deceased of our families. I had planned to go on Saturday, which was a gorgeous warm day, but errands--including purchasing a new flag for the holiday and a bouquet of roses for the purpose of distributing them at the graves--took up most of my day. Sunday arrived with strong gales of wind, so strong I dared not put up my new flag for fear of bending the aluminum pole or snagging the banner on the gutters above. Thunderstorms were forecast for the late afternoon and evening, so I decided it was now or never.

The first cemetery we visited was Riverside Memorial Park, where a special little boy now rests in peace: Brandon Tyrone Chapman, a special-needs student I worked with for four years, who was like a second son to me. He is buried underneath some pines not far from the Spokane River. The cemetery was beautifully decorated, with hundreds of memorial flags fluttering along the roadsides and graves brightly trimmed with real and silk flowers, flags, and pinwheels. At the entrance, throngs of people milled, visiting Heritage Funeral Home, which normally has a historic display for the public every Memorial Day weekend. Last year, Ulysses S. Grant had been the focus; this year was Elvis, so I did not go in (I like his music, but I had hoped for a more "historical" figure). Classic cars were being shown in the parking lot, and I took a quick shot with my camera while my daughter picked up some free pizza from a nearby booth (yes, it's quite an event!).

We then crossed the road to Greenwood Memorial Terrace, where we noticed a large American flag was posted near the monument of Chief Spokane Garry. We drove up to the first terrace where a large Midkiff monument marks the lot where George Henry, his wife Arzella (Glasgow), and their son Samuel C. Midkiff are buried. I've done a little research on this family, and can trace George back to Kentucky, but how he may be related to my husband is still a mystery. There are no descendants; their only son Samuel died in 1918, so our family has "adopted" the graves to clean and decorate them on Memorial Day. My daughter remarked that Samuel was only 16 when he died (her own age), and I told her he had probably died in the Influenza Epidemic.

We then went up to the top terrace, where two of my cousins, Christopher Wrex Pierson Zaagsma and Caren Jeanne "Carrie" Pierson Zaagsma, are buried in the Inspiration block. We stayed for a while at their graves, while I told my daughter the stories of my cousins, what their personalities were like, memories of special times together, and how they had died. Then we went over to nearby Honor Lawn, where some distant Midkiff cousins are buried. I shared memories with Missy about Betty Lou(Midkiff) Bryant, a petite woman who had researched the Midkiff family in the area and had contacted us about 18 years ago to try to fit us into the family tree (she was my father-in-law's second cousin). Together, she and I organized the first local Midkiff Family Reunion in 1990. Betty's husband, George Wesley Bryant, is buried next to her; a salty-tongued WW2 veteran, he had worked on the Grand Coulee Dam as an ironworker. On the other side of Betty rests her brother, George Vernon Midkiff, a Navy veteran whose life was cut tragically short by an automobile accident.

When we were done with the graves of family and friends, we returned to the first level, where the graves of many Civil War veterans are situated around the Grand Army of the Republic monument. We chose graves that had no flowers or flags (and sadly, there were many) on which to lay the last of our roses. I took photographs to upload to Find A Grave. There was a nest in a pine above us and a baby bird fell out, fluttering around. My daughter was very worried, but I assured her the bird's mother would return as soon as we left, and that the good thing was there didn't appear to be any predators in the area.

We returned home tired from our outing in the wind, but satisfied in having enjoyed our time together, knowing our loved ones had been honored.

Connecting with Cousins on Memorial Day

Three years ago, my husband, children and I traveled across the state of Washington to spend Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws in Vancouver, Washington, which lies just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. I always enjoy this cross-state visit, as the longest leg of it--driving along the Columbia River on the Oregon side--follows both the Lewis and Clark trail and the Oregon Trail. I enjoy imaging the explorers and pioneers traveling the same route, and seeing Mt. Hood towering in the distance.

While in Vancouver, we went with Norm's parents and sister to Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, to visit and photograph the MIDKIFF, TOLLIVER, DAVES (step-ancestor), LUKE, and CHAPLIN graves. The following year, 2005, we made the same trip, and I insisted that we were going to travel down to the Willamette Valley to visit and photograph the grave of one of Norm's great-great-grandmothers, Rebecca Catherine (SNOOK) WESTABY, buried in Salem, as well as the graves of my great-great-grandparents, Charles Frisbe STRONG and his wife, Mary Lucy WRIGHT. Charles and Mary are two of only four of my ancestors buried west of the Mississippi River, and the other two are nowhere near my home! My paternal grandfather, Robert Lewis ROBBINS is buried at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, and a 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY, is apparently buried in St. Paul, Minnesota. So to actually be able to be within a few hours of an ancestor's grave is a big deal to me, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

When we arrived at Belle Passi Cemetery in Woodburn, Marion Co., Oregon, where Charles and Mary are buried, we found that the graves had already been cleaned and decorated. They were surrounded by other graves, obviously of the family of their daughter, Ethel Melissa (STRONG) HASTIE, who is buried there along with her husband, the Rev. Ezbon Roy HASTIE. I remember visiting the widowed Aunt Ethel in 1979, when we first moved to Washington State, and remembered meeting her son.

We were rather rushed on that visit, and so I didn't have time to try to find out how to contact the family. But on the way home, I had a couple of ideas that could work for you to help you connect with cousins on Memorial Day. Obviously, I could have looked up the Hastie family in the phone book in Woodburn, or on Dex Knows when I got home. But what if you are looking for descendants of an ancestor, yet you don't know your cousins' surnames?

First off, you need to know where your ancestor is buried. If their grave is in your hometown or nearby, you're in luck. If you are like myself and live far from your ancestral cemeteries, it's important to obtain death certificates and/or obituaries of your ancestors to determine their final resting places. I use Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness quite frequently to get obituaries of ancestors. They're easier and less expensive to access than death certificates. Once I have the name of a cemetery in hand, I use Find A Grave, Interment.net, Dex Knows, or Cemetery Junction to find an address and telephone number (check out Cyndi's List of Cemeteries as well).

My next step is to cold call the cemetery office during local business hours. I have had so much luck with this! You would be amazed at how helpful cemetery employees are! From phone interviews I have discovered the names of other ancestors and relatives buried in the same cemetery, the names of the funeral homes that provided services (I'll post more about this in the future), the names and addresses of the lot owners (which may be obsolete, but may provide relatives' names). I always try to obtain the lot number of the grave(s) I am interested in, and sometimes the employee will mail me a cemetery map. I ask the cemetery employee if it's okay to send them an info packet that they could place on my ancestor's grave (see following paragraph). In fact, I have been so successful in this type of research, that I've created a form that I use to help me remember all the questions I want to ask when I call.

The fourth step is to write a letter explaining that I am a descendant of the ancestor buried in that cemetery, and that I am doing genealogical research on the family. I leave contact information: a phone number, mailing address and e-mail address. This letter is folded and sealed in a zip-lock bag and then placed in an envelope which is addressed either to the cemetery office or to a volunteer in the area that I've contacted through the local genealogical society or Random Acts. The cemetery employee or the volunteer can then place the info packet (my letter in a zip-lock bag) on the grave, hopefully weighted with a small rock or wedged into a crevice of the headstone, so it won't blow away. If this is done about a week before Memorial Day weekend, there's a chance that I could connect with another descendant of that ancestor who has come to the cemetery to clean and decorate the grave! If the cemetery doesn't allow an info packet left on the grave itself, ask if your letter could be placed in your ancestor's file at the office.

So what's the purpose of this? To hopefully connect with other relatives of a common ancestor and exchange information...photos, documents, stories, etc. It's likely that the two of you have missing information that the other may be seeking. Perhaps you'll break down a brick wall! Memorial Day weekend is only two weeks away, so I hope you'll take advantage of this tip. Good luck to you!

Grave photo of John Franklin MIDIFF, I

As the weather warms up and the roads are safe to travel again, I'm starting to hear back from various volunteers regarding obituaries and grave photos I've requested. This morning I received an e-mail from Find A Grave notifying me that one of their volunteers, Jean had submitted a photo I'd requested of the grave of my husband's great-grandfather, John Franklin MIDKIFF, I. I've mentioned John last month in a post about his daughter Dorothy here. A relative once told me that he died after accidentally drinking some contaminated water. I have not been able to obtain an obituary for him through Random Acts. Yakima isn't too far away (200 miles/3 hour drive), and I have hoped for a while to visit the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society's new library to obtain sources on both the MIDKIFFs and CHAPLINs (my mother-in-law's family), especially to find any death notice or obituary for John. The cost of gas during summer months the last few years has put a damper on genealogical road trips. However, I noticed on the society's web page that they will fulfill queries for $1.00 each - very reasonable! I may just need to fire off an e-mail to them this week...!

A Happy Discovery

Every once in a while, I stumble across a happy discovery in genealogy, usually when I'm least expecting it. Friday was one of those days. I was in a hurry, with a rushed before-work morning, trying to get things done because of the busy weekend ahead. I checked my e-mail, and was quickly scanning several messages from various RootsWeb mailing lists I subscribe to. For some serendipitous reason, I read through the entire message from the YORK mailing list, even though the subject heading was of no interest to me. It was a message gatewayed from the YORK message board, and mentioned a photograph of a grave in Bluebonnet Hills Cemetery, Colleyville, Tarrant Co., Texas.

My grandaunt Shirley Marie (ROBBINS) HALL was buried in Colleyville, and that was all the information I had about her burial. Looking at Find A Grave had not been helpful, since there are 117 cemeteries listed at that site for Tarrant County, and although Bluebonnet Hills is listed as being in Colleyville, there are a number of cemeteries whose locations are simply listed as "Tarrant County, Texas." It's further complicated by the fact that Tarrant County is home of Fort Worth, so there are many cemeteries in the area. Doing a search on Aunt Shirley's name was not productive at Find A Grave, either.

Anyway, I clicked on the link in the YORK mailing list and it took me to the Tea for Two website, which is subtitled, "Cemeteries Photographed in Texas, Oklahoma, and the World." It was there I discovered that a photograph of Aunt Shirley and Uncle Herb's shared gravestone had been uploaded to the site! That photograph also gave me Uncle Herb's birth and death dates.

My next step is to obtain the phone number for the cemetery office using Qwest Dex, and then make a call. I've had a lot of success calling cemetery offices to get information, and I created a form to help me remember all everything I need to ask. If you would like a copy of this form, you can e-mail me (see my profile in the right-hand menu of this page), and I will send you one as a Word document.

The Top "Ten" Genealogical Websites

I'm a little behind in blogging about this, but I wanted to share a bit about the January 20th computer class. Every third Saturday (except in December) the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society offers a free computer class to its members only in the Gates Computer Lab of the downtown public library in Spokane. We have three hour-long sessions: one at 10:15 AM; one at 11:30 AM; and one at 1:30 PM. Each session can seat 15 people; 10 at computer stations, and five either sharing stations or simply taking notes at the back of the room. Our classes are generally booked solid, with names on standby. We take turns teaching the classes. Some of the instructors didn't really know much about the topic they chose, and educated themselves in order to help the group as a whole.

January's topic was the Top Ten Genealogical Websites, presented by our very own Donna Potter Phillips, a name recognized by many, I'm sure, as the author of numerous articles from various genealogical magazines. Although our area was hit with a nasty winter storm that day, we still had an average of eight students per session show up, regardless of the bad weather (that's how much we enjoy our classes!). I was expecting a review of the top ten websites that I'm familiar with (Ancestry, RootsWeb, Find A Grave, etc.), but was pleasantly surprised (with Donna, I often am!) that she had expanded the title to the following: The Top "Ten" New-Interesting-Fantastic-Exciting-Wonderful "New" Websites to Expand YOUR Online Research!

The "ten" websites (there are actually eleven) are listed below. Of course, to have attended the class and received the benefit of Donna's great tips, pointers, and enthusiasm, as well as a detailed syllabus, one must be a member of EWGS. I don't think Donna would mind for a moment, however, that I shared the URLs of the following sites with you.

• Genealogy Today
• Linkpendium
• Migrations
• Canadian Genealogy Centre
• Castle Garden
• Ellis Island
• Washington State Digital Archives
• Relative Genetics
• American Memory from the Library of Congress
• Google - Donna says you must learn to do Google searches! See the May 2006 issue of Internet Genealogy for a wonderful article on this subject. To order this issue (if it's still available) and to subscribe to IG, call toll-free 1-888-326-2476 (tell them Donna sent you!).
• Footnote

Now, if you are an EWGS member and took Barbara Brazington's class on doing Boolean searches back in January 2006 (repeated by popular demand in September 2006!), you would know how to use Google to benefit your research.

Our society has found that these educational classes not only benefit us in our research, but have increased our membership. Flyers posted in the library have caught the eyes of many potential members, and they are only too eager to join in order to learn more about Internet genealogy! We've booked classes through the end of 2008, with a growing list for our 2009 program. If your society is dwindling in membership, perhaps you ought to try offering something similar. For a list of past, present and future classes, check out our Special Classes page.

"I'd Like to Thank the Academy..."

Like those long-winded actors at the Oscars, I have an endless list of people I'd like to thank for nurturing this obsession of mine called genealogy. Always first on my list is the genealogical society member I've never met (who shall remain anonymous), who--in a Michigan courthouse 10 years ago--quietly checked my paternal grandmother's original birth record in the county birth liber to confirm the story of who her biological parents were. Then there are the volunteers at RAOGK and Find A Grave who make long-distance research possible, not to mention the wonderful people (good friends, really) at my local Family History Center and the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society who are so knowledgeable and encouraging in my quests. Recently, it's been my fellow genealogy bloggers who keep me abreast of the latest genealogy news and resources and whose virtual "high-fives" have sustained me through the winter blahs and blues.

But really, I have to say that the foundation of it all was laid by family (how fitting!). My father had the Robbins' touch for story-telling. I was an only child for seven years, and remember him tucking me into bed at night when I was very little and telling me stories his father had told him of the Robbins family: of Grandpa Robbins going to GAR reunions with his Great-grandfather Robbins; of my Great-grandpa Robbins fighting in Russia during and after WWI; of tiny Great-grandma Robbins warming herself by sitting on the oven door of the old wood cook stove, and once accidentally burning her keister! Growing up in Alaska three thousand miles from extended family made them all seem like storybook characters...celebrities, even.

When I was 11 years old, we went back to Michigan for a month, to celebrate Christmas with the family. It had been nearly seven years since we had been "home." Both sets of grandparents and an occasional aunt or uncle had come to Alaska to visit us, but none in the past 4 or 5 years since my little brother and sister had been born. To prepare us ahead of time so that we would know who all the family members were, Dad created a poster with the relatives' photos arranged in family groups, and hung it in the living room. We'd go over the names of the aunts and uncles and cousins...how old the kids were, and what cities they lived in. And when we arrived at the Grand Rapids airport that December morning, there was a crowd of 30 or so people waiting to meet us...the ultimate family reunion! For the first time in my memory, I felt connected to a people who, although I did not know them well, seemed to know and love me.

During our stay, Mom interviewed my Great-Grandma Robbins and wrote down four generations' worth of notes of my Grandfather Robbins' ancestors. Mom knew her own family stories so well, but wanted to know more about Dad's family for the sake of us, her children, I suppose. Eight years later, I started my own family tree by filling out pedigree charts and family group sheets using the notes Mom jotted down. And the rest, as they say, is history...or in this case, family history.

So here's to all of you; and a special show of gratitude to you, Dad and Mom, with love.

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.

Research Log - ROBBINS research

Received an e-mail from Shawn StGermaine, who is a sister-in-law of a descendant of Ben Frank ROBBINS and Helena SWEET. She has added both grave info and photos of the ROBBINS family to the Find A Grave website from West Cemetery, Hesperia, Michigan, including photos of Joseph and Marinda ROBBINS' graves (graves which another photo volunteer had been unable to find this summer).

Grave photos of Peder and Regina LERFALD and sons

Anne S. Anderson and her husband (Find A Grave photo volunteers) kindly gave of their time to locate and photograph the graves of my husband's great-great-grandparents, Peder and Regina LERFALD. Our records indicated that the LERFALDs were buried in Lone Pine Cemetery, Woodville, St. Croix County, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson went to three cemeteries in Woodville, ending up at Zion Lutheran. They found not only Peder and Regina's shared headstone, but the headstones for two of their sons, John and Ole (named respectively for Peder's and Regina's fathers).

It's not clear at this point if Zion Lutheran and Lone Pine are two names for the same cemetery, but it appears to be so. I have to do some more checking, perhaps with the St. Croix Valley Genealogical Society or the St. Croix County Historical Society. The good news is that since I know they are buried at Zion Lutheran Cemetery, I am assuming that they may have been parishioners of Zion Lutheran Church. Perhaps I can find some church records that can help me "humanize" this family...so that they are less names, dates, and locations, and more people with needs, wishes, failings and strengths. I found a lot of helpful information at the St. Croix County USGenWeb site, including a history of Woodville. Seems this area was part of the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin, made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder's first book, Little House in the Big Woods.

Above is a photo of Peder and Regina on their 50th anniversary in 1931, probably in Woodville. Look at the size of Peder's hands!

Peder Johnsen LEFALD and Regina Olasdotter LERFALD were first cousins, although not on both their fathers' sides, as it would seem by their common surname. Peder's father, John Nilssen LERFALD, and Regina's mother, Ane Nilssdotter LERFALDHOLMEN, were siblings, children of Nils Pedersen LERFALDTRØEN and Randi Olasdotter LERFALDHOLMEN. The variations of the LERFALD surname indicate the various farms in the Lerfald area of Norway (east of Trondheim) where the family members last worked before immigration. In other words, LERFALD and its variations, are place names which became surnames. It's been very difficult finding the LERFALDs in U.S. records after they immigrated (between 1866 [Peder and parents] and 1874 [Regina and mother]), and they tended to use patronyms. Trying to find JOHNSENs (Peder) and OLSENS (Regina - masculine version of Olasdotter) or their parents' patronyms of NELSON (for Nilssen and Nilssdotter) and PEDERSEN/PETERSON in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the late 1800s - early 1900s, is a challenge, to say the least!

My Hubby's HUBBYs

Clarence Cassler did a good deed for me by photographing several HUBBY graves in the Hull Cemetery in Luther, Boone Co., Iowa. These included the shared headstone for my husband's 3rd-great-grandparents, John HUBBY, Sr. and wife, Hannah JONES. A unique feature is that on their headstone it reads "born in New York" for Hannah, and "born in Canada" for John. Would that all our ancestors be so considerate as to list their birthplaces on their tombstones!