Merry Christmas! DAR and Letters

I visited my grandmother a few days before Christmas and she gave me a letter and two sets of Daughters of the American Revolution documents to keep. The letter was one her own grandmother wrote to her right before she got married. It details our family tree back multiple generations and confirms much of the research I have done on my own. I even learned a few middle names that I never would have uncovered otherwise.

The DAR applications she gave me were her own and her mother's. I'm not sure if they will be helpful in straightening out the DAR issue I wrote about here, but either way it is neat to have copies of them.

Also, I mentioned that I received my 23andMe testing kit a few days ago! I will make an entry specifically about that when I have some free time in the next few days.

Receive, spit, send back

I received my 23andMe testing kit today (ok, fine...yesterday since it is after midnight)! My sample is already on its way to the lab.

More thoughts on this soon.

23andMe on the move

My 23andMe testing kit left the USPS facility in Oakland, CA today!

On this day...

Today is December 19th and my family tree contains two deaths.

On this date in 1899 my 3rd cousin 3x removed died and in 1933 the husband of my 1st cousin 4x removed did.

3 and 365

3 is the number of hours I spent in a cemetery on this lovely warm afternoon.
365 is the number of photos I took.

I'll post my favorites soon.

Genealogy Kindle Books for under $5! (part one)

Earlier today I wrote a post about my frugal start into genealogy. Continuing with this theme...here are links to very inexpensive kindle books on a variety of family history topics you may find interesting!

Free!
...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ... 

$0.99

...  ... 

$2.99

More coming soon...

My frugal entrance into genenalogy

I became interested in genealogy while I was still a student. Living in a little 10th floor apartment I spent many hours gazing at the skyline to rest my eyes from the strain of writing a thesis (and, of course, exploring my family history). To say my financial means to delve into the world of genealogy were modest is an understatement. I am a frugal person and I was hesitant to immediately purchase a membership to any of the online genealogical resources. (What if I don't find anything?!) I think I waited nearly 18 months and then my grandmother gave me a gift membership to Ancestry.com.

Online Memberships (you don't always have to pay right away!)
During that initial 18 months I gathered a lot of information (Ok, not finding anything seems doubtful now...). Some of it was handed to me in the form of stories, old photographs, and already completed research. The rest was the result of what I like to call 'frugal detective work' and building a base to explore from.

Ancestry allows non-subscribers to search and see some of the information contained in a record. For example, right now I have let my membership lapse while I physically move myself and then spend some time organizing what I already know (then I will be back!). As a guest I am able to search for one Nancy Williams and see that she appears on the 1880 census. I can also see her age, approximate birth year, birthplace, home in 1880, race, gender, relationship to the head of household, marital status, spouse's name, father's birthplace, mother's birthplace, and the names & ages of other people in her household. Not too shabby!

Documentation is an essential part of genealogy, so the major downfall to this type of research is you don't have the ability to examine the actual document that is supplying the above information. There may be transcription errors...and plain old errors...and you may not catch them. Another drawback is you don't have the benefit of viewing other information such as your ancestor's address. I had no idea until I was perusing my grandfather's childhood neighbors that he lived next door to his own grandparents in 1920. This also helped me pinpoint how old other family members were. I have also been able to take census addresses and locate residences that are still in existence many many many years later (see my blogger and twitter icon for an example!).

Books
Genealogy books can be expensive. I have my eye on one that is hundreds of dollars and I doubt I will ever see a copy of it. Over the last few months I have discovered the wonderful world of free and cheap Kindle books. I am working on a future post that organizes the ones that I have found that are under $5. So far, I have really enjoyed the ones I downloaded and since you don't need a Kindle to read them I think many people would find them interesting.

[Another frugal tip - I often purchase my Kindle books with gift cards I earn from swagbucks which makes many of them free. If you want to learn more about that you can use my link to their website here or go directly to swagbucks.com].

Social Networking
Twitter is also a great free resource. In the few months I have been using my account I have made numerous new friends! Reading other blogs and learning about how other people organize their searches can be very helpful - especially for newer genealogists. Who knew the genealogy blogging community was so vibrant?! This afternoon I also starting searching YouTube for ideas and to meet other family historians.

Forums
Ever since the internet entered my life (was that 1998?) I have enjoyed reading forums - about sports, animals, careers, schools, movies, travel, photography...and genealogy! In addition to the Ancestry.com forums I also joined Genealogy.com's Gen Forum as I began my research. The message boards are searchable by last name, geography, and other topics.

I have had mixed luck with these types of ventures. Some of 'my names' seem to be interesting to a lot of other researchers (fun!) and with other names I question whether or not I am the only person in the entire world looking for information (not as fun!). Either way, I like getting emails from the forum when other people add to discussions I have participated in.

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I love hearing other tips for making genealogy a cost effective hobby so please feel free to share your own!

Excit23ment!

Time to take a step back and organize what I have.

Yesterday while visiting the Hollywood Cemetery my friend and I started talking about the Daughters of the American Revolution and how we are both eligible to become members.

I came home last night to look up the information that my grandmother, great aunt, and great grandmother had used to join back in the 1950s. I was disappointed to see in lovely red letters..."PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WITH AT LEAST ONE PREVIOUSLY VERIFIED PAPER". Since I am not yet a member myself it will be interesting to see what will be required to rectify this. I need to call my grandmother and ask her what she knows.

I also noticed that my Ancestry membership subscription has expired so I can't currently look up new records. I am going to renew it, but in the mean time I'm going on an organization spree. The number of records, documents, photos, stories, and people that I have accumulated over the last few years is overwhelming. Overwhelming is an understatement.

History Tourist. Cemetery. Hollywood. Vampires.

I have been all over the place this weekend. Today my friend and I ended up exploring some of the historic areas of Richmond, Virginia including Hollywood Cemetery.

The grounds are huge and seemingly endless. I was struck by how hilly the land along the James River is and how many individuals were laid to rest right on these steep slopes. The foggy, dark, and dreary day created an atmosphere perfect for exploring the unique and intricate memorials to the people buried here.

The cemetery is home to two United States Presidents, the only President of the Confederacy, Civil War soldiers, individuals famous for various reasons, and numerous other people who don't fall into any of those categories!

Sons of the American Revolution

Home to the Richmond Vampire?

The Church Hill Tunnel collapsed and buried a train on October 2, 1925. A few people were killed and at least one was injured. This survivor (Benjamin F Mosby) was badly burned before he emerged from the tunnel. His frightening appearance may have given way to the legend of a Vampire fleeing through Downtown Richmond, over the James River, and into the Hollywood Cemetery. Though Mr. Mosby was taken to Grace Hospital and later succumbed to his burns, the legend concludes with the vampire hiding in the vault of a Mr. W.W. Pool.

Learning new vocab: Erenagh

Erenagh:

• "keeper of church lands", "handed down from generation to generation" (citation). 
• "responsible for receiving parish revenue from tithes and rents" (citation).

More Free Kindle Books

I mentioned in my previous post that I am moving and as of yesterday all of my books are now in boxes. I am someone who loves how books feel (ask my mom about our toddler trips to the library and my love of 'little books with the shiny pages') and will never completely give up reading and buying actual books. I do love my kindle too, in a different and just as important way.

The frugal side of me is loving these free history and genealogy books.

Happy reading.

GeneaBloggers, blog organization, and updated tree stats!

A very big thank you to GeneaBloggers for linking to my blog :) I was very honored to be accepted into the GeneaBloggers blog database this week.

I added a link to the top bar with my AncestryDNA results. I really enjoy learning about other people's results, so I thought this was an easy way for people to find mine if they are interested. I'm excited to see what new results/data are going to be released after the first of the year.

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These next few weeks are going to be very busy for me. I am moving and have started the seeming insurmountable task of packing...

Here is a rundown of what I discovered over the last few days:

• A quite distant branch of my family was kidnapped by the British during the American Revolution and the whole family was held hostage in Canada for a period of time!
• Another distant relative in the same branch has a middle name of Elmo!
• I have been working on a project to display my family tree. While doing this I determined that I have 10 branches that I have traced back further than 7 generations.
• In comparison, my shortest branch goes back 3 generations.
• I re-discovered the Green Hills Pioneers website (one of the first places I started researching!). It's a great resource if you have lines that trace back to North-Western Missouri.

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Tree Stats

1629 people. 2630 records.

3729 more hints to look through...

Research Day

Today is the first day in many weeks that I have been able to sit down and do some research. As usual, I started with new ancestry leaves and ended up on a distant branch of the family tree (somewhere around the twigs where my sister-in-law of my first cousin four times removed sits).

One puzzling find was the suggestion of that a marriage record for an Elizabeth H. should match a Julia Ann B. on my tree. I was interested so I poked around the records a little bit and couldn't find any information that made me think this was the same person.

Is Winnie a nickname for Elizabeth? Has it ever been? My curiosity lead me to many fun nicknames for Elizabeth (including Buffy, Lidabet, Lillibeth, Zabby, and Tizzy...but no Winnie).

.............For that matter, why is Winnie a nickname for Julia in the first place? No idea.

Old Houses

For as long as I can remember my dad has had a subscription to the magazine This Old House. Home improvement is definitely not my forte; my very favorite section is the last page. Each magazine showcases an old house that needs to be 'saved'. Usually the houses are cheap (sometimes as low as $1) and need to be moved to a new location. Aside from the fascination with the logistics required to move a house...the histories of the homes is always interesting.

I do like new houses too. Here is my favorite from the same magazine:

While I was traveling over Thanksgiving I saw a sale advertisement for a gorgeous old house built in 1890. I wish I was in the market for buying a house...I didn't get a chance to stop by, but I plan to do so in the next few weeks.

A big thank you!

Thank you to these wonderful blogs who linked to mine! Check them out!

Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

GenBlog


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On another note...

My friend bought me one of these before I went to nursing school and it has been such a neat way to record short blips about my day. I have been a haphazard journal-er for years, but just having a few lines to fill up each night is very manageable.

As I was filling out my entry last night I realized that this would be a neat way to track genealogy finds too. I'm going to order another one and see how it works.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Free Kindle Book #2 (more genealogy!)

Over the next few months my life is going to navigate a lot of changes. One will hopefully be more time to read! My kindle is feeling neglected and I'm excited to be finding these genealogy books for free.

The Mayflower and the settlers of the Outer Banks of North Carolina have always interested me...even before I developed my genealogy fascination. I haven't located any ancestors who were on the Mayflower, but still intriguing nonetheless.

Enjoy!

“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” - Antonio Porchia

I went to a conference today and like most conferences there was a person who got on stage in between speakers to make introductions (and in this case tell jokes to pass the time). I was sitting in the middle of the second row so I had a clear view of the stage. A weird feeling came over me while listening to this man speak.

A remote area of my mind that had tucked away the memory, sight, and sound of my grandpa was being activated. The same white hair, same voice, same accent (which was quite out of place at this event), and same dry and quirky sense of humor.

Maybe that is a normal part of the human brain - to look for connections and familiarity in everyday objects and people - or maybe that's just a part of my brain.

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I recently connected with a relative that I never knew existed. Initially I told her I didn't think I had a photo of the person who links our trees together. A few days ago I scrolled through my picasa album and oddly...there was a photo of a baby I didn't recognize. A scan of the back of this photo revealed my grandfather's handwriting and the name of this person. I sent out the photo and it was quite a 'warm fuzzy' feeling to read that she immediately saw a resemblance to her nephew.

Kindle Book!

I just downloaded this book for my Kindle. Best part? It was free!

Happy reading!

Ancestors Day by Day

This month I have been using the 'Calendar Report' feature of  Family Tree Maker 2011to visualize who-did-what-when on my tree.

You can select which people you want to include (immediate family, everyone, or a select few) on the report and it will show you who was born, who died, and who was married on each day.

For November I have at least one event for every day of the month except the 21st and 23rd. I guess nobody in my tree likes to participate in life altering events around thanksgiving...on it...yes, before and after...no!

Looking ahead...for December only the 9th is empty.

There is a new version of  Family Tree Maker (2012)available...and 2013 may be coming soon. I got the 2011 version for Christmas in 2010.

Happy searching!

Old documents

Each one of these papers is from a document my grandparents kept for many years. The oldest is from my grandmother's elementary school diploma (1924) and the 'newest' comes from my grandfather's navy discharge papers (1946).

AncestryDNA additional information on the way!

I was pleased to read in this blog update from ancestry.com that raw genetic data from our AncestryDNA tests will be available as soon as early next year!

When I made the decision to purchase a DNA kit I was aware that this feature was not part of the package and was okay with it. I figured I would eventually try out another service to compare results and select one that offered this information.

Buuuuut...as someone who had the most uniform results ever the possibility of teasing apart this information a little further is very exciting!

In other news, WWI records from the United Kingdom are free through November 12. I have absolutely no hope of tackling the possibility that I have an ancestor documented in those records within the next 48 hours, but maybe you do!

You live as long as you are remembered.

Family Facts #1: E

Endsley

Another form of the name Endsleigh in Devon, United Kingdom. (citation)

Thoughts

I have so many thoughts running through my head. On Halloween I spoke with a relative who I didn't even know existed a week ago. This whole situation is a reminder that when stories within families are not told (or told incorrectly) you can lose whole branches of your tree without knowing it.

I took pages of notes while we were chatting (while I was sitting in my car freezing...but that's another story!) and I'm glad I did because we had a lot to discuss. It was exciting to learn bits of information that clear up questions I had about census records, name changes, and disappearing family members!

There are many questions I will never have the answers to, but what is important is I have 'new' family members to share stories with, and hopefully one day meet.

Solving one mystery leads to many more.

WWII love letters and a green chest

There is one particular branch of my tree that I often look at longingly...wishing a leaf would sprout...

But, one never did...until now.

On Saturday I clicked on this leaf and it lead me to a public member tree created by a woman who I will call B. B's tree was sparse. Less than 15 names and even fewer birth dates. I find myself intrigued. I spend a few minutes writing down some of the information and take a few minutes more to stare at it.

It seems like a close enough match. No guarantee, but reasonable enough to send a message to B.

I start getting ready for bed (because as usual genealogy sucks me in late at night when I should be sleeping). As I set my alarm I check my email once more and I find a reply from B.

When I got home after a long day on Sunday I sat right down to email B back. In the meantime I have received another email with a few more details. Her information about the person who possibly holds the link between our trees is slim.

I send her what I know, and we go back and forth a few more times. Unable to answer a few of my questions about names, she decides to share all of the information she does have from a death certificate.

There it is. One address solidifies our connection. I hadn't seen it on any census or on any public directory listing. I knew it from an envelope that spent 66 years in a green chest from 1945 until I found it in the attic in 2011.

Tree Stats

• People currently on my tree: 1443 (up from 1430)
• Records currently attached to my tree: 2503 (up from 2423)
• People with unattached hints: 1122 (up from 1100)
• Total number of unattached hints: 3008 (up from 2910)

AncestryDNA Results

This past week was very long. I ended my Friday with a 3 hour and 15 minute drive that should have taken 2 hours. Needless to say, it was a wonderful surprise to check my email upon arriving at my destination and see that my DNA results were ready! 

I anticipated receiving them sometime in November based on the estimated 4-6 week processing time...so 15 days was much quicker than I expected!

I have been building my family tree for just over 4 years now and the majority of that research has focused on individuals residing in the United States. I can trace many branches back to the 'immigrant ancestor' but that is where I stopped. I haven't yet ventured into a 'world' ancestry membership, but perhaps I will in the future.

Based on the history of my last name, family stories, and my personal research I fully anticipated a very western European slant to my genetic ethnicity...and....well...

That's exactly what I got!

Modern day: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

I couldn't help but laugh when I initially saw the results, because they are so...uniform? I do find the 1% uncertain to be interesting and I hope eventually what that is might be revealed. Like many people I have heard stories about ancestors with various backgrounds - a Native American influence on one side, or a German sounding maiden name on the other.

Throughout this venture I have enjoyed comparing my father's side of the tree with my mother's side. According to these results, the genetic origins of both are rather similar. What I have found most interesting is the vastly different time periods that each side immigrated to the United States.

Based on current knowledge about each side, all of the branches on my mom's side immigrated to the United States well before the American Revolutionary War. In contrast, all of the branches on my dad's side immigrated to the United States shortly before the American Civil War.

Along with DNA results Ancestry also provides historical information about migration patterns into and out of the areas where your ancestors came from. Interestingly enough the two migration periods highlighted match my own ancestor's activities - the 17th and 18th centuries ("the Great Migration") and later, the mid 1800s ("the Great Irish Famine").

Since receiving my results, I have already been contacted by a genetic match who is my 6th cousin! Ancestry has also identified 8 new 4th cousin matches and 1742 individuals who may be my 5th to 8th cousins. This is all very exciting!

Even though this makes perfect sense from a genetic standpoint, I was intrigued that many of the potential matches have vastly different genetic makeups than I do.

It's going to be fun to see how this evolves over time :)

Surnames on my tree!

A little bit of rambling.

I took this photo in August while on a road trip home from the beach. Doesn't it look like a small village nestled in the hills of Europe somewhere? It's not. It's Harpers Ferry, West Virginia where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet. It is a toss up which state I was actually in when I took this photo from the passenger seat. In the short span of a few minutes the road that meanders through this scenic area weaves in and out of Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.

It was also on this road trip that a name on a bridge caught my eye. I double checked once I got home and sure enough - named after an ancestor! I find that the little bits of knowledge I have gathered while researching my family history over these last four years pop up quite often in my daily existence.

On another note, it's amazing how quickly the last two months have passed. We had a 30 degree temperature drop overnight and it has been overcast and gray for two days now.

I am looking forward to a lot of life changes from now until the end of the year. One of which will be an abundance of free time to catch up on some of my hobbies including genealogy! It is a treat that I am expecting my DNA results from Ancestry to arrive around the same time my other obligations slow down.

I do love this time of year!

Collecting my sample for my Ancestry.com DNA Kit!

I was very excited to receive this package in the mail! This little box may be the key to learning about a whole new side of my family tree. My research up until this point has lead me to believe that the majority of my ancestors originated from a specific part of Europe. We shall see if I am correct :)

Step 1: Unwrap your box!

Step 2: Inside you will find instructions on the right and your collection container on the left

Step 3: This is the collection device. The instructions say it may take 2-5 minutes to gather enough saliva to fill the container sufficiently. It actually takes much less than I anticipated and I reached the fill line in one try! (Does that make me abnormal? I'm not sure!)

Step 4: Close the lid until it snaps. This mixes some fluid into your saliva sample that stabilizes it.

Step 5: Replace the collection top with the small screw on cap. Time to shake!

Step 6: Place the tube in the specimen bag, seal it up, place it in the mailing envelope, and you're done!

I am dropping mine in the mail today!