Sunday, September 30, 2018

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!



You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.

                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 

Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.



My Happy Dance this week:
 We spent the week watching the flood waters rise around my parent's neighborhood. As the week went on their backyard slowly began to fill. They had experienced water in their yard before during other hurricanes but nothing like this. By the time the water crested it was up to their back steps.


Water up to back steps at my parent's house.


Unfortunately, many in the community were not so fortunate. Homes have been inundated with water from the nearby rivers and waterway. People have been displaced from their homes and will not be able to return for weeks if not months. 

House down the street with water encroaching 


 Many prepared by moving all their belongings out and into storage units. Some like my parents placed things up high and moved valuables to friends and family's homes for safekeeping.
My heart hurts for those who have suffered so much these past three weeks as Hurricane Florence past through and deposited enormous amounts of water causing devastation in many areas.




Water running through my parent's yard


It's hard to celebrate but I can be grateful for the protection my family received.
None of the 5 family residences received any damage.
None of our belongings were destroyed. 
The coming together of the community to house, feed, and care for those who have lost so much is something to warm the heart. 
Tomorrow and in the days ahead teams of volunteers from my church and many other organizations continue the task of helping to move people back into homes that luckily were not in the path as predicted. As the waters recede the job of cleaning and mucking out water lodged homes will begin. 
Memories of the events bringing our community together will be told and retold and become a part of our family stories. 




Where were you when Hurricane Florence hit North and South Carolina and later when the rivers rose? 




What is your happy dance moment for this week?
  


                                                                               

                                                                                              Share your discovery!
                                                                                  
                                                                                         Let the dancing commence!






Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 





Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,





Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Tuesday's Tips~Gettin' By With Help from Our Friends~Amberly Beck


This time professional genealogist Amberly Beck from The Genealogy Girl blog gives us tips on sharing our genealogy.


Sharing.  It’s something we all learned as children.  Some of us were good at it and some of us were not.  As adults, the same is true.  Some of us are good at sharing and some of us are not. I have learned over and over again that when we share, really share, more good stuff comes our way than what we send out into the world.  Even in genealogy.  Especially
in genealogy. 
 For many years I have had this saying hanging in my office, “The miracle is this… the more we share, the more we have.”  It is a wonderful reminder to me that every bit of time I spend sharing is made up for over and over again by the miracles that come my way.  Here are four specific ways I choose to share as a genealogist: 
 First, blog.  Blog about everything in your tree.  Share photos, stories, discoveries, research, brick walls, and questions.  Each of those types of sharing will serve as cousin bait.  Cousin bait is awesome!  The cousin connections I have made because of my blog have added details I would have found in no other way. 

Just last week a cousin found a blog post I had written about giving photos a source citation.  I used an example of a photo that is on Ancestry that has no explanation of the provenance and therefore I don’t totally trust the label on the photo.  There are no other photos of any of the family members in that 5 generation photo to compare to.  But I really, really
want to believe the label because the photo supposedly contains my 3rd great-grandparents and appears to be the only surviving photo of them.  This cousin found my post and then messaged me with more details about the photo that hangs in her home
and was passed down to her by our common ancestors.  The really crazy part is that I had messaged her on Ancestry several years ago offering to share some research information, in the hopes that she might have photos to share, and gotten no response from her.  It took her finding me on my blog to finally make contact. 
When we share our family history through blogging, we open up our cousin connections to the entire world.  Anyone who can access Google has the potential to make it to our digital doorstep.  Once they do, the sharing can begin!  So, blog.  The goodness you share will come back to you. 
 Second , participate in an online tree.  You choose which one.  Make sure that whichever one you choose, you have a valid email address, that you actually check
, in your profile.  You don’t need to be a huge participant.  But make sure you have the path to your most recent brick walls as detailed and documented as possible.  That way, a cousin with more information can find you.  While you wait for those cousins to find you and add details to your story, you just might be another cousins’ brick wall smasher. 

A few years ago I got a very curt message from a cousin on Ancestry.  She wanted information but wasn’t clear on exactly what she wanted.  It took a lot of patience for me to respond kindly and ask questions in an effort to understand her request.  We went back and forth a few times. She was really trying my patience.  But every bit of that patience paid off when she told me how she descended from our common ancestors.  She was a granddaughter of Dan Duval.  Dan is 
the brother of my 2nd great-grandfather.  From family records, I had his name, Dan Duval, and the first name of his wife - Philomene.  That was it!  But here was one of his descendants showing up at my digital door, bossy and kind of demanding.  Once we got past the gruff exterior, we began a relationship of sharing that was so rewarding.  She shared photos, facts, stories, and information that helped me finally know where “Uncle Dan” had disappeared to.  I was able to help her get past Dan’s parents which had been her brick wall.  We both benefited because I had an online tree and responded to her message, even though I really didn’t want to. ;)  So, participate in an online tree.  Cousins will flock to you and your story will be richer for those connections. 
 Third , volunteer.  Volunteer at your local library, archives, family history center, or as an indexer.  Why volunteer?  You probably won’t have a family bible fall into your lap this way, but I promise you will gain something.  Knowledge, experience, and opportunities to learn and grow. 

My personal favorite story about volunteering bringing a miracle to me is actually a series of events helping a few different people analyze their DNA matches to help them identify their biological parents.  Each time I learned something new.  The most recent person I helped was a bigger challenge than the previous patrons I had worked with.  In analyzing his matches I developed a new technique that worked so well I applied it to my own matches on my brick wall line.  That technique has allowed me to identify a married couple who are the aunt and uncle of my brick wall ancestor.  I don’t yet know which of the two is a sibling to which of the two parents of my brick wall ancestor, but I have so much more information now than I did before I helped that patron.  So, volunteer.  You will gain more than you give up. 
 Fourth , involve your family.  Every family member is different.  They won’t all have the same interest level.  Keep it low key, but make sure your family knows they can always come to you if they have questions or want to help.  When we involve our family members and keep them updated on our progress, they often are the very miracle we need. 

A few years ago I digitized some old cassette tapes of my Grandpa reading children’s books.  A cousin of mine is good at dealing with audio files.  He took those big digitized files and broke them up into individual tracks for each book.  They are a lot more usable that way for all of us.  It was a project I probably never would have gotten to because it would have required a lot of time as I am an audio editing rookie.  But my fabulous cousin was able to do in a few short hours what would have taken me considerably longer.  It was a miracle for me to have his help.  And the miracle keeps on going because those audio files are now on FamilySearch and my own little one can listen to his great-grandfather, who died decades before his birth, read stories to him.  That is the kind of miracle that will go on to bless generations of our family.  So, keep your family in the loop.  You never know when they will be just the right person to help out. 


We are all busy, but we can all find simple ways to share.  When we do, the miracle is that we will have so much more than we had when we started.  It really is true for genealogy too… “The miracle is this… the more we share, the more we have.” 



BIO 

Amberly Beck is a professional genealogist who regularly blogs at thegenealogygirl.blog.  She started her genealogy journey as a child when she constantly asked her grandmother questions, poured through scrapbooks with her, and listened to story after story.  That journey turned into a dedicated research effort twenty years ago.  Amberly graduated from Lewis Clark State College with a BS in Elementary Education.  She has taken her love for teaching and her passion for genealogy and brought them together.  She regularly teaches genealogy classes at her local Family History Center to patrons of all ages and experience levels.  She volunteers once a week at that center helping patrons.  She also completes research for clients.  Now that her little one is in school all day she has begun her path to becoming a certified genealogist. 



Thanks so much for your great tips, Amberly! Sharing what we find and connecting with others is so important!

What do you do to share your family history? Leave a comment below! We'd love to hear what you are doing!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,



Sunday, September 23, 2018

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!



You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.

                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 

Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.






My Happy Dance this week:


This week has been a very hard one for my family. Hurricane Florence scared us all as it came barrelling towards our coast in eastern SC. Luckily by the time it arrived, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Personally, the only damage my house suffered was a few shingles blown away. The storm may have left, but the rain deposited over 4 days has left our rivers and waterways in danger of flooding. Many have had to evacuate from their homes. My parents may have to in a few days if water begins rising as predicted in their neighborhood.
What then could I have to celebrate? We are well and no one was injured. That is a cause for joy!
Like all during stressful times, we need things that get us to take our mind off of what is happening and for me two events this week helped.
First was the season premiere of BYUtv's Relative Race! It was so great to take an hour to think about something else and be entertained!
If you've never heard of or seen this genealogy tv show, here's the link.

GenFriends, a genealogy chat show I host will be discussing the episodes each week. It's so much fun to get together and talk about genealogy and we love it when the race is on!
Here's the link to see what we thought about episode 1 of season 4.




The second event helping me to get through the week was the announcement on the opening of registration for RootsTech 2019. 
I think you all know how much I love this fabulous conference and being able to register is one step closer to attending again!

Did you see the announcement and the link to register? If not, here it is! 





Most of all, I want to thank all who checked on my family and me over the last couple of weeks. Feeling your love and prayers is truly the best happy dance of all!





What is your happy dance moment for this week?
  


                                                                               

                                                                                              Share your discovery!
                                                                                  
                                                                                         Let the dancing commence!






Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 





Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,






Monday, September 3, 2018

Methodology Monday-Reasonably Exhaustive Research





You've read about it. Know it's part of the Genealogical Proof Standard, but do you understand what it means?

Reasonably Exhaustive research means we look for all the information that would help to answer a specific genealogy question. 
Once you know exactly who or what you are looking for, you can brainstorm what type of records may contain the answer and where you may find them. Then you need to begin looking for the documents on your list to see what they can tell you about your question.

For instance, you may have the question "Who were the parents of "John Doe" who was born in "Some Year" in "Some County, Some State, Some County." You know which John Doe you are looking for. Add more information if you know it to fine-tune your research subject even more if needed.
This approach is much more successful than "I want to find out everything about my great grandpa, John Doe."

What types of records may give you the answer? Make a list. It may contain those below and others. What is on your list will depend on the area and laws for creating them.
This is an example, but many more could be added.
1-Death Certificate
2-Birth Certificate
3-Obituary
4-Church Records
5-Census Records
6-Bible Records
7-Probate Records

You get the idea!
Now list where you could find them and make a plan to begin researching.

Should you celebrate when you discover an answer on the first or second record and call it quits? After all, the death certificate you just found records the names John Doe's parents and wasn't that the answer to your question? Unfortunately, no.
Reasonably Exhaustive Research means locating ALL records that may be available that may shed light on your research question.

Why? Records of any kind may be incorrect. A wide variety of documents can help ensure you have the most correct information. You may discover you have records with conflicting information. If that happens, you need to figure out why if you can. 
Was there a transcription error, or did someone accidentally recording a wrong name? There could be many reasons why your records have differing information. 
What if the name of one or both of the parents is wrong on that newly discovered death certificate? If you hadn't continued researching until you were confident you had looked for anything that would give you the facts you need the chance of a mistake is high.
You could end up researching the wrong line or building your own brick wall.

When do you know you've done enough? When you have found as much as possible to help answer your question. There is no magic number of documents needed to come to a conclusion.
Simply do your best to discover as much as you can from various record groups.

Reasonably Exhaustive research means being reasonable in your efforts. There will be documents that were never created or records that have been lost or destroyed.
Making sure you have exhausted all the possibilities will give you confidence in your answers and your help you move up your family tree. If and when other records are found that weren't available to you during your research process, chances are your conclusions will be upheld instead of crumbling in light of a new source. 

The first step in the Genealogical Proof Standard, Reasonably Exhaustive Research is meant to help you produce the most reliable results you can by collecting everything available to answer your research question.

What has Reasonably Exhaustive Research helped you to discover?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,






Sunday, September 2, 2018

This Week On My Family HIstory Calendar

September 2-September 8





Sept. 4~
   My maternal 4th Great Grandfather, Phillip Roberts III (1798-1852), died 166 years ago in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina at the age of 54.
He is buried in St. Wesberry High Hill Cemetery, Richland, Columbia, South Carolina. 


Phillip Roberts    Westbury High Hill Cemetery
Phillip Roberts, III
Headstone
Wesberry High Hill Cemetery
Richland County, Columbia, South Carolina
Picture Courtesy: Jim Hepler



Who are you remembering this week?

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,





Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!



You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 

Share by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section or you may also put a link to a blog post telling about what had you dancing this week.





My Happy Dance this week:




Did you see the announcement? We heard about something big coming from RootsTech and we weren't disappointed! During a live Facebook feed on Tuesday, August 28, 2018, it was announced that a second RootsTech Conference was being planned in October of 2019 in London, England!
Wow! I hope to be able to go at some point! While a teenager my father served in the Air Force and we lived in England for 4 1/2 years. Oh, how I would love to return! 
I was doing an "I want to go to England again" jig!!
Missed the announcement? Here's the link to the video https://www.facebook.com/RootsTech/videos/1814656785284813/


What is your happy dance moment for this week?
  


                                                                               

                                                                                              Share your discovery!
                                                                                  
                                                                                         Let the dancing commence!






Share the fun! Click below to tweet this post! 





Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,