Celebration Sunday-Genealogy Happy Dance! FamilySearch Full-Text Search Adding to the Story.

 

 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 that you found the document, contacted a cousin with the family Bible, made a DNA connection, or found a 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 weekly series enables everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 

Share by scrolling 

down and add your story to the comments section, or you may also link to a blog post about what you had dancing this week.

My Happy Dance Moment for the Week:

I have told the story many times of my grandfather and his two brothers being killed in WWII, and their family receiving telegrams within a few months of each other. A devastating time for the family.

Collecting articles and newspaper accounts is important to me as I try to combine and share their stories so they are not forgotten.

FamilySearch Full -Text Search came through for me again this week!

When I entered my grandfather, Gilbert E. Roberts' name into the search engine, a newspaper article I hadn't seen before came up in the results. 

This time it was published in a North Carolina newspaper. 

Gilbert lived in Charlotte, where he worked in the local cotton mill before enlisting in the Army. His parents and brothers worked there, too, so it is no surprise that the news of their deaths was considered newsworthy, even though the family had moved to South Carolina by the time of their deaths. This is an article I had not seen before and adds a different twist to the story.

Source: Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BB-779C-4?view=explore : May 4, 2025), image 630 of 911; NewsBank (Naples, Florida). Image Group Number: 101338724

Each report is a little different. According to this announcement of the deaths, Wilbert's death was reported to the family before Gilbert's. Gilbert died in September and Wilbert in October. Either order of telegram doesn't change the fact that this tragedy affected generations of the Roberts family.

Full-test search does it again! Have you tried it yet?

What have you discovered?

Share your Happy Dance Moment for the week, and let's celebrate together!

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,

Celebration Sunday-Genealogy Happy Dance! Adding to My Grandmother's Story Using Full -Text Search

 

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 that you found the document, contacted a cousin with the family Bible, made a DNA connection, or found a 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 weekly series enables everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 

Share by scrolling 

down and add 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 Moment for the week:

Have you tried Full-Text Search from FamilySearch? Since its release, it has been a source of happy dance moments for me and others. 

This week, I discovered a document naming my grandmother and her sisters as plaintiffs in a court case. Their mother, Loretta McManus Daughrity, took out a loan before her death and had not paid it. 

Source: "Sumter, South Carolina, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9P1-RSZN-2?view=fullText : Feb 9,2025), image 452 of 485.

This court document deals with the foreclosure of the Daughrity home in Sumter, South Carolina, and a plaintiff claiming their mother borrowed money from her before her death and wanted her money paid back out of the sale of the home.

Stories get lost if not told, and finding documents can help us discover them but also have us asking so many more questions. I talked to my grandmother many times about her parents, their home, and the death of her parents.

She never told me that the house went into foreclosure. 

It sat empty for several years and then was lost to a fire.

Finding about more had me doing that dance this week?

What was your happy dance moment?

Share your Happy Dance Moment for the week, and let's celebrate together!

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,

Get Out Your Tissues and Get Comfortable. The Video We Have Been Waiting for Is Finally Here!

Listening to Levar Burton at RootsTech 2017

RootsTech 2017 was such a fun experience for me.
I learned during classes, met and made new friends, enjoyed parties and special events. The keynote speakers were inspiring.
Many of the presentations were videoed and placed on the RootsTech web page to view for free.

Except for one. The one that brought us all laughter and tears. The one we all were looking forward to watching again. To relive an amazing moment. To experience and share with others the moving words and emotion from LeVar Burton as he spoke about his mother, family stories, and his participation in Alex Haley's Roots.
It was Friday morning and LeVar was to kick off the first ever African Heritage Day held at this conference.
He had us laughing, crying and then sobbing as he was gifted with his family history courtesy of FamilySearch. We blogged about it, came home and told our family and friends how wonderful it was and recommended it as one to watch. But, sadly it wasn't available.

And now? Issues that held it back before have now been resolved and 7 months later the video is up and available to everyone!

Click above to watch

So go grab some tissues, get comfortable in your favorite chair and click on the photo above to watch.
Then, to get the rest of the story, watch the YouTube video below. This news clip shares the emotions felt as LeVar was shown unknown information on some of his ancestors.

 You won't be the same afterward.

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