tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10605004002576864732024-02-18T19:57:30.331-08:00relatively curious about genealogyblah blah blah GENEALOGY blah blah blah Genealogy blah blah blah GENEALOGY blah blah blah GENEALOGY blah blah blah Genealogy... you get the picturerelatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-479441479193222862015-06-28T18:12:00.002-07:002015-06-28T18:12:32.060-07:00I've moved!<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Please redirect any bookmarks to this blog, to:</span><br /><a href="http://www.relativelycurious.com/"><span style="color: magenta;">www.relativelycurious.com</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thank you!!</span></h3>
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relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-66059652581358705742015-05-26T19:39:00.003-07:002015-05-26T19:53:44.616-07:00A detour, a U-turn, and back to the beginning.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpIclhjYhiqIpiGGmZPhmwEHfZqMZASsfOcoTyeazlO1zr0QJ74wXmEKXgKWW4oK9q75D6Hqt8Kb4hoE76zwGvfKYRerKkqItuNYf03cJi2wrNs77WuzLKfjozXkTf_DCT9STr7ND6Ao/s640/KingsMountain1.41.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">Fall at King's Mountain, North Carolina</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">Dear blog. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Sorry I haven't written in so long.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">I've been busy... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">for four years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Isn't it funny how you start down a path and how easily small decisions made along the way, that at the time seem to be in line with your journey, ultimately take you far, far from your end goal... far from the path you thought you were on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus goes my genealogical journey. It started as a meander, then I found myself skipping merrily - obsessed and passionate - settling into a good, solid, steady but happy pace. I was writing, teaching, presenting, and I was pretty dang good. But life interfered, and I found myself needing more financial stability.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">the detour</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I took a slight detour on my path, that I thought would keep me headed in the same direction. I was excited to take a position at WikiTree because I believe in collaborative genealogy, friendly community, and especially in "free". I watched the website go from a teeny tiny staff of just a couple of us, to double, maybe triple that; adding teams of volunteer leaders heading up scores of even more volunteers, managing projects, categories, keeping an eye out for vandals, and for those who just needed some assistance. It was quite a ride -- constantly improving, constantly changing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Four years passed, and I realized I wasn't on the same path I started down. Instead of researching family history, keeping the pulse of changes in technology, sharing, writing, and teaching others, I was spending all of my time instructing folks how to retrieve a lost password, explaining what a GEDCOM is, and occasionally being able to help someone in a way that made at least a small difference in their own genealogical success. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">the u-turn</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So... I've left WikiTree, to return to my original, happy and joyous genealogy path. I still have ancestors of my own to find, who are still hiding in my trees. And my journey is fun again.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and back to the beginning</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm back to the beginning again. Just me, writing for me, again. The ultimate genealogy do-over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am, as always, relatively curious to see what's around the next bend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">:)</span><br />
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relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-41318090991357137302012-08-04T16:32:00.002-07:002012-08-07T13:35:56.467-07:00Evernote for Recipe Organization!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcVMASDig9lDruk2DmrObImkNWXLZySF2ZUHCg82vTDylgZqA_gl4l0HKLa46jZq7ANHWuyPvaoTfK3jh-WF0cNK_NI6NbFAVaUqFBbkxuk1otXRn3YSV65CAonlL7FGrMeeuaj5lKes/s1600/Icon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcVMASDig9lDruk2DmrObImkNWXLZySF2ZUHCg82vTDylgZqA_gl4l0HKLa46jZq7ANHWuyPvaoTfK3jh-WF0cNK_NI6NbFAVaUqFBbkxuk1otXRn3YSV65CAonlL7FGrMeeuaj5lKes/s200/Icon.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I’ve written before about using <b><a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-handy-tips-for-organizing-your.html" target="_blank">Evernote for organizing your genealogical research</a></b>. And now I’ve discovered another amazing use for Evernote that I want to share: Using it to <b>organize recipes & cookbooks</b>!
I’ve collected genealogy books and ephemera for a long time, and part of that collection has been old family recipes and cookbooks. My mom clipped and saved recipes, and from her I inherited 7 notebooks, and numerous folders full of recipes both her favorites and those she just wanted to try. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDEMLh_s81-rzD7MQsUfOhoyfJdHGZJ30oN0iFxpdSWQtlq7l08Pzl7yrczbir1Zjp6-0yEeNc70Hb3ydMKvb6Fz4umf0LQ5Rq7Lp2bpwps_4j28-qT0pZfxm4cFxskexGI2e38EQxic/s1600/NormanRockwell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDEMLh_s81-rzD7MQsUfOhoyfJdHGZJ30oN0iFxpdSWQtlq7l08Pzl7yrczbir1Zjp6-0yEeNc70Hb3ydMKvb6Fz4umf0LQ5Rq7Lp2bpwps_4j28-qT0pZfxm4cFxskexGI2e38EQxic/s200/NormanRockwell.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mom was an amazing cook - ask any of our relatives. Holiday meals were almost always at our house, with anywhere from 10 to 20 or more</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> people around as many tables and folding tables as the house would hold. And not only was her food tasty, as well as “delicious & nutritious”, but mom always </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">looked great by the time it was served. I’ve inherited her love for feeding a crowd, but I still haven’t mastered the art of planning & timing, so by the time folks arrive for a feast, I’m pretty much still look like I should hide in the kitchen.
But I digress. The point is, I am the keeper of cherished family recipes. My own daughters are now starting families, and call or IM with questions about the foods they remember. “<b><i>What is grandma’s pumpkin pie recipe made with maple syrup</i></b>?”, or “<b><i>What’s in your deviled eggs?</i></b>”. Add to that my own continued obsession of reading cookbooks, and saving recipes I find online, and I found myself looking desperately for a way to organize the recipes I have, so that I can easily find them, and just as easily share them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I started my quest for <b>the perfect recipe organization plan</b> by looking at computer programs. I’ve been using Betty Crocker’s <b>Cook’n</b> for several years, and was satisfied with it for a long time. But now that I have both an iphone and an ipad, I wanted more. I don't like to drag my laptop into the kitchen, forever afraid of splattering egg on the keyboard, but I often slip my ipad into a gallon-size ziplock bag, and use it to display my recipes while I cook. Anyway, I wanted something that would: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Sync all information between my PC, phone & ipad, and be available offline, too</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Accept scanned images, and index them with OCR automatically </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Easily grab recipes from websites </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Allow tags to organize, and be every word searchable </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Easily include photographs </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Have the ability to print individual recipes, or entire collections </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>• Be easy to share </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While I kept thinking that the program I was looking for had to be specific to cooking, the more I looked, the more I couldn’t find anything that met all my requirements...Until one day when I was working on some genealogy research, clipping images and saving them into my Evernote folders, that it dawned on me. <b>Evernote would be perfect! </b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7NkP-_SoKy8DGG8hQhGgkltY7LG7n_a6RW5QdmXGrITmXFv5SYm0hvYQIFNl968bJlveJq1b3UrJS20FO-JO2Ir14UTRAAaMGYcv9mQ45wuP3ZHeqm64GG-iivPjaRCXBzyM6FH-v2g/s1600/Ev1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7NkP-_SoKy8DGG8hQhGgkltY7LG7n_a6RW5QdmXGrITmXFv5SYm0hvYQIFNl968bJlveJq1b3UrJS20FO-JO2Ir14UTRAAaMGYcv9mQ45wuP3ZHeqm64GG-iivPjaRCXBzyM6FH-v2g/s400/Ev1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Syncing</b></span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Sl1PteIIPzJzuEfXAuvM8OpNl8BW6Q-a7IYcxMDRG5tdugjxXBox7lpS6m_7kJWBC6KtoGT7EMBizSTgdDRYKvvPFG-JSvQGWdS0jdbaPpW2TRnEvQe5Ip9qB6ubA83PqLb2wJP7mSA/s1600/mobiledevice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Sl1PteIIPzJzuEfXAuvM8OpNl8BW6Q-a7IYcxMDRG5tdugjxXBox7lpS6m_7kJWBC6KtoGT7EMBizSTgdDRYKvvPFG-JSvQGWdS0jdbaPpW2TRnEvQe5Ip9qB6ubA83PqLb2wJP7mSA/s200/mobiledevice.jpg" width="110" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Evernote is resident on my PC, and I have the apps on both my phone and ipad. Everytime I open the program, as long as I’m connected to the internet, all devices will <b>sync </b>automatically. And even if I’m not online, my Evernote files are available to me on my PC. (You need to have a Premium account to use your Evernote files on iOs & Android devices offline. More about Premium accounts later) </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Scanning & OCR</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Not only can I use my <b>wand scanner</b> to scan recipes from books, recipe cards, or scraps of paper or napkins, I can also use the <b>camera </b>function on my phone to snap pictures of recipe cards and send them directly to Evernote, where the advanced OCR capability scans typed documents and indexes them automatically. <b><i>Think about the possibilities! </i></b> I can snap a picture, or scan the index pages of my many cookbooks, and then when I search Evernote for, say “enchiladas”, not only will the results be those recipes I’ve entered into my Evernote files, but will also show me <b>which of my cookbooks </b>have recipes for enchiladas in them as well! No more flipping through a dozen or more books to find that favorite English trifle recipes (OK, It’s the one in the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook that I’ve used so many times I even remember the page number - 324) but you get the idea! A Premium account will also OCR index PDF files. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohyphenhyphengOgM7iFmpypgNfjqFLz27Tq9qMMUusB9I9Kr2MXNuwo31GtMtMPXwCeoVSnYb4masZ1a6a9W7SnI2y3dBivkucEClgHibkXHuiaA8Y5s1kIMMX6soicN6Oaj0vfX3aFVGQQ1FqkC8/s1600/Punchfork.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohyphenhyphengOgM7iFmpypgNfjqFLz27Tq9qMMUusB9I9Kr2MXNuwo31GtMtMPXwCeoVSnYb4masZ1a6a9W7SnI2y3dBivkucEClgHibkXHuiaA8Y5s1kIMMX6soicN6Oaj0vfX3aFVGQQ1FqkC8/s320/Punchfork.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Internet recipes</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Everything's on the internet! There are dozens of really wonderful <b>recipe websites</b> - <a href="http://www.cooks.com/" target="_blank">Cooks</a>, <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/" target="_blank">Epicurious</a>, <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/" target="_blank">Foodnetwork</a>, <a href="http://punchfork.com/" target="_blank">Punchfork</a>... I think I’m on <a href="http://allrecipes.com/">AllRecipes.com</a> just about daily, perusing potato salad recipes, quick dinner ideas, etc. Even though I can save things to my own Recipe Box on the website itself, if I find a recipe that is a ‘keeper’, I can snag that recipe and <b>import it directly</b> into my Evernote recipe folder. You can do this with either the <b>snipping tool</b> that is on your computer’s accessories, or you can install the handy <b><a href="http://evernote.com/webclipper" target="_blank">Evernote Clipper</a></b> - a handy little button that sits on your toolbar waiting to grab web pages and send them to your Evernote folder of choice. The neat thing about using the Evernote Clipper is that it automatically adds the URL of the page you were on into the note, making returning to that recipe page online a snap. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Tagging</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Most folks are familiar with the concept of tagging - adding <b>keywords </b>to help find things more easily using a search tool. Instead of creating all sorts of folders and separate notebooks for different types of recipes, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I just created one notebook called Recipes, and put everything in there. You don't have to organize within the folder yourself, because a</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">nother great thing about Evernote is that it automatically </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">indexes every word in every note</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> - even words in photographs! So you don’t have to use a million tags, since technically all the ingredients are already indexed.</span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> I only tag things that aren’t in the recipe</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, like adding the tag </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“Family Favorite”</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to those recipes that I go back to over and over, or </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“Marcelle Osmer”</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to recipes that were my mother’s favorites. Another tag I use is</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> “Quick Dinner”</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, to remind me of meals I can throw together fast. I really appreciate that I don't have to spend a lot of time tagging, since it's already done automatically for the most part!</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Pictures</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since I’m only just starting organizing all my recipes with Evernote, I haven’t added a lot of photographs, but I plan to. My goal would be to photograph the final result for each recipe that I’ve got entered. When I’m grabbing recipes from the internet, I try to include a photo if one is provided there, too. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Printing</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Want to create a family cookbook? You can </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">easily </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">print individual recipes, or print them all</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. You can even set them up to print onto 3x5 index cards. Not many of the recipe apps support printing, and I shuddered at the thought of inputting all my recipes, and not being able to print them out if I wanted a copy.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Share and (if you want to) Collaborate</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Easy to share? You bet. You can easily share individual recipes by <b>email, Facebook</b>, or <b>Twitter </b>by using the easy Share button at the top of the screen. You can also right click on a Notebook, and <b>share the entire Notebook</b>, as I do with my daughters, so they now have access to all the family favorite recipes I have entered so far. With a Premium account, you can allow others to edit and add to your Notebook, or you can choose to just let them to view it. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">But wait... there's MORE!</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Evernote does even more than I was hoping for! You can easily <b>create a weekly meal plan</b>, and have the recipe list for the week automatically hot-linked to the recipe itself. Just right click on the recipes that you want to put on the list, and choose <i>“Copy Note Link”</i>. Then open up a new note, perhaps title it “Weekly Menu Plan”, and paste what you’ve copied into that new note. Make a list of recipes for the week like this. When you now click on that recipe name, it will open up the actual recipe from your file. So cool! </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">To pay or not to pay</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A basic account with Evernote is free. You will be allowed 100,000 notes, up to 25 mb each up to a total of 60 mb a month; 250 syncronized Notebooks, 10,000 tags, and 100 saved searches. A Premium account costs $5/month or $45/year. It increases your note size to 50 mb each, and your total monthly storage to 1 gig.
In my humble opinion, Evernote is essential for geneaogy research, and an amazing tool for recipes organization too. My Evernote Premium account is almost as essential as my subscription to Ancestry.com. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Evernote Food</b></h3>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Evernote has an extension, called Evernote Food. It's almost it's own 'animal' so to speak, but doesn't address recipes, or the creation of food, as one might expect from the name. Instead, it is promoted to <i>"Preserve and relive memorable food experiences. From fine dining to family gatherings to a local food truck, remember every delicious moment."</i> I guess it's for those folks who always post pictures of their meal on Facebook. I really am not sure.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Coming up next...</i></b></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My next goal is to figure out how I will be using Evernote for quilting!</span>relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-63273930826750006462011-11-30T17:14:00.000-08:002011-11-30T17:38:30.886-08:00What do not-so-local genealogical societies have to offer? PLENTY!Someone posted a question on Facebook today that actually startled me. She wrote, “what do the individual state societies offer?” For me the benefits seemed obvious - connect with researchers who are in the area that your ancestors lived, and access “local” databases and information. Well not only that, but joining a distant society broke one of my long-standing brick walls, so the concept is near and dear to my heart.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION<br /></span>To answer the question, “What do the individual state societies offer”? (and here I would include county societies as well, I’d like to start with the obvious - they offer information specific to their locale. Many larger societies take pride in their websites, and their collection of online databases, often compiled by volunteers from within their own group, indexing local records. I've seen not only cemetery lists and indexes, but vital records of all kinds - marriage and divorce records, obituaries, biographies - even on very small county-level society websites!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"PREMIUM" & JUST-PLAIN AWESOME DATABASES<br /></span>A few societies also offer access to well-known premium databases with membership. Even if you don’t care to join a society, take the time to peruse the websites of those societies at both the state and county levels of where your ancestors lived. Many offer free databases, and/or links to other websites of interest for research in that area. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS</span><br />Most all society memberships include a <span style="font-style:italic;">newsletter </span>or <span style="font-style:italic;">magazine</span>, ranging from bi-monthly to semi-annual publications. One great reason to join a distant society where you will most likely never attend a single meeting, is to be able to <span style="font-style:italic;">post queries</span> in their publications. Many societies also offer discounts on publications they have for sale. Other benefits of society membership might include access to online <span style="font-style:italic;">webinars, powerpoint presentations, or lecture notes </span>from past meetings. Most websites offer <span style="font-style:italic;">surname databases</span>, which often link to other researchers working on those names.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">INEXPENSIVE RESEARCH</span><br />Some memberships include discounted research rates. One society offered members research in their facilities by a volunteer genealogist for as little as $5/hour. But by far the best deal going, if you have Massachusetts ancestors in the Berkshire county area, is a $12 individual membership in the Berkshire Family History Association. Your membership includes two hours of research by a volunteer, in the Berkshire Athanaeum, the area library and archives. It was by taking advantage of this offer that I broke my brick wall on my distant grandfather, David Stevens. The researcher photocopied every resources that mentioned my ancestor, and one was a will listing him, along with several others that I knew for sure to be his siblings, as heirs to Eliphalet Stevens of Pittsfield.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SOCIETY<br /></span> Sadly, many genealogical society websites begin with pleas for members to show interest so they can continue as a society. The extreme opposite of those sites, was the one society that stated if you didn’t attend at least 5 meetings in a year, you would be dropped from active membership.<br /><br />While I’ve only addressed US genealogy societies in this post, however I am certain that the same is true of other countries.<br /><br />Finally, I’d just like to share a few special deals, in addition to many of the above-mentioned benefits of genealogical society membership offers that I found by perusing the web:<br /><br />ARIZONA<br /><a href="http://www.azwvgs.org">West Valley Genealogical Society</a> Ind. $35, Couple $60<br />- Access to <span style="font-style:italic;">Footnote </span>& <span style="font-style:italic;">World Vital records</span> in library and in home<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">CALIFORNIA</span><br /><a href="http://www.scgsgenealogy.com">Southern California Genealogical Society</a> From $35/year<br />- From-home use of <span style="font-style:italic;">Access NewspaperARCHIVE</span><br />- 24-hour access to archived sessions of the <span style="font-style:italic;">Jamboree Extension Webinar Series</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">CONNECTICUT</span><br /><a href="http://www.berkshire.net/~bfha/">Berkshire Family History Association</a> Ind. $12, Fam. $14, Student $5<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">- Two hours of research time</span> by a genealogist in the Berkshire Athanaeum. (photocopy charges extra).<br /><br /><a href="http://mgs.darien.org/">Middlesex Genealogical Society</a> Ind. $25, Fam. $30<br />- A membership card which gives you access to vital records at town and city record offices in Connecticut. (Many of the Connecticut societies offer this)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">INDIANA</span><br /><a href="http://www.indgensoc.org">Indiana Genealogical Society</a> Ind. $30, Joint $35<br />- Access to <span style="font-style:italic;">696 databases</span>, representing all 92 Indiana counties<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">NEW YORK </span><br /><a href="http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/">NY Genealogical & Biographical Society</a> Ind. $60 - 1 yr, $100 - 2 yr<br />- So many proprietary <span style="font-style:italic;">databases</span>, its an absolute must for research New York ancestors<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">OHIO</span><br /><a href="http://www.ogs.org">Ohio Genealogical Society</a> Ind. $35, Joint $40<br />- Home access to <span style="font-style:italic;">World Vital Records</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">NEW ENGLAND<br /></span><a href="www.americanancestors.org">New England Historical & Genealogical Society</a> Ind. $79.95<br />- A kajillion <span style="font-style:italic;">New England databases</span>. Worth every penny if you have New England ancestors.<br /><br />These are just a few of the additional benefits of membership that these societies offer. Spend some time checking out their websites. You just might break your own brick wall.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-35868705110768026112011-06-05T11:57:00.000-07:002011-06-05T12:03:31.383-07:00This is the face of genealogy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP8q8qcrN9eEfG_QTH2OXG-Y7HUeRUzlT0xYx241JalpiouNX1Cog2C3nwnL8wDEpx00RciHc8C8BeNhRX3xy2K5g9nVFBBggStynFPF0H1R3AA3maJjjV2lFAxiE0ZYiFxzBlgbAaiI/s1600/73+Harshman+Reunion+1885.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJP8q8qcrN9eEfG_QTH2OXG-Y7HUeRUzlT0xYx241JalpiouNX1Cog2C3nwnL8wDEpx00RciHc8C8BeNhRX3xy2K5g9nVFBBggStynFPF0H1R3AA3maJjjV2lFAxiE0ZYiFxzBlgbAaiI/s320/73+Harshman+Reunion+1885.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614813109289312978" /></a><br />This post is in response to a recent newspaper article about the upcoming So Cal Jamboree, which featured, as it's "artwork" a hideous picture of two toothless rednecks, along with the caption "Inbreeding". Sure, we all may have a few toothless rednecks in our history, but they are OUR toothless rednecks, and they are OUR strange aunts and uncles, and OUR quirky parents or grandparents. The face of genealogy is OUR family. The true face of genealogy is the representation in a photograph of the love, patience and determination that is FAMILY. *That* is the face of genealogy.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-77149090989431403832011-06-05T06:29:00.001-07:002011-06-05T06:29:56.329-07:00Anything PC can do, I(pad) can do better..<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh122vNqaDJZzl8zLQItDVeF0uU3vojnCS7v3nlRZ_zpPjAqR1q5WNbm5mwpwgKpGc-huC9pXooIOWHSjs5iQMWHyDA9HSKx6NgIRmQijZOzNuTzHDOnwtEi8twBDYeTjVNgHMGSM5ljtc/s1600/splashtop1.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 395px; height: 276px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh122vNqaDJZzl8zLQItDVeF0uU3vojnCS7v3nlRZ_zpPjAqR1q5WNbm5mwpwgKpGc-huC9pXooIOWHSjs5iQMWHyDA9HSKx6NgIRmQijZOzNuTzHDOnwtEi8twBDYeTjVNgHMGSM5ljtc/s400/splashtop1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614724008365415426" /></a>Okay, so the title may be a stretch, but I can't help hearing tune from "Annie Get Your Gun" playing in my head.<br /><br />I just installed an app for the Ipad that really expands the capabilities of the Ipad. The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Splashtop</span> application was $2.99 for the ipad, and free to download on your PC, Mac or laptop. Once installed and running, with your laptop or PC on, plus an internet connection, you can make your Ipad actually operate as if it were your PC. You can open files, make changes, save, create new documents in any program that you have on your PC right from your Ipad, as if you were on your PC. As their webpage says (<a href="http://www.splashtop.com">http://www.splashtop.com</a>), <span style="font-style:italic;">"With Splashtop® Remote Desktop, you can fully access and control your PC in any way imaginable."</span><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP3bSUWBczta248cEaeyZ5BDj2Zj4CwywjJVG6YdT7J_GYpVLZv0o1IDbbaaqYwRG5XH9yK2inpN8Uap_nqU7KZZYvQuIY7Q8leG6ONswrAKJuk0eKdFxqMLTS98Pug7VZCTHV-7tuD9A/s1600/splashtop2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP3bSUWBczta248cEaeyZ5BDj2Zj4CwywjJVG6YdT7J_GYpVLZv0o1IDbbaaqYwRG5XH9yK2inpN8Uap_nqU7KZZYvQuIY7Q8leG6ONswrAKJuk0eKdFxqMLTS98Pug7VZCTHV-7tuD9A/s320/splashtop2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614724145844244946" /></a></div><div>Accessing the program actually makes your PC desktop screen appear on your Ipad, and you just go from there. You can work in any of your genealogy programs, like Legacy, RootsMagic, PAF, etc. You can open and work in Word, Excel, and even play games you have on your PC - It will even run Flash programs (yep, that means Facebook games like Farm Town, etc!) Heck, you can even run Second Life on your Ipad using this.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to transfer files from your PC to your Ipad, using Splashtop in association with your Dropbox is the way to go. Open Splashtop to access your PC. Put the files you want to transfer into your PC Dropbox. Open Dropbox on your Ipad, open the file you want, then save it to your Ipad. Voila! No cables, no syncing.</div>It's really easy to use, and really extends the limitations of the Ipad.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-35045679078432015242011-05-25T10:17:00.000-07:002011-05-25T10:37:08.729-07:00Summertime in Arkansas means War<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCR7CmeUObCi59k6YLWcB3wFlusjTJ5uKK6KDadxh8giTEkC7lDXgB9vlfPisyX7Hjw4ImcQu-c8BEFwxIJOQ47G1BzzqWwSu2wOA9RwCHkYaqMn48nNSp7DStlb5LkGWKjHmI9yRS9rU/s1600/ARcivilwar.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCR7CmeUObCi59k6YLWcB3wFlusjTJ5uKK6KDadxh8giTEkC7lDXgB9vlfPisyX7Hjw4ImcQu-c8BEFwxIJOQ47G1BzzqWwSu2wOA9RwCHkYaqMn48nNSp7DStlb5LkGWKjHmI9yRS9rU/s400/ARcivilwar.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610709110597934482" /></a><br />There are so many <span style="font-weight:bold;">awesome <span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>events going on this summer around the United States... well, okay, mostly around the South ... celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. My father lives in Arkansas, and emailed me this list of events sanctioned by The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission</span> for the month of June. It sounds like Civil War buffs will be in hog heaven this summer! Please see <a href="http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/events/">http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/events/</a> for details about these events and more information<br />.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">ARKANSAS CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL EVENTS FOR JUNE</span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* 11th Annual Natural State Chautauqua</span>, a living history and teacher in-service program at the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 2 and 3</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* 22nd Annual North Arkansas Ancestor Fair</span>, a genealogical workshop, Civil War lecture series and genealogy swap meet in Marshall <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 3 and 4</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Southern Memorial Day</span>, a commemoration of the Confederate dead at the Fayetteville Confederate Cemetery <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 4</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Civil War Event</span>, a day-long program about the lives of soldiers and the battles and activities of the Civil War in southeast Arkansas at Lake Chicot State Park on <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 4</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* African-American Legislators, 1868-1893</span>, a day-long <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 11</span> seminar, sponsored by the Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas History Commission, on Arkansas’s Reconstruction-era black legislators, including a session on why African Americans commemorate the Civil War.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Confederate History Weekend and Cannon-Firing Demonstration</span>, occurring all day <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 11 </span>at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* DAH Teacher Professional Development: “The Civil War in Arkansas,”</span> a series of summer professional development workshops presented by the Department of Arkansas Heritage at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Little Rock, <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 14</span>; Northwest Co-op, Farmington, <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 16</span>; Old State Museum, Little Rock, <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 24</span>; Southeast Co-op, Monticello, <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 30</span>. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />* Grand Opening for Hindman Hall</span>, unveiling the new exhibits in the revamped visitor center at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 18</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Teacher Workshop: “The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War in Arkansas,”</span> an Arkansas State University Heritage Sites Summer Teacher Workshop at Lakeport Plantation in Chicot County <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 22</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Summer Theatre Camp</span>, a two-week, Civil War-themed theater camp sponsored by the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 13-24</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">* Celebrate Juneteenth Performance</span>, a <span style="font-weight:bold;">June 25</span> performance by participants in the theater camp sponsored by the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-14535619313377123262011-04-01T15:12:00.000-07:002011-04-01T15:16:50.326-07:00and the winner is...The name drawn completely randomly (with my eyes closed and each name on a little slip of paper in a big bowl) to win the one year Geni.com Pro Account was.... (drum roll please) <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gloria Motter</span>. Congratulations Gloria, and thanks to everyone that entered.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-46439069944740143872011-03-30T14:51:00.000-07:002011-03-30T15:17:59.967-07:00Win a 12-month Geni.com Pro Account! Hurry!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFlAYXNvuIwGTWtxsJiCs3L2VspQUjP-swUaQ2oWTCeYDFI3V-YFebWMhPwLPNqzqoP24VK3ChbD-lCVi4TuKBhP_LIpGJB_hYZhclP0osc2gZ3Ie7X6u5SP0ppwtrRi3XYUY983x7BQ/s1600/geni.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 107px; height: 46px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFlAYXNvuIwGTWtxsJiCs3L2VspQUjP-swUaQ2oWTCeYDFI3V-YFebWMhPwLPNqzqoP24VK3ChbD-lCVi4TuKBhP_LIpGJB_hYZhclP0osc2gZ3Ie7X6u5SP0ppwtrRi3XYUY983x7BQ/s400/geni.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590000189245556242" /></a><br />The good folks over at Geni.com have given me the opportunity to give away a 12-month Geni.com Pro Account to one of my lucky blog readers. Your odds may be pretty good, considering there are what, about four of you out there? But since I spent Monday and Tuesday travelling, I'm a little slow getting this posted, and now you only have until this <span style="font-weight:bold;">Friday, April 1st</span> (no fooling!!) to enter.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.geni.com">Geni.com</a> </span>is a genealogy and social networking site where you can build your family tree, search for relatives, and invite other family members to collaborate (or not). While a basic account is free, a Pro account offers all sorts of bells and whistles that make connecting to others a breeze, among other things.<br /><br />To enter, <span style="font-weight:bold;">1., sign up for a free <a href="http://www.geni.com">Geni.com </a>account</span>. Then,<span style="font-weight:bold;"> 2. send an email to me</span> at RelativelyCurious (at) gmail.com by <span style="font-style:italic;">this Friday<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span>, April 1st at 3:00 p.m. <span style="font-weight:bold;">with GENI in the subject line</span>. I will randomly choose a winner from the entries. <br /><br />But wait, there's more! You can also enter over at the <a href="http://www.geni.com/blog/win-a-free-12-month-geni-pro-account-2/">Geni.com</a> blog itself. Just read through their instructions on how to enter, and increase your chances of winning!<br /><br />Hurry! and Good Luck!!!relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-88878986648956117962011-03-26T10:00:00.000-07:002011-03-26T10:54:42.728-07:00Some handy tips for organizing your research with Evernote<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MzlleL5UdzgqwCw9TAdishPv37atRs2gi0fttCsKL1sRhGI4M_KGdWo29nTuP39VlPBS08EHi_snz37ZA-GxJeYQmmeNDlsDRfXRg-CTkGDwz-VfpWgKT4i3m3tWeFzMkz3uD8MxZ3c/s1600/evernote.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 109px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MzlleL5UdzgqwCw9TAdishPv37atRs2gi0fttCsKL1sRhGI4M_KGdWo29nTuP39VlPBS08EHi_snz37ZA-GxJeYQmmeNDlsDRfXRg-CTkGDwz-VfpWgKT4i3m3tWeFzMkz3uD8MxZ3c/s200/evernote.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588435851640441090" /></a><br />Evernote is a wonderful computer tool that I love to use to organize my genealogy research projects. With Evernote, you can create a folder for each project, and easily organize your notes by surname, location or however you like.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlORQ7-qPH476XvIiqU2mwOkWCta_bZYdQFEgZe9z9EQmA5KjRziEey-PifOZozVNfxHlDknr_E3C5NE07KcP5DpX6BWwQeSIHwNFvTfaqnKF9JSi9myT3GvKUbxAcJMlRUCp9ERlc5U0/s1600/mobiledevice.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 110px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlORQ7-qPH476XvIiqU2mwOkWCta_bZYdQFEgZe9z9EQmA5KjRziEey-PifOZozVNfxHlDknr_E3C5NE07KcP5DpX6BWwQeSIHwNFvTfaqnKF9JSi9myT3GvKUbxAcJMlRUCp9ERlc5U0/s320/mobiledevice.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588437064611667650" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">ACCESS ANYWHERE</span><br />Your Evernote account is resident online as well as on your computer so you can log in and access your information from any computer. You can download an Evernote ap to your mobile device, and access your data anywhere, anytime. And if all devices are internet connected, your data will automatically sync without any effort on your part.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_vwpU95k-AFlQ1MNp9PefGcWDz-kTURhO4kCUq71IONRRuua50Ly64ScwRPh8lkfP6D-1_w1zsynigyxdXGR4fzwHlD254ZEmytyosetIhVTy7bkHsKW4_2fcoIhL0KQQ4oOrtZhSho/s1600/EvernoteSave.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_vwpU95k-AFlQ1MNp9PefGcWDz-kTURhO4kCUq71IONRRuua50Ly64ScwRPh8lkfP6D-1_w1zsynigyxdXGR4fzwHlD254ZEmytyosetIhVTy7bkHsKW4_2fcoIhL0KQQ4oOrtZhSho/s320/EvernoteSave.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588438672782772498" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">CLIP AND SAVE</span><br />One of the features that I really love is being able to save anything from part of a web site to the entire page. When I am at a website with text that interests me, or an image such as a photo or even an entire census record, all I need do is click on the handy Evernote icon installed along my browser bar, and a box pops up asking me what to title the saved clipping, how to tag it, and which notebook I’d like to save the page or highlighted copy to. By using this button, the URL of the page is automatically included in the note, so I can easily click on it again from my note page, and return to the exact web page I had saved.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">TAG!</span><br />The ability to "tag" saved clippings makes it very easy to find them again. I will usually tag by surname, record type, and location. Another tag I use a lot is “unsure” . I use this one when I find information that seems to be related to the family but I am as yet not sure if it belongs or not. By easily saving it off, though, I don’t have to try to remember where it was later on, when I’ve determined that the person in fact was a cousin, or brother, or whatever.<br /><br />With the ability to collect, tag and save all the cool stuff I find in my internet research, it reduces the number of times I revisit the same websites.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAS9RI8IxJp78gL3kB7LsHaGwoa1J-egUKh2qA_xM5_7e0rRzeBK93b49yD0rqgXFZBrGJrgC8TpsLxve6iNTb0Ltl-qBosjk1ctIC9xdZVHizWoca_LA5_5sUom4MV0TTCLpZAzOiJmw/s1600/EvernotePage.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAS9RI8IxJp78gL3kB7LsHaGwoa1J-egUKh2qA_xM5_7e0rRzeBK93b49yD0rqgXFZBrGJrgC8TpsLxve6iNTb0Ltl-qBosjk1ctIC9xdZVHizWoca_LA5_5sUom4MV0TTCLpZAzOiJmw/s400/EvernotePage.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588445740982091634" /></a>This what my desktop version of Evernote looks like. All my notebooks run down the left side. The highlighted notebook's index runs vertically next to that. You can choose several ways of viewing it - this is the "mixed view". And to the right of that is the higlighted notebook page, including the title of the page, the URL where the original was located, and any tags that I have added.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjurc24tREJal5gOAOPFVm0vLhEzuT-Xw9-p8gxJBYsyC_0n6uc0cYUninGppNpXxYgnKFa0y8EFFGDxA5ZUmPBQ2QB-WqbyHjE0xpywg3nnhdHDJAYK8z4_2Ntg0VuDHWuYfqLM0vIPEE/s1600/Chart1.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjurc24tREJal5gOAOPFVm0vLhEzuT-Xw9-p8gxJBYsyC_0n6uc0cYUninGppNpXxYgnKFa0y8EFFGDxA5ZUmPBQ2QB-WqbyHjE0xpywg3nnhdHDJAYK8z4_2Ntg0VuDHWuYfqLM0vIPEE/s400/Chart1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588443173146556818" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">ORGANIZE YOUR RESEARCH</span><br />I keep a checklist page in each of my genealogy folders. This also helps me quickly see what I have and what I don’t have in terms of the basic information I want for everyone. I created the table in Word and cut and pasted it into Evernote. I make this my first note in any new research folder. The second note is the State Vital Records Availability Chart that Family Tree Magazine offers on their website, so I can easily check to see what years records were kept for the United States.<br /><br />I also love that I can print out an entire notebook, complete with images, URLs and tags if I want. I can email notes to others too. It’s very handy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">APPS GALORE!</span><br />There are several add-ins and phone apps that you can download to use with your Evernote as well. There is a voice-to-text program that will turn any of your audio notes into text. There is a “smartpen” you can buy that will record audio as well as capture anything you write and turn them into Evernote notes as well, making transcribing an oral interview with your grandmother a breeze. Snap photos with your phone’s camera and import them directly into your Evernote folders easily. A variety of phone apps give you the ability to filter and organize your Twitter streams and save tweets into your Evernote as well. You can even record phone calls as audio notes and save them into Evernote. All of these are available by clicking on the “Trunk” button on the top of your Evernote screen.<br /><br />There is a free version, limiting the amount of usage per month, or a paid version with unlimited usage. I started out with the free one, but found I was using it so much that the paid version fit my needs better, and has definitely been worth the minimal investment. It saves a lot of work printing out internet findings and trying to keep them filed and organized.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-4659379199921587972011-03-15T18:32:00.001-07:002011-03-15T18:37:35.015-07:0030% Discount on New Memberships at Ancestry.comI'd heard about this a while back, but just today verified it for myself - and it's true! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNtp1xttrxqQnSlgS2PhyphenhyphenC7pkHVp6CJJA8AmqgQkcNEdiI9bf2HrvG37WRT5U-7p-sJRByAR0a145UR1yU83kfLcdUfX3Vh7nqEFVwwIj1rL4Kv00RuSEbcMMgyo9xIsubNf-Dfw1XhZE/s1600/FHCsign1.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNtp1xttrxqQnSlgS2PhyphenhyphenC7pkHVp6CJJA8AmqgQkcNEdiI9bf2HrvG37WRT5U-7p-sJRByAR0a145UR1yU83kfLcdUfX3Vh7nqEFVwwIj1rL4Kv00RuSEbcMMgyo9xIsubNf-Dfw1XhZE/s320/FHCsign1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584485273898358466" /></a>If you go to your local LDS <span style="font-weight:bold;">Family History Center</span>, all of which are free to use and open to the public, ask them to show you how to use their library version of <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ancestry.com</span> through their "<span style="font-weight:bold;">portal<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>". From the opening screen there will be a "sign up" offer on the right side of the screen. When you enter your email address, it will email you an offer to start a new membership for, currently, <span style="font-weight:bold;">$99 </span>for a US Deluxe (instead of $155), or <span style="font-weight:bold;">$199</span> for a World Deluxe (instead of $299). It is only good for NEW memberships, and not for renewals or existing memberships, though. But still, definitely a GREAT DEAL!!relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-80216845094413180042011-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:002011-02-11T22:18:13.248-08:00Day 2 at RootsTechThe schedule of classes here at <span style="font-weight:bold;">RootsTech 2010</span> is so interesting, but I've yet to have time enough to attend even one! My morning started early today, at a VIP Breakfast put on by the nice folks at <span style="font-weight:bold;">FamilySearch</span>.org. I considered turning off my alarm and sleeping in, but decided it would be fun to talk with other folks there, and went. Glad I did - we had assigned seats with name cards, and it was very obvious who didn't come! The idea with the seating chart was for folks to talk with people they probably hadn't met yet. Funny thing was that I was seated next to Laura Prescott, president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. I'd met her last year, but we've gotten to know each other much better at this conference - seems every time I turn around we're bumping into one another! I also got to sit at the next table over from some other dear friends, Lynell and Fred Moss from Plano Texas, and also Gena Philibert Ortega, from GenealogyWise. Anyway, the FamilySearchfolks gave us each a flash drive with lots of good info on it, and a printed program that contained the photo and bios of everyone there. It was very casual, great conversation and a wonderful way to start off the day.<br /><br />After breakfast, I wandered the exhibit hall just a bit, and talked with Louise St Denis of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies a bit, about the classes that she offers through her certificate program.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiteJKt9UNVoWa4LI6JbALe9unpVFm-gEd6qfqgSxxLHGbHzh54VB4335N-ltygY8JAqr-mQjbnPxjDlSU3PxInZZcfT6Mrh-UCrs4Rj28kvWjns33b_KKL2IgDVWWVVLF9cJsBS2vA7q4/s1600/Geni.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 91px; height: 37px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiteJKt9UNVoWa4LI6JbALe9unpVFm-gEd6qfqgSxxLHGbHzh54VB4335N-ltygY8JAqr-mQjbnPxjDlSU3PxInZZcfT6Mrh-UCrs4Rj28kvWjns33b_KKL2IgDVWWVVLF9cJsBS2vA7q4/s400/Geni.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572681168739653442" /></a>I talked with Grant Brunner from Geni.com, and decided I'd really like to learn more about their website when I get some free time, and I think I convinced him to try out Second Life and maybe come and talk to our genealogy community there about what Geni.com has to offer. Yeah, thats me, always thinking of SL...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd2CLF-muGISVMnyFCfkzw85GlJ9PLl4nOl1mpHzbX7eLDjbA2WnM0ptq9gTAIh6594R6dMb-B5YgyBuSuTVBJQY45OWimFuU9IUoAs8fQlsKWPgn-1ZwmbMubIi-yczV6ktvDsAxdtk/s1600/Traces.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 193px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd2CLF-muGISVMnyFCfkzw85GlJ9PLl4nOl1mpHzbX7eLDjbA2WnM0ptq9gTAIh6594R6dMb-B5YgyBuSuTVBJQY45OWimFuU9IUoAs8fQlsKWPgn-1ZwmbMubIi-yczV6ktvDsAxdtk/s400/Traces.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572681370289161346" /></a>I think I convinced another fellow of the same, but i'll be darned if I can remember his name. He was at the booth with this really cool iphone/ipod ap called <span style="font-weight:bold;">Traces Of The Past</span>. He admitted that right now, for $3.99, the functionality is a little bit limited, but, he assured me, that there next software update, which will be included in the current price if you buy now, will be <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">AWESOME</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>! I saw a demo, and, well, gotta agree with him there on the AWESOME part! With this app, from your ipod or iphone, you will be able to search the Historical Records being indexed on the FamilySearch.org website - and actually bring up the images! You will also be able to access your family files if you have them stored at either new.familysearch.org, or Geni.com. <br /><br />And speaking of FamilySearch (again), yesterday a fellow mentioned that they are working on an <span style="font-weight:bold;">INDEXING APP</span> for mobile devices! Imagine how cool -- waiting in line, you can index a couple of names and get one step closer to having all those 2.5 million rolls of microfilms indexed and accessible. Sounded like a great idea to me at least...<br /><br />Anyway, after wandering the exhibit hall just a bit, I headed to the the Blogger's media center, where I ran through my afternoon class's powerpoint one last time and saved it off to my new flash drive. How convenient was that?<br /><br />At 11:30, I'd been asked to meet with some fine folks from <span style="font-weight:bold;">FamilySearch.org</span>. They are sincerely interested in the opinions of users, and I really felt my comments were noted and appreciated. One of these gentlemen, Craig H. Miller, Senior Vice President of Family Search, gave me a little peek at one of the products they are thinking about developing. It would be a search tool, where you enter the name you are searching, then hover your cursor over an area on the map rather than choosing a specific state, or county. Imagine the possibilities this means - rather than having to search specifically through every adjoining county to find where that errant ancestor ran off to get married, this "hover" feature will look for any record that includes your search term name, within a given distance of your cursor, irrespective of county or any other type of boundaries. I thought it was a really cool feature and I certainly hope they pursue it.<br /><br />Shortly thereafter I was interviewed by blogger, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Joan Miller</span> who authors the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Luxegen Genealogy Blog</span> (<a href="http://www.luxegen.ca/">http://www.luxegen.ca/</a>). It was "interview Tami" day, I guess, considering later in the afternoon I was also interviewed by <span style="font-weight:bold;">Drew Smith</span>, author of <span style="font-style:italic;">Social Networking for Genealogists</span>, and half of the <span style="font-weight:bold;">'Genealogy Guys' podcast</span>. Drew is also a part of our group of genealogists in Second Life, and I think I've convinced him to speak to our SL chapter APG group in the near future.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Bl6a7e65uy-lHouXMSNI5vgqQZqRR5_kopEWuI-qcTowJxkAGrscpxclqS__4X9wyqbkeLggPGHNOG9Lhe3VjTRGLa-5CojC2rS4vs9BWbfNkxdP6le2gaeOZH11qS-SIRLjZpWS1ek/s1600/RTFamStories.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Bl6a7e65uy-lHouXMSNI5vgqQZqRR5_kopEWuI-qcTowJxkAGrscpxclqS__4X9wyqbkeLggPGHNOG9Lhe3VjTRGLa-5CojC2rS4vs9BWbfNkxdP6le2gaeOZH11qS-SIRLjZpWS1ek/s320/RTFamStories.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572683293768522642" /></a>My only class today was at 1:45 and I spoke on <span style="font-style:italic;">"Finding Your Family Stories Online"</span>, a lecture I love giving, as it I really love putting "flesh on the bones" so to speak, by finding stories about ancestors and the times they lived in, so they aren't just names and dates on a black and white pedigree chart. But oh my gosh! They had me presenting in the same room that Curt Witcher had given the opening talk in this morning - you know, the one with the tiled shower stall backdrop? (still chuckling over that comparison). Its a HUGE room, with a stage, and geez, must be a dozen big screens all over the front of the room. But the really weird part was just the minute before my presentation was to start, what sounded like it could only have been the "voice of God" booming through the room that "the presentation will begin in one minute". At least I didn't trip walking over to the podium!<br /><br />My presentation was very well received, and among the folks who came up to ask questions afterwards was a small group of women who apologized profusely that they hadn't been able to make my class yesterday on Cool Tools, because (and they seriously sounded annoyed) they'd had to attend a funeral instead. Gosh. I felt honored in a weird sort of way! So I invited them back to one of the unconferencing areas later in the afternoon. RootsTech has set up all these awesome areas for people to get together and share information - like the one we met at, with a few sofas set up together, and a laptop I could pop my flash drive into, projecting my presentation on a large TV screen. I had my interview with Drew Smith coming up, but we raced thru the Powerpoint, covering the highlights. It was really fun. I love the opportunity to share great internet tools and websites with folks any time that it works out to do so!<br /><br />The HIGHLIGHT of the day, though, was being able to hold our SL chapter APG meeting in the computer lab at the Family History Library. DearMYRTLE was a lifesaver, as she helped with the technical end while I worked at getting the meeting in order. We had a bit of technical difficulties at the start, but with the help of the incredible staff there at the FHL, we were able to project a laptop screen of Second Life to a live audience, and have the sound on speakers. Craig Scott, CG, owner of Heritage Books and military records expert, spoke to our group as his avatar, Krag Marriner, on Civil War research. It was a wonderful presentation, packed with great information. Not only did folks learn about how to find information on their military ancestors, they got to see how we operate in Second Life, that we learn AND have fun too.<br /><br />I've got a few things up my sleeve for tomorrow, but nothing I have to set my alarm clock for, fortunately. I'm hoping to get to at least one class tomorrow, but if not, I'll get some more vendor information at least - there are some really cool products out there in that vendor hall, that's for sure!relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-16642687968099517902011-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:002011-02-10T09:34:03.600-08:00RootsTech Rocks!This kind of conference is so long overdue, and it's absolutely amazing. RootsTech has barely just begun, and already has proven itself to be the most cutting edge of the convergence (catch word of the day) of genealogy and technology. The exhibit hall is bursting with technology companies, genealogy services and products to streamline and make your research and preservation seamless and simple. I'm so excited about all the possibilities being presented, and can't wait to talk to as many vendors as I can here, and hopefully report back here, and in some of our Second Life discussions. That's all I have time for right now... there's sooo much to do - and when I'm done, I think I'll head to the microsoft playground and play some pingpong.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-53995425721842461922011-02-03T21:04:00.000-08:002011-02-03T21:21:52.124-08:00SL chapter APG -- February is a Time to Celebrate! Again!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4vI8nsXd8SjBFiTYXnCeQhh1QvcaD2Xj7ws7fJIFFEjHNNVVCmKEmSxCY6WP0ZzhzRmH7oGQ72cha8_3SJDCinCv7-dB-p-uCjkI3ZX67lLGFWtbgVD1zIBmE4ivlmpCcatX1BQNgDY/s1600/APGmtg1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 344px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4vI8nsXd8SjBFiTYXnCeQhh1QvcaD2Xj7ws7fJIFFEjHNNVVCmKEmSxCY6WP0ZzhzRmH7oGQ72cha8_3SJDCinCv7-dB-p-uCjkI3ZX67lLGFWtbgVD1zIBmE4ivlmpCcatX1BQNgDY/s400/APGmtg1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569698529029758882" /></a><br /><br />The <span style="font-weight:bold;">Association of Professional Genealogists (APG)</span> is an organization for, well, obviously, professional genealogists, but really, it is an excellent organization for anyone who strives for professionalism in their research. Whether you take clients or not, if you follow the rules and guidelines for APG members, you will be the best genealogist you can be.<br /><br />I learned so much from the first APG chapter that I joined. I met so many excellent and friendly genealogists, and developed friendship and camaraderie with them, and appreciate those relationships that helped shape my professional career.<br /><br />The downside to that chapter was that we only held about two meetings a year, and I had to drive over four hours to attend those meetings.<br /><br />As I became active in the genealogy community in the virtual world Second Life, I was excited about the possibilities that this format offered for relating to other genealogists. I met genealogists from all around the world. In addition, I met genealogists who were women with small children, parental caretakers, or those with health issues that precluded their getting out for meetings. I met those who appreciated meeting with other genealogists in Second Life because it was too difficult to get to real life genealogy meetings - the wrong side of town, too far a drive, too long away from home... many reasons.<br /><br />When two of my Second Life mentors, Clarise Beaumont and Krag Mariner brought up the idea of an APG chapter meeting in Second Life, I knew it was an important step to take. Despite opposition from people who didn’t understand the virtual world setting, or those who still shied away from computer use at all, we somehow were able to convince the decision makers that this type of chapter was, not only cutting edge, but also an important direction for the APG to embrace. The SL chapter of the APG was approved in the Fall of 2010. Our members come from all around the world, from many backgrounds, and many levels of genealogical experience, from those who are wanting to learn to be professionals, to those with 20, 30 or more years experience. We are a friendly inviting group, and try to make everyone feel welcome.<br /><br />The upcoming February 2011 meeting marks the anniversary of our very first organizational meeting. It is also planned to be a very major event. We will be holding our monthly meeting, as always, in the virtual world Second Life, at the Just Genealogy fire pit. But what is extra special is that <span style="font-weight:bold;">we will be projecting our meeting to a live audience</span> at the very first RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City. Our speaker in our SL meeting, will be the real-life Craig Scott, CG, military records expert and owner of Heritage Books. While our meetings are usually held in text, February’s meeting will be a voice presentation, so plan on turning up your speakers!<br /><br />While we strongly encourage membership in APG, our meetings are open to anyone. February’s meeting will be Friday, February 11 at 6:30 p.m., as I said, at the Just Genealogy fire pit, in Second Life. If you plan to be at <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://rootstech.familysearch.org/">RootsTech</a></span>, find us Friday night in our assigned room at the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Family History Library, at 6:30 pm Pacific Time</span> (that will be <span style="font-weight:bold;">7:30 p.m. there in Salt Lake City</span>).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3dcah2UjU0fW8cDsW5k1p0JChMhDNYzxTOlvxE0PoICWj69T1JXvIc4x52_PU29mOfB2mUBOpituvBoKtpgplMGvWIkE7qogpNLrQdC4ot-9Y12OS-xkOdfHOu7y_BuS66kAlBysJ3c/s1600/2GenieFeb2010.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 172px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3dcah2UjU0fW8cDsW5k1p0JChMhDNYzxTOlvxE0PoICWj69T1JXvIc4x52_PU29mOfB2mUBOpituvBoKtpgplMGvWIkE7qogpNLrQdC4ot-9Y12OS-xkOdfHOu7y_BuS66kAlBysJ3c/s200/2GenieFeb2010.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569698972880579378" /></a>If you want to join our genealogy community, sign up for a free account in Second Life at www.<a href="http://www.secondlife.com">SecondLife</a>.com. And if you’d like a little practice in-world beforehand, come to the weekly “Meet & Greet”, held <span style="font-weight:bold;">Mondays </span>at <span style="font-weight:bold;">5-6:00 p.m. Pacific Time</span>, in Just Genealogy. I’m <span style="font-weight:bold;">Genie Weezles </span>in Second Life, and I’d love to show you around. Add me to your friends list, or email me your Second Life name and I’ll add you to mine (genieweezles@yahoo.com). I'm Tami Osmer Glatz in real life, and president of this awesome chapter of APG.<br /><br />Hope to see you in Second Life.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-78044486795558518762011-01-28T16:01:00.000-08:002011-01-28T16:13:35.835-08:00Approaching your Genealogy problems CreativelyI know it's now the end of January, but I tend to be a little slow to get going in the morning too, so why would a new <span style="font-style:italic;">year </span>be any different? My goal this year has been to try to collect all of the information that I have, and determine what information might yet to be collected, in my search to prove that <span style="font-weight:bold;">Burpee Prouty</span> was the father of “my” Mary Prouty.<br /><br />I’ve collected so many tidbits of information over the past few years regarding this question, and have yet to piece them together - kind of like saving up pieces of fabric for a scrap quilt. I was having a hard time deciding where to start, so I turned to a creative writing technique that always works for me, and that is a process called ‘mind-mapping’.<br /><br />In the past, mind-mapping meant grabbing a clean pad of paper, and a good sharp pencil and scribbling notes and ideas in bubbles with connecting lines and such. Well guess what! There are now several programs available for free, online, that will do this for you.<br /><br />My absolute favorite is called <span style="font-weight:bold;">BubblUs </span>(<a href="https://bubbl.us">https://bubbl.us</a>). As with many web programs, you need to sign up for a free account with the usual basic information. With a free account from BubblUs, you can have only three saved sheets. But personally, I don’t work on many more than that at one time.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEU6kENyTa2dA1yFed6DWfQIqGpgRyPKZjgoRFoGBrZA17Da5XPu9GViw9kJ2kT0r42pL6iBclMZeQu_1NTIqRMEJOFkk8lJ7WxDE6tfe0ZhHbEO88evDIu206b01crDWGTGF4BYCx8uY/s1600/RCmm1+BubblUs.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEU6kENyTa2dA1yFed6DWfQIqGpgRyPKZjgoRFoGBrZA17Da5XPu9GViw9kJ2kT0r42pL6iBclMZeQu_1NTIqRMEJOFkk8lJ7WxDE6tfe0ZhHbEO88evDIu206b01crDWGTGF4BYCx8uY/s320/RCmm1+BubblUs.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567392533524515426" /></a>When you’re creating your account, one of the options is to “allow others to find/add me to contacts”. Definitely check this box if you plan to share your sheets with someone else, and work together.<br /><br />The “Help” button has a quick tutorial on how to get started, an explanation of Features by Topic, and Keyboard Shortcuts. Honestly, though, of all the mind-mapping programs available online, one of the reasons I like BubblUs the best is that you almost don’t even need to read the instructions - you can just jump right in and start brainstorming.<br /><br />You can easily change font sizes, bubble colors, and move things around. <br /><br />Once you’ve drained your brain of thoughts on the topic and save it, it saves it to your online account. You also have the option of exporting your mindmap as a .jpg or .png image, or as an html outline.<br /><br />If you need more than the 3 free saved sheets that come with the free account, their “Basic” count is $3/month for up to 10 sheets, and “Premium” account is $6/month or $59/year for unlimited access.<br /><br />The site mentions that there is a discount available to students and teachers, and that either your email address must end in .edu, or you need to email them a copy of your student or teacher ID that is current within a year. I couldn’t find what the discount was, however, but it might be worth looking into if you fall into that category.<br /><br />Another one of the other mindmapping sites available is <span style="font-weight:bold;">Mind42 </span>(<a href="http://www.mind42.com">http://www.mind42.com</a>) - named not only after the fact that 42 is the answer to Life the Universe and Everything (ok, at least it is for Douglas Adams fans)... but also means Mind FOR TWO, indicating the ability to collaborate on your mindmaps. Mind42 also offers a minimal account for free, but the visual is a bit different - everything lays out very horizontally, although you do have the ability to add pictures and web links directly.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiRTiQwwg8gBUoBNS6W8r89Gvs3hFhUhU0uija6RHfQi7Pd2VDKg8BHVqrKas6_SHi2SXEa0Y0bVnRqEp-CHVbRz69zif-0IFoDWIjd_4ycT8qKax7QuLXpsvCgd2RUtJn4IyBUswCw4/s1600/RCmm2+Mind42.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiRTiQwwg8gBUoBNS6W8r89Gvs3hFhUhU0uija6RHfQi7Pd2VDKg8BHVqrKas6_SHi2SXEa0Y0bVnRqEp-CHVbRz69zif-0IFoDWIjd_4ycT8qKax7QuLXpsvCgd2RUtJn4IyBUswCw4/s320/RCmm2+Mind42.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567393639317013938" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsc7T0FkuScQZlx6LMNmjo_z2X0pokx1ulNQLkAnmIVV_8Bu63kF94AnVvlQHOYxKM3-GBNFpgtfL_GPK8DqPkPeDqLxtZU3IzvcKRONv4kq-0tMm9MbkZhwtVStlGpsCy3PjdEanMVec/s1600/RCmm3+SpicyNodes.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsc7T0FkuScQZlx6LMNmjo_z2X0pokx1ulNQLkAnmIVV_8Bu63kF94AnVvlQHOYxKM3-GBNFpgtfL_GPK8DqPkPeDqLxtZU3IzvcKRONv4kq-0tMm9MbkZhwtVStlGpsCy3PjdEanMVec/s320/RCmm3+SpicyNodes.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567393422855564354" /></a>If you’re more concerned with how cool or fancy your mindmap looks, you might want to try out <span style="font-weight:bold;">Spicy Nodes</span> (<a href="http://www.spicynodes.org">http://www.spicynodes.org</a>). It definitely has the coolest visuals, and several options and colors to choose from. Like the other sites, there is a free basic account, but one of the big differences here is that your saved mindmaps become publicly searchable. As a genealogist, this can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing - Good if you are hoping to find someone who has that last missing piece to your puzzle, or Bad if you are stingy with your research and don’t want anyone else to know who your 10th great grandfather was because he is all yours... yeah, right.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">MindMeister </span>(<a href="http://www.mindmeister.com">http://www.mindmeister.com</a>) is similar to the Mind42 in its horizontal layout format, but offers a mobile ap so that you can work from your handheld device, thus their slogan “be productive anywhere, anytime”. Finished maps can be published to blogs and websites, but I’m not sure that MindMeister has much in the way of free components. Personally I found it a bit confusing to use, and since I’d already found other mindmapping sites that didnt require me reading the instructions, I didn’t pursue it much further.<br /><br />Whatever you go with, let the creative side of your brain have a chance to work on your genealogy puzzles. You might be surprised with yourself.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-26158253525865973112010-11-17T10:04:00.000-08:002010-11-17T10:56:18.548-08:00Home on the Range<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-GrYzDjKmA7mh0l1YvtvsoIC0WkV34WYcrf3zDqMyW1I_72rRPUoFlVg5Yj2gqfVxyw6rX6pGISsPuBUys7bN8Lu-0X_-QgmeZoHyNqyEo9vUpO_FELMdF5Zi2vRpu-IgYuXqvD0JPU/s1600/homeonetherangecover.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-GrYzDjKmA7mh0l1YvtvsoIC0WkV34WYcrf3zDqMyW1I_72rRPUoFlVg5Yj2gqfVxyw6rX6pGISsPuBUys7bN8Lu-0X_-QgmeZoHyNqyEo9vUpO_FELMdF5Zi2vRpu-IgYuXqvD0JPU/s320/homeonetherangecover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540592581622837954" /></a><br />After receiving an invitation to the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Second Great American Local Poem And Song Genealogy Challenge</span>, I immediately began reflecting on the poets in my family history, and Dr. Brewster Higley came immediately to mind. Granted he's a fourth cousin, five times removed, but still related nonetheless! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoGFB8b3BEdccaje9-YyZ2gZYYaGLFoVpJKO5bYf2LAn1i_Sp0-UwsrbGzdzKgDFY3ffiRpNSEyM7S3feBZ8_dfhePEy3nX5554UjqDqCuZQO5CEWzsYxlbqL7wAaPYyv4GFiTZ0GNBs/s1600/brewsterHigley.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 175px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoGFB8b3BEdccaje9-YyZ2gZYYaGLFoVpJKO5bYf2LAn1i_Sp0-UwsrbGzdzKgDFY3ffiRpNSEyM7S3feBZ8_dfhePEy3nX5554UjqDqCuZQO5CEWzsYxlbqL7wAaPYyv4GFiTZ0GNBs/s400/brewsterHigley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540591529547449714" /></a>Dr. Brewster M. Higley wrote the following poem in 1873 while he was living in the cabin of his homestead on Beaver Creek, New Gaylord, Smith County, Kansas. At the urging of friends, he showed his verses to Dan Kelley, a member of the Harlan Brother orchestra. Kelley had been a bugler in the Union army during the Civil War and had the ability to compose music. On his way home, Kelley hummed while he thought about Dr. Higley's poem. Once home, he wrote down the notes on a piece of wrapping paper, and hummed the tune and played it on his violin until it was safely fixed in his mind. Click <a href="http://www.kansasheritage.org/kssights/home.mid">HERE </a>to hear the song. Read more about it at <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/homeontherange/">NPR.org</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Western Home<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />Oh, give me a home<br />Where the buffalo roam<br />Where the deer and the antelope play'<br />Where seldom is heard<br />A discouraging word,<br />And the sky is not cloudy all day.<br /><br />"Chorus"<br />A home, a home<br />Where the deer and the antelope play,<br />Where never is heard a discouraging word<br />And the sky is not cloudy all day.<br />Oh, give me land the land<br />There the bright diamond sand<br />Throws its light on the glittering stream<br />Where glideth along<br />The graceful white swam<br />Like a maid in her heavenly dream.<br /><br />Oh, give me the gale<br />Of the Solomon vale<br />Where the life stream of buoyancy flows<br />On the banks of the Beaver<br />Where seldom, if ever<br />Any poisonous herbage doth grow.<br /><br />I love the wild flowers<br />In this bright land of ours,<br />I love, too, the wild curler's scream<br />The bluffs and white rocks<br />And antelope flocks,<br />That graze on the mountain so green.<br /><br />A home, a home<br />Where the deer and the antelope play,<br />Where never is heard<br />A discouraging word,<br />And the sky is not cloudy all day.<br /><br />How often at night<br />When the heavens were bright<br />By the light of the twinkling stars,<br />Have I stood here amazed<br />And asked as I gazed<br />If there glory exceeds that of ours.<br /><br />The air is so clear,<br />The breeze so pure,<br />The zephyr so balmy and light;<br />I would not exchange<br />My home here on range<br />Forever in assure so bright.<br /><br />A home, a home<br />Where the deer and the antelope play;<br />Where never is heard<br />A discouraging word<br />And the sky is not cloudy all day.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />(Thanks to the Kansas Heritage Group, http://www.kansasheritage.org)</span>relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-70250253124440379362010-09-07T11:31:00.001-07:002010-09-07T11:35:02.252-07:00APG approves first Virtual chapter!The following is the official press release from the Association of Professional Genealogists. As president of the new Second Life Chapter of APG, I'm so excited about the opportunities that this group provides -- allowing access to professional ideas, presentations, and comraderie to anyone with internet access, anywhere in the world. Meetings are the 2nd Thursday of each month, at 5:30 Pacific Time, and are held in the virtual world Second Life, at the Just Genealogy Fire Pit. Contact me directly if you have any questions about the group! Here's that press release:<br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote>The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) announced today that its board has approved two new chapters for the organization. The Northland Chapter will serve members from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The board also approved the organization’s first virtual chapter, to be held in Second Life. Both chapters have commenced operations as of today.<br /><br />“We welcome these new chapters and the support they will provide to our members,” said APG President Laura Prescott. “These chapters will benefit underserved geographies, both real and virtual. The board and executive committee discussed at length the implications of chartering a virtual chapter and felt that it would be an exciting and effective alternative for members who don’t have a local chapter or who cannot attend meetings in real life.”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Northland Chapter to Cover Much Ground</span><br />The Northland Chapter serves a broad region of northern states that are not currently served by an APG chapter. Chapter organizers, Sandy Mochal Thalmann, sandy@authenticorigins.com, and Jay Fonkert, CG, jfonkert@aol.com, have centered the operation in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Virtual Chapter in Second Life Provides a New Outlet for Professional Collaboration</span><br />The Second Life APG Chapter meets in Second Life and is open to all members anywhere in the world with Internet access, who may use their Second Life avatar personas. The chapter plans to meet monthly to preview and critique presentations in progress, discuss research resources, and share ideas about professional business practices and standards. Tami Glatz, or Genie Weezles in Second Life, is the contact, tglatz (at) gmail.com.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-9245025894062076672010-07-14T06:26:00.001-07:002010-07-14T06:47:28.224-07:00Ordering FHL microfilm from your home<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2v7VuKvi7fyZfQanUbtqB9Szq_SNPf3f9vMbROWShy8Kpv3WHFAKX0h1qzW_vxYSoGMP_5X53o89ld_72ioGhxfi7EQOPQaLh9X7V4f-8F6wq4hFfRRXO0vWiALFFKQx2XloJjjI8p3s/s1600/microfilm.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2v7VuKvi7fyZfQanUbtqB9Szq_SNPf3f9vMbROWShy8Kpv3WHFAKX0h1qzW_vxYSoGMP_5X53o89ld_72ioGhxfi7EQOPQaLh9X7V4f-8F6wq4hFfRRXO0vWiALFFKQx2XloJjjI8p3s/s200/microfilm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493757758666343858" /></a>I recently heard a rumour about the possibility for individuals to order microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City -- online from their own homes -- and decided to look into it just a bit. I was thinking about how convenient that would be, to be able to peruse the <a href="http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp">FHL Catalog</a> from home (from the Library tab at www.FamilySearch.org), and be able to go ahead and order films immediately without having to wait until the local Family History Center was open to get that order in. Of course the IDEAL situation would be where you could peruse the catalog, order the film, and then view it digitally IMMEDIATELY... and I certainly hope that is on tap for the future. But for now, I suppose I would be happy with just ordering online.<br /><br />Anyway, what I discovered was that the ability for patrons to order films online and have them delivered directly to their local Family History Center of choice has already been introduced in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (<a href="https://films.familysearch.org/">https://films.familysearch.org/</a>). Canada was supposed to be enjoying that luxury right about now, however, the Canadian Government just changed it's taxing structure and the Church was forced to delay the implementation of OnLine Film Ordering in Canada until the Canadian Government works out the details with regard to how microfilms and microfiche will be taxed.<br /><br />And of course, the date given for the initiation of OnLine Film Ordering in the United States was "in the near future"... which as y'all know, means "don't hold your breath"!relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-23818742789682461232010-07-01T07:13:00.000-07:002010-07-01T08:37:16.282-07:00Toolbar nears 1,000 Downloads! Win A Prize!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxLzCZ5F08D2YWDanTVHOxpFQO8HU1y0kHt5dwYrDhkzdDRI3tU_7lP6Kuyn3TLEmGSbYTBwIFNnDJvzIPH5oFQzOQC4rIGe5Mu2Slal8Dyi2Ut6Px8ygx3PxR8rW7aaukL7xaYu01aY/s1600/Bookmark_0001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxLzCZ5F08D2YWDanTVHOxpFQO8HU1y0kHt5dwYrDhkzdDRI3tU_7lP6Kuyn3TLEmGSbYTBwIFNnDJvzIPH5oFQzOQC4rIGe5Mu2Slal8Dyi2Ut6Px8ygx3PxR8rW7aaukL7xaYu01aY/s400/Bookmark_0001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488947137965448978" /></a><br />Howdy howdy howdy!!! Oh my gosh I've been so busy lately, and neglecting my dear blog, so here is a long overdue post - and you can win something from it too! I was adding a few sites to the <a href="http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Internet Genealogy browser toolbar</span></a> this morning and happened to check the stats on it - <span style="font-weight:bold;">981 downloads!<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> Wow!<br /><br />I'm pretty sure that most people using it like it, but I dont often hear back, just from a few. So what I thought I'd do, is since its so close to a landmark ONE THOUSAND downloads, Im going to make this offer... I'm going to ask you to <span style="font-weight:bold;">tell your friends<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> about the toolbar - send them the link to the <a href="http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com">download</a>, and <span style="font-weight:bold;">ADD A COMMENT to this blog post including your favorite feature or website on the toolbar</span>, and be sure to include your name! As soon as the toolbar reaches 1,000 downloads (and thats only 19 more, so really soon...) I will draw a random name from the blog comments (even overseas!) who will <span style="font-weight:bold;">win a free copy of RootsMagic 4 </span>Genealogy and Family Tree Software! This is a really great program for organizing your family history records. If you already have a copy, share it with another family member to help them get started working on genealogy research with you.. And share the toolbar with them, too!!! <a href="http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com">http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com</a> <span style="font-style:italic;"> <br /><br />p.s. - your comment won't show up right away ... helps stop spamming, so don't panic, it will be there soon!</span>relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-91870399866767680042010-04-02T18:11:00.001-07:002010-04-02T18:19:21.539-07:00Funeral Card Friday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNsAVff8jCGSpDAzlUjQduSXLdjQ8vp8Doc5qKHoXyD5DxPGmrK1SdQyMAUnSq6vApdKGaYjs3BqTfomK4v427A7fR7cpTPicBum0mIx1CL-9EhSEG63jjByQQrVDt6OTFzrA8RjpVwE/s1600/ElizaThompsonFuneralCard.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNsAVff8jCGSpDAzlUjQduSXLdjQ8vp8Doc5qKHoXyD5DxPGmrK1SdQyMAUnSq6vApdKGaYjs3BqTfomK4v427A7fR7cpTPicBum0mIx1CL-9EhSEG63jjByQQrVDt6OTFzrA8RjpVwE/s400/ElizaThompsonFuneralCard.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455714463292763522" /></a><br />I came across this funeral card just last weekend, in a box of family papers that my father had sent home with me a while ago. It was great timing to be invited to participate in Funeral Card Friday!<br /><br />Back side of the card has a piece of masking tape (*shudder*) on which is written: Milo Thompson's Mother<br /><br />Eliza Thompson, died March 11, 1912, Age 65 years. Gone but not forgotten.<br /><br />Her obituary, from an unsourced newspaper clipping found in with family papers, reads” Death: West Farmington, March 11. Mrs. Eliza Thompson of this place died this morning after an illness of several months. She was born in Southington in 1846 and lived her early life there. She graduated from the Western Reserve seminary at West Farmington in 1868. She married O. Thompson in 1876. They lived on a farm in Farmington for a number of years removing here 12 years ago. Mr. Thompson died in 1907.<br /> Mrs. Thompson is survived by one son, Milo, of this village, two step sons, one brother and six grandchildren. A brother, Lot Allen, lives at Lincoln, Nebraska.<br /> The funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon at one pm, conducted by Rev. Peck.<br /><br />Eliza Mary Allen was the daughter of Milo Allen and Clarissa Merchant. She was born 10 May 1847, in Southington, Trumbull, Ohio. She married 2 May 1876 in Trumbull County, Orson Samuel Thompson, the son of Norman and Harriet Morrison Thompson of Rock Creek, Ashtabula, Ohio. (As long as I'm mentioning Norman, I'd like to mention that as of yet, his parents have eluded me.)relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-42977422887138393402010-03-05T13:58:00.000-08:002010-03-05T16:19:02.428-08:00Who do you think you are?Who do you think you are? It can be a pointed, sarcastic question suggesting that you think you are better than another. But in a genealogical context, it is thought provoking, and personally, gives me chills.<br /><br />NBC is airing the <a href="http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/?sssdmh=dm13.237516&o_iid=42904&o_lid=42904">first episode</a> of the much anticipated American edition of <span style="font-weight:bold;">Who Do You Think You Are</span> tonight. The series has been running in the UK for quite some time now, and has been wildly successful, to say the least. I have seen a couple of the British episodes, and have to say, they were so incredibly well done they left me alternating between gasps, goosebumps and tears. So I’m hoping that NBC’s version follows suit.<br /><br />But back to the question - who do you think you are? Most people don’t think much about their ancestors. They rely on their living relatives to tell them stories about family, but quite often those stories are recieved with glazed eyes and yawns.<br /><br />My grandmother used to talk about people all the time - she seemed to know everything about everyone in the small town that she grew up and lived in for most of her life. Honestly, I didnt really listen too closely, because I didnt know any of the people she was talking about. But fortunately my sister did take some notes, and, being older, listened a little more closely.<br /><br />I started researching my family history several years ago shortly after my father became interested in his. It was something that we could talk about together at first, but soon I was totally hooked. I was so grateful for my sister’s notes, which mentioned family members that there were otherwise no apparent record of. But other than that, it turned out that my grandmother wasn’t aware of a lot of her own ancestry.<br /><br />I had always just thought that my ancestors were farmers from Northeast Ohio... that they’d been there forever, and that was the extent of it. That part is true. Most of my ancestors came to the Western Reserve in the early 1800s - some even before it became Ohio. They were the pioneers and settlers of the state. They built their homes and cleared and plowed field, organized church meetings and towns. They lived with Indians as their neighbors. The women had to make the cloth before they could sew their own clothes. They must have been amazing people.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53HrgwH8_lER0Y7f-w4KPkqQYNx8OrZy8AgPcHOlzJGEFnH6dD079ZVpKbg9ss0EHnD_cU-X2XfZexYZA1z96yT10eCXSSyBIWU37F5tVYsUM7pfht_3SRo3IpoQFGxkZ0hC6tryPj2M/s1600-h/apple_jonathan.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 177px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53HrgwH8_lER0Y7f-w4KPkqQYNx8OrZy8AgPcHOlzJGEFnH6dD079ZVpKbg9ss0EHnD_cU-X2XfZexYZA1z96yT10eCXSSyBIWU37F5tVYsUM7pfht_3SRo3IpoQFGxkZ0hC6tryPj2M/s400/apple_jonathan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445306442978927410" /></a>One great grandmother went to the cider mill to collect apple seeds before she left Connecticut to walk to her new home in the Western Reserve. People laughed and told her they would never grow, but when she arrived at her destination she began planting and cultivating her apple orchard and within a few years, had developed an apple that she liked the best, and named it after her husband, Jonathan.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFYY0nQvWPMuYguM2RawvT5jwqIyWfBLm6X4_LqVxfVdrBbhoCuqYxSj_Qnr9mXJXUWwKaUQY6Pc8D6ArqCNSQsjF0EmiCAL8HiUzJWnjZRRa8dLuOEWjzi9pPIjqqI4PdajY-MKdWsxk/s1600-h/ThomasHooker1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFYY0nQvWPMuYguM2RawvT5jwqIyWfBLm6X4_LqVxfVdrBbhoCuqYxSj_Qnr9mXJXUWwKaUQY6Pc8D6ArqCNSQsjF0EmiCAL8HiUzJWnjZRRa8dLuOEWjzi9pPIjqqI4PdajY-MKdWsxk/s320/ThomasHooker1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445307452035389074" /></a>As I’ve researched my family earlier than the Ohio settlers, I’ve also uncovered several “big names” in my family tree - people with plaques and statues in town squares. People who were chosen to lead the new country in its early years... people who fought valiantly to even allow the new country to be born. I’m not so much impressed with credentials and titles, though, as I am with the stories of daily life -- stories of struggles and challenges overcome, and those that weren’t. My definition of heroism has changed to include women who bore and raised a dozen or more children, without the conveniences of electricity, as well as those women who’s hearts must have been broken as they watched infant and children die, year after year.<br /><br />Who do I think I am? I think that I am the end result, so far, of generations of people who worked hard, lived, loved, and did their best to survive, as well as to enjoy life... people that probably didnt think much about their ancestors either, other than to learn from their parents, who had learned from their parents, and so on... it’s all there in my genes, inherent in my being, in who I am. I think that I am just me, and at the same time, I am the end result of the lives of all of my ancestors. And it makes me want to find them and know them even more.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-4247706560144124562010-02-02T15:31:00.000-08:002010-02-02T19:22:34.479-08:00APG starts new chapter in SecondLife<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvmIKdbY1UvE0LUQvqJXLPPhyphenhyphenWAsf-iVnoSGH5xRGQS4_7JdLwWMztBGwpqMnwMNscqO3kvYFd_Cmkq_tDHbjaJ79GpADturg9E1l9QM9X9PeBfR9b1BlxL3hQkNoXigTfymFA2fMgRc/s1600-h/SLlogo.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 146px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvmIKdbY1UvE0LUQvqJXLPPhyphenhyphenWAsf-iVnoSGH5xRGQS4_7JdLwWMztBGwpqMnwMNscqO3kvYFd_Cmkq_tDHbjaJ79GpADturg9E1l9QM9X9PeBfR9b1BlxL3hQkNoXigTfymFA2fMgRc/s400/SLlogo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433804470169824994" /></a><br />The <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.apgen.org/">Association of Professional Genealogists</a></span> (APG) is forming a new chapter in the virtual world <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.secondlife.com">Second Life</a></span>. One of the great advantages to this will be ease of access to meetings - they will be online! You don't have to travel or even change out of your slippers to attend.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAmjx_102R4UnMybsKicO1li9K60HaN-a5_raUIhoiuPCUcAWUZuswoC5RBD3M0_mVuMzjBNPaLMkbhrezBRoQ3V81ud-WXikpz0QYDqrpFqDQ3LX62G5Rf73MoZjLTV6-qBE1s5BIck/s1600-h/apgBadge.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 72px; height: 60px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAmjx_102R4UnMybsKicO1li9K60HaN-a5_raUIhoiuPCUcAWUZuswoC5RBD3M0_mVuMzjBNPaLMkbhrezBRoQ3V81ud-WXikpz0QYDqrpFqDQ3LX62G5Rf73MoZjLTV6-qBE1s5BIck/s400/apgBadge.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433803395433361010" /></a>APG membership is open to anyone interested in, well, professional genealogy -- you don't have to be a client-taking, business person to join the APG, - just aligned with the principles of the organization. Personally I have benefitted so much from my APG membership, and attending meetings. Just getting to know other genealogists, learning from them, and having people to turn to with my own questions has been worth every penny of dues.<br /><br />The first meeting of the APG in SecondLife will be <span style="font-weight:bold;">Wednesday Feb 10</span>, at <span style="font-weight:bold;">5</span> pm Pacific time (also known as Second Life time) at the Just Genealogy area Fire Pit. For more information about this APG group, please see <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://blog.dearmyrtle.com">DearMYRTLE's blog</a></span> posting on it at <a href="http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2010/02/apg-second-life-10-feb-2010.html">http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2010/02/apg-second-life-10-feb-2010.html</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.secondlife.com">SecondLife</a></span> (<a href="http://www.secondlife.com">http://www.secondlife.com</a>) is an online virtual world, with an ever-growing presence of genealogists who meet regularly to learn, share and discuss various genealogical topics. Information on how to sign up for a FREE SecondLife account, as well as how to find the genealogy community there, please see DearMYRTLE's blog article at <a href="http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2009/07/interested-in-actually-joining-second.html">http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2009/07/interested-in-actually-joining-second.html</a><br /><br />If you'd like any help learning to navigate around SecondLife, contact me at relativelycurious (at) yahoo.com and I'll be happy to walk you around and through SL.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-51220808412623016122010-01-29T09:29:00.000-08:002010-01-29T13:06:41.427-08:00Delicious! A yummy way to bookmarkI’m continually amazed at the vast numbers of great websites there are for genealogical research. Y’all know that I created the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com">Internet Genealogy toolbar</a> </span>to try to keep track of the ones that I use most often, and am continually adding to it. It’s really very handy to have these websites so readily available.<br /> <br />Some folks just save their website discoveries in their Bookmarks or Favorites folders, but personally I have a hard time finding anything once I’ve saved it to one of those folders. I’m not always using my own computer, either, which means that I don’t always have access to my toolbar, or bookmarks or favorites folders.<br />But anytime, and anywhere that I’m online, I have access to a website called <a href="http://delicious.com/"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Delicious</span></a> (http://delicious.com/). <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Delicious </span>is a free website devoted to “social bookmarking” (they even coined the phrase). It's basically a great place to store, organize and share your bookmarks online.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8YvcmMUcHFdL7j2L0OC-6rGz84XfEFOpg5ON3YwfvsSSLLP2WdiBEHi9nwL4HCyb-9dN1IzrmaruApC1O_0LvtOl6Kh15JhrOcfA1XqrUfBw6vK88Hmx8wEjmzlkjfe0JKXiKcAbwxBg/s1600-h/delicious.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8YvcmMUcHFdL7j2L0OC-6rGz84XfEFOpg5ON3YwfvsSSLLP2WdiBEHi9nwL4HCyb-9dN1IzrmaruApC1O_0LvtOl6Kh15JhrOcfA1XqrUfBw6vK88Hmx8wEjmzlkjfe0JKXiKcAbwxBg/s400/delicious.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432221108926023826" /></a>It's so easy to find websites that you have saved in Delicious. When you save a webpage, you have the option of adding “tags”, which are descriptive key words. You can add as many tags as you like, and whatever words you like. This way, you can add words that might help jog your memory. When you’re searching your bookmarks you can search by those tags, so that all of your <span style="font-style:italic;">“Ohio”, “death certificate”</span> , or even <span style="font-style:italic;">“Smith Family”</span> bookmarks show up in a list. When you’re adding a bookmark, you also have the option of adding “Notes”, so that you can remember what you liked about that website, as well as let others know what you found there that was great.<br /><br />In addition to storing your own bookmarks, you can also <span style="font-weight:bold;">search through other people’s bookmarks </span>to see what they’re finding that you may have missed. It’s a great way to discover some obscure but valuable websites to enhance your own research.<br /><br />Sign in for a free account, and be sure to download the free <span style="font-weight:bold;">Delicious buttons for your toolbar</span>. With these buttons, you can easily open your own bookmarks in a sidebar, open the entire website, and best of all, very easily save a webpage to save to your Delicious bookmarks.<br />When you do a search from the main Delicious page, if you are signed in, your results will appear first under the heading “My Bookmarks”, followed by many more under the heading “Everybody’s Bookmarks”. The results also list the associated tags with each bookmark, giving you ideas of possible other words to search to find even more websites to peruse.<br /> <br />When signed in, from the Settings tab at the very top, you can do all sorts of things. You can easily <span style="font-weight:bold;">import or upload the bookmarks on your computer </span>from your “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” folders and even share your bookmarks via Twitter. From Settings, you can also revise, edit and organize your tag list easily.<br /><br />Delicious also has ways to <span style="font-weight:bold;">connect to other users </span>by setting up a network, which would be groups of people that you share interests with. There is even an experimental feature that will post your newly added bookmarks to your blog daily, if you are so inclined.<br /><br />Consider using Delicious for storing your bookmarks, as well as for finding new ones. Not only is it a great organization tool for your own research, but sharing with others is always a good thing :)relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-76083271003494505392010-01-08T08:24:00.000-08:002010-01-09T10:05:01.302-08:00Local Resources Rock! Dallas Public Library<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCUrXQTSNbSovdSJ8mFHcRtI3-NXXJPiShrPYpOaPWUMBxDPRdr86F1vqTabr1WYWaDJNSUb_3pQJnigHEhLY1HJ31JjpIw0lILZsfgwK1c87WBXozDcNDTV7FSHm_u9koce9REPqKJE/s1600-h/DPLjpg.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCUrXQTSNbSovdSJ8mFHcRtI3-NXXJPiShrPYpOaPWUMBxDPRdr86F1vqTabr1WYWaDJNSUb_3pQJnigHEhLY1HJ31JjpIw0lILZsfgwK1c87WBXozDcNDTV7FSHm_u9koce9REPqKJE/s200/DPLjpg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424408832152091394" /></a><br />I tend to write mostly about internet resources, but as you should know by now, when it comes to genealogical research, you can’t find everything online. I’ve written previously about the importance of spending time at local libraries, because they often contain location specific collections that can be found nowhere else. Today I thought I'd spotlight MY local library, the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Dallas Public Library</span>.<br /><br />Even though I don’t have any ancestors that even vacationed in Texas prior to my moving here, I still go to the downtown every week to research at the <span style="font-weight:bold;">J. Erik Jonsson </span><span style="font-weight:bold;">branch </span>of the Dallas Public Library (1515 Young Street). OK, true, I have a volunteer shift at the desk for the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Dallas Genealogical Society</span>, but it does give me the opportunity weekly to peruse the absolutely fantastic genealogy department on the 8th floor on a regular basis.<br /><br />Budget cuts have wreaked havoc on the library <span style="font-weight:bold;">hours </span>recently, so be sure to check before you show up to see if they’re opening at 10 am or noon, or to make sure they’re open at all, and not closed for a holiday or an employee furlough day. But it is definitely worth a visit, any time you are in Dallas - whether you have Texas ancestors or not. I recommend parking beneath the building in the public parking there. Its very reasonably priced, safe, and protects you from the crazy whims of Texas weather.<br /><br />One half of the <span style="font-weight:bold;">eighth floor </span>is devoted to DPL's genealogical collection, which is one of the largest in the South. The collections include over 80,000 books, 42,000 rolls of microfilm, 77,000 microfiche and over 700 maps and charts.<br /><br />Along with the <span style="font-weight:bold;">helpful staff</span> at the reference desk, the Dallas Genealogical Society volunteers host an information desk to greet patrons and help direct them in their research. <br /><br />An old-fashioned <span style="font-weight:bold;">card catalog</span> makes it easy to find information, and is the place to start. It organizes the collection by both locality and by surname. The locality drawers are organized by state, and then tabbed by county, with city and town items indexed alphabetically within the tabs. The surname catalog alphabetically organizes books found on the sixteen aisles devoted to family histories and genealogies. There is also a section of vertical files, arranged alphabetically by surname, that contain loose papers and donated materials including family group sheets, unbound manuscripts, and such.<br /><br />There are 53 aisles of books organized by <span style="font-weight:bold;">state</span>. There are many town and county records, including published books on vital records, cemetery inscriptions, gazetteers and state and local histories within each state collection.<br /><br />This library has over 500 genealogical <span style="font-weight:bold;">journals </span>and 200 family name publications. They claim that their collection includes nearly all of the major genealogical periodicals in the United States. I usually check their holdings before I send of a request for copies from PERSI, and more often than not, I find what I need is there at the Dallas library. Most publications’ back issues have been bound, and often contain indices as well, but searching PERSI online can often save time flipping through all those volumes.<br /><br />The Texas/Dallas Collection on the 7th floor houses <span style="font-weight:bold;">newspapers</span>, including both Texas newspapers and collections from other major metropolitan areas.<br /><br />The Genealogy Department has several excellent <span style="font-weight:bold;">special collections</span>. Some of the items for the US include the Draper manuscripts, all US city directories up to 1881, both the Barbour and Hale collections of Connecticut records, the Corbin collection of Massachusetts vital records, the Oklahoma Dawes Rolls, and Virginia land patents 1623-1774. The international records include the Domesday Book, Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland. The microfilm collections for both Military and Immigration (including Passenger Lists) are quite extensive.<br /><br />The collection of Texas <span style="font-weight:bold;">microfilm </span>is amazing. It includes passenger lists of arrivals into Texas ports, military records from every conflict that Texans were involved including nearly 700 rolls of microfilm of Civil War Confederate pension applications, and Republic of Texas pensions and claims files. The collection also contains Convict Record ledgers from the Huntsville Penitentiary (1849-1954), but of particular interest are the vital records microfilm – the Index to Texas Births 1903-1976, the Dept. of Health Death Index 1964-2001, the Bureau of Vital Statistics’ Index to Texas Death Records 1903-1976, and an absolutely AWESOME collection of Texas marriage licenses and records, for every county in the state that has made the records available. <br /><br />There are 3 photocopiers available for patron use in this department. Patrons must purchase a rechargeable copy card from the desk, because the copy machines do not accept coins. Copies are .15 each. Patrons also have access to 36 regular microfilm readers, and 4 film/fiche readers that are also printers, and two digital film reader/printers.<br /><br />Twelve computers are dedicated to genealogical resources. Four computers have the library catalog and access to Ancestry.com, and six have various genealogical computer CD programs available for patron use on them. The other two also offer internet access.<br /><br />Through the TexShare database system, patrons with a library card can access several databases at home, including HeritageQuest and Ebsco Newspapers. Ancestry.com is only available within the library. The library also offers free wireless internet for patrons at the library.<br /><br />Through the Dallas Genealogical Society, the library acts as a satellite of the Salt Lake City Family History Center too, making their over 2 million rolls of microfilm available for a minimal rental cost. For accessing materials from just about any US library, <span style="font-weight:bold;">interlibrary loan </span>is available for books, microfilms and other media with a valid Dallas Public Library card, however most libraries will not loan genealogical materials. As with most library policies, librarians usually will offer to copy a few pages or the index to requested books for a small copy fee. In regards to newspapers, their policy is that they will not loan complete issues of periodicals or newspapers – but will photocopy articles.<br /><br />Until his retirement this past summer, one of the most valuable resources of the 8th floor had been <span style="font-weight:bold;">Lloyd Dewitt Bockstruck</span>, the Supervisor of the Genealogical Section of the Dallas Public Library. A nationally known author and lecturer, and an expert in many areas of genealogical research including the American Revolution and Bounty Land Grants, during his time as Supervisor, Lloyd acquired and built the collections, making the Dallas Public Library’s genealogy department one of the very best in the country.<br /><br />Even though I have no Texas ancestors, I continually find treasures pertaining to my own family history from every US state and even from other countries, every time I research at DPL. It is definitely worth a trip if you’re ever anywhere in the Dallas area. And if you are planning on coming, be sure to peruse the <a href="http://dallaslibrary.org/">online catalog </a>and prepare your research list before you come, to save time.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060500400257686473.post-22920786990679770482010-01-02T13:45:00.000-08:002010-01-02T14:48:50.594-08:00My Top Ten Best Genealogy Moments of 2009Randy Seaver asked the following question on his blog, <a href="http://www.geneamusings.com/">Genea-Musings</a>, <span style="font-style:italic;">"What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?"</span> It made me mentally review my genealogy year. I realized that it's been an incredibly fun and successful year for me, so I thought I’d share my highlights here. So here is my personal “Top 10" best genealogy moments for 2009.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupBywuynsm6Z7Zg4BOdt65reCb0IIZ5tkyk7G69GvjsDQfEGLq3QWQ3XRhGTM74RayHKPWBDzuQc4ZDiDYRlp9EQ3G9BdUXcwRka6ChN1uIHltJOKNM3YwyfF7R8V7LBuAut8uTgw39U/s1600-h/OsmerFarm3.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupBywuynsm6Z7Zg4BOdt65reCb0IIZ5tkyk7G69GvjsDQfEGLq3QWQ3XRhGTM74RayHKPWBDzuQc4ZDiDYRlp9EQ3G9BdUXcwRka6ChN1uIHltJOKNM3YwyfF7R8V7LBuAut8uTgw39U/s200/OsmerFarm3.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422269707001218802" /></a>10. Being able to travel back to the <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2009/08/dairy-diary.html">dairy farm </a>that my dad grew up on, and having dad with me as a tour guide to the history of this very small, very rural farming community. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGg6W1ZsdY4D4NHIpll1GYoCB3ourYarNkJ0PRUUSKenpsSfnY9iE2mhjFXcvURCSmSFCEgFd44sHLcyka3U97N3bdYfyBKCZcHHeXX1HC94Jvn2MqfGF45TpUtlh6ubqPdZtOksRDxsg/s1600-h/LRlecture.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGg6W1ZsdY4D4NHIpll1GYoCB3ourYarNkJ0PRUUSKenpsSfnY9iE2mhjFXcvURCSmSFCEgFd44sHLcyka3U97N3bdYfyBKCZcHHeXX1HC94Jvn2MqfGF45TpUtlh6ubqPdZtOksRDxsg/s200/LRlecture.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422272350822634706" /></a>9. Joining <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-genealogy-in-second-life.html"><span style="font-weight:bold;">SecondLife</span></a>, and meeting other genealogists from around the world online, having weekly discussions, learning and sharing information, and best of all, getting to meet several of them in real life as well.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe2avnNVl1Q7GX9M3b-klrClDvg597XQ8alTUSf-RgtLjMkyUg27ocC3LgmaeyBtGoI3s-3nGRJ8Cys58gtx_O9Jmx15RsZMvPGTqHHkHbl7uCASqhk-KVU5XWIp62Dlps8pms9R0tfg/s1600-h/GenieClariseSept2009.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe2avnNVl1Q7GX9M3b-klrClDvg597XQ8alTUSf-RgtLjMkyUg27ocC3LgmaeyBtGoI3s-3nGRJ8Cys58gtx_O9Jmx15RsZMvPGTqHHkHbl7uCASqhk-KVU5XWIp62Dlps8pms9R0tfg/s200/GenieClariseSept2009.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422273787840262290" /></a>8. Attending the Federation of Genealogists Convention in Little Rock in September, which ties in to the previous entry. Not only did I learn a lot from so many great classes and presentations, but I got to know so many really fun and interesting people there, and made some great friendships with other genealogists that I really admire.<br /><br />7. Joining the Berkshire, MA Family History Association, and as a member benefit receiving 3 hours of free research, which <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2009/05/just-like-i-always-say.html">broke one of my main brick walls </a>- finding the father of my 4th great grandfather, David Stevens of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. <br /><br />6. Having the solution to my other main brick wall literally <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-research-when-it-just-might-land-in.html">fall through cyberspace </a>into my lap... reminding me of how important it is to share your own research, as what goes around, comes around... <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtp601j9hN5ZzH5uirGQtupcYmjSElomeZTBetammzMahl-1Mr1RXwTkWVGNoKDd4jxsasHfIy3Jf599RYUnLBB4TykRlp-DwY4-78ZV7P3-7oclEYxYulMOPKNea63E3ynt8R2zPvd_s/s1600-h/ToolbarArticleFTMsm.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtp601j9hN5ZzH5uirGQtupcYmjSElomeZTBetammzMahl-1Mr1RXwTkWVGNoKDd4jxsasHfIy3Jf599RYUnLBB4TykRlp-DwY4-78ZV7P3-7oclEYxYulMOPKNea63E3ynt8R2zPvd_s/s200/ToolbarArticleFTMsm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422275579992464130" /></a>5. Not only just figuring out how to put together my <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2009/07/about-that-toolbar.html">Internet Genealogy toolbar</a>, so that I can have all of my favorite genealogy websites easily accesible at my fingertips, and be able to share them with others as well, all for free, but discovering, on Christmas eve, that it is being featured in the March 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine!!! <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5s9lPSR7h3dYmXY8K_Q3K5aEdNfIQGz65z_ySdROmmMB-aFHfeesVZtH9Evr9h7QM6bcNn7Qe3ThwgOmtCJPlwOlZSt25iwogbadK9OBs0Eqv0q-ezvm0LkQT7DBsyFfiGJsrCBVbK3U/s1600-h/voteforablog.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 84px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5s9lPSR7h3dYmXY8K_Q3K5aEdNfIQGz65z_ySdROmmMB-aFHfeesVZtH9Evr9h7QM6bcNn7Qe3ThwgOmtCJPlwOlZSt25iwogbadK9OBs0Eqv0q-ezvm0LkQT7DBsyFfiGJsrCBVbK3U/s200/voteforablog.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422274518574145074" /></a>4. And speaking of Family Tree magazine, another bright spot was being nominated for their list of 40 Best Genealogy Blogs. A thrill if I make it, but the nomination alone is such an honor! The whole blogging business has pretty much been amazing. Imagine my surprise of having over 2,000 visitors to my blog since <a href="http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-point-of-blogging-is.html">July</a>, when I think there’d only been about 12 readers so far! <br /><br />3. Providing a good friend and his family with information about the grandparents and other relatives they had never known. I’m always honored when someone trusts me to research their family, and I’m always thrilled to be able to introduce people to their ancestors. Nothing better than connecting families.<br /><br />2. I’ve enjoyed so many opportunities this year to <a href="http://genealogicalspeakersguild.org/member_details.php?member=GlatzT">speak </a>to societies and other groups all over Texas about genealogy, and nothing is more exciting than watching people have those “aha” moments, frantically scribbling notes, and then commenting to me later, that they will probably be up all night using the new information they’d learned. But nothing made me scream so loud this year as receiving an invitation to speak at the 2010 BYU Conference on Computerized Genealogy and Family History. Wow - I absolutely cannot wait!<br /><br />1. But I think my best genealogy moments for the entire year are the wonderful friendships I’ve made both online and off, with so many other like-minded genealogists, as well as the connections I’ve forged with so many deceased ancestors - both my own and those of people I’ve helped. It’s an incredible life-affirming feeling, to realize that you are a part of something so much bigger than your own tiny life... to connect to your heritage, your ancestry – your tiny string that is part of the much larger fabric of life.relatively curioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17792690186053956824noreply@blogger.com2