As found in the Cloverdale Cemetery, California
OLE
LAWSON
d. July 4 1908
Age 18y 10m 4d
Tombstone Tuesday
As found in the Cloverdale Cemetery, California
OLE
LAWSON
d. July 4 1908
Age 18y 10m 4d
As found in the Cloverdale Cemetery, California
OLE
LAWSON
d. July 4 1908
Age 18y 10m 4d
Friday FANs
I was lucky enough a few years ago to attend the Sonoma County Genealogical Society's annual conference with Elizabeth Shown Mills. One of the most valuable things I learned from that seminar was a technique to work around brick walls. Just remember: FAN
Say you're stuck on a person. You've gathered the vitals, created the pedigree, the family group sheet and timeline. Yet you've still got huge gaps of information about that person missing. You want to put flesh on those old bones. The answer, my friend, could lie with that person's FAN.
What is FAN, you ask? FAN stands for Friends, Associates and Neighbors.
Friends: Old school yearbooks, diaries, postcards, letters can turn up interesting facts or trivia about your person.
Associates: Business Directories, Clubs and Organizations have rosters where you may find your person.
Neighbors. Can't find a person or even entire family on the census records? Look for their neighbors instead. This works for city directories too.
I have used the FAN many times in my research, and I heartily encourage you to remember: FAN
On a side note: Sonoma County Genealogical Society's 18th annual seminar is tomorrow. If you can make it, you might also learn a research method to help those old bones come alive.
http://www.scgs.org/calendar.html
I was lucky enough a few years ago to attend the Sonoma County Genealogical Society's annual conference with Elizabeth Shown Mills. One of the most valuable things I learned from that seminar was a technique to work around brick walls. Just remember: FAN
Say you're stuck on a person. You've gathered the vitals, created the pedigree, the family group sheet and timeline. Yet you've still got huge gaps of information about that person missing. You want to put flesh on those old bones. The answer, my friend, could lie with that person's FAN.
What is FAN, you ask? FAN stands for Friends, Associates and Neighbors.
Friends: Old school yearbooks, diaries, postcards, letters can turn up interesting facts or trivia about your person.
Associates: Business Directories, Clubs and Organizations have rosters where you may find your person.
Neighbors. Can't find a person or even entire family on the census records? Look for their neighbors instead. This works for city directories too.
I have used the FAN many times in my research, and I heartily encourage you to remember: FAN
On a side note: Sonoma County Genealogical Society's 18th annual seminar is tomorrow. If you can make it, you might also learn a research method to help those old bones come alive.
http://www.scgs.org/calendar.html
Thankful Thursday
I've realized yet again, how much I have to be thankful for..... It started the other day, when my car got a flat tire. It was the second flat tire in a week. Okay, so it doesn't sound like much to be thankful for, but bear with me.
So I trade vehicles with my Hubby since I was planning on going to the Lake County Genealogical Society's home over in Lucerne to do a little filing with the Ladies. Hubby took the car that had a slow leak, and I took his work truck. Mind you these vehicles are over 20 years old each. So I dash out the door after setting out the garden sprouts, and feeding the chickens, and head over around the Lake.
Normally I'm not one to listen to the radio, but since having chicks in the house - with their constant whistles and chirping, I've occasionally tuned into the local community radio. So I was working on trying to find them on the dial. I didn't ever find them, but was listening to some tripe, when I realized that the truck sounded louder than usual. I was hearing it *over* the radio. Not good. I turned off the radio and realized that I was loosing power. In an automatic, this is what is known as a Bad Thing.
So I pull off in a nice long wide spot beside the road, just past the Tulip Hill winery. For this wide spot, I am thankful. The engine is smoking. This is a Bad Thing. I pop the hood and look. Yep. It's smoking. Nothing looks out of place. I put the hood back down and get back in the cab.
I'm not the most organized person. I don't have my cell phone attached to my ear. Heck, I was lucky to remember to take it today. Another thing to be thankful for! I really have tried to be more organized, which includes carrying a calendar with me in which I have started to write the names, location, hours and phone numbers of places that I would be visiting while doing genealogy research. Darn it all, if I did *not* have the phone number for the L.C. Visitor's Center, where the L.C. Gen. Soc. is currently housed. Grrrrr...... *But* I did have the number for the museum, so I called them and got the Visitor's Center number from them - and wrote it in my book! Ha!
So I call in to let the Ladies know that I will *not* be making for filing today, that I had car trouble and just didn't make it. Then I called my Dad.
I am *so* thankful to still have my Dad! While I was waiting for him to drive around the Lake to come rescue me, I was listening to the blackbirds singing (in between all the traffic, so much traffic) and watching the various little colorful finches flitting around the fences. I reflected on how lucky I was to not have a day job that tied me to an office full of politics and back-stabbing. How lucky I was that my Dad had a job that he could drop everything and come help me. Oh, don't get me wrong. I was a little misty and upset that the day's plans had gone haywire, but no good would come from dwelling on that, so I sat there and counted my blessings, as it were.
I'm running out of time, so I'll try to tell you quickly how the truck started right up when Dad got there, and so I drove it back to our home town. It would loose power on me, I'd pull over, Dad and I would chat for a while, then I'd start it back up, drive some more, pull over .... you get the idea. Well, the really neat thing was that Dad would tell me a story every time we'd pull over to chat. I whipped out my binder and started jotting down notes. He didn't say anything, until he got to one part of a story, and told me: "Now this isn't for print". So I wrote "Off the record" and kept on writing! Great stories! I'll share them soon. Well - most of them!
And for that and more, I am thankful this Thursday.
I've realized yet again, how much I have to be thankful for..... It started the other day, when my car got a flat tire. It was the second flat tire in a week. Okay, so it doesn't sound like much to be thankful for, but bear with me.
So I trade vehicles with my Hubby since I was planning on going to the Lake County Genealogical Society's home over in Lucerne to do a little filing with the Ladies. Hubby took the car that had a slow leak, and I took his work truck. Mind you these vehicles are over 20 years old each. So I dash out the door after setting out the garden sprouts, and feeding the chickens, and head over around the Lake.
Normally I'm not one to listen to the radio, but since having chicks in the house - with their constant whistles and chirping, I've occasionally tuned into the local community radio. So I was working on trying to find them on the dial. I didn't ever find them, but was listening to some tripe, when I realized that the truck sounded louder than usual. I was hearing it *over* the radio. Not good. I turned off the radio and realized that I was loosing power. In an automatic, this is what is known as a Bad Thing.
So I pull off in a nice long wide spot beside the road, just past the Tulip Hill winery. For this wide spot, I am thankful. The engine is smoking. This is a Bad Thing. I pop the hood and look. Yep. It's smoking. Nothing looks out of place. I put the hood back down and get back in the cab.
I'm not the most organized person. I don't have my cell phone attached to my ear. Heck, I was lucky to remember to take it today. Another thing to be thankful for! I really have tried to be more organized, which includes carrying a calendar with me in which I have started to write the names, location, hours and phone numbers of places that I would be visiting while doing genealogy research. Darn it all, if I did *not* have the phone number for the L.C. Visitor's Center, where the L.C. Gen. Soc. is currently housed. Grrrrr...... *But* I did have the number for the museum, so I called them and got the Visitor's Center number from them - and wrote it in my book! Ha!
So I call in to let the Ladies know that I will *not* be making for filing today, that I had car trouble and just didn't make it. Then I called my Dad.
I am *so* thankful to still have my Dad! While I was waiting for him to drive around the Lake to come rescue me, I was listening to the blackbirds singing (in between all the traffic, so much traffic) and watching the various little colorful finches flitting around the fences. I reflected on how lucky I was to not have a day job that tied me to an office full of politics and back-stabbing. How lucky I was that my Dad had a job that he could drop everything and come help me. Oh, don't get me wrong. I was a little misty and upset that the day's plans had gone haywire, but no good would come from dwelling on that, so I sat there and counted my blessings, as it were.
I'm running out of time, so I'll try to tell you quickly how the truck started right up when Dad got there, and so I drove it back to our home town. It would loose power on me, I'd pull over, Dad and I would chat for a while, then I'd start it back up, drive some more, pull over .... you get the idea. Well, the really neat thing was that Dad would tell me a story every time we'd pull over to chat. I whipped out my binder and started jotting down notes. He didn't say anything, until he got to one part of a story, and told me: "Now this isn't for print". So I wrote "Off the record" and kept on writing! Great stories! I'll share them soon. Well - most of them!
And for that and more, I am thankful this Thursday.
I've read about genealogy blogging. I've read some really great blogs about genealogy. (Links to share later)
I've certainly talked about it, even to the point of saying that I was going to do it.
Well, here, now, is proof that I have finally started this genealogy blog. It's about time too!
Things in my life have gotten so busy and hectic, it seems silly to take on *one more thing*, and yet, if I use this wisely, I believe that not only will I have a record later on of how the time flew by, but hopefully I will have used this blog as a tool to aid my genealogy research, organize my thoughts and findings of the various Surnames and Places that I am researching, and maybe, just maybe, learn how *not* to write run-on sentences!
Okay, maybe I'll never learn that last part! But you get the idea.
One of the neat things that I have seen in the Gen Blog world is the use of themes. These themes have been used as a catalyst to spark that day's entry, or continue with a series. Some of the themes I'm thinking about are:
Memorial Monday, Tombstone Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Friday Friends, Series Saturday, Surname Sunday. Alternative themes may evolve if these don't work for me. Like Friday Feature or Saturday Snippets. When I'm working the microfilm reader at the local County Library, sometimes I just can't help myself, I have to note a snippet from the paper that would bug me later if I didn't copy it down. But what to do with it? Now, maybe I have my answer: I will share!
Well, there. That's a good start!
I've certainly talked about it, even to the point of saying that I was going to do it.
Well, here, now, is proof that I have finally started this genealogy blog. It's about time too!
Things in my life have gotten so busy and hectic, it seems silly to take on *one more thing*, and yet, if I use this wisely, I believe that not only will I have a record later on of how the time flew by, but hopefully I will have used this blog as a tool to aid my genealogy research, organize my thoughts and findings of the various Surnames and Places that I am researching, and maybe, just maybe, learn how *not* to write run-on sentences!
Okay, maybe I'll never learn that last part! But you get the idea.
One of the neat things that I have seen in the Gen Blog world is the use of themes. These themes have been used as a catalyst to spark that day's entry, or continue with a series. Some of the themes I'm thinking about are:
Memorial Monday, Tombstone Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Friday Friends, Series Saturday, Surname Sunday. Alternative themes may evolve if these don't work for me. Like Friday Feature or Saturday Snippets. When I'm working the microfilm reader at the local County Library, sometimes I just can't help myself, I have to note a snippet from the paper that would bug me later if I didn't copy it down. But what to do with it? Now, maybe I have my answer: I will share!
Well, there. That's a good start!
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