Sunday, December 30, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/30/07

This was not a big genealogy day at all - we went to church in the morning, watched the Chargers game in the afternoon, and the Titans/Colts game in the evening. We are still in house cleanup mode after Christmas.

My genealogy efforts were limited to reading email and Bloglines and writing two blog posts on Genea-Musings - the "Best of the Genea-blogs" for the week and my 2008 genealogy goals. I did a little census research for a friend also.

Genealogy today - 2.5 hours total - 0.5 hour reading email and Bloglines, 1.5 hour blog posting, and 0.5 hour research.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/29/07

I was home all day long, but didn't do much genealogy work - really just reading and blogging. We took down the Christmas stuff and packed it away, and had a friend over for dinner, and then we watched the Patriots-Giants game - a good one. We are still recovering from Christmas week, I think.

I posted three notes on Genea-Musings and two on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe. Most of my time was researching the Research News for December and the Best of Genea-Musings for 2007 posts. I did explore my Smart Matches on MyHeritage for awhile, but the system bogged down in the middle of the search. It was dinner time anyway.

Genealogy today was about 5.0 hours - 1.0 reading email and Bloglines, 1.0 doing research on MyHeritage, and 3.0 blogging (including research).

Friday, December 28, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/28/07

I know I've not posted in this journal since Christmas Eve ... I've been busy! Christmas Day was hectic. Wednesday, I drove to Santa Cruz with my daughter and her boys, and flew back on Thursday.

I did check email and Bloglines on Christmas Day but didn't post anything but a Christmas wish. On Wednesday morning I posted a Christmas Day summary but then we left for our 11 hour drive. When I got home on Thursday afternoon, I posted this week's installment of Della's Journal and the SDGS meeting announcement for 12 January on Genea-Musings.

Today was a different story. After a good nights sleep, I read my email and Bloglines, and answered several emails in the morning, and did my NFL picks on my Busy Life blog. In the afternoon, I posted on Genea-Musings the Finding Nuggets that Solve the Puzzle and a summary of how I did with my 2007 Genealogy Resolutions. I had to do some office work and run to the library to return an overdue book.

Tonight after dinner, I decided to try to find some of Della (Smith) Carringer's cousins in the census records - specifically the Dyar, Munger and Woodward families. I had good luck finding the Dyars and Mungers in the 1900 to 1930 census records, but the Woodwards are elusive - two sets of parents died fairly young and the children were farmed out to relatives. That took awhile, but it was fun! I think I know what happened to Ada Woodward, the girl whose picture I have here.

Genealogy today - a total of 7.0 hours, of which 2.0 was reading and answering email, 1.0 was reading Bloglines, 1.0 was writing blog posts, and 3.0 was researching the Dyar and other families.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/24/07

Ho ho ho - 'tis the season to be jolly, and I'm feeling much better tonight - jolly even. I've spent the last two evenings with my daughter putting things together last night and then tonight setting out presents, eating the cookies for Santa and writing the note back to the boys. I'm feeling much better, but Linda came down with a bug - food poisoning symptoms.

Lori planned and cooked a pot roast dinner tonight - she's good! Tami and her family came this afternoon, and the three little ones had a grand time running around, eating dinner, taking a bath, and eating popcorn. We also have the two dogs with us and they haven't got along yet.

Not much genealogy the last two days - but there has been lots of family history made in the minds of grandparents, two sets of parents and three little ones old enough now to remember special days.

I did read my email and Bloglines, and posted one message each day on Genea-Musings in between all of the festivities. Maybe 2.0 hours total over the two days? Who's counting, anyway?

Merry Christmas to all 10 of my regular readers here -- we'll get back on track at the weekend.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/22/07

I feel even worse today than I did yesterday, which seemed impossible yesterday! I'm coughing a lot, my nose is running a bit, and I have a headache and low fever. I'm taking my meds - lozenges to stifle the cough, Tylenol cold & Flu to stifle everything, and Robitussin for the cough at night. My shopping isn't done, my wrapping isn't done, I'm really tired ... but Christmas is coming!

There was no real genealogy done today due to my sickness and the grandsons needing attention. We played ball in the backyard, took the dog for a walk down the street, played chase around the house, blocks on the floor, and read some books. They are a lot of fun when you get them one on one. I am tiring easily!

I did manage to read my email and Bloglines to stay up to date, and even wrote two posts on Genea-Musings today - about the Christmas Advent meme and a note about LDS FamilySearch Labs projects, which I really appreciate and like.

Genealogy time today - 1.5 hours - 0.5 hours reading email and Bloglines, 1.0 hour blogging a bit.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/21/07

It's been a long three days and now I have a cold and feel lousy, so this will be short... I posted about my "trip" here.

I wrote and posted four notes on Genea-Musings on Wednesday morning (I had created them the day before). Then it was off to Santa Cruz, and we got back to my house last night at 11:30.

Today was more of a "survival" day for me - feed, play with and monitor the grandsons, keep the house semi-picked up, and I did have a two hour nap.

This morning, I snuck in for about 30 minutes to read my 200 or so emails, and I snuck in another time to read the 220 Bloglines posts that piled up over two days.

Tonight, I posted my Advent article for tomorrow, and then the article about Ancestry.com changes and "improvements."

Genealogy today -- 2.5 hours total, of which 1.5 was reading email and Bloglines, and 1.0 was blogging.

That's it - I hope nobody stayed up late waiting for this anti-climactic post. But thanks for reading this far!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/18/07

I was able to make a little progress today on my own research in addition to blogging a bit.

The morning started at 8:30 with reading email and Bloglines. I posted my Christmas Shopping article for the Advent carnival, then quickly read the Carnival of Genealogy and posted about it too.

We left at about 9:45 for the Bill Russo memorial service at church. Whenever I hear families talk about their loved ones, I think "there is absolutely no way that a genealogist 50 or 100 years from now will ever know about any of this unless someone writes it down." And "our efforts trying to find family history is pretty difficult unless there is a great obituary in the newspaper or an article in a county history book." It was a nice service, and reception following, and we got home at 1 PM.

I got back on the computer, and wrote my post "Santa Comes Early - what a gift!" about my unexpected reception of the Ranslow Smith report in the mail yesterday. Then it was off to post my NFL picks for this week on the Randy's Busy Life blog, plus two more articles there. I decided to summarize the 38 responses for our CVGS meeting day survey, and that took a good hour. I sent it off to the CVGS board for comment. That took me up close to 4:30, and I figured I'd better do some of my chores, so I helped Linda a bit with wrapping, and then read the paper before dinner.

After dinner I came back to the computer and read my email and Bloglines. I read some of the Ranslow Report again, and decided to search the census records for Russell Smith, the purported father of Ranslow, George and Lyman Smith (according to Lyman and George's obituaries which I don't have yet), who was supposed to be in Oneida County NY in the 1800 to 1820 time period. I found him in 1800 in Western township, and in 1814 there also in a list. I went to the Oneida County NY USGenWeb site and found it is really well done. I checked the book transcripts, the Bible transcripts, the Cemetery listings for Rome and Western, and the Queries. No success. Then I used the Search box for the web site and hit pay dirt - a book chapter for Lee town says that David smith and his sons David and Russell settled in Western in about 1790, in the part that became Lee. A possible match! OK, let's see if I can find any of these guys in the Rootsweb WorldConnect database - nope! Drat. The LDS FamilySearch? Nope - drat again. The book mentions a number of families that came from Rhode Island in the 1790 time period, I'll have to track them that way and sneak up on Russell's mother's name.

Genealogy today - only 6.0 hours total, of which 1.0 hour was reading email and Bloglines, 2.0 hours was blogging, 1.0 hour was CVGS business, and 2.0 hours was doing fun research.

I'm leaving on Wednesday to Santa Cruz and probably won't be back online until Friday. I did prepare several posts which i'll put up on Wednesday morning before I leave.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Genealogy Journal - 12/17/07

As Christmas approaches, I find that I'm not able to do as much genealogy research, but I'm trying to keep the blog posting going and my email traffic flowing.

I got on the computer at 9 AM, and read my email and Bloglines. I quickly wrote my post on Christmas Stockings and then wrote a post about which ancestor of mine appears most often in the census records. Then I went shopping for Christmas gifts...see, I have a life other than genealogy (I'm not claiming success in this endeavor, however).

I was back home by 1 PM, and since it was Monday it was time for Della's Journal - Week 51. I'm almost done with this project - now I'll have to get it all into a word processing document, add some historical and biographical information about the people, and publish it somewhere. On the way home from shopping, I realized that Abigail (Vaux) Smith was in more census records than Henry A. Carringer, so I put a post together to document that, but haven't finished it yet. I spent some time capturing census documents for Abby and her family, including two Kansas State Census records for 1875 and 1885. I have her in every Federal census except 1860 and 1890. Linda came home, I helped her a bit, and then took a nap. I got back on at about 5 PM to check email and Bloglines but then had to stop at 5:30.

Tonight, we went to a dinner theater presentation of "An American Christmas" at the Hotel del Coronado, put on by Lambs Players Theater in Coronado. This is a $100 a plate dinner, with the actors in costume and character for 1907, and the whole affair was extremely well done. We got there at 6:30 PM dressed up (I even wore a tie for the first time in probably two years or so) and ready to go. After hors d'oeuvres on the periphery, we were seated with 6 others at our table at about 7 PM. The actors came around to introduce themselves (every "family" had two tables) and get to know us a little bit. Then the show really began - with introductions of the "Marshall family" (I'm going to find out if they were real or fictional - I'm guessing the latter), some entertainment, a toast, then soup, salad and main course. Each course was introduced by songs. After the main course, they had 60 minutes of entertainment - songs, dances, jokes, stories, etc. - all appropriate for 1907. Finally, there was dessert, a final round of entertainment, we all sang "Silent Night" and said good night. We got home at 10 PM.

The snail mail came just before we left, so I was eager to get to the package from Old World Wisconsin. It has a 60 page paper about my ancestor, Ranslow Smith and his inn that stood in Dodge County, Wisconsin. I scanned it when I got home, and there is lots of interesting information about his life and the house. The report mentions his parents names (which I didn't know before contacting OWW in 2006) and his brothers names (which I had surmised earlier from land records). I will post some of this information, especially as it demonstrates what information can be found by digging into local records, in the coming weeks. I really want to visit Old World Wisconsin now, since Ranslow Smith's "Four Mile House" is located there.

Genealogy today -- only 4.0 hours total, of which 1.0 was reading email and Bloglines, 1.5 hours was blogging, 1.0 hour was research, and 0.5 hour was reading my snail mail.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/16/07

Like most Sundays in football season, this was not a big genealogy day for me. We went to church at 9:30 and were home at 11:30. I hurriedly read my email and Bloglines, then posted my Christmas Advent Memory on Christmas Church Services.

Then it was football day in San Diego, as my Chargers waxed the poor Detroit Lions 51-14 in a game that wasn't that close. No stress today! Hooray - I then took a nice nap after expending all of my emotional energy. At 5 PM, I wandered back into the computer, and decided that I had better do my Best of the Genea-blogs post for the week before dinner, just in case some East Coast readers are checking for it. Then it was dinner time, then news, and I watched the first half of the Redskins-Giants game. Besides, Linda was on the computer.

At 7:30, I got back on and checked the email and Bloglines again, and noticed that there is a meme going around about where you were on census years, so I posted my own list. Then it was back to watch the Charger highlight show after the football game (since DH was a re-run). At 9:30, I came back and decided to do more census searching for the McLaughlins, and found them in South Dakota (only because my correspondent said her great-grandma was born in SD) in the 1900 and 1910 census. I also found her in Santa Barbara CA in 1920, married, but without her husband, who is apparently not in any US census record (born in Scotland in 1888, died in 1922).

Genealogy time today - only 3.0 hours, of which 1.5 hours was blogging, 0.5 hours was reading email and Bloglines, and 1.0 hour was research in Ancestry.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/15/07

Once I got going, I was a blogging fool today! It was fun. I like laughing.

The morning started early with breakfast at 7 AM at Carrow's with Linda's swim buddies - this is a monthly occurrence. It was their Christmas gift giving party, so there were 10 in attendance, including 4 spouses (who don't get gifts, but can munch the goodies anyway). It was also Linda's birthday month, so she got birthday gifts too - what a haul! Then I went to my Men's Bible study at Jimmy's, but didn't eat. I got home about 9:30 AM.

I started reading my email and bloglines, but quickly got sidetracked by Thomas MacEntee's blog post about the "12 Daze of Christmas." I laughed really hard! Before I knew it, I'd Googled to find the lyrics and posted them, plus several more "12 Days..." songs, plus some YouTube videos on my Randy's Busy Life blog. Two hours flew by pretty quickly...back to Bloglines, and then I wrote my Advent Calendar post about "Christmas at School" on Genea-Musings, and quickly followed it up with my own "12 Days of Genealogy Christmas". That done, I spent almost an hour writing my book review of "The Genetic Strand" trying to remember the details without re-reading it - I finished it last week.

By now it was lunch time, so I ate lunch and then answered an email - the one about the cemetery vault architect - I sent three pictures to my correspondent. It turns out that she lives near where my Seaver and Read families lived in Sudbury MA in the 1700s. I went in and took a nap, then Linda came home and did her email, so I watered the plants in front for the first time in two weeks (it has rained several times in that period, but the entryway plants are under the eaves of the roof - they were dry!).

I was back online around 4 PM. My email correspondent wondered how her architect grandmother got together with the rich Keck family in San Diego, so I started to trace both lines back to see if I could find the intersection. I found 1930 census records for both families, but in different places. I also found a WW I draft registration card for the architect's husband, who died in 1922. Then I found an obituary for the grandmother in 1964 and for her mother in 1950 (but it didn't give the mother's first name, only that she was Mrs. William ...). Frustration! Time for dinner, so we went out to Panera in Otay Ranch and ate, then shopped for an hour at Wal-Mart.

We were home at 7 PM, and I worked a bit more trying to find the families in the records with little success. I emailed the CVGS roster to remind them of renewals and such, plus wished them all Happy Holidays. Linda worked her email at 9 PM so I watched the PBS Doo-Wop fundraiser special and read my CIA book. At 9:30, I got back to the search, and didn't find much new, but I had fun doing it. Now it's 10:30 and I'm done for the night.

Genealogy today -- 5.5 hours total, including 1.0 hour genealogy blogging, 0.5 hour doing CVGS work, 1.0 hour reading email and Bloglines, and 3.0 hours doing research for my correspondent. I didn't count the fun time finding and posting "12 Daze..." songs.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/14/07

This was an interesting genealogy day. I only had time to read my email and Bloglines before I went off to my physical therapy at 9 AM. I took along my camera and an email because I'd arranged to meet Wilma, a CVGS colleague, at Glen Abbey Memorial Park to look for a mausoleum and the deed to the building. I got there at about 9:45, and she came soon after. We drove out to the mausoleum and I took some pictures - it is not an architectural marvel - it's a box with Spanish tile on top of it. Locked up. We went back to the office, where she knows everybody since she worked in the files for many years, and we tracked down the file for the mausoleum. It had only an agreement to build it, and there was no deed in any of the files. Oh well, my email correspondent will be disappointed. We left at 10:30, and I came home.

I posted my Advent Calendar blog on Genea-Musings about my Family Journal, and then decided to start transcribing the RevWar pension file I got at the FHC on Wednesday. I transcribed Mary Row's affidavit into FTM, but got real sleepy, so I took a nap. An hour later, I finished up the transcription, and then made a list of what was in the 48 pages of the file. I wrote that up in a blog post comparing HQO and Footnote files but it didn't upload for some reason - I didn't find that out until 8 PM! Linda wanted to do her email, so I watched the news and read the paper.

After dinner, we delivered food to a family that just lost the husband/father, and then drove by Christmas Tree Lane in Chula Vista. We got home at 8 PM, and I discovered my post had not uploaded. So I fixed it and it went fine. Checked my email and Bloglines, read some news and politics, did a little research on Ancestry for one of Linda's friends, and then posted the comparison of HQO and Footnote pages here. I'm done for the night after posting this.

Linda's friend is going to write down what she knows and I'll try to find records to find names, dates and places. I love to do things like this for people - I like the challenge, helping people, and perhaps turning someone on to genealogy and family history. Besides, it's more fun than putting captions on photo album pages that no one is likely to read.

Genealogy today - 7.0 hours total, including 1.0 hour reading email and Bloglines, 1.5 hours blogging, 1.0 hours doing CVGS queries (the cemetery), 2.5 hours transcribing the RevWar file, and 1.0 hour researching for the friend.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/13/07

After reading my email and Bloglines list this morning, I posted my Advent Calendar post on Fruitcake (of all things) and then saw that the Maven started a meme on Christmas Carols, so I posted my favorite one here, and then decided to post a genealogy carol from last year "O Family Tree." Since I was all blogworn, I got my stuff together and went to the County Clerk's office to get two certificates (they were busy, but fast today, and the computers all work great now). Then I stopped at the Post Office and mailed my Journals to the relatives, and then to Wal-Mart and Costco to window shop and have lunch. I picked George up at noon and we walked our two miles on the bayfront - it was cool (about 60F) and clear.

I got home at about 1 PM, and read my email and Bloglines, then did a bit of research looking for Cathy for my correspondent - I found her parents and emailed him with the information. I posted three notes on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog at http://CVGenCafe.blogspot.com - two of them repeats from Genea-Musings. I answered some more emails, including my answer about proof and vital records.

After dinner, I posted the "proof" and vital records email to Genea-Musings here. Then I put captions on one more of my OpenOffice picture albums (I've now finished 3 of 10). Went in to watch CSI, and washed the dishes, then checked email and Bloglines and wrote this up.

Genealogy today -- 8.5 hours total. Reading/writing email and reading Bloglines - 2.5 hours, Blogging - 2.0 hours, CVGS queries - 1.0 hour, Research - 1.5 hour, Scanning 1.0 hour, Journal 0.5 hour,

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Genea-journal - 12/12/07

When your day starts out with lemons, then make lemonade. I wanted to mail my Journal envelopes and go to the County Clerk's office today, but Linda called from the spa in Mission Valley (15 miles away) and asked me to take her purse to her - she grabbed the wrong one. I just had my email read when I got ready to leave. I grabbed my research briefcase and went out the door, remembering my flash drive in the process (and the purse!). After delivering the purse, I went to the FHC and spent two hours working in Footnote downloading Revolutionary War Pension Files for two of my ancestors - Philip Row and Isaac Buck. Before I left, I ordered the microfilm for Glocester RI probate records 1731-1796 so I will have something to start the new year off right.

I went to lunch and got home at 1 PM. After reading my email and Bloglines, I wrote my Advent Memory post, and then worked on the LDS Record Search content post on Genea-Musings. Then I worked on my NFL picks for this week and posted them, and then posted four more items - all humor - on my Randy's Busy Life blog (the one that I'm too busy to post on about my daily activities). Linda came home and wanted to use the computer, so I took a nap. I got back on at about 4:30, and messed around with news and stuff until dinner time.

At 7 PM, I got back on and read my email and Bloglines, and then resolutely started working on my scanning project - putting captions on the photo album pages that I saved in an OpenOffice presentation file. It took awhile to figure out how to add a text box (duh! I did it back in October...why was it so hard?) to the pages, and worked my way through two of the 9 album files. I had to look on the back of many photos to do this... I finished the second album file at 10 PM, so did the dishes and came back to read email and write this post.

Genealogy today -- 7.5 hours, including 1.5 genea-blogging, 2.0 hours researching at the FHC, 2.5 hours scanning, and 1.5 hours reading email and Bloglines.

I'll mail my stuff and go to the clerk's office on the morrow! Off to bed!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/11/07

Only two weeks until Christmas - I gotta get my projects done... and shop too!

I read my email and Bloglines this morning, and then sent the CVGS member survey to the email list for responses. I spent most of the morning blogging - first my Advent article, then the New England Ancestors magazine ToC, and finally the links to the NEHGS online seminars. I watched several of the seminars to see the quality and content - both are excellent!

I checked the latest additions to Ancestry, and saw several books on New Jersey Will Indexes and abstracts. I decided to check how many Vital Records databases are now on Ancestry - the number has grown considerably over the last year. I put "seaver" in the Search box and picked out several states (OH, FL, ME, WA, OR) and printed out the data. Then I went into my Seaver database and "enriched" the entries that I was confident were the right person. Of all the data obtained, I added perhaps 15% of them to the database. There are a whole lot of 20th century Seaver people that are not in my database. The good news is that almost all of the 19th century Seaver people are in my database!

All afternoon, I would do a "honey-do" for Linda to get ready for the party tonight, then come back to the computer for a bit more work. I printed the second side of the 18 additional Christmas letters so now I can stuff all the envelopes. It looks like they weigh under three ounces, so for a 9 x 12 envelope that will be 80 + 17 + 17 = $1.14 each (there are new USPS rules for envelopes bigger than 6 x 9, and additional ounces are 17 cents each).

I got the Digital Photo Frame going, and put the chairs around the living room, got the trays and coffee pot from the garage, put trash cans in the back yard, and several other chores. Linda's Deacon group started arriving at 5:45, so I went out to help with parking at the end of the cul-de-sac, and carried things in for people. Then it was time to eat, but I got a phone call at the start and missed saying grace. The food was great, and after dinner Linda's meeting started, so I spent an hour on the computer reading email and responding, reading Bloglines, and doing more searching for my correspondent's missing friend Cathy. No luck with that, unfortunately. The meeting broke up, and I helped clean up the trash, put stuff back where it belongs, and helped people take stuff to their cars.

Genealogy today - 7.5 hours - with 1.,5 hours blogging, 1.5 hours email and Bloglines, 1.5 hours researching, 2.0 hours working in my databases, and 1.0 hour watching seminars getting educated and entertained.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/10/07

This was another day dedicated almost exclusively to genealogy activities, but I barely advanced the "ball" on any of my major projects.

In the morning, I read my email and Bloglines, posted my Advent memory for tomorrow, and got ready for my CVGS meeting. I wanted to take my Union Case photos to share, but I can't find them anywhere I think I put them. Argggh. I left at 10 AM, taking my cookie tin to share for dessert, my container of delicious chocolates for someone to pick off the gift table, my briefcase and my "boards" - the large CVGS advertising posters. I got to the South Chula Vista Library, and took everything in. The food people were busy getting things started, and people started to come in before the 11 AM start time. As people came in, they signed in, we gave them a door prize ticket, we sold raffle tickets for the gift exchange, they put their gifts on the table, and they put the Salvation Army donations on the floor below the gift table. We ended up with 31 in attendance, and a fun time was had by all.

We started the meeting at 11:20, with a brief welcome to make sure everybody had tickets. I passed out the "Days and Times" survey (because the library killed all of our meeting days and times) to everybody and they filled them out. Then it was time to eat, and everybody loaded up their plates with salad, ham, turkey, cranberry, potatoes, vegetables, rolls and everything else.

At about 12:15, I started the meeting with a thank you to the kitchen staff and the cooks, then thanked everybody who has served on the Board this year. We had our door prize drawings (a large St. Nicholas doll, a large stand-up angel, a reindeer basket of goodies, and three poinsettia plants). Then it was time for the gift drawings - and that took quite some time even with no "stealing." Finally, we had the member sharing of their best finds, trips and stories for 2007. Ten people shared, including me. We then auctioned off the ham bone and the remaining turkey roll, and then adjourned with many shouts of "Merry Christmas" and "Ho Ho Ho."

I went off to my therapy at 2:30, but was home just after 3. I read my email and Bloglines, and answered several emails on queries and questions. I called a person in Massachusetts who left a query message on our voicemail the other day - she wants info on a tomb in Glen Abbey Cemetery. Then I posted this weeks Della's Journal on Genea-Musings. That took me up to 5 PM and dinner.

After dinner, I checked email and Bloglines again, and researched a response to a query about San Diego County marriage data, and emailed the queryist. The APG list has been discussing Wikipedia, so I posted info on the improvement of the Genealogy article on Wikipedia here. I decided I'd better collate my Family Journal ,so I did that for awhile, then stuffed the envelopes with the Journal and our Christmas letter. I ran out of letters, so I printed off 18 more (one side, I'll do the other side tomorrow), but had to change the color ink cartridge in the middle of it. Then I tried to get on Ancestry and look at some research items, but every database I chose I got the "Error Processing Request" message. I've been getting more of these lately, I wonder what's wrong? Frustrated, I decided to write this up and go finish reading my recently arrived New England Ancestors magazine.

Genealogy today was 11.0 hours - 1.5 hours blogging, 4.5 hours on CVGS activities, 3.0 hours on email and Bloglines, 1.0 hour doing research, and 1.0 hours on the Journal and letter. A busy day, but no real progress on finding new information on my ancestors or making CDs of the photo albums.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/09/07

Today's activities were not dominated by genealogy items, but I got some time in! Lolo and her mom were here, so I had babysitting duty (well, I "had to" play with and feed the cutest little girl in the world) from 7 AM to 10 AM, then watched the Chargers game until 1:30 PM. Lolo got up from her nap at about 2:30, and they left at about 3 PM, and then I got my nap. In the evening after dinner, I watched some of the Indy-Ravens game and also read my book for an hour or so watching football highlights, since "Desperate Genealogists" wasn't on..

Genealogy activities were limited to 1.0 hours of blogging - two posts about Day 15 - Christmas Gifts for the Advent Calendar and the weekly Best of the Genea-blogs post; 1.0 hours of reading email and Bloglines; 1.0 hours of CVGS work - our holiday luncheon is on Monday; and about 1.0 hour of research for another Dear Genea-Man question from a colleague. So - 4.0 hours - not bad on a football Sunday.

Oh, my Chargers came from behind to win today - we're 8-5 now and playoff bound, I hope.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/8/07

Life - and death - events have a way of turning a day into something you hadn't planned on. My neighbor and friend, Leroy, died today - see my post here. I honestly can't tell you what I did for the rest of the morning, except I answered some email and wrote two posts on Genea-Musings, including my Advent Calendar post and another Dear Genea-Man post.

Then it was almost noon, so I rushed off to meet my granddaughter and her parents for lunch out at Panera in Otay Ranch Center. We had a nice lunch, then we came home and everyone had a nap. After Lauren woke up, she and I played with the "Toy Story" puzzle book, built towers using Wedgits, and she had a horsey ride until it was dinner time. We had dinner near downtown San Diego - the kids wanted to celebrate Linda's birthday. Lolo was perfect - angelic, cute, happy, talkative, hungry. We headed home, and Lolo played a bit more before her bath, then it was books and bedtime.

I had planned, of course, to go to the FHC this morning and do more research in Footnote and WorldVitalRecords using the free access available there. Oh well, there will be other days not so tragic for us. Sharing time with Lolo and her parents was a good balance to the bad start of the day.

Genealogy? Not much today, maybe 2 hours at most - 1.0 reading and answering email and reading Bloglines, and 1.0 hour writing blog posts. I really wasn't in the mood for research or my scanning project.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/07/07

It's Pearl Harbor Day ... and I didn't do a lot of genealogy work today. I had to go to the bank, then physical therapy, then Costco for lunch and gifts, and finally shopping at Linda's favorite clothing store before I got home at noon. This afternoon, I put pictures on the wall, hung the lighted angel display on the garage, and moved stuff off the bedroom floor for Lolo's arrival on Saturday. We went to Daphne's for dinner, and Coldstone for ice cream, then worked about an hour putting angel ornaments on the tree. Talked to Lori tonight - I got some of the Christmas letter wrong...oops.

In the midst of all that, the only things I did in genealogy today was read email, read Bloglines, research and post three notes on Genea-Musings, and work an hour on my scanning project - I got the third album into OpenOffice files. All I have to do now is put captions on the pages and save the files as PDFs, then put them on CDs for the cousins.

Genealogy today - a total of 3.5 hours - 1.5 blogging, 1.0 scanning, 1.0 reading email and Bloglines.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/06/07

Genealogy was the focus of today, but I don't have a lot to show for it. I went out at noon to go walking with George down at the bay and stopped by the library on the way home.

8:30 AM - read my email and Bloglines. Wrote my Day 18 - Christmas Weather post on Genea-Musings. Decided to work on the Knapp, Cutter and Gage material I printed the other night. Added some data to the ancestral database for Cutter families, but after reviewing my previous work on Gage, I couldn't accept Jonathan and Hester (Chandler) as the father of Thomas Gage who married Elizabeth (Hunt) Vail and died in 1703 in Elizabeth NJ - the data just doesn't add up. Wrote an email to the CVGS list about the holiday lunch program on Monday. Then had lunch and went for the walk.

12:45 PM - went to the library to get a book, but played with Ancestry Library Edition instead. Got into the UK census records looking for Joseph Whittle and Rachel Moore, but didn't find them. Looked also for Marshman's in Wiltshire - found that I couldn't "Share" the data - meaning I couldn't email the link home - I'll have to do that in the Computer Lab. Went home, and searched Ancestry for Joseph and Rachel, but couldn't find them in the 1850, 1860 or 1870 census in CA. Frustrating - I'm sure they were in San Francisco and Tuolumne Counties, or in-between. Posted three items to the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. Decided to have some fun - went to the Forensic Genealogy page and easily found the answers to puzzle, so blogged about it here.

6:30 PM - checked email and Bloglines. Decided to work on the scanning project - finished the third album - 50 pages. Now I have to make PPT documents of the third album and caption all three albums, then save them as PDFs for the CD. Email gave me a link to the 1507 map, which I saved and looked at with the magnifier. amazing map - blogged about it here. That's enough for tonight - CSI and ER are on my to-do list along with reading some of my book. Tomorrow's another genealogy day - maybe something will surprise and delight me!

Genealogy today -- 10.0 hours, of which 2.0 were blogging, 2.0 was researching, 2.0 was data entry, 2.0 were scanning, 1.0 was CVGS related and 1.0 was reading email and Bloglines.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/05/07

This was a very full genealogy day for me, with the CVGS Board meeting in the morning, followed by lunch with several colleagues, then home to work on blogging and other stuff.

8:30 am - Read my email and Bloglines. Wrote my post for the Advent Calendar on Genea-Musings - about Santa Claus. Got ready for the Board meeting, and left at 9:40 to the post office, then the library. The meeting started at 10 and we didn't finish until 12 noon - lots of things to discuss and plan - like all of 2008. Then went to lunch with four colleagues.

1:30 pm - home from the lunch, read my email and Bloglines again. There is an interesting conversation going on on the APG mailing list about periodical editorial ethics. Posted my NFL picks on my other blog - took an hour to do everything. Posted about "The Essex Genealogist" TOC. Then it was time for Linda to read her email and for me to take a short nap before dinner.

6:30 pm - Read my email and Bloglines again. A CVGS colleague passed a research question to me - I looked up some info in the "They Became Americans" and emailed it back to her. Later, I posted a Dear Genea-Man entry about it on Genea-Musings. I finished my Journal printing of the last page. Then I scanned 45 pages from Aunt Gerry's third album. Finally, I saw Becky's post about the Santa Claus blog and had to post about that - I like it! Now I need to finish this and post it, check my stats, and go do the dishes and read my book.

Genealogy today -- 10 hours, of which 1.5 hours were blogging, 4.0 hours were CVGS related, 2.0 hours were scanning, 1.0 hours was research, and 1.5 hours was reading email and Bloglines. All of my hour quotes are just estimates, but highly accurate to the nearest half hour - a SWAG (Super Wild-A$$ Guess for those non-engineers in the reading room).

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/04/07

I stayed home this morning, then we went to lunch with neighbors for Linda's birthday at the Black Angus. We were home before 3 PM, and I took a nap. After dinner, I brought in the Christmas ornaments and things so we can start decorating. The tree is up, the lights work, we need to get ready for the party next Tuesday night.

8:00 AM -- I read my email and Bloglines, then posted my Advent story about Holiday Decorations on Genea-Musings. Then I typed the Board agenda for the CVGS meeting on Wednesday, and sent it to the Board members. I played around with Google and other search engines trying to see what info there was for my elusive ancestor, Ranslow Smith. Most of what is on the web is my own posts. I compared Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista in my post here. I Googled some on Devier Smith and found an intriguing item - a name change. I did a bit more searching before I had to go to lunch.

4:00 PM -- Back to the Devier Smith name change mystery - I finally posted 'Tis a Mystery! and then we had dinner.

6:30 PM -- Tried to finish my Journal printing - got down to the last 7 pages (out of 400) and messed them up - I put page 9 on the back of page 7 somehow. So I made more page 7's and will do the page 8's tomorrow (I let the ink dry for a day - the back side comes out much better). I looked in Ancestry and WorldConnect for info on my William Knapp (1775-1856), another elusive ancestor. I printed off some WorldConnect data on collateral families - will have to see if that is in my database. Then I tried to find info on Sarah Cutter's ancestors - I found several sourced WorldConnect databases with information on the Gach/Gage family, and then found a book on Ancestry about the John Gage family of Ipswich MA. some of this is new for me, so I printed about 10 pages from the book to see if I can extend that line. Finally, I read email and Bloglines, and then watched the 14 minute video about Genealogy Cruisin' with Megan and Dick on RootsTV.

Genealogy today - 8.0 hours. Blogging 1.5 hours, CVGS 0.5 hours, Research 4.0 hours, Journal 0.5 hour, watching RootsTV 0.5 hour, reading/sending email and Bloglines 1.0 hour. Hmmm, no scanning - drat! Only 10 days left to finish off the CD and send them out. I live on the edge sometimes...

Monday, December 3, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/03/07

I'm still easing my way back into the genealogy treadmill here. Today was Angel Linda's birthday, so I had to buy a card and flowers, and take her out to dinner. I also had my physical therapy today, and watched the Patriots-Ravens game tonight..

Therefore, genealogy today was limited to reading emails and Bloglines, writing four posts, spending an hour at the library with John and Dearl, and watching a RootsTV video of a Dick Eastman talk.

The total time was probably about 3.5 hours - 1.0 hour reading, 1.5 hours blogging, 1.5 hours at the library, and 0.5 hour watching the video.

Astute readers will note that I haven't made progress on any of my remaining projects since last Thursday. Tomorrow! I hope...

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Genea-Journal - 12/02/07

We're back from Julian - it was an indoor weekend since it rained most of the time. Even though I had the laptop, and the place had wi-fi, I didn't do any genealogy-related things, except posting for the Christmas Advent meme. I tried to write them the night before, and then posted them in the morning.

Today, we left about 9:15 AM and were home by 10:40 AM. The Chargers game was on, so I didn't get to the computer until about 1:30 PM. After reading my email and Bloglines, I composed the "Best of the Genea-blogs" post for Genea-Musings. Then it was nap time, the end of the NFL game, dinner, and watched the news.

After dinner, I composed my newsletter articles for CVGS and sent them off, and wrote the "CVGS Events for December 2007" on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. I also changed my Thanksgiving colors on Genea-Musings to Christmas colors. Linda wanted help with the Christmas cards, so I went in and folded more, then watched the Charger highlights and Desperate Housewives.

Genealogy today: 3.0 hours total - 1.5 hours blogging, 1.0 hours CVGS related, 0.5 hours email and Bloglines.

I still have to finish my family Journal, and scan the third album, then make CDs to send to the cousins. It's only the 2nd day of December so I'm probably OK schedule-wise.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/29/07

Genealogy today took a back seat to life -- this morning I went to the Post Office, the bank, the shopping center, and Costco for lunch, then went for a walk after lunch with George on the bay, and stopped at the library - got two books. Got gas on the way home. Took a nap from 2 to 3, then cut the lawn from 3:30 to 4:30. Watched the Cowboys-Packers game over dinner, and friends came over for awhile tonight. Watched ER at 10.

8:30 a.m. Read my email and Bloglines. Posted the Internet Genealogy TOC and then Dear Genea-Santa on Genea-Musings. Then it was off to do the chores.

1:00 p.m. Checked my email and Bloglines. Answered several emails. Read my news/politics sites. Sleepy - took a nap.

7:00 p.m. Halftime of the football game. Read Jasia's post, then Kathryn's blog, and found the Rencher presentation about societies - so I wrote "Should Gen Societies Go Virtual?" Tried to save the PDF, but found that I saved it two years ago. Friends came, watched some TV later, then ER.

11:00 p.m. Checked stats, wrote this post, off to bed.

Genealogy today: 3.0 hours at most, blogging 2.0 hours, email and Bloglines 1.0 hour.

We go to Julian on Friday for the weekend, so I may not do any genealogy work or even have internet access until Sunday afternoon. I'm taking the laptop though just in case.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/28/07

This was a heavy genealogy day, but not much new was accomplished.

8:00 a.m. Read my email and Bloglines. Printed the "genealogy news of the month" to present at the CVGS meeting. Wrote and posted "MyHeritage is a super genealogy site" on Genea-Musings. Worked quite a bit in MyHeritage trying links to databases. Left at 9:45 a.m.

10:00 a.m. Went to the Chula Vista library for the CVGS Research Group meeting. Had 11 attendees. Meeting summary is here. After the meeting, gave December flyers to Susi and to the library person to post. Had lunch at McDonalds, then home by 12:30.

12:30 p.m. Sent the genealogy news out via email to the CVGS mailing list. Posted it on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog here, then wrote up the Research Group meeting summary. Copied the latter to Genea-Musings. Posted my NFL picks for this week on the Busy Life blog. Checked the news and politics sites, but got sleepy, so took a nap and watched the news until dinner. Then I watched the Pubbies "debate" on CNN - questions from whackos.

7:15 p.m. Back to reading email and Bloglines. Saw the APG post about the TGN patent. Went through my photo gallery to find pictures of my aunt Gerry at different ages for the Journal. Finished the last three pages of the Family Journal. Printed three more sides, only two left to do tomorrow. Researched and posted the Ancestry Patent post here. Downloaded the plug-in so I could read patents online, then searched for genealogy and family history patents. Not many! Will finish this post, check the stats, then go wash the dishes and watch some news before bed.

Genealogy time today: 8.5 hours total - CVGS related 3.0 hours, blogging 1.5 hours, Family Journal 2.0 hours, researching 1.5 hours, email and Bloglines 0.5 hours.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/27/07

A strange day. I went to my physical therapy at 8 a.m., then drove the new expressway (free until Monday) to see the scenery, and ended up at Plaza Bonita, a shopping center. In the parking lot, I must have run over something that punctured my tire. When I left the center, the tire was flat by the time I got onto the freeway to go home. There is no shoulder on that stretch, so I drove another mile and finally ended up at the 7-11. The tire was shredded. I called AAA, and it took 45 minutes for him to find me. He changed the tire, and I went to the tire store and got a new one installed. I finally got home at about 1 p.m.

Genealogy today started at 1 p.m. I read my email and Bloglines, and decided to post about the newspaper article that appeared on Sunday in the Union-Tribune about the gravestone project. That done, I wrote a post to try to get someone to contact me - he commented on a post in October but didn't leave a contact eddress. I went off and read my news and politics sites and then Linda wanted to use her email so I went over and talked to the neighbors.

After dinner, I got back on the computer, and started gathering the "news of the month" for the CVGS Research Group on Wednesday. That took over an hour. I read the new issue of Internet Genealogy, and visited several web sites mentioned that were new for me, and blogged about www.familytreesearcher.com. Then I printed off a sample passport application and some township maps for show and tell at the CVGS group. After that, I played around on Ancestry for awhile while printing off the Journal pages I have completed. I now have 25 copies of 11 of the 16 pages printed.

Genealogy time today - 5.5 hours, 1.5 hours blogging, 2.0 hours CVGS related, 0.5 hour Journal, 0.5 hours researching, and 1.0 hours reading.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/26/07

Monday was a pretty "full" and "fun" genealogy day. The only breaks were for eating, reading and driving.

8:30 a.m. - Read my email and Bloglines. Got my stuff together for the CVGS meeting - flyer masters, program masters, speaker certificate, last newsletter, SDGS flyers, briefcase, yep - all set. In retrospect, I forgot the big CVGS publicity boards - they stayed in the garage all day! At 9, I left for the copy shop and made the needed copies for the program and the flyers for our December meeting. Then it was off to the Post Office to pick up the mail, and then to the library. I got in about 9:45 and set out the handouts, opened the mail, set up the podium in the auditorium, and was ready to greet the folks when they entered at 10 a.m. Several others come in before the doors open to set up the auditorium, set out the refreshments, have the signup sheet ready, and be ready to sell raffle tickets.

At 10:20 a.m., I called the meeting to order - we had 33 in attendance today. After a 30 minute business meeting, our program chair introduced the speaker. I posted about the program in "Georgie Stillman presented a wonderful program" on Genea-Musings, so I won't recount it here. After the presentation, we scarfed up the food in the conference Room, cleaned up and went off to lunch. Unfortunately, Georgie couldn't join us. After lunch at Panera with 6 colleagues, I headed home.

2 p.m. - Reflected on a great program today. Decided to write this week's Della's Journal entry here, then wrote my post about the program. I read my email and Bloglines and took some time to read my politics and news sites. In email, a correspondent asked for some comments about genealogy blogging so I responded with my normal prolixity. Then it was dinner time!

7:00 p.m. - After dinner and reading the paper, I came back determined to work a bit on the Christmas Family Journal. I have 11 pages (out of 16) pretty much done, so I decided to start the printing process. For two hours, the printer clicked away on 25 copies of 6 pages. I had to replace both HP ink cartridges, but only lost 5 pieces of paper. I'll do the back sides tomorrow night. While printing I first looked on Ancestry for newspaper articles for several of my ancestors but had no luck whatsoever. Then I watched four Roots TV segments, and posted about them in "Cruising with Eastman" on Genea-Musings. Then I posted two of my Genea-Musings posts on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. I'm done for the night - gotta finish this, check my stats, do the dishes and go read my book until slumber creeps over me.

In a comment to yesterday's post, Barbara asked for an explanation of this Family Journal. I posted about this in "My Family History Journal." This is my 20th edition, and will feature articles about my Aunt Geraldine and Uncle Jim, including my remarks at Gerry's service; pictures and narrative about the Seaver family houses in Leominster; the biography and will of Job Card (1653-1739) of RI; some family event news; some pictures of Gerry; the Union Case with Isaac and Lucretia Seaver; our cousinhood to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, an article about Jonas and Mary (Loker) Prescott; and a family history quiz. Quite a bit of this year's edition has already appeared in Genea-Musings previously, so some of it was a cut-and-paste job, which reduces the writing task a bit.

Genealogy today - 9.5 hours, blogging 1.5 hours, Journal 1.5 hours, CVGS program and lunch 4.5 hours, watching RootsTV 1.0 hour, reading email and Bloglines 1.0 hour.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/25/07

Sunday is almost always a genealogy day of rest - or it should be, especially during football season. My online time was limited today by going to church, watching the Chargers game (they won 32-14 - a good effort for a change), going shopping with Linda after dinner (got more 9x12 envelopes and CD mailers), helping wrap and pack stuff for overseas, and then watching Desperate Housewives tonight.

My genealogy effort was devoted to writing the Best of the Genea-Blogs post, and the Family Survival Kit post, on Genea-Musings before the game, then the Conferences, Cruises, Seminars, Societies, Webinars and Videos post after we got home from shopping.

In addition, I created the program for our CVGS meeting on Monday, the program flyer for December and the speaker's certificate. I'll take the program and flyer to the copy shop on Monday for copies to hand out at the program.

While researching the Conferences, etc. post, I was printing out the back sides of our Christmas letter. Now Linda can stuff the envelopes and get our cards/letter sent off to our family and friends. Of course, I hold back about 20 of them so I can put the Family Journal in with the card and letter - I'll print that out next week, since I'm not quite finished yet.

Genealogy today -- 3.0 hours - 1.5 hours blogging, 1.0 hours CVGS work, 0.5 hours email and Bloglines.

It may be a big genealogy day tomorrow - I'm off to bed soon so I can be ready to play at the library, shopping, blogging and researching, oh - scanning and writing too!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/24/07

Today was another "light" genealogy day. We are trying to get ready for Christmas events and have worked on organizing the garage (so I can find the Christmas stuff), setting up the plastic tree (all set up today, needs ornaments, but I found them!); the Christmas card mailing list (done and on labels, envelopes being addressed and stamped as I type) and the Christmas letter (the printing is one half done - I let the pages dry overnight).

9:00 a.m. - Read my email and Bloglines, then went out and worked for two hours in the garage. When I came back in, I went to Ancestry and looked at the Map collection. I found the 1869 map for Windham County CT and looked for my White and Oatley ancestral homes. Henry White's wasn't there, but Jonathan Oatley's was. Eventually, I posted "Finding out exactly where they lived" on Genea-Musings after an hour of research. I took the opportunity to update the census records in my database notes for Henry and Jonathan also. Linda came home and I had other honey-do projects to do.

6:30 p.m. Printed off the Christmas list labels for Linda. Started printing the Christmas letter one side at a time - made about 50 copies of each side. I'll do the other side tomorrow after the ink dries. Hunted through my database looking for a colonial ancestor with an interesting life story and probate record to fill two pages in the Journal. I decided on Job Card (1653-1739) of Charlestown RI. Cut and pasted his biography into the Journal document, edited it, added a line from Job down to Bess Richmond, and now I just have one more page to do, plus editing and embellishing. Finally, I remembered that I needed to post another note, and happened across a TV video on genealogy research on NECN - the post is "Tracing Ancestry with Genealogists." With that, this post, and looking at my stats, I'm done for the night.

Genealogy today - 5 hours, 1.0 blogging, 1.5 hours research, 1.5 hours Journal.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/23/07

This was not a big day for genealogy - it was a day to get started on some of the pre-Christmas tasks that need to be finished within two weeks.

8:30 a.m. - read my email and Bloglines. Copied from the CVGenCafe blog the post about the CVGS Monday program and posted it on Genea-Musings. Decided I'd better get the Christmas card list and Christmas letter started. Printed out last years address list, the got Linda's address book to see who died, who move, who we want to delete, who we want to add. Printed out the new list for her to review and modify. It's a team effort. Used last year's letter as a start, then modified it to reflect 2007 activities. Added 6 pictures to embellish it, then had to squeeze it a bit to get everything on two pages. Checked the HP ink supply - oops, I need Black so made a list for an Office Depot run tomorrow. Lunch time now.

12:30 p.m. Got into my database to answer an email, made a report and sent it to my correspondent. Decided that I would post a biography of my grandmother Bess (Richmond) Seaver - that completes the set. Now I can work on great-grandparents. There's method to my madness here - I'm going to try to write a book about my ancestors now that I have more pictures from Aunt Gerry's collection. Sometime later, not now. I need to work on my Seaver/Richmond Family Journal tonight, so I went through my Genea-Musings archives to find what I've already written so that I can use it in the Journal. Definitely the Barack Obama cousinship article, and I can write a Mitt Romney cousinship article too to balance it out politically. So I wrote and posted the Mitt Romney cousinship. Cut-and-paste is my good friend, just like my right mouse button is a good friend for pictures, audio, video, etc. 4:30 p.m. now, so time to let Linda have at her email.

6:30 p.m. Checked my email and Bloglines again. Linda edited the address list and the letter, so I corrected them and printed a clean copy. The next step is to get the addresses onto the labels - I even found my labels. Started in on the Journal - got the Obama and Romney pieces in on one page each, then found the Isaac Seaver/Lucretia Smith Union Case picture and put it on another page with a description. Added the "Seaver Houses in Leominster" words and pictures. Looked again at the 2006 Journal word processing file and three pages were messed up. So I checked on my external drive and found the final copy there and replaced what I had on my computer hard drive. I dunno what happened. Oh well, it's fixed. I still have 5 pages to fill up out of 16, so I've made good progress in two nights. Decided to go through all the family photos and put "keepers" in one file folder for each year. Then I copied them onto a flash drive and inserted the flash drive into the Photo Player we got back in the spring. Set it up to play a slide show. Linda didn't like the photo selection - especially the cemetery photos, how'd they get on there? Another thing to fix.

Genealogy today -- only 5.0 hours, with blogging 1.5 hours, the Journal 2.0 hours, database 1.0 hours at most.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/22/07

Thanksgiving Day was fairly lazy for me - I was on the computer but didn't get a whole lot done. We were invited to our friend's home for dinner, and we enjoyed them, their family (their daughter has a 3-month old baby - precious - I love babies!) and their other close friends - there were 13 for dinner.

7:30 a.m. - Read my email and Bloglines. Posted the Edgar Guest "Thanksgiving" poem on Genea-Musings along with a Norman Rockwell picture. Wandered off into www.411.com and www.pipl.com to help my correspondent find his childhood friend's address and phone number. Had a little luck and emailed it to him. Posted two articles on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog. Opened my database and found that I needed to add material to several ancestors - did it for my Seaver grandparents and Richmond great-grandparents. Heard some of the Dennis Prager show and recalled that the information on the Pilgrim Thanksgiving feast in 1621 was posted on the Internet, so I found it and posted "The Pilgrim's Thanksgiving in 1621" on Genea-Musings along with a picture of unknown origin. Then it was lunch time, so I watched football and took a nap.

8:00 p.m. - Home from dinner at our friends house - we had a wonderful time. Read my email and Bloglines again. It was a pretty quiet day in the genea-blogosphere. I need material for my Family Journal, so I decided to review what I've already typed up in my Genea-Musings posts. Went through my December and January Archives looking for material - found two items worthy of inclusion, so I cut-and-pasted them into the Journal word processing document. That's one of the great things about blogging - you've already typed it in once and it makes sense to use it again if you want to or need to. Well, that's it for the day. No progress on the scanning task and just some progress on the Journal.

Genealogy today - 6.0 hours total, blogging 2.0 hours, Journal 0.5 hour, research 1.0 hours, database 1.0 hour; what did I do for the other hours? Read stuff, I guess. I hate it when I can't remember what I did today.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/21/07

The genealogy day featured the CVGS computer group meeting, lunch with some colleagues, a frustrating trip to the County Clerks office, and I started working on my Christmas Journal.

8:00 a.m. - Read my email and bloglines. Posted "Finding records for living persons" on Genea-Musings based on last week's experiences. At 9:45, I left for the library. The CVGS Computer Group meeting started at 10 a.m., and featured frustration with some of the hardware early on. I summarized the meeting in my post here. At noon, we went to Panera for lunch. At 1 p.m., I stopped at the County clerk's office to get a death certificate for a query. I was home just after 2.

2:00 p.m. - Checked email and Bloglines. Wrote the post about the Computer Group. Balanced the checkbooks and bank accounts using MSMoney. Read my news and politics forums/blogs. Made my NFL picks for week 12 and posted them here, plus some other humor pieces. Helped Linda for awhile with things, then watched TV, read the paper and had dinner.

6:30 p.m. - Back on the computer. I decided that I needed to get a start on the Christmas family journal project - it's 16 pages with pictures and text. Found last year's Journal, and deleted all of the text and pictures except what I use over, and saved it as a new file. Edited the first two pages, adding and deleting as required. Found obituaries for my aunt and uncle and made them fit on two pages, with a picture on each page. Found my remarks at my aunt's memorial service back in May and squeezed them onto two pages. That was enough for tonight. I have plenty of material for the rest of it, but I need to collect info on the new babies and recent marriages in the extended family. Fiddled with the Genea-musings colors to get orange, yellow and brown - Thanksgiving colors! - and modified the template - will anyone notice? does anyone read blogs as a web page anymore? Finally, I wrote up my "I Am So Thankful" piece and posted it on Genea-Musings. Wrote this post, will check my stats, check my email again, go do the dishes, read a bit of my book, and call it a night.

Genealogy today - 8.5 hours, total -- blogging 1.5 hours, CVGS 3 hours, Journal 2.0 hours, query 1.0 hour.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/20/07

I stayed home today and worked on genealogy, until I had to drive Linda's friend back home at 3 PM. Then we went out to dinner and had a good talk.

8:00 AM: Read my email and Bloglines, then my news/politics forums. Searched the APG list for the place name threads, and posted "Place Names in Your Genealogy Databases" on Genea-Musings. Had an email from my correspondent about the Cathy search and answered it. I decided to do something useful - I transcribed the four pages of the probate record (will, inventory, affidavits) of Job Card who died 1739 in Charlestown RI. That took over two hours. Then I noticed that the three Card families did not have good info on the spouses of the siblings, so I found a great Card surname database on WorldConnect, verified some of the dates and places in the IGI, and added them to my database. Then I modified the notes for three generations - putting them into a narrative form instead of an outline format. I wrote "Elusive Ancestors in New England" on Genea-Musings in an effort to "get my arms around" Bill West's research problem. While I was thinking of taking a nap, Linda called and wanted me to drive Judy home.

6:30 PM: Back home after dinner. Checked email and Bloglines. My correspondent called Cathy's nephew (I found the number on Sunday night) and talked to him for 30 minutes - I had most of the info right. Now he hopes that Cathy will contact him. Saw Michael Neill's post that Ancestry has put the Passport Applications online, so I played with it for awhile, then posted "Ancestry has US Passport Applications" on Genea-Musings. I made two more OpenOffice presentation format files for more of Aunt Gerry's pictures form her second album. I found the third album that I still have to scan and put into presentation format. Then I checked all of the new Maine databases on ancestry to see if they had anything to help with Bill West's problem and any Seaver and Soule families. Not much useful for me, but I needed to check it sometime. Bored, so I went in to read for 30 minutes. Back to do this and call it a night.

Genealogy today: 9.0 hours, blogging 2.0 hours, research 5.0 hours, scanning 1.0 hour.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Genea-Journal - 11/19/07

Today was an interesting genealogy day, but frustrating too. I had to go to the physical therapy facility at 8 a.m. today for my first shoulder therapy - she gave me exercises to do to improve my range of motion.

9 AM: Read my email and Bloglines. Noticed that the Carnival was posted by Jasia. It will have to wait until I get back from the library. Gathered my two new queries and went to the library for our regular Monday morning get-together at the table in the genea-stacks with Dearl and John. Told them about my exciting visits to the County Clerk and the cemetery. Listened to a few of their stories too. Then I went to the microfilm machine to find obituaries for the two correspondents - no luck. Then I got City Directories out of the local history room and looked for Cathy and her family (see yesterday) - no luck here either, the surname was too common, and I don't know the parents given names. So home...stopped at the gas station - up to $3.33 a gallon. Yikes.

1:30 PM: Read Bloglines again, and wrote my Carnival of Genealogy post on Genea-Musings, then transcribed and posted another week of Della's Journal. Found some stuff on the Internet for Linda, then read my news/politics sites, and went in for a nap, the news, and dinner.

6:30 PM: Wrote several emails about the queries, then commented on a blog post by Bill. Wrote an email to the CVGS list reminding them of Wednesday's Computer Group meeting. Decided to finish scanning the second album. Did about 16 pages, including some loose photos. Done with that one, now I have to get it all into PDF files for the CD. Finally, did a bit more research about finding Cathy's family - searched the San Diego county Recorder's office for deeds - found quite a few. Wrote a long email to my correspondent and summarized my findings. Checked Bloglines one last time, looked at the ho-hum blog stats, and this post, now off to bed.

Genealogy today: 9.0 hours. Blogging 1.0 hours, Scanning 2.0 hours, library 1.0 hours, research 4.0 hours.