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.

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