Genealogy Journal - 02/07/09

I have this terrible feeling that I squandered most of the day doing things that were time-wasters. I need some discipline, I fear. No whips or canes, you know, but at least a to-do list and a minder.

I did email and blogs before going off to my men's Bible study breakfast at 8 a.m. in National City. There was a great rainbow to the north as the sun was shining in the southeast and the clouds were leaking to the north. After breakfast, I stopped by the bank for cash to use at the FHC, and went off to the FHC and was there by 10 a.m. (just missed the accident on the freeway, it happened a minute before I passed through). At the FHC, I found the one deed on the Westmoreland County PA deed film, saved it to the USB drive, and looked through some SD County Directories for the Potter family before I came home. The rain came down in torrents while on I-805 just south of State 94 - had to slow to 25 just to see and avoid big puddles). It was dry at home...go figure. All weather is local.

When I got home, I had lunch and read email, blogs and Facebook, then posted Searching for Mary's Parents - Post 2 to bring my Westmoreland research up-to-date. I find that, by doing this, I now have a record of my research online for others to read and offer help on, and I can remember what I did without relying on my memory or my handwritten notes, which are minimal. I wrote two more blog posts for future dates, since we're going away next week for a Disneyland visit with the granddaughters. I spent a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook, and even did the High School Survey meme on Facebook. At 5, I went in to read the paper, watch TV and have dinner.

I was back on the computer at 6:30, and sent some emails off about CVGS, and posted Saturday Night Fun - Your High School Years based on the meme, but modified. I decided to look for some Lanphere/Lamphere (and variants) in Jefferson County NY, and identified a couple who died before 1949 there who may be the birth parents of my Devier J. Lamphere Smith. Or he may have come from Lewis County NY, which is next to Jeffco. I checked Ancestry, WorldConnect, and FamilySearch for Hiram, Lewis and Jeremiah Lamphere who were the Jeffco guys, and didn't find much. There is little help in anything published, I fear. This will be another job for probate records, I think. I read my DAR murder mystery book while Linda did her email for awhile, then came back to write this post.

Genealogy today was 7.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.5 hours writing blogs, 1.0 hour on Twitter/Facebook, 0.5 hour on CVGS things, 1.5 hour at the FHC doing research, and 1.0 hour doing online research on Lampheres.