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.