Thursday, July 31, 2008

Family Journal - 07/31/08

Thursday was a slow genealogy day, but a major family history day. Of course, Audrey (three months old) won't remember it, but I will. The smiles, the laughs, the finger-grabbing, the knuckle-gnawing, the 4.8 magnitude eruption on the pooper-scale, etc. I was with Lolo all morning, watching TV, working puzzles and drawing pictures. We shared our banana and toasted frozen waffles this morning, as usual, plus the much-appreciated hugs and kisses. At lunchtime, she went off with her mom and grandma to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and ended up at her friend house for the night.

The only genealogy work I did today was reading my email and blogs, and writing three blog posts as the opportunity arose as Audrey napped. I did check Facebook once and Ancestry for new databases. There may be 3.0 hours at most for the day on genealogy. But plenty for family history!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/30/08

It's hard to believe that it's the end of July already - time sure flies when you're having fun! I had fun today, and look forward to more fun through the weekend.
I was on the computer by 8 a.m., reading email and blogs. I posted about the Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York site, and downloaded several of my ancestral towns. I checked Facebook, then printed off several pages for the CVGS meeting today. I posted my weekly Family Photographs article, using my great-grandparents off-the-wall picture. I checked for recent databases, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch and to leave for the CVGS meeting at 11:15. I met the speaker at 11:30 in the parking lot, and we went into the library through the back. We got her all set up in the auditorium before the doors opened for the public at noon.

I started the meeting at 12:20, we had our business meeting, and then introduced Ann and she told us about the genealogy collection at Carlsbad library, which is about 45 miles north of Chula Vista, but still in San Diego County. The meeting was over before 2, and I was home by 2:30. I posted Ann Montgomery's "Carlsbad Library Genealogy Collection" Program on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog, and then went into the family room to watch TV, read the paper, and take a nap. We had dinner on the patio at 5:15, and I came back to the computer and posted Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10 before going out to cut the front lawn. When I came back in, the Padres game was on and I read a genealogy magazine during the game (we lost 7-3). I came into the computer again, checked email and blogs, and wrote Family Picnics, then this post and I'm done, since Tami and the girlies came at 10:20.

Genealogy today was 7.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours writing blog posts, 3.0 hours on CVGS activities, 0.5 hour on Facebook, and 0.5 hour working in FTM 2008.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/29/08

Another 50/50 day... see, I do have a life!

I was on the computer by 8 a.m. and read my email and blogs. I played with Cuil.com for awhile, and decided to post about it - see Is Cuil.com Genea-Cool? I spent some time posting jokes and a Padres update on Randy's Busy Life, and checked Facebook. While there, the desk and chair rolled a bit at 11:43 - the earthquake hit and I felt it - no damage. Miriam quickly IMed me on Facebook and we chatted for awhile. I played several Scramble games to catch up to my betters at it. Then I had lunch, watched the TV coverage, and posted about earthquakes in SoCal in Shake, Rattle and Roll. Earthquakes exude SoCalosity, don't they (thanks, Elizabeth, for the word)? We tend to think we're the only ones hit by them in the USA, which is really untrue.

After lunch, I posted More on FamilySearch Indexing and Images. I improved the CVGS October seminar flyer, then created the program agenda handout for the CVGS meeting on Wednesday, printed everything out, and went off to the post office box and the copy shop to make copies. I'm still on the "jury duty" hook and won't know until tonight if I have to go in on Wednesday - I arranged for our VP to be the MC if I can't do it, and will get the stuff to her if I can't do it on Wednesday. I was back at 3, checked email and blogs. Linda wanted the computer for email, so I went in to watch the news, read the paper, and take a nap.

We left at 5 p.m. for dinner at Black Angus, and at 6:30 headed to Coronado. We had ice cream at MooTime, then attended the play "Pretty Fire" at Lamb's Players' Theater. Astute readers will remember that we went to a play on Sunday night too - we are just so cultured! Linda slept through most of this one... We were home by 10, and I called to see if I have jury duty and I don't. Good. I checked email and blogs, and wrote this post. Will close down for the night.

Genealogy today was only 5.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hours writing blog posts, 0.5 hour on Facebook, 2.5 hours on CVGS activities.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/28/08

A 50/50 day - half genealogy, half not!

I was on the computer by 8 a.m., and read my email and blogs. I added the names to the Wheel of GenFortune post from Saturday. Then I posted about Wednesday's CVGS program on both Genea-Musings and the CV Genealogy Cafe. While on the latter, I posted about the CVGS Mentor Program. Then back to Genea-Musings and the next post in the endless Using FTM 2008 series. Then I worked on the October CVGS seminar publicity a bit and sent it off to the speaker for her OK. I had a quick lunch, gathered up my stuff for the library and went to the Table Talk session that started at noon.

I talked to Gary, who thinks he has whatever offensive HTML code there was off the CVGS web site. He showed me, and it's not there. I checked when I got home too. Terry and Dearl were there too, and we talked a bit before I went to the microfilm machine and found a 1967 obituary for a queryist. I talked to Kim about the October seminar. I was home by 2 p.m. I answered several emails, especially about the program on Wednesday and the October seminar. I checked Facebook for awhile, then checked new databases on Ancestry and WVR. I was tired of looking for blog fodder and wanted to take a nap. So...I did. I watched the news, read the paper, we had dinner out in back, and I spent 30 minutes saving the CVGS web site pages to my hard drive - I got almost all of them before IE locked up. The Padres game came on at 7:05, and I watered the back dirt/weeds and the front flowers between innings, the Padres won 8-5. I read the New England Ancestors magazine again - lots of excellent articles in it! Then I read my mystery until the game was over, and washed the dishes. Back to the computer - read email and blogs, and then this post. Enough.

Genealogy today was 7.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hours writing blog posts, 3.5 hours on CVGS things, 0.5 hour on Facebook, and 0.5 hour on Ancestry/WVR.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/27/08

Today was a fun genealogy day...but short!

I read my email and blogs in the morning, and then posted Best of the Genea-blogs that I had written on Saturday, anticipating Sunday events. We went to church, and I was home by 11:30 a.m. I quickly got on the computer and the Scanfest chat was already in progress (I had left Windows Live Messenger on, and Miriam invited me in). Three hours later, it seemed like we'd been chatting for 10 hours, not just three. There were more than 17 online at one time or another. Fast and furious at times. I managed to scan 60 pictures one at a time, and save them as TIF files. I posted Scanfest today was great because it was! I checked Facebook and email and stopped at 4 pm. and went in to see if the Padres won (they did, 3-1) while I was having all that fun.

We left at 4:45 to pick up two church friends, stopped at El Pollo Loco for food, went to Point Loma, drove by my mom's house there (it looks the same), and had a picnic on the Westminster Church grounds, before going to a play, "Annie Get Your Gun," at the church playhouse. It was excellent. Two of the boys from church were in it, and it was fun to see them again. We were home by 10:30 - leaving time only to read email and blogs and write this post.

Genealogy today was 4.5 hours - 0.5 hour reading email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 0.5 hour writing blog posts, and 3.0 hours chatting and scanning.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/26/08

I stayed home today after breakfast out in order to catch up on my email and things.

We were up early for a 7 a.m. breakfast at Carrow's with Linda's swim club. I was home by 8:30, and read my email and blogs, and had nothing to write about, so I posted the Everton's Genealogical Helper Table of Contents for the July-August issue. I read more of the magazine during this process (it turns out that I saved it but didn't read much of it). Oh well. I wonder what else I have on my hard drive but haven't read thoroughly? Aha - what about Ancestry Magazine? The last one I have on my hard drive is March - and they published in May and July also. But their archives page doesn't have the complete magazine, only the articles. It says they're revising their archives. OK, I'll wait.

One of the articles in EGH was about www.GenesReunited.com, which I had not visited before. I registered for free, and explored the site, creating a presentation for future use in OpenOffice. Then I wrote up a summary in Genes Reunited web site - UK Research. Lunch time...apple, oreos, banana.

I have let my email pile up - the databases on Ancestry generate several inquiries each week. I tried to burn these down this afternoon - I made some genealogy reports and sent them off to correspondents in hopes that they can add to them or correct them. I prepared most of the Best of the Genea-blogs post for tomorrow so that I can participate in the Scanfest chat with Miriam and the gang from whenever I get home to 2 p.m. At 3:30, I went in to watch news, read the paper, take a nap, and watch the Padres game (they won 9-6). We had dinner late, and I watered the front plants before coming back to the computer at 7 p.m. I received an email responding to a 2006 message board post that gave me a database on WorldConnect for a cemetery in Iowa, so I checked it out and corrected several dates in my Dalseth/Simes/Wells/Baldwin database (done for a friend in 2006). I found a good quote for Wheel of Genealogy Fortune and posted it. I'm going to go check Facebook for awhile, and go read my book for awhile.

Genealogy today was 7.5 hours - 0.5 hour reading email, 2.0 hours researching and sending email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.5 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour in magazines, and 1.0 hour in WorldConnect and my database.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/25/08

Friday was a different genealogy day - some blogging, some help for a colleague, a nice chat, and not much else, genealogy wise.

I was on the computer by 8 a.m., read my email and blogs, and then posted Making beautiful wall charts. I worked on Facebook for awhile, got ready to go out, and left at 9:45 to go to Marie's house to help with her FTM 2008 problem. She showed me the problem - she gets an error message before the program finishes installing. We Googled the error number, and found two mentions of it - one in a blog post and the other on the FTM Genforum board. The fix seemed to be to download and install Microsoft .NET 2.0 so we tried, and failed. When we tried to remove all of the .NET versions, it wouldn't work. so we found a cleaner that did the job, then downloaded .NET 2.0 and it installed. Then we tried to install FTM 2008 and it worked. Voila! We imported her database and went through some of the menus and screens and what not. When she tried to make a PDF file, her Adobe Reader bombed for lack of a DLL file that probably got wiped out in the whole process. Arrggghh. I went to lunch and the ban, and was home by 1 p.m.

Having nothing better to write about, I posted "New England Ancestors" TOC - Summer 2008. I checked Ancestry's new databases, and remembered that I had tried to put a query into Everton's Gen Helper the other day, and didn't have my password. They emailed it to me, and I used it and submitted my query, but I couldn't input some of the information because I don't have an active subscription. So I wrote Queries at Everton's Genealogical Helper. Linda wanted to use the computer, so I went in and took a nap while watching the news. When I awoke, we headed off to the San Diego Zoo at 4 p.m.

It was warm and bright, so we tried to stay in the shade. We took the Skyfari across to the polar bears, who were trying to stay in the shade too. Then we walked down to the hippos who were in the water, and the pandas who were sleeping, and it was time for dinner. We sat in the shade and enjoyed watching the little kids run around and whine and laugh and listen to the South American musicians playing "Let It Be." We ate, and I walked up to see the big cats, then came back and we went up on Monkey Mesa. We stopped and sat at Monkey Trails and watched the animals play, then went to see Clyde and his family in the orangutan exhibit. That was enough - we left at 7:30 and were home by 8.

I read my email and blogs, checked Facebook, emailed MM about the scanfest on Sunday, then had a nice 30 minute chat about all kinds of things with MM. Finally, this post, and I'm done for the night.

Genealogy today was only 6.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hours writing blog posts, 2.5 hours helping Marie, 0.5 hour on Facebook, and 0.5 hour chatting with MM.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/24/08

It seemed like the same-old same-old stuff today - read, blog, test, write, blog, read, etc. I'm in a rut, I fear. Linda came home today, so at least I had some different food for dinner - ribs, corn on the cob, strawberries, ice cream bar. It's no wonder I'm non-skinny.

I started reading email and blogs at 7:30 a.m., and did a bit of research on Frank Calloway in Ancestry, and then posted Is Frank Calloway Really 112? Then I went and got cleaned up and came back and wrote Post 8 of the Using FTM 2008 series. That was enough blogging for awhile. I worked in FTM 2008 trying to figure out the Places menus and routines - and found that I messed up the places in my Test database. I can always use mistakes like this - they can be bad examples! Lunch time - Vegetable Beef soup, an apple and choc pudding.

After lunch, I read email and blogs, dealt with some CVGS things, and read more in Evidence Explained. I'm easily confused, I guess, because it is really tough to get my arms around citing sources right. Oh well. I visited Facebook, made some new friends, and tried to put an RSS blog feed on my page. I'm not sure it works right yet. I recalled that Joe B had put a web page up about newspaper archives and I found it - it was not an intuitive search - and then recalled that Bill D had written an article in Everton's about online newspapers, and I found that too. Having done all that work, I posted Newspaper Archive Web sites on the CV Genealogy Cafe blog. I'm trying to post something useful there at least every other day - in hopes that there will be a whole catalog of posts for CVGS members to wade through if they care to. Linda came home and I had to help her get stuff out of the car, into the washer, out of the dryer, etc. She wanted to use the computer, so I gave it up at 4 p.m. and went in and watched the Padres game (lost to Pittsburgh 9-1, and it wasn't that close).

We ate dinner at 6 watching the game, and I was back on the computer at 7 p.m. I decided to explore NewspaperARCHIVE via my Carlsbad Library Card just to see how different it was from Ancestry. I found an interesting article about Horace Seaver, so I transcribed it and posted it in Horace was a Hero. The NewspaperARCHIVE pages are in PDF form, while the Ancestry pages are in a JPG form. Neither shows you where on the page your key words are. Frustrated by that, I went for a walk around the mile-track, then watched TV for an hour and read my murder mystery book. The last thing tonight is this post...

Genealogy today was 7.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.5 hours writing blog posts, 1.5 hours working in FTM2008, 0.5 hour on Facebook, 0.5 hour on CVGS things, 0.5 hour in EE, and 1.0 hour in NewspaperARCHIVE trying it out.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/23/08

This was another stay-at-home, save-gas-money, do a little research, blog some and stay out of trouble while Linda is away kind of day.


I was up early again (funny, I can sleep until 7 when Linda is here, but only 6 when sher's not) and on the computer by 7:45, reading email and blogs. I saw the Keeping Gen Societies Healthy thread on the APG list and decided to blog about it since I liked the ideas expressed. It also lead into the More on Indexing blog post. I decided that I was done blogging for the morning - I needed to do some useful genealogy tasks rather than just write. I know - I'll take some pictures of the framed photos I need to digitize. That worked pretty well (without the flash) but the baby picture didn't come out well, and I can take it apart easily, so I did and scanned it. In the process, I figured out who it was!


I read a bit in my new Evidence Explained book, got out my vital records book of certificates, and decided that I would try really hard to cite my sources correctly in my databases, starting with me and my parents. FTM16 doesn't do sources like EE wants...should I stop doing this until I decide on a software program so I don't have to do this task more than once? Yep, I think so. Much as I want to get my sourcing into the databases (all 30,000 names, several facts each, hmmm - that's going to take a really long time), I need to do it right once. Judginf by the almost two hours I wrestled with six facts, it might take a rreeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyyyy long time! Arggh. Lunch time!


After lunch, I had an appointment with my Medicare counselor - I'm all signed up and ready to get treated, obtain drugs, and pay a monthly premium for the privilege. Thank you, American workers! Hey, I've earned it - I put 37 years into the system. OK, back to the fun times at Genealogy High! I used my "new" picture of my grandmother, Emily Kemp Auble, for my Family Photographs post of the week. I checked in on Facebook, trying to not get wrapped around the Friends pole too often. I escaped, and did a little work to help an email correspondent who asked about the origin of the Seaver surname and his own line in VA/TN. Then I looked for information on Catherine Sovereign for a blog correspondent who didn't leave his email address for me. I couldn't find him online either. Oh well. At 4:30, I went in to read the paper, take my nap, watch TV, and eat dinner. I took the trash out and put the cans on the street, then weeded the front garden a bit -it was nice and shady and cool in front at 7 p.m.


When I came in, I checked my email and blogs again, and wrote several CVGS emails. I decided to check out the FBI files on Footnote for Seaver, Carringer, Auble, etc. I found some Seaver items and saved them, then transcribed one of them and posted about it in "C.E. Seaver's wife was investigated by the FBI." Actually, she wasn't...but let's see if anybody notices! I spent an hour or so looking for C.E. Seaver and concluded that he was either a spy or an alien dropped down to confuse Seaver researchers. He might even have changed his name after someone fingered him! I went for a walk around the neighborhood in the cool and dark, and managed to interfere with the slumber of six dogs in ten minutes. When I came back, I watched TV and read my murder mystery for an hour, then came in to write this post and call it a night.


Genealogy today was 9.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours writing blog posts, 1.0 hour on photographs, 1.5 hours on sources in my database, 1.0 hour searching for my correspondents info, 0.5 hour on CVGS stuff, 1.0 hour in Footnote, and 1.0 hour searching for the elusive and never-found C.E. Seaver.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/22/08

It was a full genealogy day and I actually advanced the ball in my genealogy research - but not very far! Still, one will transcription and a cloud of dust is nothing to shake a stick at.

I was on the computer before 8 a.m. reading my email and blogs, and since not much important happened overnight, I was left to ponder what to write about. I've been pondering a lot about Indexing of things that we genealogy researchers can't easily find, so I wrote up and posted Indexing Periodicals, Manuscripts, and Collections for the world to see and comment on - only dear Jasia has so far. I spent a little time on the CVGS web site problem, got dressed and checked my political sites, and then posted "Are You Smarter Than a Grade-School Genealogist?" at noon time. I went in and had lunch (English muffin, strawberries, choc pudding) and came back determined to do something useful in the afternoon.

I dug out my Russell Smith work, and remembered that I had found one more useful deed in the Oneida County NY records, so I pulled Russell up in my database and entered the information from the deed. This deed in 1808 for David Smith referred to two other land transactions in 1793 and 1796 and named David Smith and Russell Smith together. Father and son, or brothers? I don't know yet. Then I pulled out my Rhode Island probate record collection, and found that I had only three more probate records to transcribe, all in Jamestown RI. So I did the probate record for Edward Carr. That took awhile, maybe I'll post the transcription on a slow blog day. Then I played on Facebook for awhile. It was 4 p.m., so I went in to read the paper, watch the Padres game, take my nap, eat dinner (Dinty Moore beef stew and strawberries, finished with a misshaped, broken and refrozen ice cream bar), and read more of my book. The Padres lost 4-3 in 10 innings, blowing a 3-0 lead.

I was back on the computer at 7:30 p.m., and email told me that the CVGS web site on Rootsweb was back in business. I got a message from Ancestry Technical Support saying a server was "moved" causing loss of our web site (and perhaps many others) for about two weeks. Being an unhappy camper, I blogged about it here. Then I figured I'd go explore in WorldVitalRecords a bit - what California records are on the site? I explored, got frustrated with the search process, and complained about it in "Using WVR to find State Resources." I was cranky tonight! I decided I wasn't going to do any more frustrating work tonight, so I wrote this post. Now I will look at my stats, go for a walk, and read my book while watching the news.

Genealogy today was 8.0 hours - 0.5 hour for doing email, 0.5 hour reading blog posts, 0.5 hour in Facebook, 2.5 hours researching and writing blog posts, 3.0 hours adding data (probate and land record notes) to my database, and 1.0 hour getting frustrated by working in WVR.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/21/08

I was up real early - excited by the prospect of getting the new monitor and installing it. I was on the laptop computer by 7:30, reading blogs and email. I wrote about FamilySearch Indexing projects, then saw that others had posted about the Ancestry and FamilySearch census debacle, so I posted about it too - an hour late, but who cares if you have something unique to say (and I did).

I left at 10:15 a.m. and went to Costco to buy a monitor. I got an Envision G218a1 22-inch monitor (up to 1680 x 1050 resolution) for $229. I shad lunch there (Polishdog and churro) and came home and installed it quickly - no problems - every thing worked fine. A bonus - it has speakers built in, so I eliminated one plug from the wire tangle under the desk and opened some desk space. At 12:15 p.m., I took the laptop to the library for the weekly Table Talk. Dearl and John were there, and Dearl got the auditorium reserved for our October seminar. I was home by 2 p.m.

I realized that I hadn't done any more with FTM2008 due to the monitor problem, so I captured some screens and posted Post 7 in the Using FTM2008 series. I checked Facebook and email, then went in to watch the Padres game, read the paper, take a nap, eat dinner (baked chicken and corn, with a choc ice cream bar for dessert - hey, I can cook a little), watered the back yard and the plants, and took stuff out to the garage during break times in the Padres game (hey, we won 6-4, first win in a week). I came back to the computer at 7:15, read email and blogs, talked to my daughter and then my wife on the phone, checked Facebook again, and wrote this post. I need to go for my walk and then read some of my new book.

Genealogy today was 6.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour in FTM2008, 0.5 hour in Facebook, and 1.5 hours at CVGS meeting. No researching at all... maybe tomorrow!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/20/08

Yesterday was such a good genealogy day - and Sunday morning comes and the monitor is dark...and nothing can bring it back to life. Linda woke me up to tell me that it was dark at 6:45, and by 7 a.m. I had figured out it wasn't going to be a good genealogy day. I posted about the problem in hopes of getting a response from techie genea-readers, and I did from Thomas and Tamura - thanks, guys! I emailed my son-in-law the IT guy, then got ready for church and went at 9:30.

I was home by 11:45 a.m., and there were all the responses and I tried everything suggested and voila - the monitor is crap - Viewsonic crap - about two years old. I went in and watched the Padres game (we lost 9-5 on a walk-off grand slam in the 9th).

Back to the computer at 2 p.m, I read my email and blogs on the laptop, and updated the Monitor post. Then I wrote up the Best of the Genea-blogs post and I wrote about the CVGS web site problems on both the CV Genealogy Cafe and Genea-Musings. At 4:45, I went in to take a nap, watch the news, eat dinner, and watch Ken Kramer's show "About San Diego" at 6 p.m (Linda is in Victorville at the party for Audrey - I cooked pork chops and mixed veggies, topped off with an ice cream bar)

I came back to the computer at 6:30, and I emailed the CVGS list to tell them about the web site, and then worked a bit more on the web site trying to make it more readable. I checked Facebook, read some political news, and wrote this post, thinking I'll read my book and watch some TV tonight.

Genealogy today is hard to figure due to the monitor problem - 4.5 hours total. 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour on the CVGS web site, 0.5 hour on Facebook.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/19/08

This was a great genealogy day for me - I learned a lot, I made a web site, and blogged...well, maybe I did a little searching.

I was up early, and ready to go out at 7:30. I checked my email and blogs and saw the NYGBS story and started a blog post, but had to leave at 7:50. I went off to my church men's group breakfast in National City, and then left at 9:10 and got to the CGSSD meeting in La Jolla at about 9:35 a.m. The first part was almost over, but the second part with Joel Weintraub was a wonderful presentation on a topic near to my heart - Census Records and how to search them. There was a light lunch and 20th anniversary cake afterwards, and I was home by 12:45 p.m. I checked my email and blogs again.

The Padres game was on, so I watched that, read the paper, opened the mail, took a nap, and was thoroughly disgusted by the 6-5 loss to the Cards (we led 5-0 in the 5th). Arrggghhhh. I came in and posted about the CGSSD meeting and Joel Weintraub's presentation (I liked it!) and then went in and had dinner (Linda went off to dinner and a play with friends). When I came back to the computer, I finished up my post about the NYGBS library collection.

I mentioned the other day that the CVGS web site at Rootsweb got taken down for some reason, and we haven't found out why yet (Tech support at Ancestry notified on 7/14). The society has a Google email account, and I recalled that Google will provide a free web page (100 mb) so I created a new CVGS web site. I transferred quite a bit of web page content to the site, but not the documents, photos, etc. that were linked to the previous site. The site is at http://sites.google.com/site/cvgenealogy/. Tell me what you think of it! I am limited to Google's templates, layouts, colors and fonts, but I was able to put quite a bit up in three hours. I wrote this post and I'm going to go read some of my new book.

Genealogy today was 7.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hour writing blog posts, 2.0 hours at the CGSSD meeting, and 3.0 hours working on the CVGS web site.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/18/08

Just another decent genealogy day here at the Genea-Cave...8 straight hours of doing what I love to do with few distractions. But after that...

I was on the computer by 8 a.m. and read my email and blogs, then posted about the 52nd Carnival of Genealogy on Age, and then worked on and posted Using FTM 2008 - Post 6. I spent some time updating my Padres stuff on Randy's Busy Life and some funnies, then I worked in WorldVitalRecords for awhile in the Everton FGS and Pedigree chart collection - I found some Seaver and Auble data and printed them off. I had lunch at home, and then entered the Everton data into my databases. I found more copies of the missing CVGS web pages, but not any of the sub-pages. I emailed what I found to my board members.

Facebook called my name, and I read a bit, made some new friends and wrote a bit there, and then I explored FamilySearch Record Search for awhile and posted about it later. I wanted to write something about Using Rootsweb WorldConnect to find existing family tree data, but couldn't put a good story together. I visited GenCircles and KindredKonnections and WeRelate also looking for data to demonstrate in a blog post and a presentation to my society. At 4:30, Linda wanted to go out to dinner, so we went to Trophy's in Eastlake and had fish and chips while watching the Padres game and then stopped by ColdStone for an ice cream. We were home by 6:30, and watched the game to the bitter end (Pads lost, 11-7). Linda did her email while I took a walk to cool off, then when I came back I got on the computer for mail and blogs. Not much exciting going on, eh?

Genealogy today was maybe 7.0 hours -- 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour researching in WVR, 1.0 hour entering data into FTM16, 1.0 hour working in WorldConnect and several other databases, 0.5 hour in Record Search and 0.5 hour doing CVGS things.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/17/08

Just another typical genealogy day for me - lots of work, some play, even some chatting.

I was on the computer by 8 a.m. reading my email and blogs. I quickly photographed and edited the San Diego Union-Tribune pages about the SDGS Lost Treasures committee work and then wrote the Using FTM 2008 post about entering Sources. I checked for new Ancestry databases, checked Facebook, and then went to lunch down at Jimmy's Restaurant - the retired engineers group from Rohr meets every two months to swap stories and eat salads or breakfast. I was home by 1 p.m.

I spent some time reading and analyzing the NGSQ article for the TGF chat tonight - I made a summary of the highlights and did some source analysis. Then I finished my research report for my CVGS colleague and sent it to her via email. I didn't solve her problem, but I told her where to find documents that might solve it. I also found several family lines new for her. I received an email from ancestry, so posted about the New Ancestry Search webinar on 30 July. At 4:30, I went in to read the paper and watch the Padres game while eating dinner.

At 7 p.m., the Pads were losing, and I came in for the TGF online chat with Melissa, Debbie, Yvonne, and Valerie - Christy and Tina couldn't make it tonight. I moderated it and we had a good discussion of a Connie Lenzen article from 1994 about an elusive female ancestor. That was over at 8:30, so I checked email and blogs, and posted the NGSQ June 2008 issue table of contents. That's enough for today...I wonder what surprises there will be on Friday in the genealogy world?

Genealogy today was 7.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour working on the research report, and 3.0 hours on the TGF article and chat.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/16/08

Genealogy was on the front burner today. I was on the computer by 8:30 a.m., and read my email and blogs. I posted "Can Your Software Do This" for TMG based on an email correspondent's input, then took some photos of some photos (first I had to figure out how to suppress the flash - downloaded the user's manual and read it!), transferred them to the computer, and posted "The Smith Kids" in my Family Photographs series. I explored Ancestry for awhile, then had lunch and left at 11:30 to pick up Katy for the CVGS meeting.

Katy was waiting for me, and we got to the library just as it opened. The computer Group piled into the computer lab and staked out computers - I sat next to Katy and Marie today and tried to help them both. Marie wanted to look in Scottish records, and we found the 1841 and later census records easily on Ancestry, but she scratched around in ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk for awhile looking for records - but it's a pay site. Katy worked in census records for her Larkin family and found several records. Dave was in back of me, and he had several people looking for his Lehr family, including me. I took Katy home afterward, and was home myself by 2:30.

I read email and blogs, then posted "Probably NOT 'the world's longest family tree'" based on a news article about two guys with a perfect DNA match with a 3,000 skeleton (where's the mutations?). Then I posted about the CGSSD meeting on Saturday. I answered several emails on my Seaver line and went in to watch the news, take a nap and read the paper at 4:30. We had dinner on the patio, and afterward I cut and trimmed the front lawn. I was back in by 7:30. I've been putting off my TGF reading assignment, so I figured out what I needed to read, read it online, and printed it out for later. Then I worked on answering Nancy's research question about her Texas guy, James Matthew Peace who died about 1870. I posted a notice about Ancestry Library Edition being removed from the CV library system. Finally, this post and I want to take a short walk and read my Baldacci novel.

Genealogy today was 8.0 hours - 1.0 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hours writing blog posts, 2.5 hours at the CVGS computer group, 1.0 hour on the TGF assignment, and 1.5 hours on research for Nancy.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/15/08

This was not a big genealogy day today, but it was an interesting day, ruined by the length of the MLB All-Star Game, which ended after 10:30 my time (1:30 in NYC).

I was on the computer and reading email and blogs by 8:30 a.m. (I watched Pres Bush toy with the reporters today), and then posted about Dan Waddell's request for descendants of murderers. I worked a bit more in FTM 2008 and put together Post 4 in my Using FTM 2008 series. I remembered that today was the deadline for the CoG about Age, so I wrote up Age - Mind over Matter?

I had lunch, then left at 12:10 p.m. and picked up my friend Walt to take him to the medical center in Kearny Mesa for his cataract appointment. On the way home, I stopped at a used book store on Adams Avenue in SD and looked for San Diego, colonial New England and family Bibles - there were some interesting things but I didn't buy any. Then I drove all the way down 30th Street, circled my home-boy block several times and others too, and drove through southeast SD before picking up I-805 on 47th. The old house looks the same, and the neighborhood too, except Snippy's, the bar on the next block, is being expanded a bit. How come everything in this neighborhood looks smaller now? It must be because I remember it with little-boy eyes and not adult eyes.

I was home by 2 p.m., and read my email and blogs again. I subscribed to WorldVitalRecords yesterday, so I spent a good 90 minutes methodically putting my elusive ancestor names into the search engine. Nary a one gave me a new lead. Drat. At 4 p.m., I had had enough and Linda wanted to do her email, so I went in to read the paper, have a nap, watch the news, and watch the All-Star Game on TV. We had dinner watching the game, and I read almost half of the latest David Baldacci book until it was over. Then I hurried in here and read email and blogs, wrote this post, and missed taking a walk.

Genealogy today is tough to calculate - maybe 6.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.5 hours researching in WVR, and 1.5 hours wandering around book stores and home-boy SD.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/14/08

I was lazy this morning - read the paper and watched the news, ate my breakfast (2 frozen waffles and a banana) and looked at the clock and it was 8:30. Yikes - I read my email and blogs, and posted the Brother's Keeper edition of Can your genealogy software do this? courtesy of John Newmark. I posted "Funny Family Sayings" also before going off into FTM2008 again for more screen shots. I checked to see if FTM16 would make lists of earliest childbirth, latest childbirth, and earliest marriage, and found that it would - I also found that my database has some interesting time conflicts for certain people. FTM2008 can't do that. I imagine that Legacy, Rootsmagic, TMG and others can too. I realized I hadn't posted anything on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog for several days, so I posted there about the RPAC brochure, the 101 Best Genealogy Web Sites and the response to a query that I couldn't send by email. I finally read about Roy Blackmore in England in The Genealogue and Google News, and then found more about him, and finally posted about the Telegraph article. I had lunch, and then went to the library for the Monday table talk session.

John, Dearl and Terry were at the talk table, and Gary, Shirley, Virginia and Ann were at the Estate Papers table working away on the Williams collection. Gary told me that the CVGS web site had been offline for about a week, and he didn't know why and couldn't find a phone number to call for help at Rootsweb/Ancestry. I promised to try to find help. John found some good stuff in the Austin book "Genealogies of RI Families" and we talked about that book, New England records, probate laws, westward migration and all sorts of stuff. I got home by 2:30 p.m.

I quickly posted "What to do when your web site disappears?" and had two comments and some emails from readers, which I really appreciate. I passed the info on to Gary. Then I wrote Post 3 of my FTM2008 series. I spent some time in English web sites, particularly the Wiltshire Family History Society site to see what they have online. I went in to watch the news at 4:30 and the start of the Home Run Derby, but we went out to eat at Lolita's for dinner and got back at 6:30. I watched the rest of HR Derby while reading genealogy magazines and Linda did her email and church homework. I finally got back on the computer at 8:30, but just read email and blogs. After writing this post and checking my stats, I read my email and saw the special offer for WVR that I couldn't pass up - so I blogged about it here.

Genealogy today was 8.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 3.0 hours researching and writing blog posts (9 today!), 1.0 hour in FTM2008 and FTM16, 2.5 hours on CVGS things, 0.5 hour on English sites, and 0.5 hour on WVR signing up.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 7/12-13/2008

I missed posting last night - sorry - we were late getting home from the Padres game.

Saturday, 12 July, was a day of genealogy and Padres. I was up early, and got all of the boxes back in the Genealogy Cave so the cleaner could work in the guest bedroom. Then I read my email and blogs, and posted the second part of Della's Circle of Friends and then Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. I did a bit more work in FTM2008 testing things and putting screen captures in my OpenOffice file. Linda came home at 11 a.m., so I quickly had lunch and we left at 11:20 to go to the SDGS meeting.

We got there just before noon, and signed in. The program was late starting due to a technical glitch. I'll post about it on Sunday. We were home by 2:30, and I checked email and blogs, and posted the Wheel of GenFortune for the week. I was tired, so I watched the news, read the paper and took an hour nap. We got ready to go to the Padres game, stopped at Rubio's for dinner, and saw the celebration of the 1998 world Series team. We lost again, 4-1, but the fireworks afterward were good. We were home just before 11 p.m.

On Sunday, 13 July, I checked my email and blogs in the morning, and got ready for church at 10 a.m. We stayed for the Secretary's retirement party and were home about 12:15. That left me a little time to write Best of the Genea-Blogs for last week before the Padres game at 1:05 p.m. Yawn, I read the paper, had a nap, and the Pads got beat 12-2. At 4, I came back to the computer and wrote up the "About San Diego" SDGS program. Then it was dinner time, and we watched tonight's "About San Diego" show at 6 p.m. At 6:30, I was back on the computer, and did some CVGS email and planning, then decided to work some more in FTM2008. While looking for a source citation, I happened across some of the Massachusetts town vital records books on Google Books, so I wrote a post about them. My Bloglines showed that the latest Smile for the Camera carnival was posted, so I read that, and several of the blog posts on the Carnival, for awhile, and then posted about it myself. Where did the time go tonight?

Genealogy on 12 July was 5.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, and 2.5 hours at the SDGS meeting.

Genealogy on 13 July was 5.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blogs, and 2.0 hours in FTM2008.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/11/08

It was an interesting genealogy day - filled with discoveries and useful exercises. However, I didn't advance the "ball" on new ancestors or sourcing data for the ones I have.

I was on the computer by 8 a.m. and read my email and blogs, but I got hung up for awhile and didn't post the Software question for iFamily until 9 a.m. Reader John did all the hard work - I just copied and pasted. However, I wasted no time in posting the first installment of Della's Circle of Friends and took the better part of an hour transcribing about half of Della (Smith) Carringer's autograph book from the late 1870's. I read more blogs and saw Ruth's post about RPAC's Case for Open Records brochure and posted that also.

Then things got fairly interesting. I decided to install and run the FamilyTreeMaker 2008 software that I won last month. It installed easily, but took some time, and then I uploaded a big FTW file and it took more time. I spent some of my waiting time bringing the periodicals back into the Genealogy Cave. When the database was loaded, I started making screen captures and putting them into an OpenOffice presentation file. I had about 40 screen shots in the presentation, and saved it. I went out to lunch at McDonald's (6 chic nuggets, 3 choc chip cookies, choc shake, yum!), then to the pharmacy and finally to the bank. Genea-Man does not live on databases alone - he needs chocolate, drugs and money to support Mrs. G-man's lifestyle. I was home by 1 p.m.

When I got home, I attacked the periodical pile in earnest. I decided to throw out the useless papers and newsletters that have collected for some time, and I tried to put the SDGS, CGSSD, CVGS, ESOG, NEHGS, NGS and Tag periodicals in date order - latest on top. In the process, I repopulated the tops of my three filing cabinets. I'm still wondering about the value of all of that - should I just donate them all to the genealogy section at the CV library? I could visit them on occasion if I needed an article. Frankly, I don't read them very often. By 3 p.m., I was tired of stacking my dead-trees, so I sat down and started the first of my posts about FTM2008 using the screen captures in the post. I added a few more screen captures for later blog posts. I feel like I can maneuver around in the database now - the big challenge will be to figure the most efficient way to create new people and facts. At 4:30, Angel Linda asked if we could go out to dinner. Being a real smart astronaut, I said "yes!"

We went to Daphne's for their gyros sandwich and salad, then to Cold Stone for ice cream, and we sat and watched several little ones playing nearby - our grandma/pa fix! We were home by 6. Linda did her email until about 6:45, and I watched the news, read the paper, and watered the front plants and back dirt/grass clumps. Then it was Padres game time (we won, 4-0), and during the game I brought in the big box of family photos and other goodies that has been hiding in plain sight for several years in the Cave, and went through it item by item. I found several great photographs to scan, and read again some of the Smith/Carringer/Seaver archival books and papers. I even found the summary of the Carringer/Smith house that our friends wrote up - they lived in it from 1970 to 1977. At 9:45, after the game and a short walk, I came back to the computer and read my email and blogs, and started this post.

Genealogy today was 10.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 3.0 hours working with FTM2008, 2.0 hours sorting periodicals, and 2.0 hours sorting family pictures and stuff.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/10/08

I managed to squeeze in some genealogy work around the new window installation and the cleanup/moveback activities.

I was up early at 6:30 a.m. because I had to get the bedroom furniture moved, the cxurtains down, the blinds down and the rose bushes trimmed before they got here. Two guys and a big truck arrived at 8:30 in install the windows. I had my email and blogs read by then, but had many interruptions while blogging about FTM2008 and Family Tree Magazine's Top 101 web sites. I spent some time trying TMG (trial expired), RootsMagic 3 (couldn't figure out how to do it) and FTB (can't do it) on my "Age at Death" software question. I messed around on Facebook for awhile, too. The windows guys were done by noon, so I had lunch and started to put stuff back, cleaning as I went. I couldn't find my nails...so had to go to Home Depot to get some so I could hang a shade and reinforce the bedroom drapes holder. When I got back, Linda was home so she helped me hang the drapes. I put the furniture back in the bedroom and sorted out some of the papers and stuff in the junk room. It was after 4 pm. by the time I got back on the computer, and posted a summary of the software question to date. We had dinner on the patio, and then watched the news on TV before I finished the drapes in the living room and put the junk room furniture back in place. All that's left to do is bring all of the genealogy cave stuff back into the computer room - I may go through some of it and throw some things out.

I was back on the computer at 7 p.m., and did some research for my CVGS colleague, Jeanne on her Belgian ancestor. At 8 p.m., I had a call from Dean about genealogy things. I posted a few items on Randy's Busy Life, then started writing this post. I got distracted by the stuff in the file cabinet that I found - Della's autograph book, several high school yearbooks from the early 1900's, a silver spoon collection, and other stuff hiding away in the drawers. I need to create an archive list of this stuff.

Well, genealogy today was only 6.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 0.5 hour on Facebook, 1.5 hours blogging, 1.0 hour doing research, 0.5 hour talking to Dean, 0.5 hour working with software, 1.0 hour rummaging in the drawers, and too many hours thinking about but not doing any real research.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/09/08

Another pretty full genealogy day with some time outs for neighbors, window preparation and a nap.

I was on the computer by 8 a.m., reading my email and blogs. I posted about Saturday's SDGS meeting with Ken Kramer and the ice cream social, and then about the Readability evaluation (I didn't think that it would do well with yesterday's Pig Latin post). I finished the Genealogy News email and printed it off for the meeting at noon. I printed off some of the Jamboree posts and also the CV Genealogy Cafe posts about web sites for show and tell. I had a quick lunch, and left at 11:40 for the post office and then the library.

The CVGS Research Group meeting started at noon, and we were done by 2. I talked to several of the attendees afterward, and one asked me to help with some research in Ancestry. I got two books from the library, and was home by 2:30.

When I got home, I emailed the Genealogy News to the CVGS email list, then posted it to the CV Genealogy Cafe blog. Then I wrote up the meeting summary for the Cafe blog and also posted it tonight on Genea-Musings. By 4:30, I was ready for my nap, so I went in and dozed off during the news, but watched O'Reilly at 4. We left at 5:40 to take our neighbors out to dinner - we celebrated Ruthie's 80th birthday at Marie Callander's - I had pot roast and lemon meringue pie. We were home by 7:30, and I watered the front plants and then spent about 30 minutes taking down curtains and blinds, and moving stuff away from the windows, in preparation for the Windows replacement tomorrow. All I have to do is take down our bedroom curtains and move some furniture a little ways...oh, and trim the rose bushes in front.

I was back on the computer at 8:30, read my email and blogs, wrote a Family Photo post and answered several emails. I heard from my newly found second cousin again, who sent some Seaver family pictures not seen before. I sent her three more of my Christmas Family Journals in return.

Genealogy today was 8.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blogs, and 5.0 hours on CVGS activities. Not much real genealogy done today, but I shared a lot!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/08/08

I had an all-genealogy day today, except for the two hours spent moving stuff around to get ready for the Window guys on Thursday. I have the access to the windows in the three back bedrooms cleared enough. I also helped Linda clear some stuff in our bedroom.

I was on the computer by 8 a.m., and after reading my email and blogs, I played with Wordle and posted "Wordle - Be Creative." I saved the input words and the screen captures in an OpenOffice presentation file. I worked in Legacy Family Tree for awhile trying to make the Age at Death list using the helps from my readers - finally posting "Can Your Software Do This? - Series 3: Legacy Family Tree." I ended up with Blogger and Legacy open side-by-side as I tried to capture all of the key strokes and check-offs.

After lunch, I noticed that footnoteMaven had uncovered the Dialectizer site, so I wrote the "Enea-Musingsgay" post just for fun. Then I got down to serious business and worked on the list of places to place CVGS seminar publicity, and then on a draft of the press release. I also worked on the price list of CVGS services for our web site. I worked on the genealogy news for the month to send out on Wednesday to CVGS members. Finally, I posted "Online Immigration and Naturalization Web Sites" on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog.

I moved stuff away from the windows until dinner time, and after dinner I helped Linda in our bedroom until the Padres game came on (we won, 10-1). I read the latest Family Tree Magazine while watching the game - they didn't name Genea-Musings one of the Top 101 - note to self: try harder! At 9:45, I came in, read my email and blogs, corrected the LFT post a bit, and wrote this post.

Genealogy today was 9.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.5 hours working in Legacy Family Tree, 2.0 hours playing with Wordle and Dialectizer (bad boy!), and 2.5 hours doing CVGS work.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/07/08

I stayed home today to try to catch up on some genealogy work. Audrey didn't wake up until 9:30, so I had my email and blogs read, and was almost done with my "Ancestry Census Indexing errors" post when duty called - to hold her while Tami packed up. They left at 11, but I got my hour of loving a 2-month old in. I came back to the computer, and posted "Can Your Software Do This? - Series 3: PAF/AQ" courtesy of Tamura Jones.

I took some time to correct several posts - especially the FTM16 post that listed my oldest ancestors at death. It turns out that I had errors for two of them - they didn't live to be 100 after all - embarrassing! I did some online research and found some out-of-copyright info on Henry Beck and Catalyntje DeVos and their families and greatly improved my database for those lines. I spent quite a bit of time on the Schenectady County NY site and wrote it up in "Hudson and Mohawk Valley Genealogies." I also did a little research for a friend of ours who has a cemetery deed for an acquaintance's mother, and wanted to track down the acquaintance. She apparently died in 2007.

At 4 p.m., I went in to read the paper, watch the news, and take a nap. I succeeded in all three objectives. We left at 5 p.m. for the Padres game, stopping at Pollo Loco for dinner, and we were in our seats by 6:30. The Pads lost 3-1, and we were home by 10:30. I quickly read email and blogs, and posted this note. Off to bed!

Genealogy today was 8.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 3.5 hours researching several families online and correcting/adding information to my database, and 1.5 hour researching for my friend.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/06/08

This was a typical Sunday here at the Genea-Cave - some blogging and not much else.

I read my email and blogs before Lolo and Audrey got up, and we watched TV before getting ready for church. Tami stayed home, and we took the girls to show them off (a typical grandparenting thing at our church). We were home by 11:45 and Linda and Tami took Lolo to lunch and Audrey took a nap. I grabbed a quick bite to eat then started on "Best of the Genea-Blogs" post ... and Audrey woke up in the middle of it. It became "rock Audrey" and "type another paragraph" for about 30 minutes when I was done, so I posted it and we went in to watch the Padres game. The girls came home and Lolo went down for a nap, but Audrey never went to sleep for more than 10 minutes until later tonight.

After the game, Tami took the girls to the mall and then their friends house, and Lolo is staying overnight there. I came in and started on the latest "Can Your Software Do This?" and had it done by dinner time. After dinner on the patio, we watched "About San Diego" on TV - it's a SD local history show by Ken Kramer. I came back to the computer, and wrote up the FTM16 process to do the task I wanted to investigate. I had to edit it later because I figured out the last step to get the report I wanted.

Genealogy today was only 4.0 hours - 0.5 hour reading emails, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blogs, and 1.0 hour playing with FTM16 to make it do what I wanted it to do.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/04-05/08

Hmmm, I missed posting last night. Sorry, I was pooped from chasing Lolo around the church grounds for four hours.

Lolo and I stayed home on Friday - we watched TV, played in the yard, had lunch, took naps, and I managed to write two blog posts and worked about an hour on research. At 4, we went down to church for the picnic, games and fireworks at 8:30. Lolo was a trooper - the fireworks were loud but beautiful, and she enjoyed them. We got home at 9:15 and she was asleep by 9:20. My Padres won to make it an even better day.

Genealogy on Friday was limited to about 3.0 hours - 0.5 hour reading email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.0 hour writing blog posts, and 1.0 hour doing some research for my colleague, Nancy.

On Saturday, I went to my men's group breakfast and Linda watched Lolo. I got home at 9:30 and she took off. Lolo watched TV, did some artwork on the patio slab and on sheets of paper, played with blocks and puzzles, and at 11:15 announced that she wanted pizza for lunch. OK...fresh out here, so we went down to Mr. V's for pizza and were home by 12:15, well stuffed. She took a 3-hour nap - she must still be feeling the fireworks effects. I worked almost 1 hour on posts and stuff until Tami came with Audrey at 2:30 p.m. I took my nap after Lolo woke up and at 5, Linda and I went to a birthday party at a restaurant down on the bay. We were home by 9 p.m. but I'm ready to hit the sack early.

Genealogy today was 3.0 hours - 0.5 hour reading email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.0 hour writing blog posts, and 1.0 hour researching for Nancy.

Genealogy on Saturday

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/03/08

I managed to put in a lot of genealogy time today working around Lolo but I'm not sure I got much accomplished.

Before I even got on the computer, Lolo wanted to play Playhouse Disney on it, so I worked with my laptop while she played with Tigger and Pooh. I got my email and blogs read before we had a snack at 10 a.m. Linda came home and took Lolo away to lunch and play with a friend, so I was able to finish my CVGS newsletter articles and send them to Shirley, then I posted "Another View of the Blogger Summit" and "Fourth of July Quick Quiz." I went to Mcdonald's for lunch, to the bank for cash, and to the library for a book, then I was home by 12:45 p.m.

I worked a bit in Ancestry trying to determine if there are more clicks required to do a specific search with the New format than with the Old format. They worked out about even. That's good to know, but didn't result in a blog post. I worked a bit on the Schenkel NJ family for my friend, then posted "Genea-Musings Stats for January to June, 2008" as a marker post - I can use it at the end of the year to determine the changes in the "biggest hits." I also posted "Genealogy Days in Chula Vista for July 2008" on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog, which got ignored while I was away over the weekend. I tried to find land record information in Hunterdon County NJ and sort of struck out - nice 1873 maps on Ancestry but that is a century too late. Lolo got up from her nap, and we played with blocks and watched TV until dinner time out on the patio. After dinner, we played some more, then she had her bath, and we played a bit more before she went down at 8:15 p.m.

I came back on the computer and read email and blogs, and answered some emails and commented on some blogs. I remembered my colleague Nancy's research problem and worked on it for awhile - she's looking for a death date/location in Texas in the 1870's. I played with the Genea-Musings colors again...I like the richer dark red and dark green right now.

Genealogy today was 7.5 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.0 hours researching and writing blog posts, 1.0 hour on CVGS tasks, 2.5 hours doing research, 1.0 hour working on new Ancestry Search.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/02/08

This was a busy day because I had to squeeze genealogy tasks in between Lolo support all day.

I managed to get my planning sheets done for the October seminar and gathered my stuff for the CVGS board meeting. I read my email and blogs, and posted about "Specific Family Name Blogs." Linda came home, took Lolo out to lunch and play, and I had lunch and went to the Library for the CVGS Board meeting at 12 noon. That was over at 2:15 and I was home at 2:30. Lolo was napping, so I started "The New Ancestry Home Page." I posted it just as Lolo woke up, but Linda played with her for awhile and I posted about the free download of EGH, then did some of my ProGen Study group homework.

We left at 4:30 for dinner at Panera, then stopped at the squirting fountains in the Otay Ranch Center and Lolo had a great time running through the water - thoroughly drenched and happy. We were home by 7, and I watched the Padres game and did chores - trash out, plants watered, Lolo bath, etc. At 8, we put Lolo down and I came in for the ProGen Study Group chat session on personal library and copyright issues, which was over at 9:30. I wrote several emails, and a draft of my articles for the CVGS newsletter - I'll finish them tomorrow.

Genealogy today was 9.0 hours - 0.5 hour doing email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 1.5 hours researching and writing blog posts, 4.0 hours on CVGS things, 2.0 hours on ProGen study group, and 0.5 hour researching online for a friend.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Genealogy Journal - 07/01/08

With Lolo here, I have to catch genealogy time when it's available. She went with Linda to the library at 10 a.m. for preschool reading, and then to lunch at Rubio's (the kid loves fish tacos, salsa, beans, you name it, but not asparagus or anything green).

I read my email and answered several, read my blogs and made some comments. Uh-oh, I'd better post something before they come home... so I wrote about "More on Ancestry 'Ownership' of User Databases." It already has an excellent comment and analysis from Craig Manson. I started "Using Bloglines.com to read many blogs" at 12 noon, but they came home before I was done, so it didn't post until almost 2 p.m. We got Lolo down for a nap at 1 and she woke up about 3:30 - enough time for me to get my ProGen reading done, check my LibraryThing book list against the recommended "must have" list, and check out several web sites too. I made the agenda for the CVGS board meeting and sent it out.

My work stopped when Lolo got up, and we went in and watched TV and she worked on puzzles for awhile. I dozed in the chair until Linda came home at 4:45 and we went off to Chick-fil-A for dinner. Lolo and I shared a choc shake, she ate all of her chic nuggets and fries, and we had an ice cream cone to top it off. She played on the climbing set for over 30 minutes while Linda talked to our friend with her grandchildren there too. We were home by 7 p.m., and the Padres game was on. I no sooner sat down and the Rockies scored 4 runs in the 5th, and it ended 4-0. Linda took Lolo to the neighbors for birthday cake, and came home at 8. We got Lolo into the bath, ready for bed, and finally down at 9:15. But Linda was on the computer.... so I read some more and finally got on at 9:45 and posted another Wheel of Genealogy Fortune post - harder this time, since it's not yet on Google. Then this post and I'm done.

Genealogy today was 6.0 hours - 0.5 hour on email, 0.5 hour reading blogs, 2.5 hours writing and researching blog posts, 0.5 hour on CVGS, 1.0 hour on ProGen work, and 1.0 hour checking web sites. Lolo sure bites into my research time. I really don't mind!