Genealogy Journal Thursday, October 29, 2009

The day started very early for me - at 2:00 am since I couldn't sleep.  Was thinking about getting the computer all tricked out again after the reformatting the day before.

• Worked on installing on the computer all the different programs I use both for genealogy and in general.

• The Treasure Chest Thursday post was again pre-posted over at GeneaBloggers.  Quite a few posts which I'm glad to see. Perhaps with the colder weather more genealogy bloggers are staying inside and going through their heirlooms and collections

• Here at Destination: Austin Family, I posted an interview with the owner of the Forgotten Bookmarks site. Some very interesting stuff and again, I appreciate the opportunity to help find the family of Marjorie Pauline Frost.

• I got a head start on the New Events and New Genealogy Blogs posts for GeneaBloggers since I will be in New York this weekend with limited connectivity.

• The ProGen 4 assignment - the second one which deals with developing an educational plan and also evaluating an educational opportunity - is off to a slow start.  I need to finish this by end of day Friday and submit it.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend the monthly chat on Monday since I'll be in Cooperstown, NY.

• Posted the latest May I Introduce To You article, this time focusing on Amy Coffin of We Tree, over at GeneaBloggers.  It seems that Gini Webb of Ginisology had a great time writing this one!

• Finally, some exciting news: I received a call-back for a second interview! This is for a very interesting consulting position and believe it or not, it has genealogy involved!

• Music today: mostly Jazz Divas but some "blue-eyed soul" as  I call it which means Dusty Springfield, Joan Osborne and others.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Interview with Forgotten Bookmarks

[Editor's Note: I had such a great time helping Michael from the Forgotten Bookmarks site locate the family of Marjorie Pauline Frost, that I thought the readers here at DAF would like to know more about Forgotten Bookmarks and how the site got started.]

How did you come up with the concept for the Forgotten Bookmarks blog?

I run the family used and rare bookstore, and the bulk of my day is sorting through boxes and boxes of books, many of which are well over 100 years old. As you can imagine, going through that many books will uncover some interesting bits of ephemera. I ended up with boxes of these bookmarks saved up; things that seemed just too interesting to throw away. About three years ago, I came across a large pot leaf inside a microwave cookbook—it was just too funny not to share. I scanned the leaf with the book, and sent the picture to a few friends. After that, whenever I would find something really fascinating or humorous, I would take a picture and share it. It didn't take me long to figure out I wasn't the only one who found these items interesting.

How long has the blog been running? How often do you post to it?

It's been in one form or another since 2007. I started posting nearly every day about a year ago.

Have you blogged before or is FB your first blog?

I dabbled a bit with a blog for our bookstore, as well as a few other projects here and there, but I just didn't have the discipline to keep up with it. Once I started getting comments on Forgotten Bookmarks, it was easy to keep up on it.

You state on your blog that you work in a rare and used bookstore. Does your employer know about the FB blog?

My employers, technically, are my mom and dad. They know about it, in fact, the most popular post I've had - the Harry Potter-esque photo (http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/2009/07/my-gift-to-internet.html) -
was actually found by my dad, who had started saving things for me.

Boxers or briefs?

I actually just bought these Hanes tagless no gap fly boxers. Highly recommended.

Have you always worked in bookstores?

It is the family business, so I've been puttering around with books in one way or another since I was seven.

How often do you find family heirloom items like the Frost baby book in a carton of books brought in by people?

Quite often, actually. When people are cleaning out a house, either because of a death or because they are moving, they will group together all the paper items with the books, so I will come across wills, love letters and wedding photos.

Are you usually able to reunite the item with the original owner?

It's pretty rare. For one, it can be hard to track down who even sold them to me, as we do a lot of buying at auction or estates. Most of the time, even if you find an original owner, they won't have any real interest in getting the item back. I always was surprised by that.

Paper or plastic?

Tyvek. I think that's what those reusable bags are made of. At any rate, we have a few of the canvas ones as well. At the bookshop, we just reuse old Walmart plastic bags, or the paper bags Office Depot gives out when they have the $20 a bag sale.

What’s your opinion on the future of small independent booksellers in this age of e-books, online book vendors and mega-chain bookstores?

I think there will always be a place for stores like ours. I have seen just about all the older bookshops in the area go under in the last 10 years, but it's been because places like Amazon and B&N have exposed their weaknesses. I think to thrive as an independent, you have to embrace the internet. We were lucky to get started early on the web. Other than that, I would offer that you can either offer a little bit of everything, or pick a genre and specialize.

What’s in store for FB in the future?

I just launched the sister site for Forgotten Bookmarks, which is handwrittenrecipes.com. It features just the recipes I find. I am hoping to team up with someone who can cook and take pictures of some of the recipes, as that is something that just isn't feasible for me. I'd also like to put together a book at some point.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Well Wednesday started out great but keep reading and you'll see how I had to cope with disaster.

• Woke up early at 3am, made coffee and figured I had such a productive writing day on Tuesday that I could go for a repeat.  Was I wrong.

• I'm saving much of the disaster description for my Data Backup Day post since, luckily, I had backed up my data the day before.  But not my settings.  The short story: I had to wipe the entire computer clean, reinstall the factory image, and reload all my programs and settings.  This is still going on and will take at least a week to finish.

• I did manage to pre-post the Wordless Wednesday post for GeneaBloggers - and there were lots of great blog posts for me to tag in Google Reader.

• Also, I had written Web-based Tools for Researching Living People here at Destination: Austin Family.  I gave it a final review and posted it.

• My intent was to work on several posts including carnival deadlines since I will be in New York this weekend visiting Mom.  Well, that didn't happen!

• Music today: no music - it takes too much concentration when you are working on reloading programs on the computer and dealing with settings.  Ugh.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Web-Based Tools For Locating Living People

Perhaps you are searching for long-lost cousins or other relatives for your next family reunion; or you are trying to find the original owner of a family heirloom bought at a flea market; or your name is Mrs. Mazumba from Nigeria and you must, must give away $10 Million dollars waiting to be claimed by the rightful heir - the truth is we all need to locate living people from time to time.

Here are some great web-based tools to help you on your search.

• 5 Best People-Search Engines (via Lifehacker)

• 8 Tools to Find Someone Online (via Lifehack)

• 15 Websites to Find People On The Internet (via makeuseof.com)

• 25 Free People Search Engines to Find Anyone (via findermind)

• 33 Web Tools for People Searches (via Technologizer)

• How To Conduct A Free Criminal Background Check Online (via makeuseof.com)

• Top 8 Sites to Identify The Owner Of A Phone Number (via makeuseof.com)

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Costco Carries Genealogy?

Who knew? Well, Costco doesn't really carry genealogy as a product but if you think about it they do carry many of the tools needed to preserve your memories: video cameras, computers, photo processing, scrapbooking materials, etc.

Readers who follow me on Twitter know that I am a big Costco fan and have been so every since the early 1990s back in California.  Each Saturday the big game in our house is called Escape from Costco Island: if you can get out of there in under 20 minutes and under $100 you win!  Well, let's just say I don't win very often.

In the November 2009 issue of Costco Connection - their membership magazine - there are several articles dealing with preserving memories, family history and genealogy.  The issue is available online and I've linked the articles below (they all open in a PDF file).

• Creating a Chronicle

• Writing a Memoir

• The Magic's In The Telling

• Discover Your Roots

• Talk To Me (about StoryCorps)

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A very quiet Tuesday at least from an email perspective - weird. Rainy and cold weather continues.

• Lots of Tombstone Tuesday posts to tag for the roll-up at GeneaBloggers.  Sometimes I wish I had more cemetery photos of my ancestors.

• Most of my day was spent working on two articles for upcoming issues of Family Tree Magazine.  They will appear in the March 2010 and May 2010 issues.  It was my first assignment with them and I have to say that FTM and F+W Media are a very well-oiled machine - I'm very impressed.

• Posted The Do's and Don'ts When Researching The Living here at Destination: Austin Family.

• Worked on the draft of a new post to go up here at DAF - lists web-based resources for locating living people.

• Found some interesting articles about personal history, capturing memories and genealogy in the Costco Connection magazine.  Usually I don't find much of value in this magazine since it is geared towards large suburban families and small home-based businesses but I was pleasantly surprised this issue.

• Received the latest issue of On Huguenot Street, the newsletter for the Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz, New York.  I noticed they are planning a family reunion for descendants of the original patent families - I descend along the Freer and Deyo lines.  They are looking for volunteers - I may see if they need a blog.

• Music today: it was more Jazz Divas - my fave of late is Lisa Ono, a Japanese woman born and raised in Brazil.  She does some great bossa nova versions of classic Jazz standards.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Do's and Don'ts When Researching The Living

Readers who have been following the series of posts about Marjorie Pauline Frost understand that there are certain challenges involved when attempting to locate living persons and perhaps subsequently writing about them on your blog.

While the research techniques may be the same or similar to those used when looking for our dead ancestors, there are certain approaches which work the best, and certain precautions which should be heeded.

Public vs. Private Information

As genealogists, most of us understand the need to protect private information especially for living persons.  This is why we often privatize GEDCOM files before posting them on websites, etc.  The same is true when attempting to locate living persons especially in a public, collaborative space such as Facebook or Twitter.

• Keep private info private.  Don't post names, addresses (including email addresses), and telephone numbers of living persons publicly.  On Twitter don't tweet publicly, use the Direct Message option.  On Facebook send an email, don't post such info on The Wall.

• Link where possible.  Although the data might be publicly available through a "people finder" site such as ZabaSearch, post a link to the page, not the data found on the site.

• Twitter: follow the leader.  If using Twitter, appoint one person as the collector of "leads" and have others participating in the research direct message the data to that person.

• Facebook: this group is closed.  If using Facebook, use a closed group and monitor access,  This allows you to post data and control who can and can't see the data.

Contacting Living Persons

• Expect hesitancy.  While contacting living people via telephone is preferred, understand that the person who answers might feel you are a scammer.  Consider sending an email with links to your blog or website in order to build legitimacy.  Or send a letter using the snail mail method, providing the recipient with your contact information.  Let them contact you if and when they feel comfortable.

• Expect to be rejected.  Some people are distanced from their families for a reason, and at their own choosing.  Respect their desires without judging.

Be Careful What You Write

If you decide to document your research experience, understand that while you can't defame the dead, you can be accused of defamation and/or libel when posting information about the living especially if it is untrue.

• Just the facts ma'am.  While blogs are often forums for personal views and free speech, play it safe and avoid injecting opinion when posting the facts which can be publicly located about a person.  Don't let your personal judgments get in the way.  Let readers come to their own conclusions.

• Do your own research.  When I locate family tree data online, I always try to verify the information even if it is properly sourced and cited.  The same goes for supposedly public information on living persons.  Don't just copy from another site or blog without knowing the source of the data.

• Consider the source.  Just as in genealogy research, certain sources are better than others and carry more weight.  Some sources may not be useful or may be biased.  When in doubt, don't include the fact if you don't feel comfortable with the reputation of the source.

• Admit when you are wrong.  If after posting you realize you made an error in research or stating a fact - make a correction.  And make the correction obvious - don't just edit the original post.  Some bloggers will use the "strikethrough" function and add an update in bold at the top of the original post explaining the edit.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Monday, October 26, 2009

This seemed to be a quieter Monday than usual - light on the blog posts to be read and on emails.

• The usual morning routine of reading emails, posts and tagging genealogy blog posts in Google Reader for Madness Monday at GeneaBloggers.

• Installed my complimentary copy of Handy Backup from Novosoft LLC since I'd been asked to write a review.  Wrote review and posted at GeneaBloggers.

• Also created post for Data Backup Day Contest at GeneaBloggers - giving away three copies of Handy Backup.

• Wrote and posted the final segment of the Marjorie Pauline Frost story at Destination: Austin Family.  Also worked on the Do's and Don'ts of Living Person Research post as a follow-up.  Made good headway and the post is almost finished.

• Received a request to reprint the Source Citation Quick Reference card from GeneaBloggers.  Said yes - flattered, actually.  All my QRs have the GB logo and part of branding and marketing plan for GB.  Am working on more QRs including one on creating a genealogy blog.

• Mapped out new blog posts ideas for both GB and DAF on the blogging editorial calendar.  I find my writing output has vastly improved and quality of writing has gone up since I started working with a calendar to track my writing.

• Finally, worked on a Twitter article for a major genealogy magazine to be published in March 2010.

• Music today: it was Jazz Divas day - Abbey Lincoln, Sophie Millman, Dana Owens (aka Queen Latifah), Lisa Ono, Susan Wong, Dinah Washington, Dorothy Dandridge.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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A Tripple Play

[This is Part 5 in a series of posts about how I was able to use Twitter and genealogy resources to reunite a baby book from 1926 with the original owner's family]

Previous posts:

Search For The Living - Honing Your Research Skills

The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost

So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost?

A Bar Room Brawl

Continued posts:

Do's and Don'ts When Researching the Living

Interview with Forgotten Bookmarks

So after I set Michael from Forgotten Bookarks off on the Pullman and Petriski wild goose chase, I remembered something: there was mention of Mable Frost as the nurse that helped deliver Marjorie Pauline Frost in 1926.  And in Michael's research and contacts, he found out that Mable died in the 1980s.

It seemed odd to me that the nurse at the hospital who delivered our Pauline had the same last name.  But then I remembered that in upstate New York it was not uncommon in the mid-1920s to still have a child delivered at home perhaps by the local doctor or midwife.

Mable Frost could not have been Devere Frost's sister - she did not show up on any of the US Federal Census records.  So perhaps she was Kenneth Frost's wife - the sister-in-law to Devere and aunt to Pauline.  And sure enough, the 1930 US Federal Census record for Kenneth Frost shows his wife as Mable Frost, both with children living in Cherry Valley, New York.

* * *

As I pursued further research, something else was bugging me.  In the back of my mind I kept wondering why the obituary for Pauline's maternal grandfather - Louis Crossway/Crauseway - didn't mention her but did mention other grandchildren.  While it can be disturbing and a bit sad that someone would seek to settle a score through the writing of a death notice, perhaps Pauline had conceived her child out of wedlock, thus the early marriage, and this caused embarrassment to the family.  But then why would the grandparents and parents release a birth announcement for Pauline's child in 1943?

* * *

So while that small piece of "collateral" or "sideways" research on Mable Frost - where one researches brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and even neighbors of the main subject - seems insignificant, the obituary for Mable Frost would make me feel glad that I did go sideways.

Mable Frost died on Tuesday, May 25, 1971 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  This might be our aunt to Pauline since the 1930 US Census report also showed she had been born in Michigan.  The obituary filled in the gaps:

"Mrs. Mabel B. Frost, 76 of Ypsilanti, Mich., a former resident of Cherry Valley, died Thursday, May 25, at Huron View Lodge in Ann Arbor, Mich. . . . She was married to Kenneth D. Frost . . ."

"Obituaries - Mrs. Mabel B. Frost," The Oneonta Star, 27 May 1971, online archives (http://access.newspaperarchive.com: accessed 25 October 2009), col. 1, citing original p. 11.

Well it's the same Mable.  More collateral info, right?  Read on:

"Surviving are . . . two nieces, Mrs. Pauline Pullman, Greene . . ."

* * *

"Oh Snap!" Well, at least it sounded something like that when I said it out loud.  Our Pauline Frost was Pauline Triple and now was Pauline Pullman? So Louis Crossway/Crauseway's death notice dated 1953 might not be incorrect or a slight to Pauline - it listed a Mrs. Willard Pullman as a grandchild.  And the article about Devere Frost's murder, dated 1947 listed Pauline as Mrs. Pauline Triple/Tripple - could Pauline already have been separated from her own husband as well? And later remarried - to Willard Pullman?

It is notoriously difficult to order vital records from New York State - I have first-hand experience - and in this case I couldn't justify the time and expense since it involved finding the original owner of a baby book.  So further research along the Pullman line might be needed.

* * *

In the meantime, Michael was already working Zaba Search and the phones looking for Pauline Triple/Tripple.  I had not been able to tell him we had been "Tripple played" as it were.  Oh, the trouble with Tripples.

Basically Michael came to find out that Pauline Frost Tripple Pullman had passed away by contacting the Tripple family.  No wonder when he called the families were perplexed - Pauline may not have stayed in touch with the Tripple family after her remarriage to Willard Pullman.

But after several phones calls and his own sleuthing, by 12:53 pm he was able to locate a niece of Marjorie Pauline Frost who lived about 40 minutes away from the bookstore and stopped by to retrieve the book.  Michael says that the woman did not really know our Pauline that well.

* * *

I know in the previous post, I had said this would be the last in the series.  I've tried to keep these "episodes" short and to the point and at the same time I didn't want to drag out the eventual resolution for days or weeks.

There will be more posts coming up having to do with Marjorie Pauline Frost.  Some will be a review of research pitfalls and the research process.  One will be an interview with Michael of Forgotten Bookmarks.

Stay tuned.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Sunday, October 25, 2009

A busy day since friends were coming over for dinner at 5pm - lots of cleaning and an afternoon of cooking.  Plus genealogy to squeeze in where possible.

• Created SNGF - Your Most Unique Ancestral Name rollup post over at GeneaBloggers.

• Updated Twitter cheat sheet and reposted.

• Played with Local Follow, a new app that lets you find Twitter folk by topic and location.  I searched genealogy without a location and founds lots of new people to follow.

• Got the bolognese sauce for dinner going about 1 pm.  It takes three hours minimum to cook.

• Spent lots of time writing on A Bar Room Brawl the next installment in the Marjorie Pauline Frost saga and also already wrote the next segment (I am not going to give away the title - it will appear soon!).

• Dinner with friends from 5 until 10 pm with lots of great conversation (health care, media, journalism, obits - I love my friends!) and lots of wine.

• Helped a Twitter friend try to find info on someone who died in jail in North Carolina in 1975 - could not find one article, sadly.

• Music today: it was guitar rock out day - Eric Clapton, Bob Seger, Cheap Trick, etc.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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A Bar Room Brawl

[This is Part 4 in a series of posts about how I was able to use Twitter and genealogy resources to reunite a baby book from 1926 with the original owner's family]

Previous posts:

Search For The Living - Honing Your Research Skills

The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost

So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost?

Continued posts:

A Tripple Play

Do's and Don'ts When Researching the Living

Interview with Forgotten Bookmarks

Well in the words of Kylie from those annoying Windows 7 commercials on television, "This is getting good!"

When we last left our search to reunite Marjorie Pauline Frost with her baby book from 1926, I had come upon a series of newspaper articles which taken as a whole left more questions unanswered than answered:

• did Pauline Frost really marry and have a child at age 17?

• were Devere and Marjorie Frost divorced or separated (based on her name appearing as "Mrs. Marjorie Frost" instead of "Mrs. Devere Frost")?

• if Pauline Frost's married name is Tripple, is it possible to locate her or a living relative to contact about the book?

* * *

I thought I had exhausted all my available newspaper resources, having worked with Ancestry, footnote, and GenealogyBank since I have purchased subscriptions to all these online databases.

Somehow, I forgot that I also had access to Newspaper Archive but not directly.  This was a benefit of my membership with the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS).  Even though I have no California ancestry, I wanted a way to support a great genealogy society even from afar in Chicago.  One benefit was being able to access SCGS databases onlne from my home, including Newspaper Archive.  So for $30 a year vs. $9.99 a month directly through Newspaper Archive, membership was a "no-brainer."

* * *

And what did I find?  That Devere Frost, Pauline's father, was killed in a bar room brawl.  And my connection to this story gets more bizarre - Devere died in the same hospital where I was born in Liberty, New York

From the Middletown Times Herald (which would later merge with The Record to become the Times-Herald Record, the local hometown paper I grew up with), Friday, December 26, 1947:

"A first degree murder charge was lodged against Miss Anna Ackerly, thirty-seven, of White Sulphur Springs today as a result of the death in Maimonides Hospital, Liberty, Wednesday evening of Devere Frost."

"Victim of Knifing Dies; Woman Is Held for Murder," Middletown Times Herald, 26 December 1947, online archives (http://access.newspaperarchive.com: accessed 25 October 2009), col. 4, citing original p. 12.

The last paragraph of the article is key to all the pieces of the Frost family and their story coming together:

"Frost who was born at Springfield, Otsego County, was the son of Otis Frost.  He was a veteran of World Wars One and Two and was forty-eight years old.  Survivors include a brother Kenneth, a daughter, Mrs. Pauline Triple, and his wife from whom he was reportedly separated.  The body was taken to Cherry Valley yesterday for services and burial."

Id.

And a check of the 1910 US Federal Census (keeping in mind that if Devere Frost fought in World War I, he would not likely be living with his parents for the 1920 US Federal Census), confirms this information as to Devere and his father and brother.

The census page shows Devere living in Springfield, Otsego County, New York with his father Otis and brother Kenneth.

* * *

So I've got confirmation that Marjorie Frost was separated from her husband - when this began I'm not sure - but it explains the use of Mrs. Marjorie Frost in newspaper articles. In fact, later articles about the murder trial of Miss Anna Ackerly would describe her as Devere's common law wife.  And confirmation that Pauline's married name is or was Triple/Tripple.

* * *

In the meantime, is Michael at Forgotten Bookmarks making any progress with the links I had sent earlier?  Well not really:

Using the obituary for Pauline's grandfather and possible married names of Petriski and Pullman, he was unable to find any definitive contact information for Pauline or her relatives.

The next step was to send him information confirming Pauline's married name as Triple or Tripple.

Stay tuned - for the final chapter of this series.  More amazing newspaper stories and finally contact with someone related to Pauline.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Saturday, October 24, 2009

I had a very rough night sleeping - not sure why but it could be the rainy weather and arthritis. Another issue were the "young folk" coming home a little tipsy between 2:00 am and 4:30 am (some bars close at 4:00 am or even 5:00 am in Chicago) and making lots of noise. The Andersonville shopping/dining area is at the end of my block so people often wander down Carmen Avenue on their way home. Been there. Done that. LOL.

• Did my usual morning routine which includes reading emails, blog posts and indexing the day's obits from my hometown paper for Obit Daily Times.

• Went to Costco and Dominick's (our version of Safeway).  Realized we hadn't been grocery shopping in 3 weeks due to travel.  Making bolognese sauce, pasta and Italian sausage Sunday night.

• Found out via e-mail that I will be a speaker at SCGS Jamboree 2010 in Burbank, CA in June 2010!

• Posted the New Genealogy Blogs post at GeneaBloggers - 20 new blogs some with great names like Celtic and Cannoli.

• Preposted all the Daily Blogging Theme roll-up posts for the next week.  This really makes it easy if I oversleep since East Coast folks look forward to these posts.  Also, I'll be home in New York next weekend so I won't have much time (or connectivity) to post.

• Took care of my own Surname Saturday and SNGF - Your Most Unique Ancestral Name posts for DAF

• Music today: reworked my iPod and added albums from the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir - a town choir from Wales which has won major musical awards.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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My Weird Family . . . Names That Is

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge has been put forth by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. Here are the details:

1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database - in your ancestry.

2) Tell us about this person in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

3) Okay, if you don't have a really good one - how about a sibling of your direct ancestors?

Actually this is a very tough one for me - perhaps because I have worked so closely with researching my ancestors for the past 15 years that their names no longer seem weird - not even the Dutch or Huguenot ones!

I would have to say the most unusual for me is Pedda Everett (1798 - 1879), my 4th great-grandmother. She is descended from Richard Everett (b. abt 1600 in England, died 1682 in Suffolk, Massachusetts) and married into my Austin line. Her husband was Ira Austin Sr. (1800 - 1872) and they must have met in Lowville, New York with Pedda's family having migrated there in the early 1800s.

Pedda's first name has always been an issue since I can't figure out if it is a derivative of another name or a typo. In her death notice she was mentioned as Peggy and I've even seen the name as Predda.


© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Surname Saturday - A to Z

I am going to copy an idea from Herstoryan in her Surname Saturday post where she outlines all her ancestry surnames (or least ones she plans to blog about) from A to Z.

I like the idea of posting my surnames - not only does it help me focus on possible posting topics but I can make sure they get out there in the search engines for others to find!

Albro
Austin
Boorsboom
Bosch
Bosie
Bradt
Damen
Dance/Dence/Denys
DeGroodt/DeGroat/DeGroot
DeVos
DeWandelaer/DeWanderlaer/DeWandelear/DeWanderlear
Doherty
Dow/Douw
DuChesne
DuTrieux/Truax
Everett
Farren
Gansevoort
Griffin
Groot
Hanse
Hawes
Henneberg
Herger
Herring
Kaijer
Klein
Krom
Mabie/Mabee/Maybee/Mebie
MacEntee/McEntee
Manch
Marinus
McGinnes/McGinnis
Meyer
O'Keefe
Pressner
Putman
Sanders
Schmidt
Slattery
Sullivan
Ten Eyck
VanAntwerp/VanAntwerpen
Vandenburgh
VanEps
VanSlyke
VonRotmers
Zwicker

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Genealogy Journal Friday, October 23, 2009

How busy is busy?  Well I was up early so I got a head start - Fridays can be touch and go.  I'm finding more bloggers and readers either work alternate schedules or take Fridays off so that means lots of emails, blog posts and comments to wade through.

• I was pleased to see quite a few Follow Friday posts.  Hope this daily blogging theme will take off and offer another topic upon which bloggers can post.

• Found a new site called spectives which is an RSS aggregator but visually based. Created a small collection called genealogy but they require that each feed be entered manually - too time consuming with close to 700 blogs. Emailed their team to ask if they could import my OPML file one time and then I can publicize spectives on GB.

• Finished and posted the Upcoming Weekly Events for next week over at GB.  I had the post finished late last night and gave it the once over.  October has had many conferences and speaking engagement since it is Family History Month.

• I also did a special event post at GB on the 14th Annual Sunnyslope Cemetery Stroll in Corona, CA.  I thought the event was unique enough and a concept which other genealogical and historical societies could use in terms of events.

• Worked quite a bit on the next installment of the Marjorie Pauline Frost saga.

• I was pleased to hear from footnote Maven that Elizabeth Shown Mills had checked in on our Find A Grave citation quandry - and I didn't get a source citation ticket.  Woot!  fM has done great job tracking this issue and you can read more here at Citation Geeks - Elizabeth Shown Mills Bats Cleanup.

• Began a new pro bono research project - this time someone with Hawiian and heretfore unknown Portuguese ancestry.  Very interesting - I had to educate myself on the Portuguese naming conventions and found out they are different in Brazil than they are in Portugal.

• Music today: Nikki Harris (one of Madonna's backup singers), Sophie Millman, Diana Krall, John Barrowman, Patricia Barber and lots of jazz.  I use my iPod Nano and hook it up behind me with a pair of bookshelf speakers.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost?

[This is Part 3 in a series of posts about how I was able to use Twitter and genealogy resources to reunite a baby book from 1926 with the original owner's family]

Previous posts:

Search For The Living - Honing Your Research Skills

The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost

Continued posts:

A Bar Room Brawl

A Tripple Play

Do's and Don'ts When Researching the Living

Interview with Forgotten Bookmarks

Well I now had a maiden name for Pauline's mother - Crossway - and thought I should try to find a marriage announcement for Pauline in the newspapers using the Old Fulton NY Postcards site.  This way I'd have a name to use when searching the white pages and seeing if Pauline was still alive.

One note on the timeline of this process - some readers have already asked, "How long did it take from start to finish to find Pauline or her family?"  Well, I don't want to give that away right yet, but remember from our first post that on Twitter this all started at 9:12 am (CDT) as shown here.  I'll summarize the timeline so far at the end of this post but let's just say that by 10:37 am, phones calls were being made!

* * *

The next challenge was coming up with a search syntax that would allow me to easily locate marriage information for Pauline.  I figured I could use "Marjorie Frost" +daughter + marriage +Pauline but perhaps "Devere Frost" would be better.  Women would have been referred to as "Mrs. Devere Frost" and not "Mrs. Marjorie Frost" unless she were widowed.  Also as for time, if Pauline were born in 1926, I assume the marriage could have been anywhere from 1944 onward.

Well using "Devere Frost" . . . I only found four newspaper articles, all 1936 or earlier.  I also made certain to try "De Vere" and "Devere."  No luck.

But I did stumble upon an obituary which mentioned "daughter Mrs. Marjorie Frost" and was dated 1953. Well it appears Devere would have died and perhaps the death notice had the married name for Pauline.

"Warren," Richfield Springs Mercury, 1953 August 13, online archives (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%202/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201953-1954.pdf/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201953-1954%20-%200251.pdf: accessed 22 October 2009), Col. 4, para. 1; citing original p. 4.

Well on the plus side, the fact that Louis Crossway was born in Germany matches up with the 1930 US Federal Census sheet for Marjorie Frost where the census enumerator listed Germany as her father's birth place. So Pauline should be listed as one of the grand children right?

Well to make a long story short, much time was wasted trying to find a Pauline Pullman or a Pauline Petriski. I won't go into the details but I am going to surmise that either our Pauline was omitted from the obituary or erroneously listed as a great-grandchild which were listed without names.

* * *

Where to go next? Well I thought a syntax of "Marjorie Frost" +announces +wed to see if that picked up something. And it did - but not what I expected.

A birth announcement for the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Tripple: "The mother is is the former Pauline Frost, daughter of Mrs. Marjorie Frost of Mohawk."

"Warren," The Otsego Farmer, 1943 August 27, online archives (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Cooperstown%20NY%20Otsego%20Farmer/Cooperstown%20NY%20Otsego%20Farmer%20&%20Republican%20Grayscale%201942%20-%201943/Cooperstown%20NY%20Otsego%20Farmer%20&%20Republican%20Grayscale%201942%20-%201943%20-%200711.pdf: accessed 22 October 2009), Col. 3; citing original p. 2.

So, this would mean Pauline had her child at age 17? And would have been married at barely 17 or earlier?

* * *

I think I need a break, need to regroup my strategy and see what the next step is. The problem is that as I am finding items, I am "tweeting" them live. So @forgottenbkmrks is a little ahead of me in terms of contacting the living:

The tweets show other articles that we've found as well. Note the time - it is 10:37 am which means we've only been at it for about 90 minutes.

Stay tuned . . .

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Thursday, October 22, 2009

Thursday was another busy day and a rainy one here in Chicago.  I got an early start and just seemed to plow through my writing schedule.  Thursday tends to be a quieter day in the genealogy blogosphere at least in my opinion.  Perhaps because not as many bloggers participate in Treasure Chest Thursday - it is a fairly new daily blogging theme after all

• Went through blog posts from other bloggers pretty quickly - I think it helped I was up late the night before and in the middle of the night checking posts.

• Finally posted my review of dynastree over at GeneaBloggers.  I also had to research the newly proposed FTC regulations on bloggers and reviewing products so I could construct a disclaimer statement.  I think I'll also write a post about this type of disclaimer soon at GeneaBloggers since other bloggers may need to utilize the same language down the road.

• Worked about 2 hours on the latest baby book story installment - The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost here at DAF. I've received many positive comments and readers seem to like that I am documenting my thought process in an "out loud voice."

• Decided which GenClass course I wanted to take in November - the one that I won this week.  My choice: Jewish Internet Genealogy.  Why?  I am finding that more and more of the requests I get to do research for friends are from those with Jewish ancestry.

• Spent much of the day dealing with inquiries to a Craigslist ad I posted.  No, not that kind of ad - at my age I'd get more money if I charged by the pound. The in-laws are having a garage sale starting today and they wanted me to advertise it on Craigslist.  Well, I wasn't prepared for all the emails, people wanted to get a peek at stuff etc.  Ugh.

• I was pretty much done by 5:30 pm with all my genealogy work.  Went down to Wrigleyville (my old neighborhood near Wrigley Stadium) and met my friend Erica at Casey Moran's for $2 burger and $3 micro-brew night! Hey, it's the Great Recession and you gotta get cheap eats where you can!.

• When I got home, my evening was spent working on my class action lawsuit that I am help lead against my former law firm.  Long story that actually has its own blog - Heller Highwater - and we are close to a settlement.  I can finally start to recover wages that were never paid to me when I was laid off in October 2008.

• Just when I thought I was done, I realized I needed to post The Importance of Daily Blogging Themes at GB.  There are two new daily blogging themes - Follow Friday and Surname Saturday - which meant setting up new pages for them, creating gene@pedia articles for them, and scheduling the blog posts.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost

[This is Part 2 in a series of posts about how I was able to use Twitter and genealogy resources to reunite a baby book from 1926 with the original owner's family]

Previous posts:

Search For The Living - Honing Your Research Skills

Continued posts:

So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost?

A Bar Room Brawl

A Tripple Play

Do's and Don'ts When Researching the Living

Interview with Forgotten Bookmarks

After I contacted Michael via Twitter, he posted photos (as seen above) of the baby book using Twitpic. With the name of the baby (Marjorie Pauline Frost), the name of the birth mother (Marjorie Frost) and a possible birth date of February 1926, I went to work. I also took time to read the narrative from the My First Outing page which gave me geographical information:

My first trip away from home was on March 20, 1926. I went to Mohawk and stayed at Aunt Cora's & Uncle Charlie's all night. I seen my G. Grandmother Frost while I was there. Then I went to Fort Plain and visited Aunt Mable & Uncle Kenneth for a couple of days. I also seen my Grandfather & Grandmother Frost. Then I went to Warren called on my great grandmother & Grandfather Forte. From there I went to visited my great grandfather & grandmother Crossway. I stayed two night there. On March 25, I went back to Watertown.

My assumption all along was that since the book was found in an Oneonta, NY bookstore that Marjorie Frost grew up in the area. The geographical locations of Mohawk, Fort Plain, Warren and Watertown confirm this. Also I now had surnames including Forte and Crossway.

* * *

First stop: Ancestry.com since I knew Michael had already tried online resources such as Google and the white pages to locate Marjorie or living relatives.

I looked to the 1930 US Federal Census and tried to locate a Marjorie Frost born 1926 in New York and assumed she still lived in New York in 1930. Result: nothing that matched upstate New York records although there were some possibilities located in the Bronx and other areas.

My thoughts: the family could have moved down to the city since it was the start of the Great Depression and employment opportunities were better near or in the big cities.

But rather than waste time I used this search syntax under the Refine Search link for the 1930 US Federal Census: First Name - Marjorie, Last Name - Frost, birth date - 1926, birth place - New York, residence - New York.

* * *

And bingo! While the result didn't show Marjorie, it did show an entry for a Marjorie Frost b. 1899 married to Devere Frost b. 1899 and a daughter Pauline aged 4 1/2 years. So it turns out our Marjorie Pauline Frost went by Pauline.

The census page reveals that Marjorie Pauline's parents were Devere (b. abt. 1899) and Marjorie Frost (b. abt. 1899) and they lived in German Flatts, Herkimer County, New York. German Flatts is not too far from Mohawk and the other locations mentioned in the book. Marjorie's father was born in Germany and Devere Frost worked as a contruction engineer for the state road department.

* * *

So where next? Well I knew that given the geographical region that I could go to the Old Fulton NY Postcards website and search over 10,000,000 digitized newspaper pages from before the 1900s through to the present day. If I could get a marriage announcement for Marjorie Pauline, I could learn her married name and then see if there was a record in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) for her. I still hoped that at age 83 she would still be living. Also, I'd like to learn the maiden name for Marjorie Frost, Devere's wife.

Just for shiggles and because I couldn't resist (and because I am a good genealogy researcher who looks at all documents and records to see what does and doesn't fit), I thought I'd do a new Ancestry search using the first name Pauline. Well, this is where it gets complicated.

What turns up? Well an SSDI record for a Pauline Frost, born 1926, died January 1994, last known address in Chemung County, New York. Hmmmm. Could be that Pauline never married.

But as I looked more, I found this was a different Pauline Frost - a Pauline E. Frost and Frost was her married name. Basically a listing in the U.S. Veterans Gravesites database confirmed she was married to Leslie M. Frost and couldn't be my Marjorie Pauline.

* * *

I decided to start with a search on Devere Frost since the first name is rather unusual. Several articles appeared from the 1930s and mention Mohawk, New York:



"Warren," Richfield Springs Mercury, 1932 July 7, online archives (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%202/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201931-1932%20pdf: accessed 22 October 2009), Col. 1, para. 6; citing original p. 8.

I noted that the article mentions Pauline's mother visiting her own parents and the last name is Crausway. This seems to match Crossway mentioned in the baby book. I will need to search on variations of Crossway in the local newspapers. So one goal is reached: Marjorie Frost's maiden name was Crossway or some variation.

While looking further I was able to find the wedding announcement for Devere Frost and Marjorie Crossway which helped me confirm Marjorie's maiden name:



"Herkimer County," Richfield Springs Mercury, 1920 June 3, online archives (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%202/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201919-1920.pdf/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201919-1920%20-%200615.pdf: accessed 22 October 2009), Col. 3, para. 2; citing original p. 12.

Just as I was about to begin another search, one article caught my eye since it mentioned the small town where I grew up in New York. The article from 1939 states "Mr. and Mrs. Devere Frost and daughter, Pauline, of Liberty, N.Y. . . ." Wow. Maybe this is my connection with the baby book and why this project called to me. My thinking is that if Devere worked for the state road department, he and his family may have moved around the state quite a bit as he worked helping to build highways.



Mrs. Daniel Smith, "Warren," Richfield Springs Mercury, 1939 June 28, online archives (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%202/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201939-1940.pdf: accessed 22 October 2009), Col. 4, para. 3; citing original p. 4.

* * *

The next step would be to find a marriage announcement for Marjorie Pauline Frost. Stay tuned.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Wednesday, October 21, 2009

In my last journal post I wondered what Wednesday would bring - well it brought lots of work, that's what it brought.  I didn't have a sense of accomplishment by day's end but perhaps that's what this journal is for - to help me see what genealogy work I actually do on a given day.

• Lots of posts to review from the genealogy blogs - Wordless Wednesday is one of the most popular blogging themes.  And there have been lots of great photos lately.

• Intriguing post from Herstoryan about whether it is permissible to "enhance" a citation format.  Take a look at her post as well as my response on How To Cite A Find A Grave Headstone as well as footnote Maven's wonderful post on the same topic.  In case you are unfamiliar with Herstoryan check out her blog - she is relative new on the genealogy blogging scene but has some great content and poses some great questions to the genealogy community.

• Posted the May Introduce To You . . . Elizabeth O'Neal post over at GeneaBloggers.  I am really happy with the writing Gini Webb of Ginisology has been doing with this series.  A hint for all those .

• Finally completed a rather technical post at GeneaBloggers on Subscribing To A Blog Via Email.  One of the participants in last weekend's blogging session at CGSL had asked for this information and I feel bad it took me so long.  But I needed to properly review the entire feed burning process in two other posts before I could get to this one.

• Well, turns out that my pro bono work for a friend may actually end up paying off.  Literally.  It seems his colleagues were "blown away" by my work and my report to the point they are interested in engaging my services.  I am working up a rate sheet and will send it along with my resume.

• I've offered to work with another friend on her Hawaiian and Portuguese research - pro bono as well - because it is an area that interests me and I need the experience.  I may start that today.

• Finally, I did not get to post more on the Marjorie Pauline Frost baby book and I will do that first thing today - I know lots of readers want the next chapter and want to see how the research was done on that project.

Well I guess I did do quite a bit yesterday.  Ever have days where you turn of the computer, turn off the desk lamp and go to bed thinking it was a day where nothing got done?  I guess that's why journaling is important - now I see that I got more accomplished than I gave myself credit for.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tuesday was not too busy - I finally got to start blogging on the Marjorie Pauline Frost book (see below)!

• Did my usual tour of the genealogy and tech blog posts.  Lots of Tombstone Tuesday posts were flagged during the day.

• Found out that I had won a free on-line class from GenClass so posted about it at DAF.  Forgot that I had even entered in the contest!

• Answered several technical questions via e-mail from fellow genealogy bloggers - mostly pertaining to Google Analytics as well as formatting issues with Blogger.

• Fooled around with Google Wave a bit and also sent out more invites.  I think I am totally out now.

• Spent much of the late afternoon working on the post about a 1926 baby book for Marjorie Pauline Frost and trying to match it up with its owner or the owner's family.  This was a fun Twitter-based CSI-type project on September 21, 2009 and I wanted to do a series of posts to illustrate the power and importance of Twitter for the genealogy community.  Search for the Living - Honing Your Research Skills is the first part and explains how I got involved in the search.

A good day - even had time for a late afternoon nap.  Wondering what Wednesday will bring . . .

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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How To Cite A Find A Grave Headstone

I just finished reading a great post entitled Citation: Is it ever okay to enhance the standard? Opinions, Please..." by Herstoryan at her blog. In it she wonders about the proper citation format for a gravestone located on Find A Grave and whether or not it is permissible to go beyond that standard source citation formats of MLA and others.

For those in the same predicament as to how to properly cite sources, I highly recommend Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown Mills. You can get an E-book version via Footnote or a hardcover version via Genealogical Publishing Company. Also Dear Myrtle just mentioned that the 2nd Edition is now available.

Herstoryan decided to use the following format to cite the headstone:

Headstone: Mary Nancy McCaskill Massey. 1974. Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas. Digital Image by Walter Dunn. Findagrave.com Memorial #15616487 created 04 Sept 2006. Accessed 21 Oct 2009

But following Evidence Explained (p. 229), it might look something like this:

Source List Entry
Find A Grave.com Digital images. http://www.findagrave.com: 2009.

First Reference Note
Find A Grave.com, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 21 October 2009), photograph, gravestone for Mary Nancy McCaskill Massey (1881-1974), Amarillo, Texas.

Subsequent Note
Find A Grave.com, photograph, gravestone for Mary Nancy McCaskill Massey (1881-1974), Amarillo, Tex.

As to the question of "enhancing" a citation standard, my opinion is that it is permissible as long as 1) the enhancement clarifies instead of confuses and 2) you are consistent in that new format.

Consistency is important especially when using genealogy database software because if you later want to change the format, you can probably use a "search and replace" function. Having consistent citations for Find A Grave images would make it much easier to update all of them at one especially if there were a Source List Entry.

Personally, I would add the following: 1) give credit to the photographer if possible and 2) include the memorial number which is 15616487 but make sure you reference it as Find A Grave's memorial number otherwise readers may think it is a number used by the cemetery.

So my version for the First Reference Note might be:

Find A Grave.com, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 21 October 2009), photograph by Walter Dunn, gravestone for Mary Nancy McCaskill Massey (1881-1974), Find A Grave Memorial #15616487, Amarillo, Texas.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Search for the Living - Honing Your Research Skills

[This is Part 1 in a series of posts about how I was able to use Twitter and genealogy resources to reunite a baby book from 1926 with the original owner's family]

Continued posts:

The Search for Marjorie Pauline Frost

So Many Questions - Whither Marjorie Pauline Frost?

A Bar Room Brawl

A Tripple Play

As a continue on my journey of becoming a certified professional genealogist, one area I constantly work on is honing my research skills. One way is to seek out opportunities since they don't always fall in your lap.

I'd like to relate a research project that came my way on September 21, 2009 via Twitter. Thanks go out to on of my "tweeps" @ForgottenBkmrks who also runs the wonderful Forgotten Bookmarks blog.

What started out as a request for help in locating the owner of a 1926 baby book turned into a group research project on Twitter and called upon resources that the typical person would not know about but resources with which most genealogists are familiar.

* * *

On September 21, 2009, I read the following messages from a fellow Twitter user @ForgottenBkmrks:



The first message: "ok, twitter. what should i do? found someone's baby book from 1926. want to track down the owner do i pay for those find-a-person services?" was followed soon thereafter by the second message: "difficulty: owner's name not in any of the local phone books, no real results via google."

I knew that through my experience with Unclaimed Persons (a wonderful group of genealogists and cyber-sleuths who help match up bodies in county morgues with next of kin) that various online tools existed to located living persons, or if the subject of the 1926 baby book had passed away, her descendants.

* * *

So how does one come into possession of a baby book for one Pauline Marjorie Frost who was born sometime shortly before March 1, 1926? As mentioned in the Forgotten Bookmarks Q&A section, Michael works at a used and rare bookstore and it is common to buy entire boxes of books from customers. Sometimes there are hidden treasures (photos, notes, mementos) - the "forgotten bookmarks" of life hidden inside. And sometimes there are entire books which must still have sentimental value for the original owner or the family of that owner.

For me there was an immediate attraction to Michael's finds which are detailed almost every day in blog posts at Forgotten Bookmarks. Plus it doesn't hurt that he is located in Oneonta, NY not far from where I grew up and where my ancestors lived for two centuries.

Photos: 1926 Baby Book of Marjorie Pauline Frost. Digital photographs. Privately held by Forgotten Bookmarks, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Oneonta, New York. 2009. Via Twitpic.

* * *

Next: The Search for Pauline Marjorie Frost - how I took the known information from the baby book and began to use online genealogy research databases to locate Pauline and/or her family.


© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Guess What I Won? A Free Class At GenClass!

Usually I don't enter contests.  I'm a big believer in the saying, "People don't win the lottery.  Other people win the lottery."  But this time I decided to enter the Celebrate Family History month contest at GenClass and - I won!

So I get to select the course of my choice which is very sweet.  And this fits perfectly with my current assignment as part of the ProGen 4 group - it deals with education and developing an educational plan for your genealogy career.

Once I sign up for and take my class at GenClass, I'll report back on my experience so others can see if the offerings at GenClass would work for them.  I can't wait to get started on this!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Monday, October 19, 2009

Monday was very busy overall with lots of writing - which I love!

• Went through all the genealogy and technology blogs in my Google Reader first thing in the morning and throughout the day.  Made sure any Madness Monday posts were tagged.

• Put up several posts over at GeneaBloggers including one on how to burn a feed using FeedBurner and one on the Winter 2009 Cookbook.  

• The cookbook project generated some excitement over on Twitter - I think these types of collaborative projects are important.  They help give focus on a concept for some bloggers and allows them to share their family traditions and stories.  I need to figure out the best format for both a) submitting recipes/photos/stories and b) publishing the finished product.  One idea is to have genealogy bloggers post the recipe and backstory on their own blog and then submit them. This would give their post exposure now and when the book is published.  But posting now might also "give away" too much and not make the cookbook seem as exciting.  Still pondering.

• Received an exciting offer from a vendor and it looks like GeneaBloggers will have a neat Data Backup Day contest on November 1, 2009! Need to post about this soon.

• Facebook suddenly - and with little warning - redesigned the Group pages which impacts the GeneaBloggers on Facebook group.  Posted about this at GeneaBloggers and I really think the changes are for the better.  I really like that they've included the Wall concept as opposed to Discussion Topics.

• Worked on Google Wave with a few people including Amy Coffin, Paula Hinkel and Tamura Jones. Not getting the hang of it yet and I can't just wrap my head around possible genealogy uses.  My fear is it appears too "techie" for the average genealogist.  I did send out all my remaining Google Wave invites - I knew I never should have mentioned I was sitting on seven of them over at Twitter.

• Read Chapters 2 and 8 in the Professional Genealogy book for my ProGen 4 assignment.  Now need to do the homework and post the files before October 31st.

• Finally, summarized my research for this pro bono project for a friend with Jewish roots.  I enjoyed the opportunity and while I was able to locate and verify 30 different documents, I could only find one of his great-grandparents so far.  I seem to have hit a stopping point which will require using non-online resources.  Still, I summarized my progress so far and sent it on.

A full day indeed!  Looking forward to more genealogy work/fun on Tuesday!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sunday was a productive day given I didn't get out of bed until 10:30 am.  But it was a sunny day which was nice after a week of doom, gloom, rain and highs of 45F!

• First thing before I even went to Google Reader was to get the Black Sheep Sunday post up on GeneaBloggers.  I usually schedule all the Daily Blogging Theme posts (Black Sheep Sunday, Madness Monday, Tombstone Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday and Treasure Chest Thursday) on Saturday for the following week but I had forgotten to do so.  It also takes a clear mind since you have to make sure you don't actually post "live" but schedule them.  I also used su.pr to schedule my Twitter and Facebook status postings for the same posts.

• Did a quick check on the SNGF - A Family's Increase postings and made sure the new ones which came in overnight were tagged so they would show up in the Google Reader widget.

• Read some amazing blog posts with my morning coffee - some great writing and great genealogy info out there!

• Worked on my editorial calendar for both GeneaBloggers and DAF.  I am using Evernote and basically created a Microsoft Word calendar based on a table, pasted it into a new notebook, and then list the title/topic of each post I want to put up.  When I do post, I highlight the text in green.  If I don't post something as scheduled, I carry it over to the next day.

• Posted about Labels and Tags for blogs over at GeneaBloggers.  This post was in response to a great series of emails from a participant at the Build a Genealogy Blog session at CGSL last Saturday.

• Posted about "burning a feed" - what it is and why it is important for bloggers - at GeneaBloggers.  This too was in response to an email by a CGSL member.  While the original question was how to get family members to sign up for email alerts when new blog posts are available, I realized I needed to backtrack and post a series on feed burners before I could post the email alerts posts.  I hope to have that one posted by Tuesday, October 20, 2009.

• Worked on an issue for my cousin Wendy in Long Island related to missing headstones at a cemetery in Queens, New York.  Made some contacts about the concept of "perpetual care" and will see what the genealogy blogosphere can find on this interesting topic.

• Rest of the night was spent watching some television and making an Italian sausage pasta sauce and shells for dinner.

• Wow - got to bed at 10:30 pm - amazing!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Genealogy Journal Saturday, October 17, 2009

Well I've decided to take a cue from Randy Seaver who has been detailing his genealogy escapades for a long time - well almost since day one - over at The Geneaholic.

I've wanted to keep a journal of my genealogy activities for the longest time and this morning I said to myself, "Thomas," I said, "just jump in and do it!"  Much like the way many of us started blogging in the first place, there comes a point where you must abandon your fears of "not getting it right" and go at it.  A rhythm and a writing style for the journal will develop over time - this is in line with my belief that the more you blog, the better your writing becomes.

Also, as I am in this career transitional phase from the Information Technology field over to genealogy with an emphasis on technology and social networking, I want to be able to look back and say, "so that's where all that time went!" Yeah, right.  So here goes.

• Woke up at 7:00 am after only 3.5 hour sleep.  I was on a tear researching a friend's Jewish genealogy as a pro bono project.

• Published the New Genealogy Blogs post for the week over at GeneaBloggers which was sitting ready to go in draft mode.  Fourteen new blogs this week with some great new areas covered such as Latvian genealogy.

• Went through almost 200 blog posts from genealogy blogs during the day on Google Reader.  Also covered another 50 blog posts in the tech blogs - weekends are the slowest time for tech postings since much of them tend to be "breaking news" developments about technology.

• Worked another 4 hours on my friend's genealogy.  If anyone has surnames Wiseblood, Herzfeld, Bornstein or Siegel/Siegal or knows of any variations please email me.  I think I've gone as far as I can using online resources and will need to visit The Newberry Library this week.

• Went out for Ethiopian food and beer with my friend Erica - a short walk from my home.  Came back to an email from my cousin Wendy who was upset about a cemetery visit that afternoon.  It appears that all markers for a set of her ancestors had been removed.  She asked if I could do some research on this particular cemetery and ask my "cemetery friends" as she put it if they had any ideas as to why and how this happened.

• Wrote my SNGF - A Family's Increase post which was fun.  For some reason I thought Grandma and Grandpa Austin had more descendants than just 87 - I think I need to contact living relatives and root out some more.  I also did the SNGF roll-up over at GeneaBloggers.

• Well I'd like to say the day ended at 11:30 pm having had little sleep . . . but no.  Got hooked on PBS and next thing I knew it was 5:00 am and the American Masters: Joan Baez special had just ended.  Off to bed!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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SNGF - My Family's Increase

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge has been put forth by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, and once I read it, I immediately knew which set of great-grandparents I would use.  Here are the details:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.

And here is what I have to present:

1) I've selected the great-grandparents who I knew and who had a huge influence on my childhood - John Ralph Austin (31 Jan 1896 - 20 April 1976) and Therese Rose McGinnes (6 Apr 1894 - 25 Apr 1988).

2) I used Family Tree Maker 2009 only because I am in the middle of re-entering my database in RootsMagic 4 (call me crazy) and can't run the report from there.

3) The descendants, using Randy's neat "by generation" listing:

1. Children = 3 (1 still living)
2. Grandchildren = 15 (1 deceased)
3. Great-grandchildren = 32 (1 deceased)
4. Great-great-grandchildren = 37 (1 deceased)
5. 3rd great-grandchildren = undetermined

4) The total is 87 but I know there are more.  I have a bad habit of not keeping up with the living especially if they aren't on the Internet.  One of my goals has been to do a mailing this Christmas with forms and prepaid postage to gather recent data on births, deaths, etc.

Most the great-grandchildren are around my age, any where from 50 to about 30 years of age.  Their children have just started to have children of their own in the past 5 years or so - my estimate is that there must be at least 10 more descendants for whom I've not yet accounted.

Photo: Therese McGinnes Austin and Ralph Austin. Grahamsville, New York, abt 1946.  Digital photograph. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2009.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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