Author: Kathleen

More Verification

Posted on by Kathleen

Can you tell I’ve been obsessed with city directories? Well I am. I’ve hit many roadblocks while researching my father’s side of the family. It comes from being the only person that I know of researching them. This doesn’t mean other people aren’t researching them, it just means they may not be googling me. I guess I’m not surprised at that. ha. One of the familial lines I’m going solo on is the Parkin side of the family. I have suspicions once I link this family to England, the heavens might open and I’ll be showered with information… No? Well a girl can dream.

1900 US Census, Newark, NJ
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Huff Photo Studio Research

Posted on by Kathleen

In my previous post, Mystery Monday: The Baby, I decided to research a little bit about the photo studio that took the photograph. I was hoping by researching the studio, I’d at least have a ball park figure for when the photo could have been taken. Little did I know I’d get immersed in looking up the studio in question!

The journey started when I found another photograph, from the same studio, but it’s name was slightly different and the address had changed. I decided my next plan of attack was going to have to be the Newark City Directory on Footnote.com. I’m posting my results not only because I found it fun and interesting but because I want other researchers to benefit from these dates!

F.L. Huff Advertisement, 1869.
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Follow Friday: Tonia’s Roots

Posted on by Kathleen

On December 10th, I blogged about being chosen for the Ancestors Approved award by Cheri Daniels. I said in the post that I was going to highlight my chosen 10 as Follow Friday posts after the holidays. The first winner is here!

Tonia Kendrick at Tonia’s Roots! Tonia was one of the first genealogy blogging buddies I made. She commented on my blog asking a question about the software we both use (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding).  She’s very active on twitter and is always quick to offer congratulations or help to others.

Her blog is very fun to read. Adding a little personality are the scrapbook-like images she makes for her entries. It just adds a little pop to the factual information she’s posting. My favorite features are her vital records analysis and the reviews of her recent experience at the Atlanta Family History Expo.

Some of my favorite posts of hers are:

So if you have a few extra minutes, check out her blog!

Tonia’s Roots

Follow Friday is a Daily Blogging Topic used by GeneaBloggers worldwide.

Verification is Wonderful

Posted on by Kathleen

Ever since I started this journey into genealogy, I’ve learned something new everyday. It’s wonderful to learn so many different things. Whether it be a technique to searching the census or what exactly a Sawyer is. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in genealogy is to verify, verify, verify. I’m still learning all the different types of sources you can use to learn millions of different facts.

Awhile back, I found my William H Moore in a Chicago city directory. In fact, I found him in Chicago directories for the years 1866 through 1870.

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Organizing my Chaos: Part 3 and some lessons

Posted on by Kathleen

I’ve learned some more valuable lessons this week. I recently figured out how to “schedule” posts here on the blog. So I wrote up two entries this weekend and “scheduled” them for Monday and Tuesday respectively. Then I went in Monday night and made some changes to yesterdays post to reflect that I was planning on ordering my office supplies yesterday. Have to keep the space-time continuum you know.

Lesson 1: Don’t schedule a post until you’re sure of the outcome you discuss.

The problem comes up when I got up in the morning. The reason I was trying the schedule method is my mornings are often filled with errands. I thought, “Hey, that could be cool! I write the entry the night before and schedule it for the morning while I’m out!” I think it’ll be a great way to pre-write the GeneaBloggers themes and even my Diary of Llewellyn posts.  When I’m home though, I think I’ll stick to manually posting.

You see, I had every intention of going into town, depositing my pay and coming home to order the supplies I picked out. Somehow in the trips to a million stores, I figured why not just stop by Staples and see what the in store prices were. I had checked online and they were quite a bit more expensive then Office Depot. I was shocked when I got in the store.

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Organizing my Chaos: Part 2

Posted on by Kathleen

Okay, I’ve made my decision. I was dogsitting again this weekend, so I have some extra money. This extra money is going to be the start of my genealogy organization fund.

I’m going to have two sections of organization. My mother’s side and my father’s side. Then I’m going to split each section into my 4 great grandparents. So on my father’s side, that would be Moore, Thorward, Redford, and Parkin. On my mother’s side it would be Mays, Moyer, Taylor, and Applegate.

For now I’m going to stick with my Walmart Hanging Folder crates. My hope is that once I’m actually organized, they’ll be more efficient for me.

I’ve ordered my supplies from Office Depot and now I wait for them to get here. Then it’s time to work! These hanging folders come with five of each color and I’m using one color for each of the eight surnames. My current setup has two hanging folders (Moore and Mays) and all the documents are in acid-free sheet protectors. Everything else is just hanging around in no particular order. Everytime I need to find something I have to pour through everything.

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Week 1: New Years Memories

Posted on by Kathleen

This year I’ll be participating in the weekly series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History. It’s a joint effort between GeneaBloggers and Amy Coffin at the We Tree blog. Every week there will be a new topic for me to write about my own past and family history.

Week 1: Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?!

For as long as I can remember, we’ve always done movie marathons on New Years Eve. In fact, that’s our family activity. When we were little, Dad would take us to the video store and we’d have to agree on one movie and then he’d get a “grownup” movie. It would be all of us, and then as we got older it was just me and my sister. We would actually stay up and watch whatever marathon was on TV whether it be a Corey Haim/Corey Feldman marathon on TNT or it was the top 100 music videos on MTV. We weren’t real formal about it.

This tradition has evolved from a marathon night to a family movie night. Now we usually just watch one movie (this year Inception), and we make snacks and drink sparkling cider. I know it’s tame but it’s our little tradition and I can’t see us ending it anytime soon! One day I’m definitely going to instill this tradition in my own family. My best memories growing up are the family movie nights. Whether it be New Years, Halloween, Christmas, and of course birthdays!

The above image is a free clipart image from the Microsoft Office website. I do not own it and am not using it to make money. I am just incapable of having an image free entry.