Wonderful episode about Vanessa Williams. Love how it relied mostly on going to the records, instead of finding everything on ancestry.com or the Internet.
Christmas Past
Our Christmas tree in 1958 when I was 6 months old. That's me at the bottom, the bald headed baby gazing up at the tree.
In memory of mom
Mom passed away a year ago today. This is a collage I put together last night with a photo from every decade of her life, 1920s through 2000s.
scanning scanning scanning
I just finished scanning 753 of mom's photos. Now I need to be sure all ancestor photos are scanned, then make cd or dvd copies for my brothers and sisters, and be done by Thanksgiving day. The 753 photos are just a fraction of the photos she took in her life. One of the things we will do Thanksgiving day is give each brother and sister a box full of photos of their families that she took. I have only scanned the photos that have members of two or more families in them. So yeah! One part done. Now to figure out how many dvds it will take to copy them!
Halloween in Sargent
I subscribe to the Nebraska State Historical Society blog and their post today included a photo of Sargent, with buggies on top of the roof of "Ottun and Martin". I remember dad talking about this particular type of Halloween prank and wondering how they got them up there! I wonder where the Ottun and Martin business was located in Sargent. According to the Sargent Centennial book, J. N. Ottun and/or the Ottun Brothers had a general store in the 1900s.
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Same Birthday as Yours?
1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?
2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.
One ancestor shares my birthday, and he is the end-of-line ancestor at the top of the pedigree chart. James Russell was born 2 Jun 1728 in England. I got this information from a gravestone transcription (Old Gravestones of Ulster County, Town of Plattekill) which was recorded as, "Russell James, Jan. 31, 1805, 76-7-29." My genealogy software tells me that makes his date of birth June 2nd. I would love to see this tombstone but it is not on findagrave.com yet and I have no plans to travel to New York to find it, although I'd love to!
A lot more research needs to be done on this line. I sent for a copy of his will several years ago. What I have found so far, and this hadn't been verified by other sources yet, leads me to say that James' wife was Anna. They had nine children, four daughters and five sons, including their son Benjamin Russell (Abt 1780-abt 1840) who is my great-great-great grandfather. There are several Russell families in Ulster County and I need to take the time to sort them out.
I used the calendar feature in Legacy software to find this information.
2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.
One ancestor shares my birthday, and he is the end-of-line ancestor at the top of the pedigree chart. James Russell was born 2 Jun 1728 in England. I got this information from a gravestone transcription (Old Gravestones of Ulster County, Town of Plattekill) which was recorded as, "Russell James, Jan. 31, 1805, 76-7-29." My genealogy software tells me that makes his date of birth June 2nd. I would love to see this tombstone but it is not on findagrave.com yet and I have no plans to travel to New York to find it, although I'd love to!
A lot more research needs to be done on this line. I sent for a copy of his will several years ago. What I have found so far, and this hadn't been verified by other sources yet, leads me to say that James' wife was Anna. They had nine children, four daughters and five sons, including their son Benjamin Russell (Abt 1780-abt 1840) who is my great-great-great grandfather. There are several Russell families in Ulster County and I need to take the time to sort them out.
I used the calendar feature in Legacy software to find this information.
A(nother) New Project
I need a new project! I only have 500 photos of mom's to scan and about that many for another nameless project, since the recipient of that one reads this blog. And then there's getting copies of the Russell archive printed and bound for my aunt, the stories I want to write after being so inspired by the conference this last weekend, plus two boxes of mom's stuff I haven't touched in almost a year, storage unit contents threatening to topple over on me in the living room, a room that's getting painted this week and and and ...
So naturally, with so little to do, I signed up for an online class! My daughter told me about it and I could not resist. It is a Family History Album class at JessicaSprague.com I have often told my co-workers, when they wonder how I know some of the tricks to working in Microsoft Publisher and Word, well, if you are under pressure to learn it, you will! And I have been wanting to learn Photoshop Elements for many months now. And here's my chance. I have two weeks to learn how to create these beautiful family history pages. Well, actually, once you sign up, you have access to the class material and videos forever. But I'm going to ignore that for now and try my best to learn all I can in these two weeks. A good kind of pressure. But this won't be stressful, this will be fun! It will be the frosting on the cake, something to look forward to every evening. Yeah, no stress. Uh huh. Ok. So off I go.
(Daughter dear, I have your number and may be sending you a distress call these evenings...be sure to have your ringer turned up!)
So naturally, with so little to do, I signed up for an online class! My daughter told me about it and I could not resist. It is a Family History Album class at JessicaSprague.com I have often told my co-workers, when they wonder how I know some of the tricks to working in Microsoft Publisher and Word, well, if you are under pressure to learn it, you will! And I have been wanting to learn Photoshop Elements for many months now. And here's my chance. I have two weeks to learn how to create these beautiful family history pages. Well, actually, once you sign up, you have access to the class material and videos forever. But I'm going to ignore that for now and try my best to learn all I can in these two weeks. A good kind of pressure. But this won't be stressful, this will be fun! It will be the frosting on the cake, something to look forward to every evening. Yeah, no stress. Uh huh. Ok. So off I go.
(Daughter dear, I have your number and may be sending you a distress call these evenings...be sure to have your ringer turned up!)
John Colletta
I spent a wonderful day in Lincoln yesterday attending the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society program featuring John Colletta, one of the top genealogists in the country. He wrote "Only a Few Bones" which I wrote about here. It was so inspiring to hear him talk about "How to Write a Narrative Family History", with examples of different ways to do it. This part was broken down in to 1: Creating a Reliable Record and 2: Writing a Readable Story. In the afternoon he told us about and showed examples of research in the Library of Congress and also talked about Understanding Archives. Wow. What a wealth of information. He told us he was condensing his week-long class he gives in Utah once a year into a one morning format. Genealogy conferences of any kind are hard to come by in Nebraska so I'm very thankful to the Society for putting this on.
As he talked, I made a new notes about the stories I want to tell. I'm anxious to get started but I'm still putting the house and everything in order from the passing of Jim in May and mom last November. Tons of photos to scan before Thanksgiving, too. Lots to do! But getting away for this wonderful day of family history talk was energizing!
As he talked, I made a new notes about the stories I want to tell. I'm anxious to get started but I'm still putting the house and everything in order from the passing of Jim in May and mom last November. Tons of photos to scan before Thanksgiving, too. Lots to do! But getting away for this wonderful day of family history talk was energizing!
Revisiting Goals 2010
I suppose I wouldn't be revisiting my 2010 goals now except that I've met one - or nearly have - so I guess I can crow a little about it. I have scanned a large part of the Russell family archives and all of the photos I have found so far. That is a BIG deal for me. Scanning gets mighty boring, especially when what I really want to do is dig into some family roots or climb some neglected family tree limbs. The numbers: 241 documents such as letters, report cards, newspaper clippings, funeral notices, obituaries, invitations; about 45 postcards, front and back; about 110 photos, also front and back
The other part of that particular goal, #4, was to post them here. Well, I haven't done that yet - obviously... but I will! I think the plan is to begin at the beginning...I tend to have to do things chronologically...except for several very important digressions. An example will be the story of a smart, accomplished young woman who became a nurse in the early 1900s but who died too young. It's not a dramatic story, but it is a heartbreaking one, especially for her sisters who grieved a long time for her.
There are still several parts of the archives to scan, including the diaries of the Russell sisters. I photocopied the pages years ago and scanning shouldn't take long. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other things that will prove more challenging to scan. I may set up my camera to take digital photos of them. That will be down the road a bit. I don't anticipate being able to start posting this until after Thanksgiving, and most likely after the new year.
There are no scandals in the story, no black sheep or fallen women. The story of the Russell family up to the middle of the 20th century is the story of an American family seeking to earn a living and take care of their family responsibilities, which meant they had to move several times to find work. They lived through many historic changes. But the diaries and letters they left do not talk about that. They record the personal stories of the how they earned money to help pay for necessities, of giving up a dream to care for a parent, and of their struggles to live up to their spiritual ideals. To quote from Agnes Russell's diary: "How can writers describe such dull, drab, lonely lives of country people. Maybe some families live such lives - we didn't."
The other part of that particular goal, #4, was to post them here. Well, I haven't done that yet - obviously... but I will! I think the plan is to begin at the beginning...I tend to have to do things chronologically...except for several very important digressions. An example will be the story of a smart, accomplished young woman who became a nurse in the early 1900s but who died too young. It's not a dramatic story, but it is a heartbreaking one, especially for her sisters who grieved a long time for her.
There are still several parts of the archives to scan, including the diaries of the Russell sisters. I photocopied the pages years ago and scanning shouldn't take long. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other things that will prove more challenging to scan. I may set up my camera to take digital photos of them. That will be down the road a bit. I don't anticipate being able to start posting this until after Thanksgiving, and most likely after the new year.
There are no scandals in the story, no black sheep or fallen women. The story of the Russell family up to the middle of the 20th century is the story of an American family seeking to earn a living and take care of their family responsibilities, which meant they had to move several times to find work. They lived through many historic changes. But the diaries and letters they left do not talk about that. They record the personal stories of the how they earned money to help pay for necessities, of giving up a dream to care for a parent, and of their struggles to live up to their spiritual ideals. To quote from Agnes Russell's diary: "How can writers describe such dull, drab, lonely lives of country people. Maybe some families live such lives - we didn't."
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Birth Order
Another fun Randy Seaver puzzle:
1) Pick one of your ancestral lines - any one - patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc. Pick a long one if you can.
2) Tell us which position in the birth order that your ancestor was in each generation. For example "third child, first son." Also list how many children were born to these parents.
3) Share your Birth Order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.
Patrilineal:
1. Only child of my father
2. Hugh Russell (1912-1995) was the oldest child of his father and the fourth son of his mother, her sixth child out of nine.
3. Benjamin T. Russell (1878-1963) was the oldest son of Henry and Elida (Newcomb) Russell; they had seven children
4. Henry Russell (1849-1937) was the oldest son of Rev. Daniel and Maria (Hunter) Russell; they had three children. Daniel remarried and had five more children.
5. Daniel Russell (1824-1902) was the seventh son and youngest child of Benjamin and Martha (Dayton) Russell; they had 14 children
6. Benjamin Russell (about 1780 - about 1840) was one of five sons of James Russell but I don't know their birth order. They had nine children. James is the end-of-line ancestor on this branch.
Matrilineal:
1. Youngest child of my mother
2. Grace Jones (1923-2009) was the oldest daughter and oldest child of Frank and Elizabeth (Worth) Jones; Frank and Lizzie had two children.
3. Elizabeth Worth (1888-1985) was the third daughter and sixth child of George and Flora (Swift) Worth; they had 13 children.
4. Flora Lucinda Swift (1859-1927) was the second daughter and fourth child of Charles F. and Eunice (Robinson) Swift; they had five children. Eunice remarried and had two more children (possibly more?)
5. Eunice Calista Robinson (1832-1906) was the first daughter and second child of Aaron and Rachel (Walker) Robinson; they had 10 children.
6. Rachel Walker (1807 - after 1880) was the fourth daughter and sixth child of John and Rachel (Cochran) Walker; they had eight children.
1) Pick one of your ancestral lines - any one - patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc. Pick a long one if you can.
2) Tell us which position in the birth order that your ancestor was in each generation. For example "third child, first son." Also list how many children were born to these parents.
3) Share your Birth Order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.
Patrilineal:
1. Only child of my father
2. Hugh Russell (1912-1995) was the oldest child of his father and the fourth son of his mother, her sixth child out of nine.
3. Benjamin T. Russell (1878-1963) was the oldest son of Henry and Elida (Newcomb) Russell; they had seven children
4. Henry Russell (1849-1937) was the oldest son of Rev. Daniel and Maria (Hunter) Russell; they had three children. Daniel remarried and had five more children.
5. Daniel Russell (1824-1902) was the seventh son and youngest child of Benjamin and Martha (Dayton) Russell; they had 14 children
6. Benjamin Russell (about 1780 - about 1840) was one of five sons of James Russell but I don't know their birth order. They had nine children. James is the end-of-line ancestor on this branch.
Matrilineal:
1. Youngest child of my mother
2. Grace Jones (1923-2009) was the oldest daughter and oldest child of Frank and Elizabeth (Worth) Jones; Frank and Lizzie had two children.
3. Elizabeth Worth (1888-1985) was the third daughter and sixth child of George and Flora (Swift) Worth; they had 13 children.
4. Flora Lucinda Swift (1859-1927) was the second daughter and fourth child of Charles F. and Eunice (Robinson) Swift; they had five children. Eunice remarried and had two more children (possibly more?)
5. Eunice Calista Robinson (1832-1906) was the first daughter and second child of Aaron and Rachel (Walker) Robinson; they had 10 children.
6. Rachel Walker (1807 - after 1880) was the fourth daughter and sixth child of John and Rachel (Cochran) Walker; they had eight children.