A $100 value for only $24.95!

This past week I did some research on printing a pedigree chart on a poster size paper so that I could more easily see where I could focus my energies. I have found it frustrating to only view four to six generations on my computer screen. So, I found some sites where you can send them your gedcom file and they would print the file on a large roll of paper. Some offered to print it on a sheet 40' long at 3' wide. For some reason, the idea of scrolls with wooden rollers didn't appeal to me to view my ancestry. I found a very helpful place called the Family History Center in the BYU Harold B Lee library. My one concern was to find a printer who could do this within my budget. Most of the printers I came across charged anywhere from a few to many dollars per linear foot. No matter how many names you have on your tree you too can have your pedigree chart printed for $24.95 (shipping included). What happens is this: You go online to the website www.onepagegenealogy.com which will redirect you to the family history/computer science department at BYU that will print it for you to a maximum size of 3.5' by 6' and hold up to 50 generations. You first need to download the software from their site. I would highly recommend using the older software (NOT the 3.0 Beta version - I had some issues with it...) to your computer. Once you have the software (free software) you upload a gedcom file to it. You work through the wizard to optimize the print of your pedigree. The software will save the project as a .pdf file that will allow you to clearly see how the chart will appear on one sheet of paper. You then go back to their website and start the wizard to upload your .pdf file and pay for the printing. Within a few days the document can be picked up at the Family History Center in the Harold B Lee library on the BYU campus or it will be mailed to you in a convenient and sturdy tube. I have been thoroughly impressed with the quality of the paper as well as the clarity of the paper so that I can see thousands of ancestors on one sheet and at a glance determine where to work.

Christmas Hiatus

Due to the Christmas holiday I have imposed a hiatus on my short story analysis. This is also due to the fact that I don't feel like studying if I don't have to. As I am done with the Fall semester until January 2nd, I feel that I deserve a break. However, I do feel compelled to disclose some recent personal experiences.
I, like many others, feel that as I finish a class and don't need to keep the textbook, that it is customary to return the book for a refund. I went to return my Business Law book to the school bookstore. The gentleman at the register thumbed through the book a few times noting the highlighting and notation. He took the book to his supervisor who also performed this procedure also. The cashier returned and refused to accept the textbook noting that there was too much highlighting and notation. I explained that I purchased the book in this condition and had not added anything to it. I also noted that the handwriting was almost as well done as the typing of the text itself. He stated that it was their policy not to receive books in this condition. So, I drove down the street to sell the book back to Beat the Bookstore. They gladly received the book and offered a very nice amount in return. With this store credit I have been able to buy my Calculus workbook for the Spring semester. I highly doubt that I will ever have to return to the school bookstore again.
On another note, I am taking Organizational Behavior as a class requisite to continuing on to an MBA degree. One of the required texts is "7 habits of highly effective people" by Steven Covey. I procured the ISBN and saw that on half.com that the text would cost me a mere 75 cents but that the shipping would be at least $4. So I took Parker to our nearby Savers (similar to DI but more orderly and better condition of items). Lo and behold, I came upon the very book that I needed. The printed cost of the book from the publisher was $10. The Savers sticker noted that the cost would be $.99. Sweet. I love Savers. Oh, and both books are in nearly new condition with no highlighting or handwriting.
Next, I have been busily working on my family history through Ancestry.com. I came across a wonderfully documented and researched tree that I began to add individuals to my tree from. This tree has more stories, photos and documents attached to it than any other tree I have encountered in Ancestry.com. I stepped away for a couple of days and when I returned I could not remember where this person's tree tied in with mine! I was almost to the point of hysteria, ok not hysteria, but to the point of beginning to delete individuals from my tree. I figured that because I didn't know why or where they tied in that it would be pointless to have them in my tree. So, I took a detour and returned to my PAF file on my computer. Because I had not yet downloaded the new additions to my tree in my PAF program that I would be able to see who I tied in with. I soon discovered that my great great grandmother's brother married a woman from this other tree. Now I know how we tie in. Whew! I visited the owner of the tree's personal description page: Her Family History specialty is photos and stories. Sweet.
Lastly, I have finally gotten my left hearing aid back from getting re-cased. Basically anything you put in your ear is seen as an intruder by your body. Over time the hearing aid casing wears thin. Combined with the accidental dropping of the hearing aid on the bathroom floor caused a large crack around the circumference of the casing. The audiologist mentioned on December 6th that the turnaround would be about a week. If you want to know what it feels like to not have one hearing aid for almost two weeks, next time you go swimming place one of your ears in the water while keeping the other out of the water.
Have a very Merry Christmas!

Family History Breakthrough

I have been diligently working on my Bryan line of my family history. Last night I received a nice surprise. A gentleman by the name of Thomas Kerwin, who belongs to the Kansas genealogy forum, replied to a query about QV's father. He shared some information that I was unaware of, which provided a possible lead on my Bryan line. I was surprised to find that the census record he directed me to was under the name of Quintillus V Byrum. (a surname I had not yet tried to search for.) He noted that this 1920 census lists QV and his second wife. I already knew QV had a second wife; Grandpa had given me a picture of her, but who also stated that he didn't know much about her other than she had married QV, took his money, and skipped town. Although there are some negative feelings toward his second wife, I feel that all avenues should be pursued when researching family history. Maybe there will be other leads off of working back from her and to the future from her to see if anyone has any information on the Bryan line.

I have attached a picture of QV's second wife whose name I now know: Lydia.

Gravestone Rubbing

My new found terminology: the practice of creating a rubbing by depositing a rendering material such as charcoal, wax or graphite on paper placed over the engraved surface of a gravestone in order to obtain an image of the stone's lettering and designs.

I have been looking at some headstones and haven't been able to decipher some of the names and information on them. Thus, I will see if I can have a helper do some gravestone rubbing for me. It might be an extra trip for them but it might help with dates and names. Here is an example of one of the gravestones:

I have had what I would consider some success with my family history. Several people have noted the amount of information I have been able to find and the contacts I have come across. I guess some success has been "beginner's luck", but I know that there are no such things as "accidents". Everything happens for a reason, and I just hope that I am able to contribute to my family history to leave a legacy for those who come after me.

Vegas Baby

We just got back from Sodom and Gomorrah, I mean Vegas. While it is definitely a tourist hot spot I would not want to raise a family there. I spent quite a lot of time examining my shoes and the sidewalk directly in front of me. If I were single and loved to party it would be the perfect destination. I forgot to mention that it was my first trip to Vegas that I have memory of. While there we got to take in some of the sights and sounds of the strip. We spent the first night at the Rivera which was nice but huge. It seemed that everything was spread out (which required walking) and everyone was smoking and drinking. The last two nights of our trip we were at the Tuscany. It reminded me of a Mexican resort where there are several buildings and a common pool. We enjoyed the room more there and we didn't have to walk forever to get anywhere. I think I injured my legs as they still hurt to walk (kinda like shin splints but they are the muscles on the sides of my shin bones). Anyway, we did get to see the "Bodies" exhibit. I guess there was an overall sense of wonder and disgust. To see bodies in the open and in a scientific setting was definitely an eye opening experience. But seeing bodies and parts open almost made it feel like we were trespassing in a morgue. I think the baby section was fascinating as it shows the fetus at several stages. I also have to give credit to doctors and nurses who not only have to deal with the body itself, but the blood that comes with it as well as the smell. Luckily we didn't have to deal with the latter two. Part of the display showed the circulatory system. There was the form of a human but it only had the vessels full of a dye. Very cool. I was kinda bummed that we couldn't take pictures, but then again they did run a pretty tight ship with several rooms with "proctors" who would monitor how much you breathed on the the specimen. Anyway, we are glad to be back, and the boys are glad too. It is so nice to come home again. I have been toying with the idea of starting another blog that I devote strictly to my family history. On one hand I think it would allow me to share information with others as well as serve as a repository for my documents, pictures, etc etc. While blogger.com does have some nice features, I would almost want some specific page elements that would show where on the family tree I am posting and other features. The downside would be to have this information open to all (unless I restrict the blog to invited people only). I would almost not want to do it as much of the information I have is on Ancestry.com (and I have to keep current with my subscription) but it would allow me to have an additional backup besides my home computer and Ancestry. What do you think? Would it be worth the effort to replicate information in three places? Is there an easier way? Any insight would be appreciated.

Chicago -- Part 2

Thursday was spent at the conference. We were in the Art Institute of Chicago in a room called the Chicago Stock Exchange Room. The room was a replica of the original room when Chicago also had a trading room as does the New York Stock Exchange. While we were there it was around the 50s and the temperature inside was cooler as the air conditioning was on. At least it kept us awake!
The night before we went to a restaurant called Harry Careys and was quite the feast. But my steak at the restaurant Thursday night was THE best steak I have ever had in my life. I passed on the after dinner bar hopping and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the city. Friday morning I took some pictures and enjoyed seeing a lot of the architecture of Chicago. I found a couple of books that have way better pictures than I could ever take! We got on the L one hour before we had planned to and were glad we did as a train had to be manually pulled off the train which took about an hour. We breezed through security and had an uneventful flight back.
Chicago was a beautiful city and I look forward to future visits. My next post I will put up photos of the city.

More Assembly Required

So we have the deck in and the trenches dug for the sprinkler system. So we had a guy that we were going to have do our sprinkler installation come over and tell us he'd get it installed. After thinking about it I figured if we can put a deck together we can definately put a sprinkler system together. --and for cheaper. We have so many people in the ward who have put theirs in that we have advise and instruction we can get from them. I spent my last two nights out in the howling cold wind finishing digging the trenches. I had to borrow a pick from a neighbor who has been digging his by hand (bad idea) when the soil is half clay and half rock and maybe .001% actual soil. We had a guy in our Elder's quorum dig the majority of it with his trencher. I found a website that shows us step by step how to install them: http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/install.htm

On a side note regarding family history: I have been throughly researching the "4 children" who were with Mahala in 1860. I have been trying to identify who the parents are of these children. Based on census records, I can state that Independence, America, and James B are brothers and sisters, and thus all have the same mother and father. A note of interest: Looking at the census records from 1900 and comparing then to 1910 censuses I noted a glaring problem. In the census from 1900 it shows all three children stating (or the head of the house stating) that all three were born in Kentucky and that their Dad was born in Kentucky and that their Mother was born in Kentucky. BUT, in 1910 all three state that Dad was born in OHIO??? I have been unable to reconcile this difference so far.
The jury is still out on the fourth, Eliza, as she probably married and is nigh to impossible to track after 1870.

Catch up

Well, I guess it has been awhile since I last blogged. Quite a lot has happened, but I can't remember it all. We will hopefully be getting our lot graded this weekend and the trenches for the sprinkler system dug on Monday. You know when the economy is in a recession when Kari tells me that she wants 6 to 8 square foot garden boxes. She said that she wanted extra to do some canning! She spent part of last evening drawing up a scaled drawing of our future garden boxes. She has turned into quite the culinary chef. She makes homemade bread on a regular basis as well as experiments with various recipes. It is all very yummy.
I have been working on my family history almost every night since I got my subscription. There is so much work to do and at times I sit at my computer and try and remember where I left off and where else I need to research. But it is fun and adds a little bit more drama into my life. Last night I happened to find a gem. I have been looking for the parents of four children who are listed with Mahala (who is their grandmother) I went back looking through the census images and found America. Not only did I find her, I found James B living right next door to her for 20 some odd years! Even though she had her married name I can see both she and James are living right next door to each other. I'm not sure how they are related. They could be brother and sister or cousins. I am trying to figure that out. Also, I am trying to find a Sheila Christensen here in Utah that can help with the Eastman line. I have been unsuccessful in locating someone who might have more information on the Bryan line. But I will keep plugging away.

An unknown piece of history...

I just love it when I come across family history jewels. I ran across one while I was working on our Eastman Line, in particular George Washington Eastman. George was born in 1815 in Mexico, Oxford County, Maine. On the 7th of November 1850 he is living in Springfield Illinois. And I discovered that his next door neighbor is Abraham Lincoln. Yes, that Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is married by this time to Mary Todd and they have a son, Robert, who is 7 years old in 1850. At first I was sceptical that this was indeed the right Abraham Lincoln.

My first clue that tipped me off was on the actual census page (Springfield Illinois 1850) there is a large arrow pointing to Abram Lincoln's line. Secondly, I looked up a website that would help me corroborate my theory. You can view it for yourself: http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/

The Census page can be seen by clicking on this link: http://www.ancestry.com/s14209/t5497/rd.ashx?dbid=8054&iid=ILM432_127-0243&email=acebryan@lycos.com&from=AaronBryan&ancestor=yourancestor&emd=12b08e1458987508a171dec7d97a6e3ca0deadbeefc0debad

So, I verified that he was married by this time to Mary, and also that he has a son (Robert) at this time, and that he is living in Springfield Illinois at this time frame. Although he had lived in a boarding home in Washington DC, he moved his family to Illinois to start his own law office and go around the 8th Circuit to 14 different counties in Illinois. The census shows that he is in fact an attorney at law. Yes, this is the Abraham Lincoln who would become the 16th President of the United States. The picture on the right shows Lincoln around 1846.

It is amazing the things you come across doing a little digging around...

No suprise here

So I ordered a copy of an ancestor's marriage certificate last week. And I've been waiting for it all week. The purpose of ordering it was to see if there was any information on it that would help me discover who QV's father was. It arrived in today's mail, but to my dismay it afforded no new information on who his father was. It did clarify his wedding date which we incorrectly had as 1 Mar 1866. The certificate stated the actual marriage occurred on 30 Aug 1866. So the hunt continues and I'm back to square 1.

Progress

Sometimes you get lucky. No, I'm not talking about 40 foot chip shots or 30 foot putts against Ken on his Wii Golf game. Working on his line has proved fruitful. I have been able to collaborate with others to be able to find an additional 80+ individuals on Ken's paternal line. It has been so exciting to have such a breakthrough...it keeps me interested enough to continue my newfound hobby. I plan to see if there is any work that needs to be done for these individuals. These past two weeks have been the most depressing and yet the happiest. As one person told me "welcome to the hobby that never ends"

Hard Work

So I have spent these last couple of weeks working on family history. I have enjoyed it immensley, but there have been times where I have felt like giving it up. Dead ends, lack of information, bad information, no information, etc etc have put me into a crazy delirium. Its almost like when you go to say something and someone else interupts you and after they get done they ask you what you were going to say... and you can't remember. And so it goes with family history, just when you think you know what you have what you need, you realize that you need more information. This week has paid off; I think. It might take some more researching and time but I think I may have hit the motherload working on Ken's line. He basically has about 3 generations back (on both sides) but not much else. So, away I went looking for answers. I have discovered that it helps to collaborate with others. I found someone else working on Gene's line and another one working on Ken's line.
Ancestry.com has several family trees that are being contributed to. If you have a name that might be in someone else's line you get a "hint" that they might be someone to contact for more information or to see if they are even working on the same line. I found Joyce, a woman in Ohio that has gone back several more generations on Ken's line; at least that's what I initally thought. So she sends me an email back saying who might be related and attached a pdf document showing decendants of a particular person. After comparing locations, dates and family members I come to a quick conclusion that yes, this is the same line. Only after my jubilant email to Ken do I take a closer look and discover that my Edward could not have had a certain child as he was born 50 years earlier. So, I had to break the news to Ken...sorry, I spoke too soon. I spend the rest of the week feeling completely foolish and humilated as I jumped to a conclusion.
But then I get an email back from Joyce saying that according to the information I sent her that there is a high probability that my Edward is the SON of her Edward. She quoted a census record and said she would do some more research...Not that I want to jump to conclusions, but the odds are pretty good that we are talking about the same boy who has the same mother, father and siblings that are within the same geographical location at the same time. It is nice when things work out the way they should. But I also have in the back of my mind the oft familiar warning: "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."
I will update as soon as I have more information.

The Internet and Family History

Well, you get to read both a short story post as well as a Family history one. Since my infusion last Monday I have been on a downward spiral healthwise. My infusions shut down my immune system which allows me to catch any cold or other infection. After doing a service project at the 4th street clinic in SLC (our annual service project) yesterday I was feeling especially sinus-infectionany and bronchitisy. And so I made the annual pilgramige to my PCP (doctor) who informed me that I have a sinus infection, brochitis as well as pnemonia. After a quick and painful shot in the behinder I was sent on my way with my very expensive ($8 a pill) antibiotic. So I have decided to take the rest of the week off to be able rest and get better--I figure that there will be a net gain using my PTO: not only will I still get paid to sleep and get better but I will be able to spend time with Kari and the boys.
Ok, on with my post. My Bryan .paf file does have a lot of information, but I have discovered that there are no sources listed! I am sure that it was passed along without these sources, so I may have to give Shersy or GG a call to follow up on this dilema. (Of course, I could spend some time to collect these sources, but it is virutally unnecessary in this day and age) Enter the internet. I have spent this week exploring various websites whose main objective is to connect people doing family history. Rootsweb, Cindy's List, and Ancestory.com are a few of these websites. I figure that I should get the most out of my monthly high speed internet connection and use these sites as much as possible. Never in the history of mankind have we had the ability to connect so quickly and collaborate on family history projects than now.
BUT, there is a downside to this wonderful tool: many people make assumptions and either post what they believe to be credible information without having checked it against sources, and others who glean information from others on the internet and take all information at face value. Those who correctly do their family history work will always keep track of source documentation for others to verify that their work is accurate and correct.

Why many people stop doing or don't start doing their Family History

So this week has been busy with work etc, but I did find some time to review my paf file and see what has or hasn't been done yet. And I discovered something: all of the names in my current paf file (on my side of the family) have no sources listed. Whether or not this is intended for me to find sources for all of them is not clear, but I do know that there is still a lot of work to do. I think that most people avoid doing their family history, especially those of the LDS faith, for two main reasons: someone else in their family is supposedly the only one required or necessary to do the work, or two, all of their work has been done. I will speak to the latter. I hardly believe that ALL of the work has been done: independently researching, verifying, or rechecking others' work must be done to ensure accuracy that all lines have verifiable sources cited. Then there is the temple work. One fact is true: it hasn't all been done. Each one of us have two parents and four grandparents that double every generation. At the 10th generation you have 512 ancestors (not counting the thousands of children they had). My longest line goes back 14 generations. The author of the aforementioned book has gone back 16 generations on one line. If he had all of their work done that would be nearly 33,000 ancestors. The author states that he received an email from someone stating that they were working on their 31st generation. If he had all the work done that would be for more than 1 billion, with seventy three million direct fore bearers... My point is this. If you think that ALL the work has been done for your ancestors, think again. The most exciting part of doing my family history is using tools that no other generation has had access to: the Internet. This will be the subject of my next post.

New Hobby

Well, as you have noted over the past few months I have been blogging about my obsession with short stories. And I hope that I can continue to blog about them. But, I am now turning my blog to address a more interesting and rewarding hobby: family history. Believe it or not, genealogy is the #1 hobby in America today. For Christmas I received a fabulous book The Essential Latter-day Saint Guide to Finding Your Family on the Internet. Not only that, but I also received a donation for a subscription to Ancestry.com. I now have a worldwide 3 month membership. I have unlimited access to information and sources to not only verify information already put into our family history file but also to explore deeper into my past ancestors lives. In my spare time, (usually on Sundays) I sit down at my laptop to do some indexing. I prefer the term "indexing" over "extraction" as the latter term seems anachronistic and outdated. My current stake extraction director informed our stake members via familysearchindexing that in 2006 our stake indexed a mere 39,000 names. This past year our stake indexed 168,000 names; that's 4 times as many names as in 2006!!! Through my indexing and family history work I will be able to share ideas, insights, failures, and breakthroughs as they happen. It won't be in real time, but I do plan on blogging at least once a week. Now sit back and enjoy the show!