Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Inferential Genealogy Course in Second Life


A very new and exciting opportunity came across my radar this weekend that I can’t wait to get started!

I don’t know if you know it or not, but FamilySearch.org has a bunch of online courses that you can take from the comfort of your own homes for FREE!

There are courses on beginning genealogy, research in various countries such as Austrialia, Germany, England, Italy, Poland; courses on analyzing handwriting, and even courses on reading other languages!

Many of these “classes” are video based and interactive – in my opinion – very well put together and easy to follow along with.

And you don’t have to go through these classes alone. You can beam them up on a big projector screen in front of your local genealogical society and work through some of the exercises together as a group.

Or…..

You can do what some of us are going to do and meet in the virtual world of Second Life where informal genealogy meetings are being held right before your eyes! Second Life is a virtual reality "world" that you go to on your computer. It has a genealogy environment including a Family History Center and Just Genealogy Fire Pit where most of the genealogy events are held. This is a place where genealogists all over the world can come together and chat, share ideas, give, watch, or listen to a presentation; exchange information, etc. 

That’s right. We are going to meet over the course of a few weeks and take a class together in Second Life. We will have homework to do and will take part in discussions just like you would in a normal chat room or class room.

And the class we are taking is called “Inferential Genealogy.” It is posted on the FamilySearch.org website and can be accessed here: http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/fhd/community/cbig/player.html. Tom Jones opens the video with a brief introduction and then asks you to decide what you would like to do. Click on the “Help” link to start the learning module.



Everyone is welcome to attend this learning opportunity in Second Life. Please visit DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog for more information and the schedule time and meeting places in Second Life.  Also, there is an open Facebook group called “Genealogists in Second Life” where you can find information about all of the genealogy related events happening in the virtual world of Second Life. 

Our first meeting is tonight in the Just Genealogy Fire Pit at 9pm EST. I can't wait to see how this goes!



Saturday, May 28, 2011

How to Upload your ftDNA results to Ysearch.org

From your ftDNA home page, go to the link with your Matches found on the left hand side of the page.

From that page, scroll down to the middle of the page until you see the link that says “Click Here to upload to Ysearch.org.” 


This will open a new page in Ysearch.org and will allow you to create a new user ID in Ysearch.org. This page will load your results and make them ready to upload to the Ysearch database.


All you have to do is fill in at the bottom of the page, your Last name, Haplogroup (this can be found from your ftDNA home page by clicking on Haplotree link on the left side of the page), 


Which will then pull up a page and display your "predicted Haplogroup"




Next, add your contact information, additional spellings of your surname, and the most distant known paternal ancestor and country of origin. 

Then enter a password that you can easily remember, enter the captcha letters and click the “save information” button and you are done!
 

Make sure to copy down your Ysearch.org user ID and password in a safe place. 

Thursday, May 26, 2011

My Family Finder DNA Kit was Received at ftDNA


I guess the Post Office finally decided to deliver my kit to ftDNA afterall! I got an email yesterday saying that ftDNA had received my DNA kit and results are pending. Expected date of results being posted is July 20, 2011. I can't wait! 

Here's the email I got from ftDNA yesterday telling me my kit had been received: 

From: "noreply@familytreedna.com"

To: grs3275 at yahoo dot com
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: FTDNA Kit Received

Your Family Tree DNA test kit xxxxxx for Ginger R Smith was received today.

You may follow the progress of your test by logging in to your myFTDNA account through our home page, http://www.familytreedna.com, with your kit xxxxxx and password xxxxxx. We recommend recording your kit number and password in a safe place, or keeping this email. You will also be sent additional notices as your test results are posted.

Our help pages have the answers to questions about the DNA testing process and test results.
http://www.familytreedna.com/faq/default.aspx

You may also join the Family Tree DNA community in our forums.
http://forums.familytreedna.com

Follow the link below to access your myFTDNA account.
Your Kit Number is xxxxxx
http://www.familytreedna.com/login.aspx

Thank you for testing at Family Tree DNA,
Family Tree DNA
http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com
"History Unearthed Daily"
~~~
Visit our Facebook page at http://www.tinyurl.com/ftdna-fb and join by clicking "Like"
The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG):
ISOGG is dedicated to promoting the use of genetics for genealogy. To learn more, visit the ISOGG website at http://www.isogg.org or contact isogg@msn.com.

I then logged in to my newly created account and entered the surnames of my 16 2nd great-grandparents. 





This will enable my matches to identify common surnames between us. The Family Finder test is designed to match you up with 5th cousins but the FAQs say it also allows matching back 5 generations. So I'm a bit confused by this. 5th cousins share the same set of 4th great-grandparents. But 5 generations back share the same 2nd great-grandparents. Either way, so far I added all 16 of my 2nd great-grandparents' surnames. It's a start! 


I can't wait to start seeing my matches!!! This will be a fun summer project :-) Happy Dance!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Lessons Learned at the NGS Conference

Me 

I’m WHAT?

Totally NOT organized!

One thing I took away from the conference is that I am still being held back by not being WELL ORGANIZED. I very rarely use paper, or print anything off, so I don’t really have a need for a big paper filing system. But I understand the things that I read so much better when I DO have a print out of them right there in front of me and I can take notes right on the paper as well.


For example, when I reading about someone’s family, I have to write it all out in tree format in order to understand it or take it all in or in order to compare it to my own family.

A Ginger drawing
But then I find myself tossing those pieces of papers aside into a huge pile of “to be filed” or if I do decide to be a good girl and file them when I’m done with them right away, I run into the dilemma of having to decide how to file them. I swear I spend more time making decisions than I do actually doing genealogy.  Once I decide where or how to file them, I either already have an existing folder that I can just drop them in to, or I have to create a new one. Creating a new one entails finding a folder, putting a label on it (goes back to deciding how to describe it), and then finding space and the correct location in the filing cabinet in which to file it.

I’ve been reusing my file folders for 20 years now, so some of them have labels on the tabs already with either printed text or handwritten text on them. Some of them have post it notes covering up the previous labels. Creating a label on the computer is an additional time sucker. I have to remember how I did it the last time, 2 years ago. And of course I have to improve the process (again) while I’m at it. More time sucking.

DYMO label maker


In her talk Reporting the Facts: Record as You Go, Pamela Boyer Sayre mentioned using a handheld label maker to label her file folders.  That sounded like a great idea to me except last I knew, label makers only came with those plastic rolls of labels that were thick and embossed and stuck to everything…forever. But I went to the store and I checked them out and I bought one and alas! They do come with paper labels that you can use for your file folders, or whatever else you have that you know won’t get wet or last forever. So I’ve found at least one way to make my paper filing situation a little bit easier.

Having the proper supplies will ease the anxiety and time sucking-ness. I put my new handy-dandy label maker to use last night in fact when I needed to file away the 15 pages of emails that I had printed from a lady in GA I had been corresponding with before I left for the NGS conference. Then I noticed the two folders beside it that needed labels…

Pendaflex hanging file folder


Last month I bought more hanging file folders as well. So once I got these two other folders labeled, I put all three of them into a new hanging file folder and then I added a labeled tab to it so I could identify it easily.

What tools do YOU use when tackling your file cabinet?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This is probably going to be a multi-part discussion series about how I deal with my paper files, digital files, and my all-around working habits that are either hindering or contributing to my successful research abilities. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

ftDNA kits stuck at Post Office


If you returned your DNA kit back to ftDNA after the 1st of May, like many of us did, and you are still waiting to be notified that ftDNA has received your kit, you may be waiting for a while. First class postage rates on packages other than letters increased after the 1st of the month. ftDNA did not alert its patrons of this change, so many of us sent our packages back with the recommended $1.22 postage rate which satisfied the old rate. According to the new rate increase, the package should now cost approximately $1.71.

So if you mailed your kit back to ftDNA and only put $1.22 on it, then it is probably stuck at the post office along with hundreds of other kits. ftDNA is working to remedy this situation, however, and should have the kits delivered soon.

Photo copied from the Shankland DNA Project

Monday, May 16, 2011

More NGS Conference Fun (Day 2)

Day 2 (Thursday, May 12, 2011) was full of BCG skills building with Thomas Jones, case study analysis of deeds and wills with Elizabeth Shown Mills, and Carolina record reviews with Brent Holcomb and Mark Lowe.

THE BCG – WHAT IS IT?

The Board for Certified Genealogist accreditation process is something you go through to become a Bard Certified Genealogist. This process is based on standards set forth by experts in the field of genealogy; it encompasses not just genealogy, but professionalism, writing skills, and ethics as well. It incorporates the BCG Standards Manual (picture on the left) and tests your skills in several different areas.  This was not just an information class. This instruction discussed each section of the application, what materials were required to complete them, what skills were tested, and how each section was evaluated.


Recommendations

The instructors recommended to start compiling your materials prior to submitting your preliminary application because you only have 1 year to complete the pocess; they also suggested that you read back issues of the NGSq, the BCG’s OnBoard newsletter, The American Genealogist and relevant chapters from the Professional Genealogy book that apply to each section of the application. You can also download articles, test questions, and examples from the skill building section of the BCG website.

What’s New?

1)      There is no longer a 5 yr waiting period to apply for the Certified Genealogical Lecturer accreditation
2)      Applicants must submit the original manuscripts of works if they’ve been previously published
3)      Each work sample must involve different individuals and families
4)      The case study format is no longer an option for the kinship-determination project

What is the Pass/Fail Rate?

The percentage of applicants who pass is 42 due to an insufficient amount of sources, poorly written citations, and inability to follow directions.  Word to the wise: Make sure you are ready and serious about becoming a Certified Genealogist, have someone check over your work and your citations and read other case studies!



Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA
ANALYZING DEEDS AND WILLS

I See What It Says, But What Does It Mean by Elizabeth Shown Mills

This was my first challenging session of the conference and my introduction to a case study in a classroom environment – Just up my alley! Oh – and of course, my introduction to ESM herself!

The session started with a will that we evaluated line by line. A few things I learned right off the bat:


1)      Most wills were “scribed” by a lawyer and presented to the testator who signed it or left their mark. These “scribed” wills were often templates used by most lawyers to represent basic will drafts. ESM said that all of the religious jargon written in the first paragraph about giving his soul to God, burial in Christian-like and decent manner, etc does not necessarily mean he was a religious man unless this will was holographic and had been written in the testator’s own hand.  
2)      Any will that starts with “In the name of God Amen” was not written or signed by a Quaker as they did not swear to anything.
3)      If the testator requests his slaves be freed, he might be Quaker; however there are other religions that discourage slavery as well like Methodists.
4)      Slave increases followed the mothers, so if “Jessie and Judah and their increase” are to be freed – Jessie and Judah are both mothers, NOT a family unit (mother and father).
5)      “Reputed wife” is a term to describe a woman who is living with a man she is not legally married to probably because she is “making do” with another male’s help; although she and her children have no legal rights to this man’s property.
6)      The “late Mary Smith” is a woman who was formerly known as Mary Smith; she is not deceased.
7)      Many testators gave property to a woman’s children and not to her because she could remarry and the new husband could mismanage the property.
8)      “Trusted friend” was a legal phrase often referring to a non-heir but relative of some sort.
9)      Usually the scribe is the first person who signed the document (witness). You can look for additional docs written by this witness and look for similar spelling errors within each one to determine if he was the scribe. Also, men used distinguishing marks beside their names to tell them apart from other men of the same name.
10)   To “devolve” is to acquire by inheritance

Here are 10 new and important things I learned from the example of a will that we analyzed.

The deed example was equally as difficult to work through, but I was able to follow along the rationale of it. It took good ole genealogy and two or three hypothesis formulation and testing to figure out the most plausible scenario.

Genealogy conferences need to have more case studies like this. I think these kinds of classes help to bridge the gap between the beginner genealogists and the experts.

NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA RECORDS

First up was Brent Holcomb’s talk on land records. He gave a brief history of how land was distributed by the Lord Proprietors and then quickly went through many of the digital images that can be found on the South Carolina Archives website. Everything else kind of either went over my head or way too fast to take in.

Mark Lowe’s presentation on Inheritance Laws and Estate Settlements was a little bit better to manage, but the information was still hard to take in without having actual records or case studies to use as examples. Most of the information was links to save for later for when I encounter a word I an unfamiliar with. Mark tapped into the social media aspect by posting many of his links to his twitter account: @JLowe615.

That sums up the lectures I attended on the 2nd day of the conference.

Photo of the BCG Standards Manual copied from Amazon website
Photo of ESM from NGS Website

Sunday, May 15, 2011

NGS – Last Day and Return Trip Home


I know I only posted a couple days’ worth of messages about the conferences’ classes and the fun times we had, but trust me – and I know you know me by now and know that I WILL give you in depth detailed information about the lectures I attended – eventually – but for now I wanted to write a little reflection before I get caught up in all of the technical mumbo jumbo about all the research, writing, and genealogical skills that are filling up my head right now.

Let me start off by reiterating that I HAD A BLAST.  I cannot emphasize that enough. But you want to know why? Well the speakers were knowledgeable and accessible first of all, and they talked about topics of interest to me and they highlighted topics that I had not encountered before or often wondered about. Their case studies also offered more practical “hands on” experience for me to hone my skills with and to see how I matched up with the folks around me. The exhibit hall booth vendors were likewise friendly and helpful and always up for making new friends. Here is a photo of Dear MYRTLE and I:


I LOVED having genealogy buddies to meet up with, sit with during lectures, ask about which speakers were funny and informative and which ones would put you to sleep; which lectures were up to par with my skill set and which ones were more for the beginner genealogists. Here we are between classes taking a breather:


Photo from L-R: Linda McCauley from Documenting the Details, Cherie Cayemberg from Have You Seen My Roots?, me, Liz Tapley-Matthews from My Tapley Tree and its Branches.

And of course, what conference would be complete without having at least ONE lecture together on the last day?

“Blogger Row…”


Photo: Jennifer Woods from Climbing My Family Tree, her daughter, and I



Photo:  Linda McCauley from Documenting the Details and Cherie Cayemberg from Have You Seen My Roots? and Jennifer Woods. 


Photo: Greta Koehl from Greta’s Genealogy Bog and I.

And yes, that is technology sitting on their laps and in their hands. I was technology free today so that my phone and computer could be fully charged on the 5 hour trip home. Speaking of my trip home…I am so thankful for my car pool mates, the Eliases who are members of my local genealogical society and neighbors. Although we stayed in separate hotels during the conference, they picked me up each morning and dropped me off each evening. We ate lunch and dinner together. I got to ride in their electric car on the trip to and from Charleston. It gets 50 miles to the gallons!

Here is a picture of the Eliases with NGS President Ann Hilke:



And of course, as I’ve mentioned, we met several other members of our local genealogical society along the way. This is Dan Durham from Lacey, WA:



Well today was a full day of classes, the sealing of several friendships, and a long drive home. But I made it. I survived my first week-long National genealogical conference. I leave you with this photo that was taken in Florence, South Carolina:



And don’t worry, I have more posts to come. I’m not sure when, but it will be soon.

All photos copyright of Ginger R. Smith, 13 May 2011.

Friday, May 13, 2011

NGS Conference - First Round of Classes





While blogger.com was down last night, we were out on the town having some good ole backcountry seafood at this little place right on the water called "The Wreck." [Photo above from L-R: Cathy Elias, Ginger Smith, Rob Elias taken outside of "The Wreck" seafood restaurant in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, May 12, 2011. Photo copyright Ginger R. Smith, 2011].

Let me just start off by saying that I’m really enjoying the conference. One thing that has held me back from attending these conferences in the past is the fear that my capabilities and interests would lie beyond the expertise of the classes and speakers. However, this has clearly not been the case. The classes are informative and challenging and I often found myself struggling just to keep up with the examples provided. I have loved the case studies provided by Elizabeth Shown Mills and John Colletta and I feel that these have been instrumental in bridging the gap between the beginner and intermediate genealogists and family historians.

Before I get into the lectures I attended, let me recap some of the fun stuff I did:

Raffles and Certificate Courses:

Yesterday, I entered a raffle to win a scholarship for the Boston University Certificate genealogy course. This is a good thing because the bigger of the two courses is around $2500!!! A scholarship would be great! And I could complete the coursework from home in my pajamas! – even better! In order to enter the raffle, I had to take my card to four different booths – the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), National Genealogical Society (NGS), New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), and the Boston University – and get it stamped, then return it to the Boston University Booth. While I was at the NGS booth, I learned about the Home Study course that they offer. It is a self paced course you take from a CD and costs under $500.00.

More Friends:

I met up with two other members of my local genealogical society (the Durham-Orange Genealogical Society of North Carolina). I also met some folks at the North Carolina Genealogical Soceity. They asked me if I was a member, but I couldn’t remember! I guess I need to keep better tract of what I am a member of and preferably join them at the same time, so I can keep tract of when I need to pay my dues more easily.

Classes - Day 1:

The classes I took on the first day were pretty low key as I was trying to acclimate myself to the convention center floor plan, exhibition hall, and time schedule of classes. I attended the following lectures:

      1)      The Library of Congress: Pursuing Your Family History in the National Library by James P. Sweany: I hope to write more about this later as I put some of the things I learned into practice. You know me, I don’t believe what I’m told unless I can actually get it to work! Much of his presentation highlighted what users could do from the website and what they could do without having to physically visit the Library. For example, the LOC will loan out many of their microfilms to your local library;  They have online Civil War Photographs (Glass Negatives) in their Prints and Photographs Collection, Maps, Building surveys, bibliographies, and local history and genealogy resources by state. One under used resource is the Chronicling America Collection. You can search the blue box, however, the newspaper options are scarce. If you search for a newspaper in the directory (green box on the right), you can pull up all of the newspapers for a certain time period for a certain area, and then find a list of all of the library holdings for that newspaper. It will even tell you the previous and subsequent names of that newspaper! This is a great resource. Be sure to check out all of the digital collections! Even if you don’t find a photograph of your ancestor in them, you might find a photograph of the city or town in which he or she lived providing valuable historical context.
2)      Teasing the Silent Woman by Barbara Vines Little: In this lecture, Little reminds us that women were not conceived of as individuals, but as people in relation to other people, events, or situations. A woman was “the wife of” someone or “the daughter of” someone. She urged the genealogist to look at her family background in relation to the community, information that can often be found on the census, ie, economic status, education, religion, military, & employment. When a woman married, she suggested we look at whether she moved up or down in social and economic status; did she live closer to her family or his family? Did she live with her children? All of this information can help to build a clearer picture of your female ancestor’s life.
3)      Solving Genealogical Problems by Isolating Errors in Records by Henry B. Hoff: Hoff gave a ton of examples in this lecture, but did not offer many clues about how to resolve them. He did remind us that the familial terms of “Brother-in-law” could mean step-brother, “cousin” could mean anything, and “Uncle” could be a non-blood relative but closest friend.
      4)      Ground Transportation and Routes in Early Colonial Carolina by Thomas R. Magnuson: This was my favorite lecture of the day. I didn’t realize it at first, but Tom is from Hillsborough, NC, the next town over from where I currently live. He also organizes the “First Sunday Hikes” in which he takes groups of people out to certain areas, gives them a guided walking tour and teaches them about the land, or in some cases, the neighborhoods. I know about this event because we announce it each month in our local genealogical society newsletter. Tom is very knowledgeable about the physical terrain of the land as well as the documents surrounding it such as deeds and plats. His non- profit company offers group training in protecting these “assets” through Stewartship. Please feel free to contact him via his website for more information. His website is http://tradingpath.org.




Write Your Family History as a Snapshot, not a Family Portrait - Buzzy Jackson



The second keynote speaker today was Buzzy Jackson, author of Shaking the Family Tree: blue bloods, black sheep, and other obsessions of an accidental genealogist.

I really enjoyed listening to her speak because she was very energetic, entertaining, and engaging.  She got a PhD in History but didn’t really become interested in genealogy or family history until she read a research paper that one of her students wrote entirely from primary records; oh and the birth of her son, who’s physical characteristics intrigued her.

She agreed to write a family history book in 22 months!!! The 22 months however included the time it took to research her family as well as the time it took to actually write the family history out. Buzzy literally started from scratch – which entailed her own personal records. She recalled that she couldn’t even find her own marriage records and joked that she is “probably NOT descended from Type A individuals!”

Today she shared with us photographs and stories of the journey she took and the people she met along the way.  She warned of the pressure of time and reminded us to interview our older relatives because you never know when we might lose them. She told the story of the relative who wouldn’t let her “touch” but only briefly “look” at the pages she allowed to see and who quickly filed the family bible away when asked to view the family tree pages.

I got the impression that Buzzy was trying to say that it is experiences like the latter that may result in gaps in the family history story. In which case, she related the telling of the story in much the same way as the photographs she displayed in her slides: Think of writing your family history as a snapshot and not a formal family portrait.

What a great piece of advice to leave us with. She encouraged us to “write it down” no matter how short or long; and not wait until our genealogy is “completed.”  

Photograph of Buzzy Jackson from her website: www.buzzyjackson.com.

NGS – Day 1 – David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States

The opening ceremonies started at 8:00 am today with a performance by the Charleston Police Department’s Pipes and Drums group.

Photo by Ginger Smith, NGS Conference Opening Ceremony, Charleston, South Carolina, 11 May 2011.

Then the National Anthem was sung by a young lady while the Knights held the flags on stage (dressed in full period garb).  Ann Hilke, NGS President and resident of Raleigh, NC, introduced the first keynote speaker, David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States.

David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States; Photo from the AllGov.com website.

I knew that David Ferriero had previously worked at Duke because I heard him speak there last year; however I did not know that he still lived in North Carolina and his wife worked for UNCTV. Another thing I did not know that was quite shocking was that NARA was considered to be “the worse places to work in the Federal Government.” Of course, he’s been working hard to change that. A couple of things he mentioned that are in the works are the nine NARA blogs – he said the blogs don’t get many comments – and like someone in Twitter mentioned today, this just goes to show that we need to comment more and that NARA is trying to build more of a “user experience.”

He also highlighted that NARA is working to build up their customer help support service. It is one thing to have the records and to make them available to the public. However, this is moot if the users cannot do anything with the records if they do not know how.  I am personally looking forward to testing out their new customer support service because I often find myself running into roadblocks on their website.

Lastly, he mentioned that the 1940 census will be released April 2nd, 2012 on the NARA website.  A member of the audience asked if it will be indexed and David replied “sort of.” I guess we will have to wait and see. They have a cool little countdown widget and information on how to use the information provided on the 1940 census in your research on their website. Check it out!



One thing I wondered about was something he said early on: that NARA’s purpose was to make the records available free to the public. However, if this is the case, then why do subscription places such as Footnote charge a fee for access to digitalized versions of these records such as the Civil War records? And then I started wondering what the difference was between these records and the ones that FamilySearch has just released for free? How will you know if you need to search and pay for the “for fee” records? Ok…I will save that for another post.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

NGS Charleston, S. C. Here We Are!

Today I arrived at the NGS 2011 Genealogy Conference in Charleston, S. C. with two members from my local genealogy society. We checked in to our hotels then picked up our registration materials at the Convention Center. This is my first National Conference – ever – so I didn’t know what to expect.  I received a green tote bag, an envelope with my list of classes that I pre-registered for, a syllabus on CD, a lanyard, nametag, and my first CONFERENCE RIBBON!!!

                                        

My ride mates let me borrow one of their copies of the bound syllabus so I could choose my classes. They always get two copies – one to keep for their personal library, and one to take back to the local history library. This book is ginormous! I don’t think I will be taking it with me to the conference.



After we got checked in and got our registration materials, I headed over to Jim & Nick’s BBQ to meet with some fellow bloggers and FamilySearch staff to learn about what they have in the works for this year’s NGS conference. 

I shared a table with Linda McCauley from Documenting the Details, Greta Koehl from Greta’s Genealogy Bog, and Cullen Brimhall from FamilySearch; I met Kimberly Powell from About.com, Jennifer Woods from Climbing My Family Tree, and Dick Eastman from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.  Some new faces (to me at least) were Audrey Collins from The Family Recorder, Liz from My Tapley Tree, Cheryl Cayemberg from Have You Seen My Roots, Paula Stuart Warren from Paula's Genealogical Eclectica and Denise Brimhall, who is just getting started. Check out some photos Linda McCauley posted here

I also got to talk to David Rencher from FamilySearch who will be visiting Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina next week to research his Rencher ancestors.

After dinner and socializing, I learned about some GREAT new things that FamilySearch has been working on:

1)      In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, FamilySearch is releasing millions of online records including Confederate and Union army service records, pension records, the 1890 Union Veterans Census, and many more
2)      To commemorate the rich history of South Carolina, who is hosting this year’s NGS conference, FamilySearch is releasing their newest collections of South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964, and South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977, both of which have links to original digital images viewable online

We received in our FamilySearch press release packets a button that says “Enlisted,” invoking two different meanings: first to highlight the heroism of our ancestors who participated in the Civil War 150 years ago by enlisting and second as a “call to arms” of volunteers of 2011 to enlist and index more Civil War records so that everyone may have access to these records and learn about their ancestor’s role in this event.

Will you Enlist and do your part?



What a great start to the Conference week. Now I’m off to read the first day’s offerings of lectures, pick my classes, check in with Twitter, check in with our other genealogy society members we are meeting here, check in with my distant “cousin” I am meeting here, and pack my bag for my first day of class! Oh and did I mention that NGS has a challenge going on? - Check it out!




Monday, May 9, 2011

Funeral Card Friday: Rosalie Putman Lasiter

Funeral Card of Rosalie P. Lasiter, Fort Smith, AR - Privately held by Ginger R. Smith, September 2009.
In Memory of
Mrs. Rosalie P. Lasiter

Date of Birth
November 11, 1875

Date of Death
February 2, 1961

Place and Time of Services
Putman Chapel
3:00 p.m., February 4, 1961

Clergyman
Rev. J. H. Hoggard

Place of Interment
Forest Park

Arrangements by 
Putman Funeral Home

Rosalie Putman Lasiter was my Great-Great-Grandmother.  She was the daughter of Thomas Adolphus Putman and Martha Ann Ward. She married James Franklin Lasiter, June 27th, 1906, in Fort Smith, Arkansas. They had one child together (that I know of) - James Putman Lasiter, my Great-Grandfather. He went by "Put" and worked at the Southwest American Newspaper in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I have posted photos of Put and my Great-Grandmother, Louise Benson Lasiter here

I have some photos of Rosalie that I hope to post soon.