After I wrote about my Allen connections last week, I decided to do a quick lookup on FamilySearch Pilot to see what I could find for Elva Allen. I should have done this some time ago as one of the first records that was returned was a page from the 1870 U.S. census covering Sugar Creek Township, Montgomery County, Indiana.
What was her name?
Okay, so I'm going through the steps as a volunteer indexer for FamilySearch. I've heard of some rather interesting names in my own research, but the name that I spotted today has got to be my favorite so far. Here's a partial extract of the relevant page from the 1930 U.S. census; take a look at the name that is highlighted:
Am I reading this right? Does that really say this woman's name was Easter Ham? It may be a misspelling of Esther, but it made for a chuckle as I went through the page and transcribed exactly what I saw today.
Am I reading this right? Does that really say this woman's name was Easter Ham? It may be a misspelling of Esther, but it made for a chuckle as I went through the page and transcribed exactly what I saw today.
Surname Saturday: Allen
So today I'm going to start an overview of each of the surnames that I'm researching, looking at each surname one at a time. I'll start with the names in my own lines first, going in alphabetical order. That means that today we'll look at how the Allen surname connects into my research.
Cursive - a lost art?
Earlier this week, we watched a very well-known silent movie from 1936. Specifically, we watched the Charlie Chaplin film, Modern Times. At one point in the film, the warden of the local jail wrote a recommendation letter for Chaplin's character to help him find work after his release from jail. The letter is shown on the screen a couple times, and as someone who was schooled in the 1970s and 80s, I was able to read the cursive writing in the letter quite easily. But we had to read it aloud to my son who had resisted learning cursive in school.
Today there's a discussion on the radio program To The Best Of Our Knowledge about fonts, and as I type this, the segment I'm listening to is discussing cursive writing. The conversation in the show noted that cursive is not taught in elementary schools as much as keyboarding (I'll still consider it an intro to typing, even if they don't teach the home row, which is another loss that I've noticed, but not quite as severely). That got me thinking that any of these young students who are not learning cursive will have an exceptionally hard time when they start into genealogy research. When you go back far enough in researching from original documents, and this could just be one generation of research, you'll find cursive letters.
How long will it be before cursive basics becomes one of the most popular class topics at genealogy conferences? Time will tell.
Today there's a discussion on the radio program To The Best Of Our Knowledge about fonts, and as I type this, the segment I'm listening to is discussing cursive writing. The conversation in the show noted that cursive is not taught in elementary schools as much as keyboarding (I'll still consider it an intro to typing, even if they don't teach the home row, which is another loss that I've noticed, but not quite as severely). That got me thinking that any of these young students who are not learning cursive will have an exceptionally hard time when they start into genealogy research. When you go back far enough in researching from original documents, and this could just be one generation of research, you'll find cursive letters.
How long will it be before cursive basics becomes one of the most popular class topics at genealogy conferences? Time will tell.
The show that started it all...
My first research into family history began when I was assigned a heritage report project in middle school. For me, that was in the early 1980s. But, as I continue my research now and hear about how new shows like "Who do you think you are" are inspiring a new batch of genealogists, I'm left to wonder more about a miniseries that is often cited as inspiration for researchers that are my age and older. "Roots" first aired in 1977 and then received 36 Emmy nominations, of which the show won nine as well as a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. The final episode, which originally aired on 30 January 1977, saw a record viewership and remains today the third-highest rated television program in the US of all time, according to the show's Wikipedia entry. Today, I will see for myself what all the hubbub was about, because the first disk of the 7-disk DVD set has reached the top of my Netflix queue and I'll be watching it tonight.
American Independence and our family
I'm doing the genealogical happy dance this weekend. A few months ago I wrote about the Hartwell family and their involvement in Paul Revere's famous ride. This week, I found some more documents that further link this family to the Revolutionary War. And with today being Independence Day here in the United States, it's only natural that we take another look at this family.
Not so Wordless Wednesday - who are these people?
The wordless part of this Wordless Wednesday post is that most of the people in this photograph aren't talking to me. I know who a few of these people were (read more to see them), but who were the rest?Black Sheep Sunday - fynes in New Haven colony
Yes, it's been a while since I last posted here, but now that a number of large commitments are passed, I have some more time to devote to my genealogical research. I've been spending some of that time going through old photocopies and correspondence rereading them and re-entering information into my database. While working through these documents, I found a few notes that fit perfectly into a Black Sheep Sunday post.
So few answers so far
A friend of mine from high school today sent me a link that other genealogists should be interested in. According to the 2010 census participation map, so far, only 46% of the census forms sent out at the start of March have been completed and returned. The stats so far shows the top five states as North Dakota (58%), South Dakota (57%), Nebraska (57%), Wisconsin (54%) and Iowa (54%). We played our part to become part of the current top five states.
Returning the form in the mail means that a census worker won't have to knock on your door to ask you the same questions. You've sent your form back, right?
Returning the form in the mail means that a census worker won't have to knock on your door to ask you the same questions. You've sent your form back, right?
Lot's of work and a new mystery
So it's been a while since my last post. I'm a bit busy with preparations for the MATC Portfolio Show where I will be exhibiting my photography next month, but I have had a few minutes here and there to do some more research.
I had started on a couple of posts describing how I was working through the keying tools for both Family Search and Ancestry, adding to the indexes of new records that will soon be on both sites (and my frustration on going through one census page from Minnesota that was mostly German and Austrian immigrants). I also started another post about receiving our own 2010 Census form in the mail recently and that we had saved a photocopy of the form for future generations of researchers in my own family. Finally, I also started a post on my trials in evaluating Roots Magic and whether or not I will be switching databases any time soon. But, mostly because I didn't have a chance to fully flesh out my blog ideas on these topics, none of these posts got published.
Now, I've got a bit of a mystery...
I had started on a couple of posts describing how I was working through the keying tools for both Family Search and Ancestry, adding to the indexes of new records that will soon be on both sites (and my frustration on going through one census page from Minnesota that was mostly German and Austrian immigrants). I also started another post about receiving our own 2010 Census form in the mail recently and that we had saved a photocopy of the form for future generations of researchers in my own family. Finally, I also started a post on my trials in evaluating Roots Magic and whether or not I will be switching databases any time soon. But, mostly because I didn't have a chance to fully flesh out my blog ideas on these topics, none of these posts got published.
Now, I've got a bit of a mystery...
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