James W. Wallace, one of my brickwalls, has driven me mad nearly ten years. James was the grandfather of maternal grandmother [Marideth (Stanley) Blickhahn] on her mother's side. I guess I'm not the only one he has caused some madness. I have been searching for James for quite some time. Things I know about James are: He was born in Ohio about 1861 (who only knows where in Ohio), he married Georgia Briggs on 4 Jan 1888. G
I recently came across a genealogy blog (GeneaBloggers) that would give ideas for topics for bloggers to use. Coming up with ideas of what to blog about is my biggest challenge. With the suggestions from Thomas MacEntee, owner of the GeneaBloggers, I am going to try to keep up with blogging at least once or twice a week. The theme I chose today was "Monday Madness." Monday Madness could either be a post about an ancestor with mental illness, or about an ancestor who drives you mad!
James W. Wallace, one of my brickwalls, has driven me mad nearly ten years. James was the grandfather of maternal grandmother [Marideth (Stanley) Blickhahn] on her mother's side. I guess I'm not the only one he has caused some madness. I have been searching for James for quite some time. Things I know about James are: He was born in Ohio about 1861 (who only knows where in Ohio), he married Georgia Briggs on 4 Jan 1888. G
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It's amazing what you can stumble across on the internet. I stumbled across the Forest Park Historical Society website. Although I never really lived in Forest Park, I felt I knew Forest Park better than any other place. It must have been from the many trips around Forest Park with my Grandpa (Edward Stange). As a young child, we loved walking up to Madison with Grandpa to get fresh bread from the bakery, to the bank, or to Des Plaines to Calcagano's (I'm sure I'm misspelling this). Boy did we ever love our walks with Grandpa!
Grandpa never drove, so everywhere he went was either on foot or on his Cadillac (what he called his bikes). I also remember walking to St. Peter's Lutheran Church for Sunday School and church services, especially for Christmas Eve services (more about our Christmas traditions closer to Christmas). Not sure how many hours I've spent on Pinterest, but it can easily become overwhelming. There's just so many neat ideas, but my favorite is the genealogy boards. If there is anything a person wants to know about genealogy, it can most likely be found on Pinterest. As I was looking a genealogy boards, I found many genealogy crafts. As I'm looking forward to Christmas, I'm thinking I want to decorate my 4ft Christmas tree with genealogy themed decorations. I figure I need to get started soon if I'm going to make my ornaments. I'll post my ornaments as I get them finished, Then the final will be a post of the finished tree. I can't wait!!!
It has been tough to get much genealogy done between doctor, respiratory and physical therapy appointments (and recuperating from physical therapy). Then there's taking Timber (my service dog) to the dog park, so he can run some energy off. I wish I had even half of his energy (then maybe I'd get more done).
All of my genealogy has been sorted by primary surnames (Blickhahn, Stanley, Stange, Olerud) and my Blickhahn ancestors (I forgot how much information I had on my Blickhahn line - but it was the first line I researched) have been filed into their appropriate files. If I went in order, my Stanley line would be next, but I'm so afraid to tackle that. My Stanley line is SOOOO deep, going back 13 generations. To do my Stanley line in a way I'll be able to find my information, I'll have to make many more file folders. So, I'll be working on my Stange line, then my Olerud line, and finally my Stanley line. My goal for this weekend is to file my Stange and Olerud. Then it's on to my Stanleys! Let's see if I can meet that goal. I realized that my move here to Orange County is the 9th move I have made since beginning genealogy. These moves spanned 33 years of on again, off again periods of genealogy research. There were boxes of genealogy I hadn't opened in the last couple of moves. It was like Christmas, as I found some items I didn't remember having or those I had forgotten about. I'm in the sorting stages still, and it will be a while before I am ready to begin to input these finds into my genealogy database. With as much information I have, it will most likely take at least a month to finish sorting everything and probably 4 to 6 months to input everything. I won't have to go anywhere for a long time to do research. The Family History Library in Salt Lake is in the process of indexing and scanning documents in their possession. I tried to scan as many of the microfilm records for my ancestors during the trips I made to Salt Lake. Now many of those documents have now been scanned by the Library. This is good, as my scans were not as good as their scans. They are much clearer and easier to read. Now I just have to get in the mood to work on my genealogy!
There was one major advantage that occurred when switching my filing system; you never know what you'll find. I had been searching for Helena's parents for several years. Through my research, using the process of elimination, I felt rather certain that Helena's father was Otto Cleff, but which Otto Cleff. The closest Otto Cleff I found was a butcher in Chicago, but he seemed to be older than I expected him to be. I wasn't totally convinced I had the correct father for Helena, but another clue was Helena's oldest brother (also a Otto) was a butcher (many times sons followed in their father's footsteps).
I came across an article dated July 31, 1947. The article, "Herman Stanges Salute Golden Day with Open House," stated, Mrs. Stange was 14 years old when she, her father and her brothers moved to the States. They settled in Chicago where they lived about a year before moving to Forest Park." From this article, I now knew I had the correct Otto. The article did have some discrepancies: 1) Helena was 13 at the time of immigration, not 14 (information based on the ship's manifest). 2) Helena and her brothers did not immigrate with their father (Otto was not found on the manifest and only two of Helena's brothers came over in 1911). The article does raise an opportunity for additional research. If the information in the article, that Otto and his three children who came over in 1892, originally settled in Chicago; is correct, there may be some Chicago records that have additional information. Well, I finally finished putting together my box. For once I found a system that will really work. Spent some time today sorting the tons of genealogy documents I've accumulated over time. When I'm done sorting and filing what I can, I'll split my files into the two drawers in my wood file cabinet. Should work out pretty well. It's really challenging when you don't know whether you've already searched the record. Now what will I do with the 200+ manilla file folders I have left over when switching filing systems. It's interesting to note, this system although consists of considerably less file folders than my old system, it is organized in a way that you can put your finger on any document you need to find. I wish I had found the book Eliminate Genealogy Clutter when I first started working on my genealogy or at least before I spent hours (probably 24 hours, maybe even more) plus the cost of materials (file folders, labels, etc.), only to find that my filing system wouldn't even fit in my file cabinet. The Eliminate Genealogy Clutter will fit nicely in my two drawer file cabinet. My old system took not only the two drawer file cabinet, but also a large plastic file storage, and that was before I put the boxes of documents in their proper file. One of the best features of Eliminate Genealogy Clutter, is that it will work nicely with my Legacy electronic database, as you put in a code to lead you to the proper file. As I was taking apart my old system, I was finding documents I either didn't know I had or had no idea where I had filed the document. The other great feature of Eliminate Genealogy Clutter is beyond creating files for your family, your parents, and grandparents, you create new files only when you need them. This makes a lot of sense, as there are some ancestors I don't have any documentation for as of yet. The best thing is the cost of the Eliminate Genealogy Clutter is the price - $7.95 on Amazon.com. I wasn't sure what I was getting as it was listed as a pamphlet. Instead, it is a 5.5"x8.5" - 78 page spiral bound booklet. This booklet has rejuvenated my interest in my genealogy. I have so much genealogy stuff, I was overwhelmed. Not anymore! I've decided I have procrastinated long enough and now it is time to get busy. Since I have moved (going on three months) I have been procrastinating about working on my genealogy. I had yet to find a filing system that really would work for me, and I finally found "THE SYSTEM" to implement. I picked up the book, Eliminate Genealogy Clutter by Sherene Henrie Whiting. Some of the the techniques are those I've seen before, but she take you step by step though the organization process. Only problem I've encountered is she calls for pastel hanging files. I cannot not find them anywhere on the web, so they probably would not be found in the office stores either. I figured, not a real problem, as I am not researching my husbands side of the family, (my daughter is working only on his side of her family). By the time we are both done, we'll have her whole ancestry completed/ By only working on my side, this has eliminated the need for hanging file folders in both primary and pastel colors and will make my genealogy project much more manageable. As I already have all of the materials on hand, I should be able to have my system set up and ready to go by the end of this weekend. I think this system is really going to work for me. Not only will it help me with my paper files, the system provides a code for each file that can be included in my genealogy database to locate the original piece of information. Additionally, this system can be used for a digital file system. At least this system has got me to sit down and work with my genealogy again after a couple month hiatus.
I got to thinking today (as I was renewing my Norton 360) about two essential non-genealogy related program subscritpions I feel are important to mention, not just for genealogy, but for the everyday computer use. First is a anti-virus program and secondly a backup program. There are some anti-virus programs that do combine the two and you can set how often you want your information backed up.
Although there are free anti-virus programs out there, I have used Norton as my anti-virus program for most of my computer life. One of the primary reasons is not only does it periodically scan my system for any viruses and trojan malware, but it also remembers my passwords and performs periodical backups. The only problem is, what if you have a virus attack on your computer between backups and you lose critical information? Believe me, this can happen. While working on my dissertation, I had my laptop computer crash twice. This was after the screen had died in the middle of working on my dissertation proposal. Luckily, my son-in-law is a computer wiz and he took out my hard drive and put it in an external case and I was able to use my old hard drive like a regular external hard drive and was back in business. If my son-in-law wasn't able to retrieve my hard drive and I had relied on my Norton backup, chances are I would have lost hours or days of work. That was when I decided to subscribe to Carbonite. Carbonite has saved me several times over the past three years. The great thing about Carbonite is it constantly backing up your system. Anytime you are connected to the internet, Carbonite does it's thing. When you need to recover your files, the process is easy. Not only that, you can access your files remotely. Well, my dissertation has been done for a couple of years now, but I have maintained my subscription to Carbonite. I realized it would be as detrimental to lose hours or days worth of work on my genealogy. I know there are many less expensive programs out there, but Norton has a deal that for $135 you can protect up to five devices (PCs, Macs iPads, iPhones, and Androids) for two years. That's less than $6 a month for five devices. Carbonite runs $60-$100, depending on the options you choose. The basic is $60 ($5 a month) and works just fine. The $100 is if you want to back up an external hard drive as well. The other advantage with Carbonite is if you do your own taxes, you automatically have a back up of your returns and supporting documentation. The IRS may or may get away with their excuse that their hard drive crashed, I'm sure we wouldn't be as lucky to get away with that excuse. |
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Author - Dr. Kathryn M. WattsI live in Orange, California with my husband Bill, and my service dog Timber. Genealogy is one of my favorite past times. Archives
May 2019
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