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Debutante Ball

A US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a week's shore leave.

The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following note from

the wife of a wealthy plantation owner:

"Dear Captain, Thursday will be my daughter Melinda's Debutante Ball. I

would like you to send four well mannered, handsome, unmarried officers

in their formal mess dress uniforms to attend the dance. They should

arrive promptly at 8:00 PM prepared for an evening of polite… Continue

Added by Spivey on July 31, 2010 at 10:53am — No Comments

Genealogy Trip to Hawaii - Day Two

This is a continuation of story of my family history related trip to Hawaii for the past two weeks. Our first day was full of meeting “new” cousins and seeing historic sites related to the Dominis family and Queen Lili’uokalani. This next day we checked out of our hotel on Waikiki Beach, Oahu to board a cruise ship to see the islands of Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. This was the vacation part of the trip,…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on July 31, 2010 at 8:36am — No Comments

Civil War Letters article

One night a couple of months ago, I was googling some of my ancestors names as I sometimes do, and up popped an article in a historical society newsletter, written by a distant cousin in the early 1990s. The article was about a great great great uncle of mine, who had fought through most of the Civil War, only to die in the last days of the war. The article included several of his letters, and it gave me chills to see some of the names I had been researching for the last few years. The article… Continue

Added by Kate Steere on July 31, 2010 at 7:09am — 1 Comment

Why there will not be a genealogical Dark Ages

There have been several comments in Blog posts about a news article

reporting a presentation given by Curt B. Witcher, the manager of The

Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library. Unfortunately, my

access to Mr. Witcher's comment come only from a Mormon Times article by Michael De Groote.

Even though I really enjoy attending the BYU… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 30, 2010 at 5:20pm — No Comments

I'm Proud to Be an American

To get ahead of the curve of the U. S. Civil War sesquicentennial, I’d like to say that I’m glad that the seceding southern states lost the civil war.

That rumble you just felt was generations of my ancestors turning over in their graves, because I am a southerner to the core descended in all my lines from ancestors from the deep south and it’s Texas counterpart, East Texas.

I honor and respect my ancestors and do not sit in judgment on their lives as individuals even… Continue

Added by Deason Hunt on July 30, 2010 at 1:10pm — No Comments

Native American Background?

My grandmother’s grandmother was Mary (Patterson) Whitener. Family legend has it that she was at least part Cherokee. Mary was born in Ellijay, Georgia in 1869 and married William Whitener there in 1883. They lived in Murray County, Georgia in 1900. Sometime between 1904 and 1907, they moved to Oklahoma. According to my grandmother, they moved . . . → : CONTINUE…

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Added by Tonia Kendrick on July 30, 2010 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

Elder William Salisbury

I would like to correspond with any Salisburys. I am from the William Billy Salisbury line of eastern Kentucky.

Sue Howard

Added by Sue Howard on July 30, 2010 at 10:00am — No Comments

Are there limits to genealogical research?

Several recent conversations concerning genealogy have ended rather

suddenly, on my part, when the person claimed to have his or her

genealogy "back to Adam." I really don't have any polite way to respond

to that conclusion. I have written before about the physical

impossibility of obtaining such a lengthy pedigree, but recent

conversations have caused me to return to the subject. The real question

is where does genealogical research end as a practical and… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 28, 2010 at 8:33pm — 2 Comments

Edward Ward of Columbus Grove, Putnam County, Ohio on Ohio Obituary Index, Rutherford B.Hayes Pres. Center

Still pondering the details of this obit. on my WordPress blog: http://gsgenealogy.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/edward-ward-of-columbus-grove-putnam-county-ohio/

Still more mysteries to uncover about this Ward Branch from Columbus Grove, Putnam County, Ohio.

Added by Gwynn Socolich on July 27, 2010 at 11:50pm — No Comments

China Diary: Adoption, Genealogy Charts and Family History

I was recently in China for 10 days, visiting the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. What I found most interesting is how different the context of their beliefs and practices are to my own. Because I am a video biographer, some of the things that I noticed have cause me to look at my field and how much I take for granted about what I do in the context of our American culture.…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 27, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Mrs. Hemphill’s Sheep

This amusing anecdote refers to my five-times great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Patton) Hemphill. It is part of a series of Biographical Sketches from Burke County, North Carolina that were written by by Col Thomas George Walton (1815-1905) and were first published in the old Morganton Herald in 1894.

“The HEMPHILLs of Silver Creek and Old Fort emigrated from the North . . . → : …

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Added by Tonia Kendrick on July 27, 2010 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

Genealogy Trip to Hawaii- Day One

This is a description of my family history related visit to Hawaii for the past two weeks. We arrived Honolulu in the early evening, bleary eyed and exhausted, so to me the Hawaii trip really started on Day Two. Our first night we checked into a hotel on Waikiki Beach, ate a bite for dinner, and I took a dip in the pool. Later, whilst walking along Waikiki Beach hubby took a dip in the ocean, too. We…

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Added by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on July 27, 2010 at 9:14am — No Comments

Away with the disputes in New FamilySearch

When New FamilySearch was introduced to Mesa, Arizona back in October of

2007, one of the first things we all did was to use the dispute

function to tell the world we disagreed with their inaccurate or wrong

information in the file. I literally spent hours and hours searching

through the files, disputing all of the wrongly included children,

incorrect marriages and other issues. Over time, it became apparent that

the program had no real way to make corrections.… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 27, 2010 at 8:51am — No Comments

Perthshire records go online

57,000 historic records from the Perthshire area of Scotland were made available by the website Ancestry.co.uk this week.

The records date from 1566 to 1901 and cover records from school admissions and surveys of the local militia.

They include the Perthshire School Registers of Admissions and Withdrawals, which contains the names of around 75,000 pupils covering the period 1869 to 1901. Each…

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Added by William Douglas on July 27, 2010 at 3:43am — No Comments

Click and Claim -- the genealogy video game

In a comment to my last post, Karen of Genealogy Frame of Mind named

the activity of gathering ancestors from online databases as "Click and

Claim." I like this designation. It summarizes the video game-like

activity of going online and copying names down into a local database

without any discrimination as to the accuracy of the information and

without even knowing the identity of the individuals being added to… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 25, 2010 at 8:28am — No Comments

The genealogy video game

During the past week or so, I had the following conversation with a

friend I was helping with his genealogy. We were using RootsMagic 4 to

look match his pedigree names with those in New FamilySearch. The

following is only slightly edited:

Me: See that green arrow in New FamilySearch? Just click on the arrow.

Friend: This shows that this person needs to be sealed to his wife.

Me: But look, there are three wives with the same name and… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 24, 2010 at 9:52pm — No Comments

Murray County Marriage Records

I visited the Murray County Probate Court last week and came away with nine copies of marriage records. I went in with a pedigree chart highlighting direct ancestors who were married (or who I thought may have been married) in Murray County. I had marriage dates for many of them, so my goal was to get . . . → : CONTINUE READING

Added by Tonia Kendrick on July 24, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Brian May

Just thought this was too cool!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/arts/design/24may.html?ref=arts

Added by Kate Steere on July 24, 2010 at 9:17am — No Comments

My Grandmother’s Recipe For Franz Josef Cookies – The Secret Is Revealed!

My grandmother almost carried the recipe for her famous cookies to her grave. She was a marvelous cook and had several recipes that were family favorites. She loved getting the praise and glory for producing these specialties for us and could never be coaxed to share the recipes.Finally, at some point in her 80s (she passed away in 1997 at the age of 93) she beautifully typed up the recipe and gave a copy to me and a copy to my sister. I’m not…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 22, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

More about the iPhone 4

I am now getting used to my new iPhone 4 and I am even more impressed

than I was initially. As a side note, this particular cell phone (if you

can still call it that) is not for everyone. The iPhone is currently

supplied only through AT&T and a required data plan, plus phone

service can cost over $100 a month. We use our phones for our business

and can justify the price for the convenience. I receive calendar items,

E-mail and telephone messages instantly from… Continue

Added by James Tanner on July 21, 2010 at 6:37pm — No Comments