Back in March, I posted about my new Genealogy Binder. It’s been a lot of fun deciding what to put in the binder and what needed a form to keep track of the information. I’m still going to get some dividers to separate sections of the binder into what I feel I need: Website Lists, Research Tools, Records Information, and Printed Reports. I haven’t fully decided the sections yet, but those are the four I’m thinking about currently.

Contacts List

I receive a lot of emails because of this website. Most of the time I put together a response, but I always let people know that I’ll keep in contact if anything comes up. I’m not as good about this as I should be because once something gets sorted in the “Genealogy” section of my email, I forget it until something makes me remember it. It’s not the most flattering thing for me to say, but it is the truth. I also have to admit that I’m weeks behind in sending out responses to emails currently. Yikes. This list will help though. It has three sections: Name, Common Ancestor, Email. I handwrite all the information and when I get a full page, I type up the information and print out the page. I wait until I have a full page because I’m pretty snobby about having things look non uniform. It’s one of those weird things I’m afflicted with. It must all match! Now when I find something new within a certain section of my family tree, I can email everyone who is listed under the “common ancestor”.

Repository List

The Repository List is a BIG help. I hate having to track down websites and then hunt within websites to find an address to send a records request. So I’m gathering the ones I know I will use and I put them in the Repository List. This one gets typed up because of the length of the addresses. Even with my favorite fine line pen, I have problems fitting some of those addresses into a reasonable amount of space.

Supplies List

The supplies list I keep in the genealogy binder because it is always on top of my desk. That means it’s handy for me when I find out I need something. I’m currently only needing tabbed dividers (for the genealogy binder), 3 ring binders (I’m making a kitchen binder and a household binder for Mom), and a color ink cartridge (reason should be obvious, ha!).

Records to be Ordered List

I’ve learned over the last few years that I easily get behind in records I want to send away for. So I’ve started making a list of the ones I’m hankering to get. I added a price section so that when I get some extra money, I can see right away whether I have any cheaper or more expensive records on my to do list. I haven’t added prices to my New Jersey records yet, because I’m still determining where the records I need are being held.

Records Ordered List

Another thing I’ve learned in the last few years, is that sometimes records can take a long time to come. So you either forget about them or it seems like it takes longer then it actually does. Well, I wonder no more because this list tells me exactly what was ordered and when. So I know I received my Grandmother’s birth certificate (and in record time) and I’m still waiting for William H Moore‘s death certificate (if they find it this time).

Cemetery Lists

This is the most recent addition to my binder. I’ve started to make cemetery lists. We’re hoping to make a genealogy trip this summer (last summers got postponed), so I want to have this information handy if we make it to these places. The last time I wasn’t at all prepared and I’m certainly not dragging my laptop with me. I can just print reports straight from Family Tree Maker, but I like this because I can keep families grouped together. I know from the last time I went to Kentucky that most of the cemetery lots are family lots. For that reason, I want to keep my lists organized by families as opposed to alphabetical.

Blog Ideas

Lastly, I have an updated blog ideas list. Most times my ideas need to be written so that I can remember exactly what I wanted when the idea came to me. For example: “A Tale of Many Sisters: Finding Emma Carter’s Mother”. I know exactly what that post is going to be. On the other hand, I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking when I wrote: “I’m a handwriting snob”. Except for the fact that I’ve always been obsessed with good penmanship. So that idea will probably be scrapped.

I’ve recently gone hog wild on the Scotlands People website. I must admit, this time I didn’t even use the FamilySeach indexes to help me along. Probably not a smart move on my part, but oh well now!

All that matters is that I have many names to analyze for the Love family.

To start off, I’ll be using the naming pattern that I wrote about here and Irish ones found here to “guess” what the key names will be to go back one generation from my current Love family generation wall, Andrew Love.

WHAT I CAN “GUESS” ABOUT ANDREW USING SCOTTISH PATTERNS AND ANDREW’S CHILDRENS’ NAMES.

• Andrew’s father is possibly named Robert.
• Andrew’s mother is possibly named Jean.
• Andrew’s fraternal grandfather is possibly named Andrew.
• Andrew’s maternal grandfather is possibly named William.

WHAT I CAN “GUESS” ABOUT ANDREW USING IRISH PATTERNS AND ANDREW’S CHILDRENS’ NAMES.

• Andrew’s father is possibly named Robert.
• Andrew’s mother is possibly named Jean.
• Andrew’s third son was possibly named after Andrew.
• Andrew’s third daughter was possibly named after her mother, Agnes.
• Andrew’s oldest brother is possibly named Thomas.
• Andrew’s second oldest brother is possibly named William.

WHAT I FIGURED OUT ABOUT ANDREW’S PARENTS AND SIBLINGS FROM THE ACTUAL RECORDS.

• Andrew’s father is named Robert (Scottish – 1/4, Irish – 1/6)
• Andrew’s mother is named Jean (Scottish – 2/4, Irish – 2/6)
• Andrew’s fraternal grandfather is named James (Scottish – 2/4)
• I don’t have Andrew’s maternal grandfather yet (Scottish – 2/4)
• Andrew’s third son is named Andrew (Irish 3/6)
• Andrew’s third daughter is named Agnes, like her mother (Irish 4/6)
• Andrew’s oldest brother is not named Thomas, but he did have a brother named Thomas. (Irish 4/6)
• Again Andrew’s second oldest brother is not named William, but he did have a brother named William. (Irish 4/6)

IN CONCLUSION

• Naming patterns aren’t an exact science.
• Just because the Loves stuck to more of the Irish patterns doesn’t mean they’re Irish. It also doesn’t mean that they aren’t Irish. It just means that they used family names.
• Naming patterns are fun to use, but usually I only find that the parents part of them fit into my families.

Aren’t naming patterns a great way to make you look more at your family? I’m very excited to have found all 9 of Andrew’s siblings (I think that’s all!) and even his parents and grand parents. I’m once again blocked. I haven’t completely filled in Robert Love’s parents and siblings. I don’t even know if I have them all. What I do know is that in Beith parish, there is a farm/village called Hoodsyard and it’s because of Hoodsyard that I was able to distinguish my Loves from all the other Loves. Now to figure out where the other ones fit into the family!

Back when I first started to get my research together, I had a single 1-1/2 inch binder with all my documents in it. Then I got all those boxes of information. While I don’t have all that stuff anymore, I still have enough that it’s outgrown the original binder. So I organized that chaos here. And I went ahead and set the binder aside to be used on another project someday. That day came last week. I’ve been reading a lot of organization blogs, hoping to get inspiration to make my bedroom/office into an organized workspace. This is going to take awhile to plan out, but I did get myself a good idea.

The new Genealogy Binder.

This one doesn’t have records in it. It has lists, and I know now that I need lists. I even lucked out with all those extra sheet protectors from the organization project.

this list courtesy of iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

Then I made my own checklist in Excel for the things I don’t want to forget that I need.

I put my Scottish naming patterns printout in the binder. Always need this one on hand!

I put my Ohio Birth Report in a single sheet protector. This way it’s not taking up cluttered space on my desk.

I even cooked up a Repository List. Though I might go ahead and type the addresses into the boxes and re-print it. That way I can fit some of those long names in the boxes without having to write super tiny.

I’m still figuring out what else to put in my binder, but I figure it will end up being papers I would like to keep out and accessible without being scattered all over my desk. I think the next thing to do is to make Genealogy Trip To-Do Lists or Vital Records checklists that I want to order.

This Christmas, my sister got me the greatest gift ever. She didn’t get me a Kindle or an iPad. She got me Story Cubes.

For as long as I can remember, my mind has always been full of crazy stories. Whether it be real ones or imaginary ones. I don’t just ride in a car, I create stories in my head while I ride in a car. You get the idea. So this was kind of a cool, thoughtful gift from my big sister!

The idea is to roll the dice and then create a story involving all of the pictures on the “cubes”. They recommend to start your story with Once Upon a Time…. Where’s the fun in that though? I thought I’d just look at what I got on the cubes and think of how I can relate that picture to an ancestor!

1. The skyscraper/city building. This makes me think of my Great Grandpa William L Moore, who worked for over 30 years in NYC for AT&T as an accountant.
2. The sheep reminds me of my Scottish ancestors, both the Loves and Menzies. I’ve recorded the Loves in Paisley, Scotland for many years. Paisley was a hub for the weaving industry and the birthplace of the Paisley pattern. (Which happens to be one of those things that I’ve always loved.)
3. Pyramid. The pyramid reminds me of Egypt. Which I’m obsessed with. The history of that place! It connects to my family history because one of the Menzies girls married a guy who traveled to Egypt for business regularly.
4. The Parachute. Aviation is HUGE in my father’s side of the family. Not just my father had the aviation bug. I have numerous newspaper articles that congratulate some of my family tree branches on their completion of flight school.
5. The cane reminds me of a very near and dear person. My grandma Emogene Taylor-Mays-Utter and her second husband, Wayne. In the final years of my Grandma’s life, she had dementia. Not alzheimers, but dementia. Dementia is a very tricky business because the person who suffers from it doesn’t lose memories so much as they do their personality switches on a dime. One minute she’d be fine and nice, and the next… well watch out! The cane comes in because her husband carved her a cane from solid oak. On the cane was a section that was carved out for marbles. He told her as long as she had that cane, she’d never lose her marbles. Such a sweet man, he’s dearly missed too.

That leaves me with the fountain, dice, bridge and clock. Right now nothing comes to mind but maybe as I learn more stories something will!

I recently updated my “About Kathleen” page here on the blog. Reading my previous page got me thinking a lot about my views on genealogy. While writing the new page, I was trying to think of what I’m usually asked the first time I tell someone I research my family history. Which I never refer to as genealogy, because then that leads to the blank stare most times.

If you’ve ever had a genealogy discussion with the non-initiated, or even the initiated, the first question always seems to be: “Oh, what’s the most interesting thing you’ve found?”

That question makes me chuckle a little bit. It’s kind of like my sister coming home from a day at the bank and me asking her, “Who was your most interesting customer? No, I don’t want to hear about your day or the mechanics of it. Just your most interesting part.”

Am I dissing someone who asks that question? Of course not! I would never do that. Any reason to talk genealogy is a good enough reason to me. I’m definitely not saying that I want to go on a 45 minute discussion on how I dissect which records are important and which ones aren’t.

I guess my point is, that question is impossible for me to answer.  I was born, raised, and still live in Southern Maryland. In this tri-county area, I’ve had zero extended family most of my life. Most of my relatives are a half day drive away. So when I started to research my genealogy, everything I found was just so fascinating. I couldn’t believe that this five person family I grew up with could branch out so far. I knew I had cousins on each side of my family, and I knew that I had two sets of grandparents. I think I saw my maternal grandma once every five years until we were old enough to travel better. Not to mention the cost of traveling for a young family who didn’t have a lot to spare.

My Grandma Emogene, her siblings and cousin

For someone who had her siblings, their friends, her own friends and that was it; Family is something that it took me awhile to grasp. I’ve read a lot of articles where people don’t understand why people research their family history. It’s in the past they say. It has no bearing on who you are. I don’t need to know about them to live a perfectly normal life.

I can say most of that is true. Except for saying it has no bearing on who you are. I am by no means a psychologist. However, I am a people watcher. I love to observe and analyze. It’s why I enjoyed jury duty so much. I actually think I have a very good perspective on how learning your family history can change your views of the world. Not having any idea where I came from, not having close relationships with my extended family until we were grown, all those factors help me to differentiate how I felt before and after genealogy.

I’ve never walked my ancestral grounds, I’ve never gone farther then the distance it takes to visit family, and I’ve never spent more money on genealogy in a year then I wouldn’t have spent on quilting fabric at the store. What I can say about learning my family history can’t really be put into words, but that’s what I’m going to try to do anyway.

I could have gone through my life never knowing anything about my family history. What you learn in your family history isn’t something thats measurable in money or fame. A lot of people think everyone who researches their family history is in it for some kind of fame seeking reasons. That isn’t so. You actually learn compassion for how hard it was to get to the point where you are today. A lot of people take for granted that the majority of American’s are educated from the kindergarten level, all the way up to high school. As early as the 1930 census, it was common for people not to be able to sign their own name. In fact, their are still people out there not able to read or write. When you think back on ancestors, who left Ireland with nothing but the clothes on their back and a skill they’d learned, you can’t help but feel proud of them. They conquered life when the odds were against them. Their only hope was in themselves and their faith. Yet these people in the past, who you’ll never know but through genealogy put you where you are today. If they had gone left instead of right, would you be the same person you are today? If they hadn’t come to America, would they or their children have survived for you to even be born?

My great grandmother Llewellyn, her brother George, and an unknown friend

So when I’m asked what my most interesting find is, I say “All of them”. I find William H Moore’s immigration interesting. I find the vast numbers of Mays ancestors interesting. I come from a world of living in the same place for all my life, so I find the Redford family’s migration to Los Angeles, CA interesting. I find the farmers just as interesting as the plumbers. The plumbers are just as interesting as the tailors. The tailors are just as interesting as the people who ended up signing their WWI Draft Card from the county jail.

The fascination isn’t in the notoriety or out of the ordinary for me. It’s the family unit and how it survives over time. I know because of my relatives that rough patches iron out. You lose your loved ones, but you can in fact carry on and survive. I know that those friends I made during school and am still friends with are as much a part of my family history as my cousin Patty is. They all make up my story.

The facts about my ancestors may not be Hollywood worthy and they may not have done super extraordinary things that made them rich or famous. What they did do was give me inspiration to do what I love and keep living my life for today and not yesterday. Yesterday is already written. It’s my decision on how to write today and tomorrow. I only hope that I’m half as much inspiration to my descendants as my ancestors are to me.