Early Follow Friday: One Lovely Blog Award

I’m so late with this, and I apologize for that! I swear forgetfulness didn’t use to be a part of my daily life. I just get so caught up in what I’m doing that sometimes until I find a little post it note to remind me, some things get set aside for a bit. I’ve been busy preparing for Grandpa Moore’s arrival next week, and I’m going to have jury duty within the next month. I’m trying to get myself back on track and on schedule!

Recently, I was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award by two fellow bloggers! First from Joanne at Keeper of the Records and then from Jennifer at The Erudite Genealogist! I can’t express how excited I am that other people are enjoying what I put into this blog. My main reason for starting this blog was to keep my family connected on the things I was doing. Having others enjoy it is a great side effect! It’s also great because I enjoy both of their blogs!

Here are the rules that Joanne posted on her blog.

  1. Add the logo to your blog.
  2. Link to the person whom you received this award.
  3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.
  4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog”!

I’m going to add the logo onto my sidebar sometime today but now it’s time for the fun part. My 7 picks!

  1. Begin with Craft – Love her blog! Valerie’s blog is what I hope mine also is. Just a little way of sharing how I’m learning and an “as I go through it” look at learning this whole genealogy thing.
  2. Little Bytes of Life – My favorite part is her weekly posts with little tidbits from different spectrums. News, Blogs, Pop culture. She follows it all!
  3. Marian’s Roots and Rambles – It’s rare that I don’t learn something or at least feel like I’m engaged in what Marian Pierre-Louis is writing!
  4. Nutfield Genealogy – I love all Heather’s posts. I’m fascinated by the aspects of history that I never learned in school. I love the way Heather takes news articles or historical events and relates them to her family.
  5. The You Go Genealogy Girls – This is such a fun blog to read. I was reading some back entries here when I realized, “Hey she has a research notebook, I should make a research notebook!” That sounds simple, but I’ve never made a list or grouping of what I’d like to research. I was flying by the seat of my pants! Well, not anymore, the notebook is now being constructed with an Excel file to boot!
  6. The Family Recorder – Audrey Collins is a great resource for British genealogy. I should hope so since she works at The National Archives of the UK! Since I’m just learning about some English roots, I’ve often referred back to some tips and information she’s written about.
  7. Greta’s Genealogy Blog – Last but not least by any means! Greta’s blog is a lot of fun. I particularly enjoy her What I Learned Wednesday posts. Most times, it’s something that I can stand to learn or acknowledge too!

So there’s my 7! If you aren’t already reading these, what are you waiting for?

Follow Friday: Roots and Rambles

It’s time for another one of my favorite genealogy blogs! This week I chose Marian’s Roots and Rambles. Even though I’ve been blogging since March of 2010, I’m still new to genealogy blogging. I’m still searching out blogs that I like and can relate to. Marian’s Roots and Rambles is one I’ve been reading for awhile. I can always relate to what Marian is writing and she’s another active twitterer.

Here are some of my favorite posts from Marian:

Really I find all of Marian’s posts interesting and worth reading and it’s hard to limit myself to just 5 favorites. So just head on over and read some of Marian’s blog and leave her a comment telling her how much you enjoy it. I’m vowing to comment more this year and Marian’s going to be one I make sure to comment on regularly.

Marian’s Roots and Rambles

Follow Friday: Tonia’s Roots

On December 10th, I blogged about being chosen for the Ancestors Approved award by Cheri Daniels. I said in the post that I was going to highlight my chosen 10 as Follow Friday posts after the holidays. The first winner is here!

Tonia Kendrick at Tonia’s Roots! Tonia was one of the first genealogy blogging buddies I made. She commented on my blog asking a question about the software we both use (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding).  She’s very active on twitter and is always quick to offer congratulations or help to others.

Her blog is very fun to read. Adding a little personality are the scrapbook-like images she makes for her entries. It just adds a little pop to the factual information she’s posting. My favorite features are her vital records analysis and the reviews of her recent experience at the Atlanta Family History Expo.

Some of my favorite posts of hers are:

So if you have a few extra minutes, check out her blog!

Tonia’s Roots

Follow Friday is a Daily Blogging Topic used by GeneaBloggers worldwide.

Follow Friday: Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online

When I was thinking this morning about something to highlight for Follow Friday, there was one thing that stuck out among many. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online. My father’s family may be from Ireland but they spent a good 40 years in Brooklyn. This site is probably the best find I’ve ever made. It’s also the only reason I’m not crying like a baby that my local library changed it’s policy for using NewspaperArchive.com.

It’s a project that’s run by the Brooklyn Public Library. The years cover 1841-1902! Those are wonderful years because it encompasses the big Irish immigration. Those years make me giddy just looking at them.

Continue reading “Follow Friday: Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online”

Follow Friday: Family Search

I am in love with this website. I love this website so much, I’m pretty sure I’d take the drastic step of marrying it if I could. I’m not experienced or smart enough to get lost in the technical jargon about the website, so you’ll have to go elsewhere for that.

I have been using the FamilySearch “Pilot” site for many years now. Mostly in past years for their wonderful collection of Ohio Death Certificates. Recently they’ve made a drastic change. That change is adding so many names to the database I’ll probably never come out on the other side.

I’ve always been hampered in my research in the fact that I have practically no means of travel. If it isn’t in my own town, most likely I can’t get there. Washington D.C. is a day trip that doesn’t happen often, maybe more now, but we’ll see. With these new website updates though, I may not have to stress too bad about that any longer.

A lot of the records they’ve recently put online are just indexes. So they aren’t the most helpful (mostly because of transcription interpreting I think). That doesn’t even hint on the way that they source the indexes and how valid the actual index information is.

This is my favorite part though. I found this marriage record for Mary J Webb. I don’t know who Mary J Webb is quite honestly. I know who her parents are though. Enoch Webb and Jane Lindsey. I’m actually pretty sure of Webb research, so it did surprise me to find a daughter for these two. She was born around 1884 and didn’t marry until 1915. So by all intents and purposes she should be living at home with her parents in 1900 and 1910. That isn’t so though. In fact, it wasn’t until I found this record that I remembered something that always stumped me before. Enoch had an older brother Amos. In 1900 and 1910 Amos had a niece living with him named Minnie/Mammie. I was always stumped by who this girl could belong to. She popped up in 1900 out of nowhere. If I had the 1890 census, things would have been clearer. Once I found this record though, I got excited. I’d finally identified her! The birthday fits and everything.

Is this a 100% identification? Maybe not, but it’s the closest I might ever get! What can I do to verify this information? Well I’m going to have to see where Family Search got their information.

So I took the Film Number and plugged it into the Family History Library Catalog Search.

This is the microfilm that gives me the above information. Straight from the Brown County Courthouse! That’s without a 10+ hour trip to Ohio with people who aren’t exactly into going through old records and cemeteries.

What exactly do I plan to do with this?

I plan to see it for myself, in person if at all possible.

The Genealogy Gods are smiling down on me today folks. They do have a Family History Center in my town! This is great news, and I plan to get a to do list together and head in there in the very near future!

FamilySearch Record Search

Follow Friday is a daily blogging theme I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Follow Friday, simply create a post in which you recommend another genealogy blogger, a specific blog post, a genealogy website or a genealogy resource. Tell us why they are important to the genealogy community and why we should follow.