Sarah Catherine Bush and John Ward
Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Prompt from GeneaBloggers.com
Source:
Photo of Sarah and John Ward, Llewellyn’s Boxes, 1986; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2005. This collection was taken from Llewellyn Thorward-Moore’s house after her death. They resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to his grand-daughter, Kathleen Moore.
Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Prompt from GeneaBloggers.
This series of posts are based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂
First things first, I finally cleaned off my desk the best I could.
I will probably clean off all that stuff on the left eventually, but I need to get some more storage solutions for that. I cleaned off a ton of different books and papers. Only things I will need as I work are on the desk. This has probably been one of the most helpful things I’ve done. I’ve already noticed that I am a lot more focused than I’ve been in the past.
The other thing I did was I decided I wanted to overhaul my bookmarks. They’ve been a mess for years and I was so hesitant about it for about 5 minutes. Then I decided I would just clean out my Google Chrome bookmarks and start fresh. It’s amazing how much easier it gets to start fresh.
The fun part is I am still building that Toolbox and adding to my Genealogy bookmarks almost two weeks after I started fresh. This has also been a HUGE help in keeping me focused. I took off bookmarks to all my news, celebrity, and other time-wasting websites… Except Facebook because I use it daily to help my research. I have found that I don’t even miss those sites. If I get the urge, I just go ahead and type the address manually. I have found that if I have to go to the effort of typing it in, I don’t bother to go. That probably makes me sound very lazy!
Last but not least, is the research log. Sorry for the blurs, but I’m sure you understand. I am using a template that was generously shared by Thomas MacEntee. I have tweaked it a bit to help me use the filters feature more effectively, because I do love the filters feature. I am still trying to decide if I will be keeping just one log or doing one for each surname. Right now, I think I am leaning toward one for each surname but I just can’t decide yet. I figure I can always copy and paste later into a new file if it becomes too much to handle. I will fill you in on the research log more when I start adding in someone I don’t have to worry about privacy blurs with. Right now I am still working on adding in my living relatives.
Other posts in this series:
Sources:
Treasure Chest Thursday is a Blogging Prompt used by the GeneaBloggers community to help bloggers come up with things to write about their ancestors.Â
I’ve always known I am very lucky to have inherited a box of things from my Great-Grandmother Llewellyn. I could probably fill a whole year of Thursdays with posts about the many things that she un-intentionally passed down to me.
This is what it all looked like when I took the things out of the little baggy they were in. The tie clip was hanging loose but the rest were in the little box there. I should tell you my Grandpa Moore was an antiques seller for a long time. That means that every once and awhile you have to think to yourself, “Does this really belong with my family?” It’s entirely possible every bit of this doesn’t belong to my family, or it all could. These were definitely treated differently by him though, which makes me think that they had special meaning.
Tie Clip: I do believe this one belongs. The simple fact is that William Lawrence Moore and Lewis Thorward, his father in law, were both long time Freemasons. I have to learn more about all of that so I understand it better and what it can tell me about them.
Eastern Star pin: I know that Llewellyn and her parents were very committed to the Methodist Church in Caldwell. Llewellyn volunteered there almost her whole life. From teaching Sunday School, organizing socials, and whatever else she could help with. From her and her husband’s grave stone I have evidence that these pieces most likely are theirs. Even though Grandpa Moore’s memory wasn’t quite there, I’m sure that the life long commitment that his parents gave to these organizations helped him hold on to these treasures.
Crosses: Unfortunately this is where my background on the bits and pieces ends. I don’t know the story or the owners of these crosses, but I am keeping them with the other bits because it feels in my gut that these were Llewellyns.
Six pence: This one I am completely clueless on. Maybe Llewellyn or someone in her family traveled to England and kept this as a souvenir?
Other bits: The one on the left looks to be a bracelet that broke. The bird is possibly a brooch?
I may not know a lot about where these bits and pieces come from but I sure do love them as if they were passed down directly from Llewellyn herself.
Sources:
Llewellyn’s Boxes of Treasures for the bits and pieces
BeFunky: Used to help me create the graphic.
Disclaimer: This post contains no affiliate links and I receive nothing for using the websites mentioned.
Wordless Wednesday is a Daily Blogging Prompt from GeneaBloggers.
The series of posts I will be writing is based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂
I have been ill for that last few days and after a lot of rest, I am finally feeling better! This means I am so far behind in all the tasks I had set myself up for this week. That’s alright though, there’s nothing like a little rest to help you get a clearer thought process!
Here are the things I’m working on this week.
I am still looking into the best way to set this up for my research. The hard part is figuring out what will work best for my research when I’m not currently researching. This will most likely change plenty as I go along but I’m probably going to start adding in responses from my form and my cousin’s information to help me get the log going. I will let you guys know what that looks like as soon as I figure it out myself!
If anyone has some research log tips, I’d love to hear them!
The second that I decided I was going to open an empty Legacy Family Tree file, I created a problem for myself. Was I going to keep my current organization method or change it? Was I going to keep my current file name method or change it? The answer is I don’t know. I did a previous write-up on my working digital organization. That was working well for me, except for the OneNote part where I never really got it up and functional. I still want to do something with OneNote, I just don’t know how. The more I read from other researchers, the more I take in what they are doing and see that I could be more efficient in other ways.
PROs to changing my system
CONs to changing my system
I have some more things I’m working through but not quite ready to blog about yet, so you can be sure I’ll be back once I do. I’m sure hoping that when I decide what to do this time it is for the final time! I hope you all are doing great in your research endeavors. 🙂
Other posts in this series:
Sources:
The series of posts I will be writing is based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂
I am still working behind the scenes on a bunch of different tasks for my Genealogy Do-Over.
Most of my immediate family members had previously provided me with their vital information. My form will hopefully help to bring in some cousin connections a little further out from what I previously knew. That doesn’t get me the stories though. Then I had a really great thought while going through the really great tips the members of the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook group gave me. In our shed we have one of those binder machines like this:
Image used from a listing on Amazon.com
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of that little machine and I finally sparked an idea about how to get some of the stories down.
I’m in the process of using a bunch of different interview suggestions from Legacy Family Tree and making a book to send to each one of my Aunts, my Uncles, my Cousins, my Parents, and hopefully my Great-Aunt too. I’ll probably even fill one out for myself.
The other thing I am working on in the background is my research goals. I wasn’t sure how to go about this but again, the Genealogy Do-Over community was a big help. In the files, the author Thomas MacEntee shared an example of his research goals and it absolutely clicked for me. The way I am going about this now will help me to stay accountable for each fact. I think it will even better track my research. The best part is, it’s a Word document on my computer and I can always edit it.
Sorry for all the blurs, but most of the people in my research goals are my living cousins. What I really like is that by using the headings settings in Word, I can collapse each person when I’m not working with them. When I am working with William Lawrence Moore, I will be able to assess him deeper and add in Prove his land ownership or Prove his occupation. I really believe this will help me out tremendously!
Thanks for sticking with me through this transition period!
Other posts in this series:
Sources:
Disclaimer: There is one link to the Amazon product I talked about and one link to Thomas MacEntee’s book page. The links I provided are not affiliate links and I receive no compensation for sending you to the websites. Once you leave this website, I have no connection to any products or services you might purchase.
I’m here to show you how I’ve become a complete organization addict. I’ve been doing really great at setting my organization up for my Genealogy Do-Over. I am still working on that and still working through Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones. It’s going against everything in me not to follow some leads that I see in my head as I look at some of my old blog posts.
Speaking of old blog posts. I am re-organizing them. I never really used a consistent organization method with them and that’s what I’m going back and changing now. I have a lot more time on my hands while I work through my other tasks. The most important reason is I want to be able to find what I’m looking for easier. I use the blog as a way of talking things over with myself or others. I think this will help me to remember what I’ve already said on a subject before and to easily find past entries.
Meet my new Blog Tracker. I am tracking the date I posted, the title, names I mentioned, tags I used, categories I used (some are changing as I go), whether I added SEO data, if I want to re-visit that entry, if I have links to my database website to fix, if I want to go back and add source citations, and if a family member commented.
All that is the data I want to track. Oh boy, it’s a lot. It doesn’t take me more than a couple of minutes to actually log this information. I like that I am using the filters feature, because I can see at a glance all my entries for Lewis Thorward or George Thorward.
Most of the information I am logging, is actually view-able at a glance on my post listing. There isn’t a really efficient way for me to view 62 pages (!!!) of information and cut through it. Unless there are some great search tips that I don’t know about.
There isn’t anything changing in the old posts. I am just adding Tags for the family names discussed and making a shorter category list for now. Later I will go back and fix links, once I am into my research again and know what numbers to use. I will also make links between entries that ended up being a part of a series.
Hopefully, this won’t take me 8 years to do, but I have a feeling it will go quicker than I think. Are you going through an organization overhaul? Is it kicking your butt too?
It’s Saturday night and time for another round of Saturday Genealogy Night Fun from Randy Seaver! This week Randy tells us to go into our genealogy management program and share some statistics! This means how many people, places, sources, and more!
Since I’m starting a Genealogy Do-Over, I will show both my old file and my new one. There should be a drastic difference here!
In my old family file here are the basic statistics:
Time for the new one!
Definitely a difference there! I haven’t even finished adding in my first cousins and their children into the new file yet!
If you’d like to participate, head over to Randy’s blog and get the instructions. 🙂
I’ve talked about coincidences before on my blog. It seems there is always a little taste of it in genealogy research. Two of the first coincidences that I remember coming across, I’ve already blogged about. The time I found someone from my mother’s side of the family, in a book halfway across the country that my father’s side of the family owned. The other time was when I got some Redford family photos from my Great-Aunt Barb and it had William H. Moore written on the back. This would be a generation before my Moore grandfather married my Redford grandmother.
I’m back today with another Redford coincidence, but this time when it comes to the address they lived at. Between 1910 and 1920, Herbert Redford and his wife Sadie Sutcliffe-Redford lived at 16 Gist Place in Orange, New Jersey.
Well, now that I know who Sadie’s parents are, I was able to do some census searching for her siblings and parents. It just so happens I found another coincidence around the corner and a couple blocks away from Herbert and Sadie’s residence.
The location of this other household is not the coincidence. It’s their surname.
The household at 197 Day Street is the home of John Gist and his wife Alice. Alice’s maiden name just happens to be Sutcliffe and her sister Elizabeth Sutcliffe even lives with her. Alice and Elizabeth are the sisters of my 2nd great-grandmother, Sarah (Sadie) Ann Sutcliffe.
It’s definitely a small genealogy world. It’s crazy to think Sadie’s family has been there all this time. I’ve had Herbert and Sadie entered into my database for over 10 years and now, I find Sadie’s sister just a few census pages from her in 1910.
Note: This research was done before I started my Genealogy Do-Over.