Hee. "Graves R Us."

It's funny.

But guess what? I LOVE IT!!! This is the kind of website I've been waiting for, a site with lists of people buried in cemeteries of Montana and northern Wyoming! It's like they had my Smiths and Keithlers and all their kin and my inability to locate all of them in mind!

And it has an awesome name, to boot.

It's been a sweet, sweet day. I decided to mess around with my PAF and see if there were any superfluous families I needed to prune out of my tree, such as the parents of aunts, uncles, or cousins who married into my family. Not that we don't love them or that they're not important, but we can only keep track of so many people.

I was just about to pare down my Vanderpauwert relatives - like, why? How many Vanderpauwerts does anyone ever have, and I'm about to get rid of them? - when I decided to keep Uncle John's first family, the one he had with his first wife before she died and he married my aunt Verne Keithler. I wasn't really going to get rid of them, I was just going to put them in his notes/sources.

But I don't know, they did something to me and I ended up searching their census records and their son Claude's World War I draft card (he died in the influenza epidemic before he ever left Fort Lewis - that was probably a blessing) and pretty soon I was adding his information, which I found at Graves R Us (hee), to Findagrave. And there I found that some nice man had added Aunt Verne and Uncle John to their cemetery, which was awesome, because I didn't even have a death date for Uncle John! Perfect.

So. Thanks, Graves R Us... and way to go with that name.

Awesome Cousin Sooze

... found this, cemetery records from Washington county, Nebraska, which contain a record belonging to my great-great grandfather's first wife: SARAH C. "KATE" DOLAN.

I added Kate to Findagrave, then peeked around in Findagrave records for that cemetery and found some Hetricks buried there too. After Kate died in 1883, my great-great grandfather Thomas married Hattie Ellen Duggan. Hattie's mother is a Hetrick.

Sooze has mad research skills. I love it when she throws great records my way! Thanks!! :)

WDYTYA: Kim Cattrall

Watch it here.

This was an incredibly hard one for me to watch. If I ever meet her grandfather in the hereafter, I will have a hard time not kneeing him somewhere painful.

To quote John Mayer: "Fathers, be good to your daughters..."

"I'm so glad you're here, Related-To-Everyone Man!"

"... just for a frame of reference," says Captain Obvious.

One of my fellow staff members at the Family History Center is a lovely retired gentleman who has such enthusiasm for family history, teaching, and people in general, that several patrons show up weekly to have him help them with their pursuits. We all enjoy working with him.

When I met him in November, we started comparing notes on our family trees - where our people come from, what famous people we're related to, the kinds of research we like. I discovered that Gene has an uncanny ability to track down living relatives in everyday places, like at church or in his neighborhood. Whenever he finds a new cousin, he tells us the next time we're together. I used to tease him that he's related to everybody.

Last Wednesday I joked, "We should see if you're related to me."

We plugged our jump drives into the same computer's USB ports, started up FamilyInsight (found in all FHCs, and available for purchase for home use), clicked on the command that would review both our databases and find matches, and...

We're related.

We share two sets of common ancestors: Philippe Cazier and Marie Taine (my paternal grandmother's line); and Jacob French and Susan Warren (my maternal grandmother's line).

Amazingly, my grandmothers are (so far) not related.

Yesterday, as we again looked through our respective data and found these ancestors, Gene excitedly scribbled down my information (this was before we both had the brilliant idea of creating GEDCOMS and copying and pasting them to each other's jump drives - he was that excited). He called me last night with his findings.

"We're ninth cousins, three times removed," he said.

I don't have much information on these people; I found them in the IGI, which is a great place to start but shouldn't be depended on for accurate information. Some submitters are meticulous record-keepers who can back up every fact; others, not so much. I'm motivated now to more deeply research these families and see what I can come up with.

Our ancestors come from the 16th and 17th centuries, so there's nothing obvious to distinguish us as relatives, but it's fun to work with him every week and to now have this added bond.

The same thing happened to my grandparents while they worked at their FHC in the Boise area - one of their fellow staff members shared a line with Gran. Then we discovered that this staff member's sister lives here and is in MY congregation. She and I keep saying we need to get together and compare notes, but it hasn't happened yet. I should get cracking.

It's always fun to find a new cousin.

Who Do You Think You Are?

I'm so excited that this great show was picked up for another season, with a new group of celebrities finding out about their family trees.

Here's a video preview.

The premiere is Friday, February 4! Tune in! I'm strangely excited to see Rosie O'Donnell's episode. :)

Having a Good Time, Wish You Weren't Dead

These people are so fascinating. If only I could talk to them, and have them answer all my questions and straighten out all their little complicated-seeming problems...

But I imagine that would take a lot of the fun out of looking for them.

Today at the Public Library...

I found a couple of books I liked that pertain to our favorite topic, and thought I would pass along the titles:

1. The Organized Family Historian by Ann Carter Fleming, which reminded me of an installment in the "For Dummies" series and those like it. I liked it and would recommend it for genealogists of almost any experience level. The chapter about census records covered each census in detail; wills and deeds, visiting courthouses, and preserving documents and photograps were also explored. The book was published in 2004 so most references to Internet use, computer programs, etc., seemed up to date.

2. The Book of the Dead by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson - not a research book, but more of a dead people Who's Who. The first chapter dealt with famous dead peeps whose fathers were absent, neglectful or abusive during their childhood. I was able to get through a few pages each about Leonardo da Vinci, Sigmund Freud and Sir Isaac Newton, and of the three, I'd use my time machine frequent flier miles on Leonardo. Yes I would.

One last thought: The 1940 Census is taking waaaaay too long.

Back at the FHC

After taking a year off, I am serving again at my local Family History Center.

It was on a whim that I happened to be put back on staff. Things have calmed down for us somewhat (I have two children with interesting medical issues). The hip-deep-in-timelines state of mind I was in propelled me to my FHC for something, I can't remember what - a book or a film, or something? I can't remember.

But I do remember that it was Veteran's Day and one of the FHC directors was serving his regular shift. He eyeballed me and said, "We need you to come back." I asked which shifts were needing help and he mentioned Wednesdays during the day. Before this school year, it would have been an impossibility, but now that my youngest is in school all day, I am free as a bird...

I started the next Wednesday and have been LOVING it. I love my fellow staff members and the opportunity to focus solely on my family history research - I didn't know how much I missed that part of it - and helping the patrons (when we have them). Today I helped a lady get started looking at some microfilms she had ordered from the Family History Library. She found good stuff today.

And SCORE! I also made significant finds. The Familysearch pilot site is so great!

That was my shift today - very, very satisfying. I'm so glad I have this opportunity.

Thanks

Your comments were appreciated.

Timelines have taken a backseat (just for now) to Geni.com. I have a family tree there I'm enjoying adding information and pictures to.

Geni.com is kind of a genealogy-based Facebook. Along with adding family history information, you can leave messages for family members - of any nature, not just genealogical - and collaborate, share pictures, and that kind of thing. And, like Facebook, it's as private as you make it, requiring an email address and password to sign in.

I would definitely recommend using this website and inviting family members to join (or joining, if you've already been invited).

The Awesomeness of Timelines

Rather than beat my head on brick walls, trying to find ancestors who refuse to be found (or so it would seem), it's been my habit to gather genealogical information as it comes my way.

This has resulted in lots of information about "fringe" ancestors that I like and everything, but they don't really take me anywhere UP my family tree. I'm trying to move beyond them now.

Creating timelines has been very helpful.

I've made numerous family timelines, but for the last few weeks I've been working on personal timelines for each of my grandparents and their children, my aunts and uncles. It's been a fun research project and a good way to put together all the little bits I've found and stored in the source repositories and their individual "notes" area.

It also helps me pinpoint people on whom I need to spend more time (Alexander Finney, anyone?). I would highly recommend this idea if you haven't implemented it into your work already. I love finding out more about my peeps.

1940 CENSUS: We're under 500 days now! Woot!

Is anyone reading this anymore? Not that I mind, but maybe I'll just make the blog private if no one cares if it's gone.