Sentimental Sunday - Family time in Estes Park, Colorado

Sentimental Sunday

Family time in Estes Park, Colorado

We have been discussing this weekend that we are continuing a very long tradition in our families by spending time together in this wonderful natural setting. My parents brought my brothers and I to Estes Park in 1950. My wife's family visited nearby in the same time period. We were poor farm folks in Western Iowa, but a family trip to the Colorado Rock Mountains was a most memorable family experience. This trip was Nancy and I, along with oldest daughter, Annette and her husband, Larry. His son, Ben, joined us for a couple of days. Larry said his family came here from Illinois when he was young, as well... and he brought his family, as well.

Each of our three daughters love to visit here, primarily because we vacationed here as a family when our girls were young in the 1960s and 70s, as well, regularly. We try to visit, with some of the family, very few years.

I am posting this, as a reminder to myself, and others, that "telling and sharing these current ancestor stories" is so important, as well. The experiences we are having today are the ancestors stories of the future. Record them, share them, and retell them.

I just finished posting some of our family experiences on my "Retirement" blog - "Dr. Bill on Retirement" - which has become my most recent family travels/visits recording place. I started creating web pages on our travels in 1992, and have done so continuously since, in one place or another. This blog is the most recent. You are welcome to visit, once or regularly, if you care to. Some earlier years can be seen here.

I encourage you and yours to record your family stories, in your own way, as well.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sentimental Sunday - Arrion and Eileen

Sentimental Sunday - Arrion and Eileen

This is my youngest daughter, Arrion, who is now a mother of two children of her own, and my mother, Eileen, sharing a photo album, back at the family farm house. Many years ago! Neat!  ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sentimental Sunday - Wedding note in paper

Sentimental Sunday - Wedding note in paper

Last Sunday, as I posted my first Sentimental Sunday post, I received via email the following newspaper clipping, from a friend, with this note: "I found this article this morning and I thought it might be of interest to you. You may already have this, but I wouldn't feel right if I had seen it and not sent it your way!" Thank you, Lori Hellmund, this is a real benefit of an ancestry blog. I had the info, but did not have the actual newspaper clipping. How neat! THANKS, again, Lori!

Joseph and Mary went on to have 5 children over the next 15 years.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Sentimental Sunday - High School Quartet

Sentimental Sunday - High School Quartet

I think anything over 50 years old probably qualifies as "Sentimental" - certainly singing in a high school quartet with your future spouse of more than 50 years qualifies... Nancy and I in fall of 1956 or spring of 1957 - with good friends, Andy Kretizinger, great tenor, and Mary King, our soprano. Great times! Looks like the photo was in a school paper of some kind. This quartet went to All-State, that year, so it is likely in the fall... Nancy and I went together to All-State all four years of high school; Andy went all four years, in different quartets. Certainly fond memories...  ;-)

Families are forever!  ;-)

Civil War Series on Sunday - Exploring Cyndi's List

This post has a duo purpose: 1) to  participate in 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge #13 - Hosted by GeneaBloggers and created by Amy Coffin at We Tree.
2) as a part of my Civil War Series on Sunday.

Exploring Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

Subtitle: 1996-2010: Your genealogy starting point online for more than a decade!

There are now said to be over 270,000 links for family history on her site. I became quite active in genealogy on the Internet at about the same time as Cyndi - and, I will admit, I wondered at the time, "why would she want to do this?" She certainly has made it one of the, if not THE, most useful genealogy site on the Internet.

Actually, the biggest challenge for a user, especially a first-time user, is not to be totally overwhelmed by the site. Today, I am doing research on the Civil War, about my ancestors...

First, I noticed the Browse Cyndi's List box on the left with five indexes: Main, Topical, Alphabetical, "No Frill" and Text-Only. on the Main Category Index, Civil War does not appear, but when I got to United States Index there was a sub-category of U.S. - Civil War ~ War for Southern Independence. Clicking on this brings us another Category Index and a Related Categories list. [At this point, I should mention that I also put "Civil War" in the Google Search box, upper right corner, for CyndiList.com - and it brought me to this same page.] [Another personal  note... at a search box, I almost always enter my mother's surname, on which I have done so much research, KINNICK. Doing so took me to Cyndi's entry for The KINNICK Project - showing a dead link: "The original link is broken. This link points to an archived copy on the Wayback Machine." This reminded me to send a "new link" to Cyndi on the form provided for my new blog, The KINNICK Project, that replaced the old site dumped by GeoCities at Yahoo.com!]

Since most of my ancestors fought for the Union, I went to the Regimental Rosters & Histories - The Union, first. There are many units represented by some really neat pages, but none of the first 6 or 8 I checked, were mine. In looking around, however, I came across this story, that really caught my attention: http://www.cyndislist.com/cyndi/knox/xerxes.htm
A "next door neighbor" to my home town!  ;-)

If your interest is to see the contributions of African-Americans in the War, there is a category list. The list of Battles, Battlefields & Cemeteries is also impressive.
I found the People & Families especially interesting because there are Civil War diaries in our family that are yet to be published. There are some fine examples.

Since I grew up in Iowa, Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War caught my attention, but there are many, many others.  ;-)

Well, you get the idea. There is a lot out there, if you but have a plan, and follow through!

[Check the label, Civil War, at the lower left, to see other entries in my Civil War on Sunday series, and label, 52 weeks, to see my other entries in that challenge.]

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Form and Style - Part 2

Preparation Sunday - Form and Style - Part 2

Two weeks ago, in Part 1 of From and Style, we discussed the "Basic 3-generation family form." As we indicated there, this form was the basis for the common family histories of the many county histories that have been published over the years, perhaps beginning with the Bicentennial about 1876. This basic form focuses on a couple, but also listing their parents and their children, thus, three generations. The other element of this form that is basic is what I will refer to as the "style" - that is, the manner of using the vital statistics.

Today, we will demonstrate in our example a much more detailed style of report that also includes additional narrative about the family members, as well, using the same family story

James Preston Family

James P. Preston (b. 22 Feb 1835, Ft. Defiance, OH) married Ellen Rebecca Miller (b. 15 Sep 1850, Bryan, William Co, OH) on 21 Mar 1871 in Williams Co, OH. James was the son of William (b. 30 Dec 1780, Rumney Twp, Grafton Co, NH; d. 1837, St. Joseph Twp, Williams Co, OH) and Asenath (b. 23 Mar 1803, MI; d.4 Apr 1888, Jones Co, IA) (Butler) Preston. Ellen was the daughter of John (b. 6 Oct 1896, Berks Co, PA; d. 1888, Edgerton, Williams Co, OH) and Rebecca Firestone (b. 4 Jan 1808, OH) (Carle) Miller.

James left his home in Ohio in time to catch a wagon train to California from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in May 1852. He arrived in Sacramento with the train in September 1852 and went to the gold fields. He was actively involved in mining in both Nevada and Yuba County and owned a one-eighth interest in the very successful Blue Gravel Mining Company and worked in this mine for five years. He sold his interest in this mine in 1862 and went to Florence, Idaho, as gold was being worked there. Shortly thereafter, he moved on to the Montana gold fields and also purchased ranching property in Powell Co, Montana, near Deer Lodge. He alternates between the ranch and the gold fields as a superintendent.

The Prestons live on a ranch south of Deer Lodge, in Powell Co, Montana, and have four children:

1. Ernest Guy Preston (b. 20 Feb 1872, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
2. Harry L. Preston (b. 14 Jul 1873, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
3. John M. Preston (b. 1 Oct 1874, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
4. Ellen Rebecca Preston (b. 1 Apr 1880, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)


You can again see from this example how many variations you can consider if you wish to report more details. Or, you could give a little less detail, and remove just a little bit of clutter by not giving the entire place name as I did in this example. If you didn't know a lot of that detail, you may prefer to leave it out for all. You can make that decision. Just try to be as consistent as possible within the story... and among several stories if they will be shared as a group.

I look forward to your comments and any questions you have.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Form and Style - Part 1

Preparation Sunday - Form and Style - Part 1

My Sunday posts going forward will be in one of three forms: 1) additional Preparation Sunday tips on preparing your ancestor stories to tell/share, 2) a once or twice a month report titled: "Civil War Sesquicentennial Sunday" where I will report on events and activities taking place during the current month in 1860, '61, etc., and 3) occasional Special Reports.

The Sesquicentennial reports will begin next week, 20 Feb 2010.


Form and Style - Part 1

Many of us don't even know where to start with "writing up" a family history story - an ancestor story - from the material we have on hand. I spoke of this generally in Step 6 of the 7 Steps presented earlier, "Write." Here we want to get more specific, with examples.

I am going to describe, and give an example of, what I will call the "Basic 3-generation family form." This form, or an expansion of it that we will cover in future posts, was the basis for the common family histories of the many county histories that have been published over the years, perhaps beginning with the Bicentennial about 1876. This basic form focuses on a couple, but also listing their parents and their children, thus, three generations. The other element of this form that is basic is what I will refer to as the "style" - that is, the manner of using the vital statistics. Here they will be shown as (year) only, rather than actual date. Let's see what this looks like.


James Preston Family

James P. Preston (b. 1835, Ft. Defiance, OH) married Ellen Rebecca Miller (b. 1850, Bryan, William Co, OH) in 1871 in Williams Co, OH. James was the son of William (b. 1780, Rumney Twp, Grafton Co, NH; d. 1837, St. Joseph Twp, Williams Co, OH) and Asenath (b. 1803, MI) (Butler) Preston. Ellen was the daughter of John (b. 1896, Berks Co, PA; d. 1888, Edgerton, Williams Co, OH) and Rebecca Firestone (b. 1808, OH) (Carle) Miller.

The Prestons live on a ranch south of Deer Lodge, in Powell Co, Montana, and have four children:

1. Ernest Guy Preston (b. 1872, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
2. Harry L. Preston (b. 1873, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
3. John M. Preston (b. 1874, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)
4. Ellen Rebecca Preston (b. 1880, Deer Lodge, Powell Co, MT)


You can begin to see from this example how many variations you can consider if you wish to report more details. Or, you could give a little less detail, and remove just a little bit of clutter by not giving the entire place name as I did in this example. Perhaps you would prefer to go ahead and include the full date of birth (marriage and death) for each case. If you didn't know a lot of that detail, you may prefer to go with the above. You can make that decision. Just try to be as consistent as possible within the story... and among several stories if they will be shared as a group.

I look forward to your comments and any questions you have. We will expand our example in Form and Style - Part 2, forthcoming.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 7 of 7

Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join - and participate in the discussions.

The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

Our focus today is on Share, the 7th of the 7 Steps. Of course, my first recommendation is to BUY THE BOOK - print or download.  ;-)

If you haven't even peeked at it yet, here is a preview. Surprise, the book lists 13 ways to share/tell your ancestor story. There they are listed:

1. Blog
2. Book
3. Newsletter
4. Website
5. Podcast
6. Videos
7. Wikis
8. Scrapbooking
9. Brochures
10. Posters
11. Art and Artifacts
12. Oral Perforance
13. Other

The possibilities are endless. Enjoy the journey. Comments welcomed.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 6 of 7

Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join - and participate in the discussions.


The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

Our focus today is on Write, the 6th of the 7 Steps. Actually, as with the first three steps, the last two steps must be done tandem, as well. How and where you decide to share your story may shape what and how you write. What you are prepared to write may help determine how and where you share. So, where to start?

There are many answers to that question, as well, so let me start here. Start simple. Take a story you have heard, organized and researched. Write it in a brief narrative form. Perhaps write it like you would tell it to a friend, or to a new found cousin. This does two things. It prepares a story for oral presentation. You can tell it over and over as it is, and feel comfortable that it is reasonably factual and interesting.

Next, perhaps, edit it to read well as a blog post. It needs to balance substance and brevity... so people will read the whole thing. This may require a stronger lead paragraph, for example. It needs to follow in a logical manner to a conclusion. You may wish to incorporate an image or two. You may want it to end with a question or a call for comments. My blog post on John Butler, my First Irish Ancestor might serve as an example.

Another edit, of essentially the same story/set of facts may be to post on a web page or a newsletter you are preparing about your family. This rendering may include more details. Whereas you may include one or two images with a blog post, for this "write" you may be able to include addition images. You may wish to append a sidebar for related information. You have greater flexibility, as you can see. You may find that you have a story, or report, that could be submitted to a magazine or journal. With the addition of footnotes/endnotes, it might be a piece to submit to an academic journal. As an example of this more expanded story, I will use a series of blog entries by Irish Mason. They are on a blog, but I read them more as chapters of a book or magazine. My link is several posts into the story, but I recommend going to the first about the baby being born, as well, and read more - if they interest you. They did me...  ;-)

On to the next story!  ;-)

When you have enough of these "pieces," these stories, of course, you may be ready to consider publishing them in a book, or otherwise. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy the journey.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 5 of 7

Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join - and participate in the discussions.

The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

Our focus today is on Research, the fifth of the 7 Steps.

Your Research To Do List should have been started in Step 4, if not before. With your list, as usual, of course, you need to 1) set priorities and 2) establish specific goals. A list is nice, but until you decide what research techniques to use, how and when to use them and when you can reasonably be able to accomplish them, it is still just a list.

I would suggest that a first step might be that you will need to check and confirm vital facts that you picked up from family tradition stories. Some of this can be done online, fairly easily. You may want to call some people as well. Birth, death and marriage details may be easily available from other family members. Relationships also need to be confirmed... and, don't forget to get correct full names, while you are talking about these folks.

For 1930 and earlier, I always like to look at the U.S. Federal Census and the state census on the 5 years in between the Federal Census, if available, as an example of a specific to check. If a lot of the people of interest on your list are local, you may want to schedule a trip to the local county courthouse. You may want to consult the archive copies of local newspapers as well. These are just a few suggestions. The possibilities are endless, that is for sure. That is why you need priorities and a timeline for doing the work. It will never be DONE! Get what you can, the best you can... and document where you got what. You will appreciate it very much, in the future, if not right now!

If  you have a favorite research technique, or other references, please fell free to include them in your comments. We can each learn from each other. Thanks for your interest and suggestions.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 4 of 7

Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.

The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

Our focus today is on Organize, the Step 4 of the 7 Steps.

This is the stage of the process where you must gather together all of your collected materials and make some sense of them. This material may include family tradition information (oral, written or other), your notes from conversations, audio or video recordings, books, pamphlets, brochures, artifacts, preliminary research and a variety of other materials. Each of us is going to have our own experiences with organizing materials, either positive or negative. One element for each of us is to set some priorities. What are your goals for this particular set of materials? All of the materials will eventually be useful, but which are most critical to accomplish your current goal or goals? This may mean transcriptions of oral or video recordings. It may mean photographing or scanning artifacts or materials collected (some may need to be returned, for example). It certainly will include entering data into your computer database and creating new and expanded Research To Do Lists.

Especially if you have no predetermined organizing process (or that you are satisfying with), you may want to consider a process that was just published by one of my favorite genealogy blogs: Colour Coding for Fun and Profit. Katrina McQuarrie is a young genealogist with a distinctive background and approach to the techniques of gathering, organizing and storing/sharing your information. Check out this particular post, and while you are there, check out some of the other topics she presents. Let her know with your comments how you like her process, and mention this referral, if you care to.

Now, back to our priorities. Ancestor Stories to share should be one of your priorities, so extracting specific details from your materials that will be useful to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES should be a top priority. This may take some practice, but it will be worth the effort.

The last three Steps are Research, Write and Share. You will need to check and confirm vital facts that you pick up from family tradition stories. These should go directly to your Research To Do List. We will discuss this more, next week, but it needs to be on your mind as you organize your materials, for sure.

If you have a favorite organizing technique, or other references, please fell free to include them in your comments. We can each learn from each other. Thanks for your interest and suggestions.

Families are Forever! ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 3 of 7

As the holidays come to a close, I hope they were especially good times for you to gather ANCESTOR STORIES. Over the span of seven Sundays, I will share with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

In the last two weeks, we have talked of how to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events.

Our focus today is on Record, the third of the 7 Steps.

Each of us will use a different technique to record what we hear as family and others talk about our family history and our ancestors. Sometimes we must simply Listen carefully and do our best to remember the key elements of the discussion until we can actually write them down or enter them into our computer.

I hope that many of us at least had a pen or pencil and a notepad to take down critical new information at the time. That should also have allowed each of us to Ask some carefully considered questions, being careful not to interrupt the flow of the conversations in doing so. These notes then should be reviewed as soon as possible and a first edit done to begin to Organize the information and to compile a Research "To Do List."

If you were able to use a digital audio (or video) recorder, your next step is to transcribe that information to allow you to begin to Organize the information and to compile a Research "To Do List."

Please do your best to get right at making good use of the information you have gathered over the holidays to help you build your Ancestor Stories.

Families are Forever! ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 2 of 7

The upcoming holidays are especially good times to gather ANCESTOR STORIES. Over the spam of seven Sundays, I will share with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell.

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.

The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

You will want to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events.

Our focus today is on Listen, the second of the 7 Steps. But, as I said last week Ask, Listen and Record do go together.

Listen is especially important if you do not have a digital recording devise with you - which you often will not have. Take special note of relationships mentioned. Without interrupting the flow of the conversation, you may want to ask for clarification of relationships if you do not have them clear in your mind. Was this a great-uncle or a great grandfather being discussed, for instance. You will also want to take particular note of the place - town and state - and the date - at least the year, or an approximation. These are the facts you would like to be able to go back and write down for further research. Listen carefully, and use your best memory tricks to retain not only the story content but the basic vital facts, as best you can.

Next Sunday, we will discuss the Record issue in more detail.

Families are Forever! ;-)

Preparation Sunday - Step 1 of 7

Step 1 - Ask

The upcoming holidays are especially good times to gather ANCESTOR STORIES. Over the next seven Sundays, I will share with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell.

If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.

You will want to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events. You need to think about those circumstances as you plan to gather useful story information. After a holiday meal is a good time to Ask about "the olden times," when older family members were young. How did they celebrate - like we do, or different? Do you remember a special holiday? a special tradition? Who participated? How and Why?

Then it is important to Listen. Listen carefully. Generally, don't interrupt. Let them talk... let their memories come to the forefront and be shared, just as they remember them.

Record. Have a note pad and pen or pencil. Have a digital recorder that can just run, unobtrusively... they will forget it was even there. If all else fails, REMEMBER, and go write it down, or enter it into your computer, later, as best you can.

I think you get the idea... OK? Just do it!

While Listen may be the most important, you must also Ask, in most cases, either to get the conversation going something like you would like, or, to ask a follow up question when there is a break.

You may be thinking of after Christmas dinner with the family, but these "information gathering" situations may carry over into when watching football bowl games, for instance, or the women are talking recipes. When Grandpa Joe, the Packer fan, and Uncle Sid, the Bears fan, start going at each other... it is a good time to ask them why, when and where they each became such rabid fans of their respective teams, for example. When Aunt Minnie talks about her fruitcake, be sure to ask for the recipe, ask where she got it, when she first made it, what was the occasion, does she have special memories of a particular holiday it was served, etc.

Have your own set of questions to ask, if the conversation drifts, such as:
1. What was your most prized possession as a child? At what age? Where did you live then?
2. Tell about the best gift (birthday, Christmas, other) you ever received. What? Why? Where? When?
3. Did you ever find something your Mom or Dad had hidden? Did they every find something you had hidden?
4. Share a memory about a church social activity when you were a child.
5. When you were child, how did you keep your house warm? Did you have running water? electricity? television? Internet? ... you get the idea! ;-)
6. Tell about a time you dressed up in a costume? were in a play? Didn't have the proper clothes to wear for some occasion?

You can come up with your own, and much better, questions... but do have them available ahead of time. Tuck them in the back of your notepad, perhaps.

Next Sunday, we will talk more about Listen.

Families are Forever! ;-)