Thursday, October 31, 2013

Organizing Boxes on SALE

Anyone following my Organizing Your Papers system may be interested to know that Staples has The Really Useful boxes on sale until Nov. 12th .... 30% off!!

Thanks Marion for telling me about this!!

Pat

There are Teachers, And Then There are Educators!

Not genealogy, just an interesting way of teaching? :-))))))



According to a news report, a certain private Catholic school was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine provided it was of a natural or neutral skin tone, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them; and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally, the principal, Sister Mary, decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian, who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, Sister Mary asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
There are teachers...... And then there are educators!

LOVE it!!
Pat

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

1921 Canadian Census - Indexed on Ancestry

OK, so we've all been waiting anxiously for this to happen. This morning was the morning!!! So I tried searching for my parents, my grandparents, my husbands families - all in Saskatchewan - using the indexed version, and ..................... I did not find even ONE person!! I must admit I am not surprised, just VERY disappointed. I'll keep trying ...........will now resort to browsing as I know exactly where they *should* be.

Hope you have better luck than I did!
Pat

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Immigrant Ancestor's Project

Description

Published date: 21 October 2013

Family history majors at Brigham Young University intern at various repositories of European countries and obtain copies of emigration registers, passport applications, and other records that contain hometown information for each emigrant. These records are indexed in the Immigrant Ancestors Project (IAP). After ten years of consistent work, students have created a database containing over 480,000 entries. A significant number of the indexed records are located at The National Archives. This talk will inform about the use of the IAP database to help locate original records of interest. The IAP database is online at http://immigrants.byu.edu and is available at no charge.

Jill N Crandell, MA, AG® is the director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University, where she enjoys working with approximately 20 student employees each semester. She has been teaching family history courses at the university for nine years. Jill is an Accredited Genealogist and holds an MA in history and a BA in family and community history. She is currently serving as the chair of the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen).

Sponsored by the Friends of The National Archives.


Happy Searching Friends!!
Pat

Sunday, October 20, 2013

MAJOR Collaborations Announced

There were 3 major announcements this weekend, all of which *should* prove beneficial to genealogists!! Have a read

http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/familysearch-does-it-in-partnership.html

Cheers,
Pat

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The following is taken from the Ancestry Insider.

This story of serendipity comes from Leroy Kelly. I share it in his own words.

"Back in 1976 I found myself in New Orleans for a conference. I started thinking. My father's family came through Louisiana in the 1800s. My great, great grandfather was born outside of Alexandria. At the same time my grandmother was born in Pea Ridge, Kemper County, Mississippi. I realized that I was meant to be in the area to do some family history.

I rented a car and started to Alexandria. Due to three, very inconsiderate semis I was not able to make the necessary exit. I decided, what the heck, I'll just go to Mississippi instead.

Two hundred and thirty miles later I pulled into DeKalb, Mississippi. I went to the local library where a friendly librarian helped me. "Pea Ridge? Oh my goodness, it hasn't been called that since I was a girl. It's Cleveland now."
I drove out to Cleveland and discovered that it was not a town, but a country store, complete with local post office, feed store, one gasoline pump, and groceries.

I introduced myself and asked if they could tell me anything about the TERRY family who had once lived in the area. They thought for a while, and told me no. As I was nearly out the door one said, "Tell ya what, you go across the street to Miss Maudie's house. She's lived here all here life. If anyone could help you it's gonna be her."
I knocked and presently the door opened a crack. I heard a voice. "Yes?"
"Excuse me ma'am. I'm looking for information on the TERRY family who used to live in this area. I was wondering if you ever heard of them?" "No, never did, I can't help you."

The door closed and then opened almost as fast. "Young man, there was a TERRY family in this area a long time ago. There was a church that they used to call Terry Hill on account of the Terry family. There's a house and there's an old burying ground just up the road a holler and a jump, on the right hand side, just past the big oak trees."
I thanked her and drove up the road. I found the old church and the house beside it. I stopped and talked to the inhabitants, asking them about the house, but they could tell me nothing. I drove back down the road and pulled off in front of a gate that guarded a patch of the greatest jungle of briars and weeds, guaranteed to be the abode of myriad snakes, spiders, and who knows what else. Amongst all that growth I could see tombstones.

I pushed, shoved, and pulled for the greater part of an hour finding full grown trees growing over graves, tombstones broken and littered all over the ground. I was looking for JOHN TERRY but found no TERRY graves at all. Finally, hot, tired and more than frustrated, I started back to the car. In my walk I stumbled and fell into the briars and vines of a very large and nasty bush. There I was on my bleeding hands and painful knees, when I saw a footstone with the initials JT. I couldn't believe my eyes.

I didn't get up, I couldn't have because of the vines and brush. I crawled around to the front of the grave. There it was: JOHN TERRY, 1825 - 16 May 1895. I found him! I have been doing this work now for years and have had some marvelous experiences but I can honestly say that was the first time I heard the sound of angels singing. Beside him I found MARY his wife and two of their children. I have to admit that I cried.

After taking pictures and gathering every inch of information I could, I started back into DeKalb. As I came back to Miss Maudie's home I stopped to thank her. She opened the door, a bit wider this time, and asked if I had found what I was looking for. I told her what I had discovered. She opened the door and invited me in for lemonade.
In the middle of our talk she suddenly stopped, looked at me and said, “Miss Louise was a TERRY.” A few minutes later I was talking to my grandmother's first cousin. I drove into DeKalb to meet her. In the middle of talking Miss Louise looked at her son and said, "Lee, why don't you take him out to grandpa Gideon's grave."
I left DeKalb, Mississippi with sixty eight names, copies of forty pages from family bibles, four generations of the TERRY family, a quilt that was made by and belonged to my great, great, great, grandmother, a whole mess of cousins and friends, and memories that are precious and sacred to me. Now how is that for serendipity and three trucks that wouldn't let me make the exit to Alexandria, Louisiana."

"Thanks, Leroy!
If you have a story you’d like to share, send it to AncestryInsider@gmail.com.
Source: Leroy Kelly, [e-mail address withheld for privacy,] to AncestryInsider@gmail.com, e-mail, 13 September 2013, “Do I Have a Story?” privately held by the author."


Serendipity DOES happen, but we have to put the work in first!! I, too, have had some wonderful experiences ... so just keep on keeping on everyone. :)

Happy Searching,
Pat

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Out & About - new course

I have just finished confirming all the new and wonderful searches we are going to learn to do at the Saskatchewan Archives Board next week. This is part of my Out & About Course. I am really excited as this is going to be cutting edge and I've got a great group of students going with me!!

Oh yes, and my life just got a whole lot more exciting this morning ... I made ten bucks doing laundry!! Finder's keepers, right? Ha ha ha

Cheers,
Pat

Friday, October 11, 2013

15 Things the Internet Has Killed Off

Seems my class is right on target with what many are finding interesting these days!! Of course I always knew what a smart group they are!! :) This morning I found the following list recently compiled http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-things-the-internet-and-technology-killed-off/

So what do YOU think of this list?
1. Faxes
2. Rolodex
3. Answering machines
4. Disposable cameras
5. Encyclopedias
6. CDs & cassettes
7. Public telephones
8. Teletext
9. PDAs
10. Buying or reading newspapers
11. Planning road trips on paper maps
12. Newspapers
13. Lining up to pay bills
14. Yard sales [oh say it ain't so! :-)]
15. Physical copies of the Yellow Pages

I JUST THOUGHT OF A NEW ONE ... personal cheques!

Thursday, October 10, 2013



One of my students [Thanks Donna!] sent this very funny picture to me and it has prompted my class to begin looking at, and thinking, of all the 'things' we come across that also had ancestors. So what can YOU think of? Have fun guys!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2013,
Pat

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Successful 2013 Moose Jaw Conference comes to an end!

Once again the wonderful group of volunteers from Moose Jaw branch of SGS pulled off yet another super duper conference!! GREAT job Marge, Wendy, and everyone else. I dare not mention too many names as I'm bound to forget someone.:) And a personal Thank You to those who sponsored my presentations. It is much appreciated. And always soooooooooooo good to see so many old friends, not least of which are my many, many students ... former and present. Keep working, keep having fun, and as always Happy Searching Everyone!!

Cheers,
Pat